Moving the action of a European or Asian film to America when Hollywood remakes it is not unusual. Moving the location of a European novel to America when translated into English, however, is. Published in English in 2016, HEX is the story of the small New England town (where have we heard this before?) of … Continue reading Relocated in translation: “HEX” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
I don't intend to write often about music on this blog, but a recent Guardian article reminded me that a group of albums that I love are approaching their quarter-century. Given that they transformed my musical tastes, I thought it worth revisiting them and the effect they had on me. Also, in an era where … Continue reading Warp Records’ “Artificial Intelligence” series, 25 years on
The art of Peter Lanyon - who died 53 years ago today - is, like all great art, uncompromising. For those seeking “Cornish Art”, it has none of the serenity of the calm seascapes on offer in every gallery in every tiny cove. But if you’re prepared to look beyond the initially daunting surface of … Continue reading Peter Lanyon: Liminality & Psychogeography
In this final part of my study of Robbe-Grillet's early fiction, with today being what would have been his 95th birthday, I'll look at the novel which, for me, sees him reach the high-point of the nouveau-roman; and a series of experimental (in the true sense of the word) short fictions. By the time of … Continue reading Alain Robbe-Grillet: early fiction (part 3)
Driving west on the A30, it's impossible to miss the post-industrial landscapes of clay- and tin-mining country. Whatever your feelings toward them, they are impressive, and very different from each other. Clay mining - the Cornish Alps - sprawl over the area north and west of St. Austell (and give the Eden Project it's home). … Continue reading Cornwall: two landscapes
On 23rd August, Faber will publish "2023: A Trilogy" by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu. Written by (I am assuming) Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, whose best-known guise is The KLF, the publication date will mark exactly 23 years to the day since the pair set fire to a million pounds in a disused … Continue reading 21st century pseudonyms, or “furthermore known as the JAMMs”
In Part 1 of this essay I looked at Robbe-Grillet's first two novels (A Regicide and The Erasers), in which it is easy to trace the development of the techniques and motifs that he would refine and re-use throughout his career. The first novels are in many ways conventional, and this is because the techniques … Continue reading Alain Robbe-Grillet: early fiction (part 2)
Someone - Google could tell me who - said "you never learn how to write a novel, just the one you're writing now". I've tried a few ways. My first (adult) attempt at a novel can be discounted, as it was a make-it-up-as-you-go-along story of magical realism set among the homeless of Dundee. I really … Continue reading Construction Time
I wrote a review recently of Ollier's best-known (in English, which isn't saying much) work, The Mise-en-Scene. As one of the less-publicised nouveau-roman authors, only four of his books have been translated into English. The first of these - Law and Order (translated by Ursule Molinaro) - was published in 1971 by Red Dust in … Continue reading Claude Ollier’s “Law and Order” (1961)
If the nouveau roman (New Novel) had a driving force, it was Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008). The nouveau roman was an influential - if rarely best-selling - literary movement in post-war France. A number of writers, generally but not exclusively connected to the publishers Editions de Minuit, sought appropriate ways to take fiction forward in a … Continue reading Alain Robbe-Grillet: Early fiction (part 1)
Into the Gyre 