Tag Archives: language

The view from Maslow’s Peak (III) – In my end is my beginning (a personal history)

Posted on August 24, 2014 by SC

Every now and then, I see someone post on social media the following passage from the point of view of the protagonist Esther in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, and every time it is met with a flurry of wistful … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading watching listening thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Ars vivendi

Posted on May 23, 2014 by SC

Cancer sucks, but life is great – Stephen Sutton, Stephen’s Story Life is bearable even when it’s unbearable: that is what’s so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it – Geoff Dyer, Out of Sheer Rage What do you … Continue reading →

Posted in Oy vey (cancer gripes), Reading watching listening thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Ars moriendi

Posted on April 7, 2014 by SC

I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed both nothing and everything. Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. After … Continue reading →

Posted in Oy vey (cancer gripes), Reading watching listening thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The work of Anthony Lane – So finely written

Posted on December 24, 2013 by SC

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures in short blogging- a brisk tour of some long-standing influences and favourites | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The universal stories of This American Life

Posted on July 15, 2013 by SC

The radio show This American Life celebrated its 500th episode last Friday. I’ve been listening to the podcast for a few years now, and it’s become something I look forward to every week.  It’s difficult to describe the relationship you … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading watching listening thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Books of my childhood (III) – New Yorker humour and a woman’s search for meaninglessness

Posted on April 2, 2013 by SC

I didn’t always know what I wanted to do, but I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be. -Diane von Furstenberg I too have always known what kind of woman I want to be. I want to be clever and … Continue reading →

Posted in Doodles | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

The widest prairies

Posted on March 21, 2013 by SC

There was a period of time last summer when I used to carry Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems with me wherever I went. I usually travelled by tube and my journeys were just about long enough to contemplate one short poem and, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reading watching listening thinking | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Books of my childhood (II)- My man Wodehouse

Posted on March 7, 2013 by SC

The UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre, which is my home away from home, tries its hardest to not look like a hospital. This ‘chandelier’ (made of “hundreds of objects found during a 500-mile coastal walk from Gravesend in Kent to Land’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Oy vey (cancer gripes), Reading watching listening thinking | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments