"Barthes: A very short introduction" by Jonathan Culler (OUP, 1983)

• "there is nothing more deplorable than the literary practice called, I believe, poetic prose, which consists of using words for the obscure harmonics that resound about them, made up of vague senses in contradiction with the clear meaning" (Sartre, "What is Literature, p.210).
• "Wrestling attracts Barthes for a number of reasons: it is a popular rather than a bourgeois pastime; it prefers scene to narrative, revelling in theatrical signifying gestures; and it is unabashedly artificial, not only in its signs of pain, anger, and distress but even in its outcome: no one would be shocked to learn that the matches are fixed" (p.27)
• "the writer produces 'presumptions of meaning, forms, as if were, and it is the world which fills them'" (p.9/xi of "Essais critiques")
• "The task of literature, Barthes writes in the preface to Essais critique, is not ... to express the unexpressible ... Literature should attempt, rather, 'to unexpress the expressible', to problematize the meanings we automatically confer or assume" (p.44)
• "he takes no interest in poetry ... Barthes associates poetry with symbols, with plenitudes of meaning, with attempts to create motivated rather arbitrary signs ... for him it is prose that experiments with language while poetry attempts to transcend or destroy it" (p.45-46)
• "Barthes seldom takes part in debates he has provoked and in later years he became increasingly 'laxist', as he put it: uncompromising in his own formulations but uninterested in challenging others or in defending his own positions" (p.54)
• "to invent 'post-structuralism' one has to reduce structuralism to a narrow caricature. Much of what was heralded as 'post-structuralist' was in fact already conspicuous in structuralist writings" (p.65)
• "In the 1960s there seemed no reason to try to distinguish structuralism and seminology" (p.66)
• "In order to understand the functioning of the most interesting and innovatory literary works, one must reconstruct the systems of norms they parody, resist, or disrupt" (p.66)
• "Subjectivity is generally imagined as a plenitude with which I encumber the text, but in fact this faked plenitude is only the wake of all the codes that constitute me, so that ultimately my subjectivity has the generality of stereotypes" (p.68)
• "the version of post-structuralism called 'deconstruction' ... characteristically shows how discourses undermine the philosophical presuppositions on which they rely" (p.74)
• "structuralism has devoted much energy to demonstrating that the conscious subject should not be taken as a given and treated as the source of meaning but should rather be seen as the product of cultural forces and social codes that operate through it" (p.78)
• "A naked body is less erotic than the spot 'where the garment leaves gaps' ... Avant-garde techniques, or disruptions of traditional expectations, are more pleasurably startling as gaps in a readable discourse: Flaubert, for example, has 'a way of cutting, of perforating discourse, without rendering it meaningless'" (p.83)
• "boredom ... is a major theoretical category with a role in any theory of reading. If one reads intently every word of a Zola novel, one becomes bored, as one does if one tries to skim through Finnigan's Wake for the plot" (p.84)

"reminded of something" by Robin Thomas (Cinnamon Press, 2023)

Poems from Acumen, The High Window, Stand, Rialto, North, etc.

I'm struggling. There are poems from magazines I've been happy to have poem in, but I have trouble working out how to read the pieces. As an example take "Houseproud" (After Larkin, 'Home is so sad') - a house complains about its residents, wanting their help to remain neat and well maintained. At the end (the poem's nearly 30 lines long) it hopes the next lot will be more respectful. I don't know how to go beyond the plain meaning.

"Absolute proof" by Peter James

An audio book.

2005. American magician Mike Dalaney got sacked from his TV show and is drinking. Ross Hunter, a UK reporter, had a vision of his twin brother. After, he found out that his brother had died at that moment. Ross had been sent to Afganistan, barely escaped death, returned to find his wife Imogen in bed with another man. She was sorry. Brother Angus, a UK monk, is soon to die. Brother Peter is in a Greek monastery. Big Tony, an assassin, lives in Monaco. Wesley Wenceslas (46) has got rich from preaching. Dr Harry Cook contacts Ross. He says he has proof of God - 3 sets of coordinates that reveal the Holy Grail (at Glastonbury), a possession of Jesus, and the location of the 2nd coming (the last 2 locations coded). Cook says that God thinks the world is in trouble. He tells Ross something only Ross would know, and gives Ross a long document. Someone's keeping Ross under observation.

