30 May 2022
“I may have accidentally put a porn story on your Kindle” are words we’ve all had to say to our wife at one point or another. Or words to that effect. No? OK, only me then? I blame the author Chris Killen. Bit harsh, you’re probably thinking, hardly Chris’s fault. I should explain.
While I'm at it I should probably apologise to Angie Annetts as well, whose novel “Nudey Beach” isn’t porn. Only one Goodreads reviewer used the P word. Although reader Toni (Brooms reviews) confessed that it was far too risqué for her 1. Even if she is sporting a pair of Devil horns in her avatar photo. Now, I'm aware that I just casually dropped in buying a book called Nudey Beach. I’ll stop being a tease. Full disclosure forthcoming.
There are some philosophical enquiries I’ve touched upon before, which I’d like to continue pursuing. The youngest (child that is, not subscriber, or Royal) asked whether I hated Instagram. I also felt this notion of multiple selves needed more examination. If we’re going to examine multiple selves, touching upon things, a nudey beach seems a good place to start. Sorry. I promise to behave from here on in.
These resurgent enquiries are, in part, set off by my friend Bryn visiting, and the beach favourite topic of 'name your top ten films' entering the conversation. This really did happen on a beach. Only not a nude one. The phrase 'your top ten films' seems woefully inadequate, films yes, a list of ten yes, but for what purpose? Which self?
Here’s the deal. I’ll explain how I came to unintentionally place an erotic thriller on Anne’s Kindle, and that should loop us back around to multiple selves and lists. If everything’s not wrapped up in ten minutes, I’ll pick it again next week.
Pulling threads. Don’t!, we’re told. Or everything will unravel. I’m prone to propounding “turn the telescope around”, a maxim found in all good pirate lore philosophy. But there are times when having everything unravel is a positive outcome. We tend to build safe houses for ourselves, as if we are on the run from nonconformist ideas, hiding out in the familiar. “I know what I like” we say. If we admit that we contain a multitude, that there are many selves within us, then can’t at least one of us have slightly differing opinions?
In youth we are very much about getting our friends to share their latest musical finds, and playing them ours. As we age we start to seek solace in the music of our teens. Our record collections stop growing at 24 (How old am I? Record collection? Dinosaurs? Smoking on buses? Catch up boomer!). If we are not careful this narrowing of tastes can lead to the disease of nostalgia. Whilst not fatal, it can be debilitating. A classic symptom is "they don't make music like that anymore". Rest assured, they do. It's simply that your antenna have become stunted, and now only receives on a shortened wavelength. Pick a genre, even say something as dated as the operatic aria, and they're writing ones just as good today. Patrick Cassidy's “Vide cor Meum” for instance, penned 118 years after “Flower Duet”.
What we need to do is pull at the threads of our security. But we need some assistance. We believe we are taste-meisters. What we need hear here is Hegel.
Not his music taste. Or stylist. I wanted to include a quote for this, but every a précis I read is really a complaint about how impenetrable and obfuscated his conditional clause heavy High German is. So much so that reading Heidegger's made-up compounds seems a barrel of laughs in comparison apparently.
There is one idea of his in particular we should take on board, if we are going to open to notion of appreciating reggaeton, or ironic anti-chic lit erotic thriller chic lit for that matter.
Hegel, thanks to The School of Life de-Hegel-ing (not sieg-heil-ing) his verbose musings, I can proffer this nugget of wisdom 2
There may be some good ideas within those doctrines you oppose
Within a political ideology, a musical or literary genre, or cuisine, that you profess to dislike — there may be elements or examples that you might actually enjoy, if you put aside your wholesale prejudice.
The example the School of Life offers is Nationalism. This is a tad unfortunate given Hegel is viewed as a racist. Well not so much viewed, as was a racist 3. While not actually a Nazi like Heidegger, he instead is simply accused of inspiring the Nazi party to start with. In a moment of ouroboros-ian delight Hegel himself offers us an example of "learn from ideas you dislike" in learning this from amongst the dislikable ideas of Hegel. See, my terrible sieg heil dad pun actually had cultural reference.
(An aside to point out he also inspired the Communist Party as well, so there you go.)
Last week I also downloaded onto Anne’s Kindle, a book about housewives who, in the 1950s spontaneously turned into dragons. Intentionally downloaded, I might add. How do you find these books she asked (the dragon ones, not the racey ones). Daughter asked the same thing about Hench when I sent her a copy. Hench is where this sorry story starts. I recommended it for my post on being fashionably late, but had to leave before having time to explain the connection. Continuing the following week, another novel was required which matched the same criteria, Chris Killen’s “The Bird Cage” came to mind. Which, if you’ve read it, you’ll recognise the ironic suitability in it causing me to place erotic literature on the squeeze’s ebook.
I remembered a fellow #bookstagrammer mentioning Killen had written a second novel. With one hand I scrolled through Insta looking for the post, while with the other. No. Not that. With the other I Googled Chris Killen.
Turns out the account holder of said Insta message is a writer. Both hands Googling now. None other than Angie Annetts, author of Nudey Beach. A tumescent and gushing Googling frenzy brings me to Goodreads, where, aside from the aforementioned Toni, the vast majority of reviewers are reporting it to be a most engaging tale. As well as bonk-fest central. Her book is available on Amazon. Finger poised.
