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The curious incident of the Dan in the night-time

jp — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 15:00:37 +0000

6 Aug 2011

Unlike me, tales of student hi-jinks tend to grow much more charming as they grow older.

It was late spring in 1998. I was renting a college room alongside my friend Dan. Wadham College - my college - has done so much of what they call "growing organically" over the years that the room you might end up with during the third year of your degree is both metaphorically and literally something of a lottery.

J-P Stacey

Homage: End

jp — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:36:40 +0000

Farewell, Parisian streets,
The gare Saint-Lazare and Cour de Rome!
I had a little wander, in style after style,
But now I’ve found my way home.

My writing hand grows slow
For I started long ago,
And it just remains for me to declare
Merci! to Raymond Queneau.

Homage: Middle

jp — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:41:43 +0000

Picture the rush-hour S bus,
That chap, with the long neck and felt hat,
The way he thought that everyone would tread on him,
And the speed with which he sat.

Now see, much later, when,
With a friend he walks; and then
Let’s repeat these scenes in different modes,
Over and over again.

Homage: Beginning

jp — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:48:56 +0000

Show me the way it might start:
A writer imagines the banal—
Two chance encounters with some chap, two hours apart—
Now he’s in the story’s thrall!

He sets himself a trial
That will test his strength and guile:
Tell the same tale in some 99 ways;
That’s Exercises in Style!

War and Peace

jp — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:30:00 +0000

Show me Napoleon’s war
As seen by the Muscovite elite.
As Bezukhov’s good luck turns sour, Bolkonsky flees
Austerlitz and grim defeat.

Through marriage, death and birth,
Trudging over frozen earth,
These aristocrats will come to enquire:
What was this bloody war worth?

On the Road

jp — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:30:00 +0000

“Show me to write, man!” said Dean,
But: “let’s see America!” he meant.
We drove as far as San Francisco; Dean cleared out
Leaving us without a cent.

Camille and Marylou,
And Inez he married, too.
Though we’ll never ride together again,
Dean, I still think about you.

Heart of Darkness

jp — Sun, 29 May 2011 16:34:09 +0000

Take me upriver, to Kurtz:
I’ll find him, and help him, without fail.
We make our way past severed heads; then, look: it’s him!
On a stretcher, deathly pale.

I can’t leave him behind:
Though he’s found, he’s lost his mind;
If you stray beyond the ambit of sense,
Horror! is all you will find.

Lord of the Rings

jp — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 20:22:23 +0000

Show me the way to Mordor!
I’m tired as I’m carrying the ring.
I left the Fellowship with Sam a while ago,
And now Gollum’s following.

Meanwhile, there’s bloody war
In Helm’s Deep and Pelennor.
When the ship arrives for us, then I’ll know:
I’ll see the Shire nevermore.

Ulysses

jp — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:15:52 +0000

Stephen and Leopold wake,
Then set off round Dublin, both on foot.
All day they wander, meet, then wander off again,
Till the young man gets half-cut.

In Nighttown, in distress,
Stephen’s helped by Bloom, no less;
Still, they’re home in time for Molly to dream:
“yes I said yes I will Yes.”

To a mouse

jp — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:30:45 +0000

11 Mar 2011

We caught a mouse at work. The trap the contractors used was not a humane one.

Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, how I wiss ye'd na been hasty!
Ye'd still be eatin pyles richt tasty
An' rinnin roun'.
I'd then be laith tae scaith thee, mousie,
Like some daft loun.

I'm truly sorry man's unfeelin'
Did nick thy life with wee, fley'd squeelin'.
It leaves my senses all a-creelin':
Wae's me! I say.
I hope it schools thy fellow yealings
Tae keep away!

J-P Stacey