Ross has amassed a variety of contacts over the years. A friend points out that Ross's life might be in danger, that the messages received by Cook may come from the antichrist. Ross goes to Cook's house. It's been ransacked and Cook's been murdered. Someone's been digging at the first site. Ross finds what might be the Grail there. An attempt is made on his life. Cook's trusted solicitor and a medium give him info on the 2nd location - Egypt. He goes there, finds what may be Christ's tooth in a cave and is attacked by helicopter gunship. He survives, returns to England and gets the 2 items DNA-tested. He doesn't realise that he's being followed all the time - a Pharma company, Kurclew, want to market the DNA. Imogen receives threatening e-mail. Ross finally tells his wife what's going on. The DNA of the tooth and the grail's blood match.

MI5, the Vatican and the Church of England contact him. Though Ross thinks he's been cleverly avoiding being tailed, his movements and purpose seem known to several organisations, including Wenceslas. He hides the relics with Angus (his uncle!). He escapes from a car chase involving 3 other vehicles. The solicitor is killed. Ross's house is ransacked. Imogen moves out.

Ross is driven by ambition and morals more than money, but his pregnant wife is in danger and they're in debt [My hunch is that his dog will be his weak point]. He distrusts everyone (momentarily, at least). He's careful about saying things on the phone. He doesn't realise that his house is bugged. He meets Sally, a flirty Bristol radio presenter whose uncle is on the Kurclew board. Wenceslas is murdered before Ross was aware of any connection with him (Wenceslas had Ross under observation and was ready to get him killed). Brother Angus contacts his cousin Brother Peter, asking him to collect the relics.

At about the same time, both Ross and the Kurclew board discover that the 3rd set of coordinates is a Hollywood location. A friend does a DNA database search and finds that in Hollwood there's a man with a DNA match down both the female and female lines to christ's blood - Mike Dalaney. His parents had been killed in a mock-crucifixion. Ross heads for Hollywood, unaware that Big Tony is following him. Sally happens to be on the same flight - Ross doesn't believe it's a coincidence. In LA he sees Imogen across the road. He discovers that Delaney volunteers in a drug rehab centre, doing miracles according to the manager. He meets Delaney, performing in a cheap bar for drinks. Dalaney knows Ross's name, knows Dr Cook and knows his own identity. He says he's not the second coming, he's checking to see if humanity is ready. Outside the bar Delaney saves Ross from being run over, dying in the process. Ross tells Sally everything [which is a surprise]. He talks to Imogen - she's with 2 Kurclew people. He pours the DNA away while they're watching. Meanwhile, Peter's collected the relics then loses them to yobs. The 2 Kurclew people die in the flight back to the UK. Imogen and Ross break up - she's miscarried. Sally and Ross are together. Around the world the skies suddenly go dark and a rainbow appears. His story is published much more briefly than expected. He gets an offer of millions for the full story.

Over 16 hours long - much the longest audio book I've listened to. Nothing bored me, though several sections could have been shorter while being just as effective. I think the monkey plot could have gone, and I don't see why both John and Peter are needed.

Other reviews

.
• Rebecca McCormick (I generally liked the book, although I felt a couple of threads or characters could have been eliminated.)
• carpelibrum (I found Ross's character to be a little irritating at times and I soon grew weary of wading through the endless descriptions of scenery and mundane tasks. Ross's ruminations also took up too much space and only served to recap his thoughts on the goings on; which is boring if you're the sort of reader able to keep up with what's happening. And the ending? Where do I start? The ending left far too many unanswered questions. It was ambiguous and anti climactic)
• Dane Cobain (there were also a few things that I wasn’t too keen on, including the ending, which sort of just petered out. I wasn’t particularly keen on the secondary romance plot either, which didn’t really need to be there.)

