Mon 24th October 2011

My first words to her were "I like your hyphens." She described herself with neologisms made from nouns and adjectives that haven't ever gone together.

She writes the most seductively articulate emails, tapping into a shared joy in playing with English, sending sentences back to me with a different turn, a bit of mocking; "very cultured, without any of the fancy class trappings that usually implies", as George Szirtes said on his blog about someone the other day. And full of desire, on both sides.

As lovely as it is, I'm aware we're falling prey to the internet's way of making you affectively run before you can walk. I email her, trying not to break the spell.

"...but we need to meet first. This elaborate house of cards we're building could still collapse. I've probably got a clearer desk than yours. Week beginning 6th any good for you?"

"...but what a lovely house it is right now," she replies.

7 comments

Comment from: [Member]

wise words. this is the part that is usually the most magic. the denouement. the falling. why rush?

Mon 24th October 2011 @ 20:38

Comment from: Homer [Visitor]

Because unless he wants to fuck her, all the adjective-noun combos are redundant? And because he’s not in this for a penpal?

Tue 25th October 2011 @ 09:14

Comment from: Daddy Papersurfer [Visitor]

Houses made of cards and there are no other types when it comes down to it, last for ages with the aid of super glue. I’m very sorry if this sounds enigmatic.

Tue 25th October 2011 @ 09:22

Comment from: TwistedScottishBastard [Visitor]

That’s a pretty good chat up line. “I like your hyphens” is way better than “I like your tits". Keep having fun and remember; “People who live in paper houses shouldn’t play with matches”

Wed 26th October 2011 @ 10:32

Comment from: [Member]

DF: are we already at the dénouement? Hope this is still the prelude.

Homer: That’s it. Will a desire that is so easy to express in an email be translated into a physical one? Come on… pub, walk in park (followed by pub), cinema (followed by pub), (followed by bed?), but whatever happens, we need to get out of the internet, soon.

DP: I’ve tried to work your remark out but it defeats me.

TSB: Thanks! It’s not had bad results so far.

Wed 26th October 2011 @ 11:51

Comment from: Daddy Papersurfer [Visitor]

Same here *shrugs* - I was hoping you could help.

Thu 27th October 2011 @ 10:31

Comment from: [Member]

Eeeh, if you were here now you’d get a pint for that.

[laughing]

Thu 27th October 2011 @ 10:40

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looby, n.; pl. loobies. A lout; an awkward, stupid, clownish person

M / 60 / Bristol, "the most beautiful, interesting and distinguished city in England" -- John Betjeman [1961, source eludes me].

"Looby is a left-wing intellectual who is obsessed with a) women's clothes and b) tits." -- Joy of Bex.

WLTM literate woman, 40-65. Must have nice tits, a PhD, and an mdma factory in the shed, although the first on its own will do in the short term.

There are plenty of bastards who drink moderately. Of course, I don't consider them to be people. They are not our comrades.
Sergei Korovin, quoted in Pavel Krusanov, The Blue Book of the Alcoholic

I am here to change my life. I am here to force myself to change my life.
Chinese man I met during Freshers Week at Lancaster University, 2008

The more democratised art becomes, the more we recognise in it our own mediocrity.
James Meek

Tell me, why is it that even when we are enjoying music, for instance, or a beautiful evening, or a conversation in agreeable company, it all seems no more than a hint of some infinite felicity existing apart somewhere, rather than actual happiness – such, I mean, as we ourselves can really possess?
Turgenev, Fathers and Sons

I hate the iPod; I hate the idea that music is such a personal thing that you can just stick some earplugs in your ears and have an experience with music. Music is a social phenomenon.
Jeremy Wagner

La vie poetique has its pleasures, and readings--ideally a long way from home--are one of them. I can pretend to be George Szirtes.
George Szirtes

Using words well is a social virtue. Use 'fortuitous' once more to mean 'fortunate' and you move an English word another step towards the dustbin. If your mistake took hold, no-one who valued clarity would be able to use the word again.
John Whale

One good thing about being a Marxist is that you don't have to pretend to like work.
Terry Eagleton, What Is A Novel?, Lancaster University, 1 Feb 2010

The working man is a fucking loser.
Mick, The Golden Lion, Lancaster, 21 Mar 2011

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Hyphenated

7 comments

looby, n.; pl. loobies. A lout; an awkward, stupid, clownish person

Rummage in my drawers

The Comfort of Strangers

"Just sit still and listen" - woman to teenage girl at Elliott Carter weekend, London 2006

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