Aubade

Just in case, er, someone, is interested, I was reading Aubade by Philip Larkin for the nth time last night, just before I went to bed. Here it is. I don’t think this will land me in any trouble, copyright wise.

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify. 

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
– The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off, unused – nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear – no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can’t escape,
Yet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.

Grim stuff indeed. Still, it’s one of my favourites in spite (because of?) this…

Blogging’s Killer App

Steven Streight asks What is the Killer App for Blogs?

I wonder: has the killer app for blogs been realized yet?

What implementation of blogging holds the greatest promise for the future?

I really don’t think the perfect and ideal utilization of blogs is the digital diary.

Why? Because these are being abandoned, and the content in most cases is of little value or relevance to others. They are good therapy, personal expression outlets, but not the abode of great literary genius, in most cases.
…
I think there will be more blogs turning into, with much editorial refinement, books. Publishers will find it easy to discover new writing talent, see the blogger’s writing style right there on the screen.

Very interesting point about using blogs in the writing of a book. This is certainly a useful idea for non-fiction books. Using a blog is a great way of organising pieces of work and making them available to an audience of proof readers, as The Red Couch has proved. Not sure it will work the same way for fiction, though, which is a far more personal affair.

Blogging from East to West

Interesting article on the BBC News site about blogging:

Weblogs started off as a personal outpouring, a kind of digital diary.

If you work on the basis that a problem shared is a problem halved, you can share with millions and – who knows?

Now blogs feature everything from cant on cars, opinions on opera, to rants from the politically righteous East and West.

But not everyone is free to say what they think.

Reporters Sans Frontières campaigns for the rights of journalists in China, where the ability to turn a nice phrase in criticism can be frowned on from a height.

In fact, the list of things you cannot talk about in China is almost as long as the things you can, as Cai Chongguo, a Chinese dissident, explains.

“We can’t talk about police or military corruption.

“And of course we can’t say anything about workers or farmer demonstrations. All that’s taboo.

“According to Reporters Sans Frontières, at least 63 bloggers have been arrested, and most of those are publishing articles outside of the country.

“These are people who are really resisting government oppression.”

Been Away

I have been away for a few days over the Easter weekend. Normal service will be resumed today, hopefully…

E-mail is under-used in politics

From the BBC:

The dramatic rise in home internet access has failed to plug the communication gap between politicians and citizens, a new survey has found.
The survey, commissioned by Telewest Business, found that only 1% of people have contacted their MP via e-mail.

Nearly half of the 3,000 people interviewed had home net access and 38% said they would e-mail their MP if they knew their address.

But 50% did not even know who their local MP was.

Some have seen the the growth of home net access as a huge opportunity to create closer ties between the state and citizens as well as transforming how individuals communicate with each other.

But there is little evidence that this has happened.

In a separate study, conducted at Strathclyde University, it was found that access to the internet has failed to make people less cynical about the government and is not encouraging people to get involved in the political process.

Nearly a half (45%) of those interviewed for the Telewest E-Politics Study thought politicians should use the internet more and one in five of those interviewed said they would be more likely to vote if online voting was available.

Those aged 18-34 year-olds were the keenest on e-voting.

The results suggest a major rethink if politicians are to engage citizens using the net.

“The revelation that 45% thought MPs should use more internet communication demonstrates that government needs to evolve its communications infrastructure to meet this need,” said Christopher Small, director of public sector at Telewest Business.

Derek Wyatt was one of the first MPs to have a website and it is obvious to him that he should seek as many avenues as possible for talking to constituents.

“Any MP worth his or her salt would want a website and e-mail. It is natural to want to communicate as there could be a vote in it,” he said.

MPs are not obliged to have an e-mail address, despite the fact that they are all assigned one.

Some do not even hold surgeries – the traditional face to face way of keeping in touch with the people they represent in parliament.

Dr Stephen Ward, a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, has spent the last six months analysing MPs websites and is not impressed with what he has found.

“Most offer just standard information and are essentially cyber brochures. Very few offer interactivity,” he said.

He believes most MPs are wary of direct dialogue with their constituents.

“Lots of MPs don’t want that dialogue and feel they haven’t got the time for it,” he said.

The few websites that did impress him were those that were updated on a daily or weekly basis or ones which laid out how a particular MP stood on a range of issues.

Mr Wyatt, who receives around 300 e-mails each day, confessed that many of them were related to very specific local issues but he relished the chance to get involved with the nitty gritty of constituents daily lives.

“In some ways, e-mail has changed the nature of my job. But I deal with everything because every vote counts. I contact the Chief Executive of the local council and magically everything is fixed,” he said.

The dialogue that e-mail opens up between MPs and citizens can also be used to promote a more general political agenda, he added.

Dr Ward believes more MPs, especially those in marginal constituencies, are seeing the value of e-mail to sway undecided voters.

“Some are starting to put e-mails they receive in databases. They know your interests and are able to respond a bit more scientifically,” he said.

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