Comments | metrocentric: Some people, more animals

metrocentric

Some people, more animals

Aug 28, 2020 15:01

Late June. A street preacher of the Christian variety is occupying a self-delineated space outside the Salmon, stepping forward and back across the pavement as she rants. We are doomed; she is exultant. One of a passing couple remarks: 'Everyone off their meds now... everyone.' From somewhere just beyond the Sainsbury's Local queue comes a ( Read more... )

Comments 9

that August 28 2020, 14:36:28 UTC

If we can walk down the sidewalk with foxes and cats, perhaps it has all been worth it.

that August 28 2020, 14:39:47 UTC

That's terrible of me. People have died. I know someone who has been very sick for a long time. Still, somehow, it seems unreal until it strikes very close to home. Which must be why it's so hard to get people to deal with it.

metrocentric August 28 2020, 23:58:30 UTC

I don't think your first comment is terrible at all. It's entirely possible - necessary - that as well as comprehending the seriousness of things, at the same time we have a lighter view. Taking a large, awful thing and a small, hopeful thing: switching them around so their importances are inverted, then taking amusement in the absurdity of that: I look for observations like that and am always glad to see them. We can have a sense of the suffering without losing our sense of humour.

I don't know about you, but I find there's too much happening at once and so much of it bad right now. So that I can only relate the day's froth, such as corner ranters, alignments of animals and people in the streets, trestle tables on the Taramac...

Hope all's well with you.

that August 29 2020, 04:02:10 UTC

Thank you, I am absurdly well. I'm about halfway through The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates, which is a feast of disquieting wonders.

I'm always pleased when you take the time to write in your journal here.

killsurfcity August 29 2020, 09:07:11 UTC

what do you make of all this? what can anyone make of it? it's incomprehendibly absurd. anyway glad you're still floating about the ether. best place to be i say...

metrocentric September 2 2020, 23:43:04 UTC

Where to start? It's like a Hieronymous Bosch painting: made up of so many gruesome individual tableaux that it's difficult to identify the pattern in the whole picture ( ... )

killsurfcity September 7 2020, 17:49:07 UTC

where to start indeed... with the confusion and lies i guess. what's beyond that i have no idea. i've spent time trying to figure out what's going on, i got nowhere, i gave up. there's no clarity on what the numbers on deaths, cases, tests actually mean. the more you look the less unclear it is - and that's surely deliberate. they confuse us and play on our fears, as usual. well i'm not having it. i've had to accept i live in perpetual unknowing and mistrust. it's kind of freeing - anyway life's too short. for three months i didn't see anyone i love - thank f!ck i could carry on going in to work every day, i would have gone totally insane. there are many people worse off than me because of the lockdown restrictions, but i found it quite traumatic so i fear for the long-term effects on other people - loss of jobs, isolation. these are the things that will cause the damage down the line. they're breaking our social bonds, our spirits, our health service, our livelihoods. for a virus? i don't think so ( ... )

screenedout October 13 2020, 22:36:18 UTC

Checking in for the first time in ages. Nice to see your journal is still active. Hello and thank you for these vignettes, and for the comments. Moments of sanity in the midst of the madness. The contradiction of physical distancing and outdoor cafes colonising pavement space has yet to be resolved. For myself I take a perverse(?) pleasure in ostentatiously walking on the road and letting the traffic wait. You had your time and you blew it into the atmosphere. That and making motorists wait as I cross junctions is my own brand of micro-rebellion, tilting at radiator grilles as I dawdle my way to extinction. Take care.

metrocentric October 20 2020, 22:23:23 UTC

Thanks! I found a medium that worked for me, and most of the world moved on. But that's fine, Twitter scares me. I really like your: "...tilting at radiator grilles..." reminds of that bit in 'Brighton Rock', which often recurs to me when I'm passing between the bumbers: "Ida Arnold broke her way across the Strand; she couldn't be bothered to wait for the signals, and she didn't trust the Belisha beacons. She made her own way under the radiators of the buses; the drivers ground their brakes and glared at her, and she grinned back at them." Anyway, good to see you around - you were one of those on the internet that pointed me in the direction of Mark Fisher, and on your LJ you did some proper pieces.