What a fantastic and exciting idea! I have some interesting figures emerging from my drawings that I would love to explore in this way, I'll see which one is most ripe right now and send you something x
What a fabulous idea! How to restrict myself to three things though... fortunately, several of the memes buzz-bombing my mind are already included in your list.
Like Parzival... how the hell did I get so obsessed with that? I know next to nothing of the grail myths, but a recent recommendation for the writer Peter Vansittart sent me scuttling to buy some of his books and, as second-hand copies of The Death of Robin Hood were too expensive, I plumped for his Parsifal. It's one of the toughest books to, err, parse that I've ever struggled through but, OMG, it's amazing. I have a yearning to some day publish a new edition (any idea how one tracks down rights holders for dead authors?) If you're not familiar with it, seek it out!
(I'm currently making sorties into von Eschenbach which is, if anything, even gnarlier than Vansittart. This morning I tried for the fourth time to get started on it)
Julian of Norwich’s hazelnut made me think of John Lennon's acorns, another occasional obsession. (If you visit the Beatles statue at Pierhead in Liverpool, be sure to feel what's cupped inside John's right hand).
Yesterday I pointed somebody at your Blake reading group, during a discussion on modern misinterpretations of Urizen (isn't it fantastic that in 2019 some church bod thought it appropriate to project this somewhat satanic figure onto the dome of St Paul's?)
And the Holy Fool... the archetype I identify most strongly with. I spend my life walking off cliffs; I recommend more people do the same. Sanity is overrated.
(At 2016's Festival 23, I was drawn at random from the ballot of 500 attendees to be the "festival fool"; this involved a few (ir)responsibilities, but I mostly played it out by spending Sunday picking up litter while everyone else was dancing and nursing hangovers).
Right, that's enough reflections on your topics... Imma meditate and find my own.
Just now catching up with Substack and have seen your question about rights holders. I spent about 10 years of my life doing mostly this, as an acquiring editor. Email me! I haven't read the Peter Vansittart but the von Eschenbach version kept tapping me on the shoulder a few years ago, until I realized that, holy shit, this is my fucking life it's showing me.
Oh wow, sounds like the universe is trying to tell me something.
I've been meaning to dive back into the Vansittart version with some Lectio Divina and, when I do so, to record myself reading it aloud (I *love* reading aloud - ever since I was at university and my housemates and I would gather each evening and read to one another over cups of tea, bourbon biscuits, and spliffs - but since my daughters grew up I've done far too little of it). Watch this space...
Just quickly (will respond in more depth later) -- you don't have to pick just three! Submit one at a time through the form, and you can submit as many as you like. The idea is that I'm picking three ideas at a time from three different people. x
Great! I've been working on that trail also. Some ideas I've been drawn to are related to the goddess of love, arts and sex. I write stories, perform rituals and paint images around the notion of a society that embraces sexual freedom as sacred. Temples dedicated to orgies, sacred art depicting sexual acts and nudity, myths related to spiritual revelations during orgasm. My life has always lead me to traditional versions of such ideas / practices, mainly around hindu/buddhist tantra. I feel that the patriarchal hate against pleasure, human body, feminine deities etc is something that demands a lot of work to switch off. And it's a work I'm very fond of
So sorry about the delay! The 297 words derive from the importance of the number three in this project. Three ideas being triangulated in ideaspace, because when you slip the grip of binaries, something new can emerge. Three ideas, written about in multiples of three: 3 x 33 = 99 words each (though the essays won't be broken down this strictly; they're just 297 words total), for a total of 297 words.
I know someone has already picked it, but Julian's hazelnut does it for me. I'd like to approach it from a sciencey point of view interleaved with personal history, does that work for you?
Great idea! I just submitted an idea that is very present in my thoughts at the moment and will be very interested to see what chance has in store for it (if anything)
Julian's hazelnut is always tapping me on the shoulder too! This is a very interesting experiment, almost like human-generated AI. Which is appropriately weird.
Your flowing brilliantly gal, I was recommended your substack, by a storyteller called Sophie at a recent workshop on the hybrid. I am enjoying your pieces but also finding a like mind/heart on here.
I love this so much! Chaos magic plus formal constraints, what a jam, so potent. I'm so excited to see what you do with this material Eleanor. My mind is also already running alongside wondering what other kinds of craftspeople might do with this same trove of urgent material - what patterns the artists and witches and data visualizers and cartographers and musicians would notice, and what kinds of maps and poems and songs and spells might then emerge alongside one another. Maybe there's a future version of the experiment that crowdsources responses as well as the primary material…
What a fantastic and exciting idea! I have some interesting figures emerging from my drawings that I would love to explore in this way, I'll see which one is most ripe right now and send you something x
Would love to see it!
Love it! Freedom in constriction.
Yes! Thanks for the inspiration. x
What a fabulous idea! How to restrict myself to three things though... fortunately, several of the memes buzz-bombing my mind are already included in your list.
