Introductory Signs
Braided Autobiography
At some point in the Covid-19 lockdown I started writing some pieces I have come to call my 'braided autobiography' project. Approaching age sixty, it was a good time to start to reflect more on my life. However, I didn't want to just do an autobiographical sketch of my trajectory, it didn't seem interesting enough to me. What excited me was drawing out links: cultural, musical, historical, from the places I have lived, the people I have met and the things I have done. My researches have led me to some really unusual places, to meet some new people and to pursue some threads I would not have normally have considered interesting or relevant. I have picked the project up and put it down, but over time the files and folders have grown. It's possibly a book in the making, who knows? That, as a goal, isn't so motivating for me. Finding connections and cross-connections, unexpected linkages and arcs across time excites me as an ongoing process. Writing is enjoyable as a personal project, but as one of my key themes is connection, I decided I needed to share my work in progress in the form of a series of Substack posts. At this stage I'm not sure how regularly I will share, I will work that out as I go along.
Expect explorations into subjects as wide as Edgar Allen Poe, The Beat poets, King Charles the First, Yoko Ono, The Beatles, Jimmy Page, William Hazlitt, and Bjork. I visit various places from Boston (USA) to Manchester (UK), to Reykjavik (there's only one), to Wem (Shropshire). I'm pre-occupied by: the Statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus; Keith Fisher (a booking agent from the Staffordshire Potteries in the 1960 and 70s); Allen Ginsberg's visits to Manchester and the North of Britain; my family ancestry going back to the first Earls of Norfolk (there's a viable argument somewhere in my family that I should be the 25th or 26th Earl of Norfolk. A claim that apparently falls down on an obscure legal technicality).
The working title for my whole project is 'Studying the Signs'. I'm looking for signs of life. Signs of connective meaning. Signs of how to be and how to continue. Signposts for sense, sensuality and rational slippage. What is significant, and why? In the end the search itself is a sign in itself.
You can now read Studying the Signs in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.