And Other Favourite Colours
Someone just sent me a quote from “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.
“Basil, my dear boy, puts everything that is charming in him into his
work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life but his
prejudices, his principles and his common-sense. The only artists I have
ever known who are personally delightful, are bad artists. Good artists
exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting
in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical
of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse
their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having
published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He
lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that
they dare not realise.”
It suddenly occurred to me that I have found my favourite colour: dorian gray.
I’m going shopping for a new wardrobe tomorrow.
BEEN THERE, SEEN THAT, WAITING FOR THE T-SHIRT
Have returned from Sweden and the premiere of the Helvetico-Swedish documentary, feeling very ordinary all of a sudden.
Before, I could take refuge behind my work, which is much more interesting than I am, but left me my prejudices, principles and common-sense.
The movie is really quite attractive, much more interesting than I can ever hope to be, and to make matters worse, it contains my prejudices, principles and common-sense, which leaves me with not much.
Now that it’s all said and done, I feel very pale in comparison.
I just hope I get some t-shirts.
I know what colour I want.
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME
Just when it seems there is nothing else to say, next month’s Lord of the Rings Official Fan Club Magazine (issue 17) will have an 8 page article on me. No point running to the local newsstand, it’s available by subscription only.
I’ll put the rest of the article on the site when the following issue comes out.
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RETURN TO SENDER
My apologies for the umpteenth time to those who have sent letters over that last while and that I have never answered. I just cannot keep up with them, and was appalled on delving inot the box the other day and finding letters over a year old. (But, apparently, not appalled enough to actually sit down and reply…)
I am terribly sorry, and will try to catch up.
I am also sorting out a clear list of the costs of returning packages the world over, in order to permit those who wish to send books to be signed (a hazardous enterprise, let me tell you, I have a stack of those too…) to include the adequate return postage.