Chris Killen, that little flirt, was proving more elusive. Web site down. He did indeed have a second novel, but his Twitter feed is chock-full of other authors and a band called Hot Shorts. 4
“Real Life” by Chris Killen
canongate.co.uk/books/1076-in-real-life
Buy here
His new book is called Real Life, and was new in 2015. Luckily, available elsewhere than Amazon. Add to basket.
The Hot Shorts line-up appears to be two Chris Killens, a man in a cardy and a woman who looks like an author in Killen's Twitter. Hold on. It is the author in Killen's Twitter feed. And the drummer in Hot Shorts.
“The Odyssey” by Lara Williams
www.penguin.co.uk/books/321/321825/the-odyssey/9780241502815.html
Buy here
Lara Williams actually. Renowned author. Who has a new novel out entitled "The Odyssey", new, as in published this May. With an inflatable flamingo ring on the jacket, which is reason enough. Add to basket.
Her web site doesn't work either.
What this means is there is a rock band that features two authors in it. Actually there is a rock band that features two authors in it whose web sites don't work. I do believe this is a singleton. A singleton that contains two things. I'm reading a comic on Bertrand Russel at the moment. This singleton-of-two-objects is the sort of set-of-sets-which-does-not-contain-itself premise that gave him hives. Mentally. Or mental shingles. The heebie-jeebies of logic. Bertrand might also have struggled singing along with the axioms / proof of "My Cat is Gonna Live Forever" by Hot Shorts
Having purchased a work by an author previously unknown to me before pulling the thread dangling from Angie Annetts Insta post, it would be churlish indeed not to buy her thriller of erotic not chic-lit as well.
Press Buy. Only to discover Amazon's default is set to Anne's Kindle, and not a paperback posted discreetly in plain brown cardboard envelope to myself. “I may have accidentally put a porn story on your Kindle”.
“Nudey Beach” by Angie Annetts
angieannetts.com
www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/53924566-nudey-beach
www.amazon.co.uk/Nudey-Beach-Angie-Annetts/dp/1838015108
Pulling threads. Like spending two hours on wikipedia only with a big bill for books at the end. The Japanese actually have a word for the piles of books you haven't read. Tsundoku. 5
So no recommendations this week, more like suggestions. Google these three and see if one of them appeals.
In terms of philosophy I can't really rinse much more out of books I haven't read. Perhaps just to reiterate leaving ourselves open to happenstance. Pull threads, see where they go, sample the things we find there. Step out of our comfort zone.
I have practised as I have hypothetical-ised. My friend Zac heartedly recommended "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield as a stonking good read. While not a million pillows away from my comfort zone it was an unexpected choice from him, and indeed, it was excellent. A perfect book for what the dedicated book lover calls a "reading block".
My friend Nick, while defending his utterly incorrect view that Boy Shallows Universe is rubbish, suggested "Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry" by B S Johnson, who is totally unknown to me, copy ordered.
Finally, as I suspect my ten minutes are up, Anne frequently buys me books thinking I'll like them. I read the blurb on the back and decide I don't. Anne is resigned enough to my behaviour that her offence is light. Purely because I self-identify as a rabbit (it's a Chinese horoscope thing) and remind her constantly that Rabbits are Gods — for they make mochi on the moon 6 — she gifted me "When God was a Rabbit" by Sarah Winman. The circles in the Venn diagram of my taste and this book do not touch. They are John Lennon glasses.
For reasons of marital harmony I thought I’d better try to read it. I loved it. I did not expect to. Turning the pages I waited for annoyance or boredom to set in. Instead I found myself engrossed, I may even have found a tiny man tear in my eye during one passage.
So that's six books for you to Google 'n' gamble on. There may be some good things within categories you oppose.
Unlike the books I buy thinking I should read them. I have a list…
The ten minutes are up, something to pick up next week.
“The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield
Buy here
“Christie Malry's Own Double-Entry” by B S Johnson
Buy here
“When God was a Rabbit” by Sarah Winman
Buy here
A shoutout to Timothy Hunt, my favourite illustrator, who very kindly allowed use of his work to enliven this post. Please do him a solid by following him on Instagram and liking all his posts. Even better would be visiting his shop and purchasing a print, gold star goes to commissioning him to design or illustrate your next project.
www.instagram.com/timothyjphunt
www.timothyjphunt.co.uk/shop
A small ask
I’m currently interviewing a few more authors , who have kindly relented agreed to humour my inquisitiveness. I feel rather sheepish in the number of subscribers, and would love their words and work to reach a wider audience.
If there’s anyone you know who you think would enjoy these posts, please forward this edition on to them, or a different one you think better suited to wooing. Better still, ring them up, harangue, shout, threaten and coerce them into subscribing. Nicely, of course.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit
Legally I have to tell you I might get five pence or something from Bookshop dot org should you purchase something, but really I just want to stick it to Amazon and keep independent bookshops alive. Yeah, rebel me, bringing the man down from the inside etc etc.