"Antarctica" by Claire Keegan (Faber, 1999)

Stories from Paris Review, etc.

• Antarctica - She's married with adolescent kids. She's always wondered what an affair would be like. With the rest of the family away she stays in a hotel and picks up a man who's caring. In his place she enjoys the sex - "Afterwards they smoked - she hadn't smoked in years, quit before the first baby." She sneaks off back to her hotel early the next morning. He finds her. He leads her rather forcefully into the woods. Then they return to his place. He's a good cook. Next morning she finds that she's handcuffed to the bed. He goes to work.
• Love in the tall grass - It's the last day of 1999 and Cordelia is nearly 40. The doctor (married with kids) used to visit her each Thursday about 10 years before, then his wife found out and he stopped, promising Cordelia that he'd leave his wife in 10 years. She became a recluse. Today she's going out to find him. His wife finds her first to say that the deal's off. The doctor arrives. The last sentence is "All three of them just sit there and wait: Cordelia, the doctor and his wife, all three mortals waiting, waiting for somebody to leave."
• Where the water's deepest - An au pair rows the boy out on the lake so he can fish. She has recurring dreams about failing to save his life. Alone in the evening, she fishes alone by a pier. He tries to surprise her from behind, then is suddenly scared of the deep, dark water behind her. She comforts him and carries him back to the house. [an analogy for a relationship? They fish in different ways]
• The Ginger Rogers Sermon - She's a 13 y.o. tomboy with a brother Eugene. She looks after a horse. Their parents like dancing, considering it important. Their father employs a big man they called "Slapper Jim" who can't dance well. He has a much smaller girlfriend. The main character goes to a dance, sees people snogging outside. When Jim has to stay in their house because of bad weather, she sneaks into his bed and tosses him off. Next day she find him hanging from a tree. The final 3 pages are about the wake. There's dancing, no hint of guilt. [my favourite so far]
• Storms - There's a chest in the old dairy that the young narrator, Ellen, looks through. Ellen's life changed when her mother dreamed of her mother's death. She died and Ellen's mother became strange. She was taken away in a van and Ellen visits weekly. [I don't get it]
• The singing cashier - The c.16 y.o. narrator who's given up school lives with her older sister Cora, who works at Tesco. Whenever the postman arrives, the narrator's send out on an errand so that Cora can have sex in exchange for fish. One day they discover that girls their age have been killed by a man their father knew. Cora stops inviting the postman in. [Slight. Only 7 pages]
• Burns - It begins with "They will try it out for summer. Together they will confront their past, the source of all their trouble, and stamp it out. That, at least, is the theory." He's moved to an old farmhouse with his 3 kids and new wife Robin. His first wife harmed the kids? While he's out, cockroaches invade the kitchen and the rest of the family jump onto the kitchen island. He returns and fights them off. [No]
• Quare name for a boy - She returns from England to Ireland - maybe for good this time. Last Xmas when she came back she had a 6 day affair. She's pregnant now. She goes to Dublin to see the father - "I want you to say you love me, even though I don't love you ... If I must carry the child, the least you can do is love me." They discuss names. She begins to think that she doesn't want to see him again. [No]
• Ride if you dare - USA. 2 PoVs - Roslin and a man she's made a date with. After 10 years of marriage she's realised she's bored and risks becoming a drunk. After a meal they go off in her truck. They see a funfair. He wants to stop. She's too scared to go on the Big Wheel. They try a long slide, strapped together. She nearly bottles out. "She looks down. It is even steeper than she imagined. When it happens, it happens fast." [No]
• Men and women - She works on the farm for her father while her brother Seamus studies for school. Her mother, like nearly all the women she knows, can't (or pretend they can't) drive. Her parents sleep in different rooms. She (her first-person PoV) still believes in father Christmas. They go to a New Year's Eve event. Her father dances with other women. Old men want to dance with her. On the drive home (her father drinking) her mother wins a psychological game of power about who should open the gate. He does, and she takes over the wheel [. I've read this before, in "The Granta book of the Irish short story". I like it]
• Sisters - The mother of Betty and younger, prettier sister Louisa died suddenly when the girls were little. Betty stayed in Ireland to help on their father's farm, then cared for him until his death a year ago. Betty's 50 now. Louisa went to England and married. Now, at the start of the summer holidays, she's come to visit with children Ruth (9) and older Edward. Louisa says her husband will arrive soon. During the holiday they don't help or pay for anything. Betty says to Louisa that she thinks she doesn't actually have a dishwasher, and that Louisa's left her husband. She then starts cutting Louisa's hair short. Next day Louisa leaves with her children.
• A scent of winter - Hanson, a lawyer with a pregnant wife, drives with his 2 kids plus their nanny to visit Greer. They all fish in a lake. Then Hanson and Greer talk over a few drinks. A negro raped Greer's wife months before. She's refusing to eat. Greer locked the man up. As Hanson and his family leave, they see the negro escape over the fields. The nanny scream 'I quit! I quit! You goddam sons-a-barbarian-bitches!' and joined the negro. [I don't get this. So Greer didn't report it because of the shame? Is the nanny black?]
• You can't be too careful - J.E., born 1943, is called by Butch at 3am because Butch wants to go fishing with J.E. in his boat. While they're in the Mississippi Delta Butch drinks and says he killed his adulterous wife. J.E. fears he'll be killed. After many hours, Butch takes J.E.'s truck keys, exchanges his bloodstained shirt for J.E.'s and abandons J.E. on an island. It's J.E.'s 1st-person PoV - in the form of a statement trying to defend his actions, letting Butch escape [I like the details]
• The burning palms - A boy was with his mother at his gran's house when a lorry hit the house killing his mother. After, the boy helps his gran put up wallpaper with a palm tree design. Gran sets the house alight. He rushes in to save her pension book and photos then from a safe distance the 2 of them watch the house burn.
• Passport soup - Frank and Elsie's daughter has gone missing - she disappeared while he was responsible for her. Elsie serves him soup with 9 passport-sized photos of their daughter in it. Then she attacks him, which he prefers to her ignoring him.

