Springfield Road

short story / 'Rapier' by Salena Godden / published in PARAPHILIA TRASUMANAR

excerpt:

The sword on the wall in the billiards room is not blunt otherwise it wouldn’t be a sword it would be just a sword-shaped thing, it would be a pancake batter flipper or a palette knife. A sword is a sword and by definition it is not blunt. The pen is mightier than the sword. A sword is a sword and by definition it cannot help but be sharp. Words that are used sharply and said bluntly by definition were intentional. The intention of the sword is not the swords own intention but how it was made. Sharp words are intentional for that is how they were made. The sword on the wall in the billiards room is not a sword it is a rapier. The pen is mightier than the sword. The blade is sharpened by water and stone. Paper is made of wood. Wood floats on water.  Paper wraps stone. Scissors cut paper. Ink and blood stains. Words are swords.

READ MORE: http://issuu.com/paraphiliamagazine/docs/paraphilia_trasumanar

*This story featured in the latest issue of Paraphilia, the ever evolving art, culture, and literature magazine. I wrote this in Sicily taking a break from writing Springfield Road and slipping into some fiction and Rapier is a sticky macabre-noir-creepy-psycho-thriller-ghost story kinda.

Nick Harkaway - Around the back of the Internet

Salena Godden has posted a poem on her tumblr which caught me a solid whack in the thinking parts:

‘It is going to be a magnificent day,

I intend to eat two breakfasts

and then continue typing,

facebook, hustling,

busking on youtube,

twitter is speakers corner,

tap-dancing on tumblr,

my tin cup rattling

“small change, small change.”’

You can find the rest here.

My first reaction was that I must get my lazy arse over to Unbound and back the book, which is a new experience for me. I admire Unbound, I think it’s interesting, but I haven’t had the WALLOP of desire to participate until now. In some measure, that desire is there because I believe, as I said in The Blind Giant and elsewhere, that mainstream literary and “high” culture is showing a weird tendency to wall itself off from the reality of technology, and that this tendency risks marginalising what has been the central thread of cultural discourse for a long time. That may be natural wastage, but it’s still wastage, and what’s worse is that it leaves an otherwise informed, liberal decisionmaking class poorly informed about science and technology at a moment when they need very much not to be. That’s bad news for our politics, as if we needed more….read the rest at http://www.nickharkaway.com/around-the-back-of-the-internet/

Blahblahblah / @SalenaGodden + @HollieMcNish @BristolOldVic

“…set by casting an amber glow over fond childhood memories of “the first days of spring” and the “festering itch” of freshly cut grass. Still rife with sharp wit, Salena’s poetry demonstrated depth and diversity alongside a stunning linguistic ability that brought materials, textures and emotions to life with tangible lucidity.”

reading from Springfield Road at The Bristol Old Vic…

Springfield Road

“Honest, grippingly readable, funny and uplifting, Springfield Road is the pilgrims progress of a brave young woman into adulthood, poetry and music.” Maggie Gee OBE

You Don't Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski) by Raymond Carver

You Don’t Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski) by Ramond Carver

I see a couple of typers in this room but
I don’t see any poets
I’m not surprised
You have to have been in love to write poetry
and you don’t know what it is to be in love
that’s your trouble

*this poem was posted by my friend, the poet Helen Mort.

It is from the poetry collection “All of Us” by Raymond Carver.  I find it amusing and interesting that they met, and hung out together, in the 1970’s.”