Radar: What I’m Reading, Watching, Listening this week - 17th June

Reading: Luke Allan/The Little Review

Listening: Kim Moore on The Essay/ The Media Show

Watching: Death Valley/Race Across the World/The Mirror and the Light

"It's amazing how groups of men standing around in funny costumes... makes for good TV, but it does..."

Reading

I’ve been aware of the poetry of Luke Allan for a while, and his role in editing Oxford Poetry, but I just recently came across this arresting, innovative non-fiction piece he’s written about his mother’s suicide and his loss of a love of reading, entitled Death To Books. The piece won the Ivan Juritz Prize for Text this year and according to Mahler-Lewitt Studios it:

"…mixes lyrical memoir, literary theory, and speculative metaphysics. The essay is made of prose fragments that build into a constellation, recalling similar stylistic experiments by Blaise Pascal, Theodor Adorno and, more recently, Maggie Nelson. The ‘death’ of the title is twofold: on the one hand, the piece memorialises a parent lost to suicide; on the other hand, it describes the author’s experience of losing reading, of falling out of love with books. The essay sets out to understand the relationship between these two ‘deaths’, though its real subjects may be the distractions and lifelines on which the text depends in order to carry on."

You can also read more of it on The Paris Review website published here.  I’d recommend it; it’s a piece of writing that stays with you long after you’ve read it. I’ll be eagerly anticipating his first collection of poetry and will also look out for the publication of this prose memoir in full, too. 

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I’ve yet to buy my own copy, but I was at a friend’s house at the weekend, and I spotted The Little Review on the arm of his sofa and started to rifle through it. I’d say there’s a lively mix of content in there and I’ll be keeping tabs on it. It’s a new magazine and you can find out more here. In the meantime, I must get my own copy!

Listening

I’ve long loved BBC Radio 3’s The Essay series, and particularly enjoyed this recent episode, under the title ‘Instrumental’, where the poet Kim Moore is interviewed about her relationship to the trumpet. It’s 15 minutes long and wonderful to hear her discuss what she loves about the instrument, as well as its similarities and differences to writing poetry. 

A radio programme I’ve started listening to on a more regular basis is BBC Radio 4’s The Media Show which reports on how technology is shaping the world’s media. For anyone interested in the every changing role technology plays in our modern lives, it’s essential. This week Dan Snow was on discussing his new history documentary subscription service (a kind of history Netflix) called History Hit. I enjoy the programme because I feel like they tackle questions about how we are living today and how we interact with art and culture, as it’s changing, particularly with the role technology is playing. It makes me wonder, in fact, how the role of being a writer is changing in the 21st century.

Brian Wilson formerly of The Beach Boys died last week, so I've been revisiting Pet Sounds, particularly the songs 'Sloop John B' and 'I Just Wasn't Made for These Times'.

Watching

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been watching a few bits and pieces on catch-up TV including Death Valley (new BBC comedy drama featuring Timothy Spall), Race Across the World, and The Mirror and the Light. I’d describe Death Valley as charming and an easy detective drama, with some good comedy writing. Race Across the World, in which teams of two must race each other to destinations acorss the world trying with a limited budget, is a programme which interests more in terms of the relationships between the pairings and how their relationships evolve as they are tested as much as who wins or comes last. I’m particularly enjoying watching the father and son from Bradford. The son lives with his mother and by his own admission has everything done for him, so it’s been heartwarming and moving at times to see them try to mend their relationship as they embark on these crazy missions under time and financial constraints. I’ve got to say, though, I don’t fully understand why you’d want to go on national television to try and do that. Then again, I don’t really understand why anyone would want to go on national television.

While I haven’t read Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, and I realise it's not new, I’ve really been enjoying this series on iPlayer, as Mark Rylance continues his role as the incredibly influential Thomas Cromwell in the court of Henry VIII - it’s amazing how groups of men standing around in funny costumes in castles talking politics could make good TV, but it does - you’ll have to watch it to believe me. 

Andrew Jamison is a writer and teacher who has published three poetry collections with The Gallery Press. You can buy signed, first editions of his books in paperback or hardback at his online bookshop, or browse his writing subscription services here.