The SVA met at my
place for an (almost) Halloween meeting. Spookily, Chris (whose extract we had gathered
to discuss) emerged via the dark alleyway that runs alongside the house. To park his bike round the back he had to
contend with dustbins heavy with garden rubbish, so ominous rumblings of wheelie
bins and mysterious flashes of LED lights presaged his apparition.
Annie was unable to join us this week and the remaining five
of us had little news to share. There
was talk of taking part in National Novel Writing Month (see nanowrimo.org)
from Rob, and of helpful advice received from an editor (Linda), of ongoing
bloggery (Izzie), submissions to short story magazines (Tony) and a finalising
rewrite (Chris). There was also a lot of
debate about a mutually convenient meeting time. The consensus seems to be to stick with the second and fourth Monday in each month,
starting at 8pm but ending promptly at 10pm. We agreed we would need to be brisker in both
our sharing of news and our giving of feedback, avoiding repetition of comments
and generally being pithier.
And, in this spirit, Chris read us an extract from Chapter
13 of his Karl Marx and Careful Driving. The text was full of profundity and
humour. In one section, Chris observes
that road users are "alienated both from their humanity and from each
other by the state's partition of time and space because only the surrender of
time and space without direction from
another can bring a smile from a grateful stranger." Elsewhere, Chris describes a manager who
"might easily be dismissed as a buffoon, but even small-scale tyranny is
no joke for those subjected to it."
Izzie found Chris had
a gift for making "complex theories
palatable" while Linda appreciated the improved balance between personal
experiences and the history and philosophy sections. Rob also liked the balance between 'theory'
and 'driving' but suggested each chapter could end with a short summary of
where the narrator had got to, so far, in his thinking ... and where this might
be leading us next. I also enjoyed the frequent
switches from macrocosm to microcosm, from the sublime to the mundane and, sometimes,
ridiculous.
There was a lot of discussion about the use of deleted
expletives, or rather the inconsistent use of, or expurgation of, expletives. Chris's rationale was that some obscene
language was admissible, and some was just too obscene to spell out, but the
group felt, if you're going to include some obscenities, you can't be this
selective. D H Lawrence paved the way
for authors to use such language more freely, although sometimes, in print, it
still has the power to shock.
The meeting ended with a brief discussion planning Christmas
celebrations. And so - though it's
eminently subject to change - the plan for now is as follows:
Forthcoming meetings:
Monday 9 November Venue: Izzie's Izzie
to submit
Monday 23 November Venue: Annie's Linda
to submit
Monday 14 December or
Thursday 17 December: Christmas
meal (Venue to be confirmed)
Tony Gillam
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