Sunshine Makes Body Happy

Beautiful run of days lately. Sweet. *Puts global warming thoughts aside*
Yesterday I sat in the Meadows under pink-blossomed trees and read Russell Hoban’s Angelica’s Grotto, and wrote in my travel journal of Palestine. I’ve written about twenty pages and I’m at the start of the first full day in-country. It’s taking a long time to process.
I’m trying to get writing happening again but this has stalled it. Gah. Soon, though. Ron the Body is aching to be written.
My friend Tina is back in Edinburgh. She was my best friend at work and she dematerialised to England, but has come back. We had a nice wee drink at our local pub on Saturday night, which was sort of a new experience for me. Very cool though. Apart from that it was a weekend of sunshine and roleplaying. Too much roleplaying! But it’s all good stuff. I want to make the most of my time with the Providence Summer crew before they scatter to the four corners of the earth; and the Ottakar’s Club isn’t quite ready for me to walk away from it, though it’s close. I have a number of usurpers who are pretty much running things now – we just need a few more people running games to take the pressure off.
I have been saddened to note the gender balance of the Ottakars group has slipped markedly. Our women have left the country and no new ones have joined. Bums. But what can you do? At least GEAS is a very healthy demographic variety. That’s the way we like it.

3 thoughts on “Sunshine Makes Body Happy”

  1. Haven’t read Angelica’s Grotto. Have it somewhere. It is odd, though, Hoban’s last few novels have been very similar to my reading (The Bat Tattoo, Amarylis Night and Day), while the early ones were completely original. I guess he’s hung up on finding love as a late middle aged man. Actually, I’m probably being harsh, looking at how wildly unusual the two I listed are.
    Probably the only writer I will read by reflex.

  2. Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing – all his London books seem to be of a piece. They all refer to each other’s themes and imagery, and share a stylistic backbone and a deep and abiding love of the London Underground. Rinyo-Clacton, Amaryllis, this one… It is, as you note, a vast jump from the diversity of his early stuff. Still, Fremder, his Lovecraft-in-space thing, was in amongst the London books, so he’s not stuck.
    When I read Amaryllis Night and Day my reaction was “THIS is what I want small dreams to be like”.

  3. Fremder was the first thing I read by him. It was brand new in the science fiction section of the upper hutt library and looked really odd. I’m not sure if I can even reconcile it with everything else at this point, so long ago and so much stuff in between.
    The Orpheus theme is the major one. That and the semi-religio-mystical reality/dreaming thing. And lately, aging and reevaluating life. In general I think he has settled into his obsessions 🙂
    Rincto Clacton is incredibly hard to get hold of over here. At least I have never seen it, except once in Border’s in an hardback omnibus volume with a bunch of stuff I had. Apparently most of his stuff following Pilgermann was not published in America until Angelica’s Grotto. Pilgermann was apparently deemed a failure as a follow-up to the acclaimed Riddley Walker. Go figure. He should be deified for Pilgermann, instead he gets martyed. 🙂
    When i read Amarylis i thought ‘I may as well stop writing that love story interweaving dream and reality.’
    Glad to see my rabidness has rubbed off, anyhow.

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