#gormenghast

I have come to the conclusion that at this point the only way to properly adapt Gormenghast in all its glorious lunacy is to do a Muppet version and have the Swedish Chef as Swelter.

Rereading Gormenghast and this about Fuchsia refusing to tell Titus about what’s going to happen on his 10th birthday  got to me:

“She remembered her own pleasure too keenly to jeopardize a hundredth part of his.”

Two of my favorite characters from my favorite books. Lady Fuchsia Groan, and the greatest motherfucker ever written. Full view recommended.

Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake / Trinity College’s Library

He had brooded long and was about to take a candle that stood ready on a table at his elbow and search for a book more in keeping with his mood than were the essay on his knee, when he felt the presence of another thought that had been empering his former cogitations, but which now stood boldly in his mind. It had begun to make itself felt as something that clouded and disturbed the clarity of his reflections when he had pondered on the purpose and significance of tradition and ancestry, and now with the thought detached from its erudite encumbrances he watched it advance across his brain and appear naked, as when he had first seen his son, Titus.

His depression did not lift; it only moved a little to one side.

I have identified the common feature of art I love, and that is a balanced background tension between claustrophobia/darkness/opressiveness and expansiveness/luminosity/cavernousness. I have started doing environmental studies of images that illustrate this so that I can start bringing this to my own work. You must study vocabulary and grammar by repetition before forming your own sentences. This is a study of a behind-the-scenes photo from the library burning scene in Gormenghast.

SHOP/KO-FI/PATREON/INSTAGRAM

I first read Gormenghast in 2003/4ish?? during my first or second year of university. The edition I had was a tome; the complete edition. Published in digest format (5.5"x8.5"). In addition to the three books, it also included the short story, Boy in Darkness, and final fragment Titus Awakes,

I was thinking about Gormenghast today, which is why i’m writing this now. How the book is  so steeped in ritual. The subplot with the Poet especially. But also about the book is also a kind of pre-war class commentary too.

I remember hauling that damn book around with me in my back pack for weeks. 

Reading it on the bus, on the train, in cafes, in the park and even in queues for gigs. It was a book read in segments of time that get filled with meaningless scrolling on my phone. 

I read The Count of Monte Cristoand Dead Souls this way too. Snatches of narrative and progress unfolded amidst the in-between moments of daily life.

I don’t remember the last time I read a book in this way. It makes me want to leave my phone at home.