Like Parzival... how the hell did I get so obsessed with that? I know next to nothing of the grail myths, but a recent recommendation for the writer Peter Vansittart sent me scuttling to buy some of his books and, as second-hand copies of The Death of Robin Hood were too expensive, I plumped for his Parsifal. It's one of the toughest books to, err, parse that I've ever struggled through but, OMG, it's amazing. I have a yearning to some day publish a new edition (any idea how one tracks down rights holders for dead authors?) If you're not familiar with it, seek it out!
(I'm currently making sorties into von Eschenbach which is, if anything, even gnarlier than Vansittart. This morning I tried for the fourth time to get started on it)
Julian of Norwich’s hazelnut made me think of John Lennon's acorns, another occasional obsession. (If you visit the Beatles statue at Pierhead in Liverpool, be sure to feel what's cupped inside John's right hand).
Yesterday I pointed somebody at your Blake reading group, during a discussion on modern misinterpretations of Urizen (isn't it fantastic that in 2019 some church bod thought it appropriate to project this somewhat satanic figure onto the dome of St Paul's?)
And the Holy Fool... the archetype I identify most strongly with. I spend my life walking off cliffs; I recommend more people do the same. Sanity is overrated.
(At 2016's Festival 23, I was drawn at random from the ballot of 500 attendees to be the "festival fool"; this involved a few (ir)responsibilities, but I mostly played it out by spending Sunday picking up litter while everyone else was dancing and nursing hangovers).
Right, that's enough reflections on your topics... Imma meditate and find my own.
Just now catching up with Substack and have seen your question about rights holders. I spent about 10 years of my life doing mostly this, as an acquiring editor. Email me! I haven't read the Peter Vansittart but the von Eschenbach version kept tapping me on the shoulder a few years ago, until I realized that, holy shit, this is my fucking life it's showing me.
Oh wow, sounds like the universe is trying to tell me something.
I've been meaning to dive back into the Vansittart version with some Lectio Divina and, when I do so, to record myself reading it aloud (I *love* reading aloud - ever since I was at university and my housemates and I would gather each evening and read to one another over cups of tea, bourbon biscuits, and spliffs - but since my daughters grew up I've done far too little of it). Watch this space...
Just quickly (will respond in more depth later) -- you don't have to pick just three! Submit one at a time through the form, and you can submit as many as you like. The idea is that I'm picking three ideas at a time from three different people. x
Great! I've been working on that trail also. Some ideas I've been drawn to are related to the goddess of love, arts and sex. I write stories, perform rituals and paint images around the notion of a society that embraces sexual freedom as sacred. Temples dedicated to orgies, sacred art depicting sexual acts and nudity, myths related to spiritual revelations during orgasm. My life has always lead me to traditional versions of such ideas / practices, mainly around hindu/buddhist tantra. I feel that the patriarchal hate against pleasure, human body, feminine deities etc is something that demands a lot of work to switch off. And it's a work I'm very fond of
This work sounds fascinating — I hope you’ll put some ideas in the pot!
Where does the 297 word count come from? Apologies if I missed that in an earlier post. I think the answer might direct my contribution choices.
So sorry about the delay! The 297 words derive from the importance of the number three in this project. Three ideas being triangulated in ideaspace, because when you slip the grip of binaries, something new can emerge. Three ideas, written about in multiples of three: 3 x 33 = 99 words each (though the essays won't be broken down this strictly; they're just 297 words total), for a total of 297 words.
I know someone has already picked it, but Julian's hazelnut does it for me. I'd like to approach it from a sciencey point of view interleaved with personal history, does that work for you?
Yes! Feel free to add it to the Google doc with any inflection you want to include -- though it's already in the mix in unadulterated form.
Where's the Google Doc please?
Here! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfPMEbp5-bDtRYgaEh92nQGQVEdrGAMR7XVA2geG28aijQ1Yw/viewform
Also linked at the bottom of the post above, if you need to find it again. x
Done. Not sure if it worked or not....
Great idea! I just submitted an idea that is very present in my thoughts at the moment and will be very interested to see what chance has in store for it (if anything)
Hooray! Hope its time comes soon. There are about 80 ideas in the jar so far so might be a little while. Very glad you want to play!
The epigenetics of organic seeds
I'll pop this in the mix!
This is a wonderful idea! I would love to participate.
Please do! Add any ideas you want to include to the Google form linked above. Would love to play in ideaspace with you.
Julian's hazelnut is always tapping me on the shoulder too! This is a very interesting experiment, almost like human-generated AI. Which is appropriately weird.
Ha, funny that Julian's hazelnut haunts you too. But... wouldn't non-artificial artificial intelligence just be... intelligence?
This is unbelievable timing for me. I’m in. Thank you. ✨
Hooray!
Your flowing brilliantly gal, I was recommended your substack, by a storyteller called Sophie at a recent workshop on the hybrid. I am enjoying your pieces but also finding a like mind/heart on here.
I love this so much! Chaos magic plus formal constraints, what a jam, so potent. I'm so excited to see what you do with this material Eleanor. My mind is also already running alongside wondering what other kinds of craftspeople might do with this same trove of urgent material - what patterns the artists and witches and data visualizers and cartographers and musicians would notice, and what kinds of maps and poems and songs and spells might then emerge alongside one another. Maybe there's a future version of the experiment that crowdsources responses as well as the primary material…