voices - more failure overspill
Following the most recent comment I left on failure below - that's #11 in case any more get left - I carried on searching for reference to the Voices anthologies I mentioned. I haven't managed to find any images, or anything I'd regard as an informative link that's likely to be in place for any length of time, but I have got more information. The editor seems to have been Geoffrey Summerfield, and there were both the Voices anthologies (of which I remember two, though some sources say there were three) starting from around 1968 so far as I can see, and the Junior Voices (of which I have a very dim memory) dated between about 1970 and 1974. Although I think they're not in anything like pristine condition one online bookseller of out-of-print and rare books had individual books for around $9-$20 Aus, which isn't outrageous.
On a slight geek note I eventually tracked them through hakia, rather than Google. I've been looking for an alternative search engine for a while. Both Ask and Alta Vista are okay, but newer engines cuil and searchme both produce eye-wateringly shit results. I think hakia has the potential to do pretty well against Google, and the Google Scholar search.
But that's beside the point, you and I can now start to hunt down these magnificent books wherever we want. Although for me, all I have to do is visit my mother, since she has the two books that I remember. You will be trawling secondhand booksellers and auction sites, and pictures seem to be unavailable. I think it's about time these anthologies were put back in print, or at least something with the same sort of spirit. I liked the idea of things that were intimidating and off-putting, that were frightening, adult and mysterious, but which also had humour and lightness. There were poems that were best read aloud, and pictures that you could look at forever. They were also books that you might pick up just to look at one or two scary pictures - just a glance before you put the book back, though you might end up staring for minutes on end - then put back safely on the shelf. It was that weird kind of book that wasn't forbidden, but was somehow more enticing and more disturbing than any forbidden book.
Which I guess in some ways could be said about Derek Jarman's films, which of course is where all of this started, before digressions and associations took hold. Although I'm not sure if I'd describe any of his films as disturbing. Fascinating, engaging, baffling, enticing, but probably not disturbing. Though having said that, there are haunting images that might be classed as disturbing. But no, unlike David Lynch or Andrei Tarkovsky you don't have the same unease watching Jarman films. They are, though, deliberately artificial, staged and mannered, which I would say is inevitably how any anthology of poetry an art is going to look. I'm going to abandon this parallel while it's stretched to breaking point rather than take it any further. Jarman's films and the Voices anthologies are not really anything alike, I just happen to have an abiding fascination with both.
.
On a slight geek note I eventually tracked them through hakia, rather than Google. I've been looking for an alternative search engine for a while. Both Ask and Alta Vista are okay, but newer engines cuil and searchme both produce eye-wateringly shit results. I think hakia has the potential to do pretty well against Google, and the Google Scholar search.
But that's beside the point, you and I can now start to hunt down these magnificent books wherever we want. Although for me, all I have to do is visit my mother, since she has the two books that I remember. You will be trawling secondhand booksellers and auction sites, and pictures seem to be unavailable. I think it's about time these anthologies were put back in print, or at least something with the same sort of spirit. I liked the idea of things that were intimidating and off-putting, that were frightening, adult and mysterious, but which also had humour and lightness. There were poems that were best read aloud, and pictures that you could look at forever. They were also books that you might pick up just to look at one or two scary pictures - just a glance before you put the book back, though you might end up staring for minutes on end - then put back safely on the shelf. It was that weird kind of book that wasn't forbidden, but was somehow more enticing and more disturbing than any forbidden book.
Which I guess in some ways could be said about Derek Jarman's films, which of course is where all of this started, before digressions and associations took hold. Although I'm not sure if I'd describe any of his films as disturbing. Fascinating, engaging, baffling, enticing, but probably not disturbing. Though having said that, there are haunting images that might be classed as disturbing. But no, unlike David Lynch or Andrei Tarkovsky you don't have the same unease watching Jarman films. They are, though, deliberately artificial, staged and mannered, which I would say is inevitably how any anthology of poetry an art is going to look. I'm going to abandon this parallel while it's stretched to breaking point rather than take it any further. Jarman's films and the Voices anthologies are not really anything alike, I just happen to have an abiding fascination with both.
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Comments
i wanted to pass along this link as it's been of tremendous value for me finding books for insanely cheap as well as finding rare & scarce books -- it's all secondhand booksellers mostly, which i also like:
abebooks
i prefer paperbacks over hardcover any day. at the junkstore i instantly grab any Penguins, Pelicans or Evergreen Black-Cats regardless of title -- Penguin has had some of the coolest book cover designs, i once found a site dedicated to photos of all the Penguins, it was an individual & he was presenting his collection which was vast, i tried finding it but no luck -- actually, i think i found it via
design observer
thru their always excellent
"observed" linklist.
PS
any slang particular to Manchester?
slang that's only used there?
Yeah I like paperbacks too. I studied publishing and print a long time back and went through the whole history of print from engravings/woodcuts through moveable type to photo-litho and DTP as it was then. So you'd think I might have a soft spot for hardbacks as more craft-based objects than the straight industrial process which makes paperbacks. For me though paperbacks are more accessible, and carry less of a sense of something important and canonical with them. My copy of Finnegans Wake is softcover for instance.
As for slang I'm probably the wrong person to ask. I was more aware of slang when I lived in Cardiff. I think in the UK these days if a bit of regional/local slang catches on it can spread to the rest of the company pretty fast.
There are non-standard usages I'm aware of. 'While' being used in place of 'until', for instance, as: 'I'll be out from eight while twelve.' Probably broader regional slang (or more accurately dialect words) are 'barm' for 'bap/bread bun', and 'butty' for sandwich (although it's also used in Wales, and even has a Welsh spelling, Bwty).
Many people I know are already familiar with the story of the fish butty I bought in Huddersfield. With a previous job I went for a half day's training there. I decided to get lunch in town with my partner at the time before heading back. I ordered a fish sandwich, expecting Tuna and Mayo, which is what you'd generally expect. What I got was a bap with a whole battered cod in the middle. Well odd.
Off-hand I can't think of any other local slang, but I'll listen out and post anything I come across.