Categories: uncategorized
Date: 31 January 2007 22:58:36
Last night I finished Before I Forget by Andre Brink, which I've mentioned a few times over the last week or two. A really terrific reflection on the loves of an ageing writer: precariously and painfully hopeful, yet looking back he considers that he has nothing and nobody left, everything having been taken by the violence of apartheid. Gut wrenching betrayals, violent deaths, solitary confinement, suicides, constant police surveillance, trechery, exile, deep friendships torn apart. So what remains? Love? That would be too easy a conclusion. Read it and draw your own conclusions. Think of it as the antidote to triumphalism and fundamentalism.
Gonna be catching up with The Blessing again in a couple of weeks. Sat 17th at Boca Bar, The Paintworks, Bath Rd, Arnos Vale, Bristol. There will be red wine and dancing. See you there.
While everyone seems to have super-casinos on their minds I remembered a perceptive paper titled Playing Poker with Pascal: Theology in the American Casino which you can find a pdf link to on the website of the Centre for Literature, Religion and the Arts at Glasgow University. Just scroll down untill the Publications section and you'll find a link to it next to the name of the writer - Brad Johnson - who is one of the few people I've ever met who shares my fascination of John Coway's Game of Life.