This past month Psychogeographic Review has been reading:

‘Complete Poems’ – Walt Whitman

Whitman is often described as the father of American poetry and, indeed, his influence can be traced right through to the beat poets of the 1950s.  Although largely neglected by contemporary UK readers, his vibrant language and key themes of the sensual, the sexual and the spiritual are still capable of connecting with a modern readership.

“I will sleep no more but arise, You oceans that have been calm within me! how I feel you,

fathomless, stirring, preparing unprecedented waves and storms.”

Leaves of Grass

   ‘Selected Poems’ – H.D.

Hilda Doolittle played a key role in the development of the Imagist movement.  Although she was a contemporary of Ezra Pound and is often regarded as a Moderist writer, her work was greatly influenced by her love of Classical myths and imagery.  After several decades of neglect, her poetry was rediscovered and championed by feminist critics in the 1970s.

“I stand by your portal,

a white pillar,

luminous.”

Dodona

   ‘Soho 4A.M.’ – Nuala Casey

A first novel by singer-songwriter Nuala Casey set in the 24 hours between London winning the Olympic bid and the bombings of 7th July 2005.  She writes with verve and conviction and her book is a welcome addition to the canon of London novels.

   ‘Jacob’s Room’ – Virginia Woolf

The eponymous central character of Woolf’s third novel is Jacob Flanders, a young man killed in the Great War.  The story of his life unfolds largely through the recollections and impressions of other characters.  But Jacob is not so much a character as an absence; a void at the centre of the novel around which the broken pieces of his life revolve.

   ‘Runt’ – Niall Griffiths

As a boy, Liverpool-born Niall Griffiths  liked to sit on the promenade at West Kirby gazing across the estuary towards Wales and making up stories about that mystical land.   For several decades now he has lived in Wales and has evolved into one of the most original voices in British literature.  The Runt is a sixteen-year old boy with epilepsy and learning difficulties who goes to live on his uncle’s farm to escape his abusive stepfather.  As the story unfolds, Griffiths weaves together gritty reality and shamanic myth and roots his characters within a brilliantly realised Welsh landscape.

Meanwhile, we were listening to:

   ‘Hymns for the Hopeless’ – William Elliott Whitmore

William Elliott Whitmore can sing the blues.  He sings the blues with a country music sensibility and does it so well that it hurts.  Some of the songs on this, his third album, are sung a cappella and the rest have a very spare arrangement of banjo and guitar.  Although it was released in 2003, I am ashamed to say I have only just discovered this beautifully melancholic and haunting album.

   ‘Penis Envy’ – Crass

I was knocked sideways when I first heard this, Crass’s third album, in 1981.  I was a first-wave punk and loved the band’s energy and their uncompromising political stance.  But ‘Penis Envy’ was a complete change of direction.  It was more complex musically, with light and shade and even melody.  But more surprising was the fact that the usual lead singer, Steve Ignorant, was absent from this recording.   Lead vocals were taken over by Eve Libertine and her voice brings passion and depth to the album’s exploration of sexual exploitation, unhappy marriage and domestic violence:

“I’ve got 54321,

I’ve got a red pair of high-heels on,

Tumble me over, it doesn’t take much,

Tumble me over, tumble me, push.”

Bata Motel

And watching:

   ‘Frances Ha’ – Noah Baumbach (2013)

Greta Gerwig stars in this new comedy and co-scripted it with Noah Baumbach.  She plays Frances Handley, an aspiring dancer with a shambolic life, and brings an engaging spikiness to the role.  The film is shot in black and white as a clear homage to the director’s love of the French New Wave.

   ‘The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume 3: A Diary for             Timothy – Humphrey Jennings (2013)

The final volume of the BFI’s laudable collection of Humphrey Jennings films presents the director’s output from the period 1944 to 1950.  All of the eight short films featured focus on the ways ordinary people were facing up to the aftermath of WW2.  ‘The Good Life’, the film Jennings was working on at the time of his death at the age of 43, is included as a special feature and provides a tantalising suggestion that his work was moving in a new direction.

   ‘In a Lonely Place’ – Nicholas Ray (1950)

A classic Nicholas Ray film noir from 1950 and an early critique of celebrity culture.  Though not one of Humphrey Bogart’s best-known films, I would argue it is one of his finest performances.  He plays Dixon Steele, a once successful screenwriter who is under investigation for murder and Gloria Grahame is the new neighbour who falls for him.