Mothers die. Women are missing something in their lives. Hopes/promises are broken. Couples bore each other or are unfaithful. At the end of stories I often felt disappointed, liking the set-up and details but feeling I've missed a layer or two.

Other reviews

• jacquiwine (alongside stories of dysfunctional families and blighted lives, there are instances of women breaking away from the constraints that bind them, stories of burgeoning sexuality, experimentation and revenge. There’s also a sense of Keegan trying out different styles and techniques in this collection, perhaps to see which approaches would suit her best. ... For me, the standout story in this collection is Sisters)
• Philip McCann (the stories explore mostly rural family life, whether in Ireland, the US or Britain. In several, an irrepressible, imaginative girl looks with curiosity on the range of human nature and the quirks of fate. There are a few too many Virgin Marys, Sister Emmanuels and 'Glory Be's for my taste ... there is no modernist alienation, no women's stance. Post-feminist women spontaneously play traditional roles one moment, dominate the next and the femininity is as fresh, unselfconscious and natural as the voice is original.)
• booksaremyfavouriteandbest (There were some stories that fell short for me – they either ended in a way that didn’t feel satisfying (and you’re aware of this because Keegan does leave you wondering in some stories but in a welcome way) or were told from a perspective that wasn’t fully convincing (incidentally, these were the stories focused on male characters in America).)
• whisperinggums (It is this sense – this idea of telling stories about humans without judgement – that underpins Keegan’s writing for me. ... It’s hard to pick favourites, but of course I do have some. “Antarctica”, “Love in the tall grass”, “Men and women” and “Sisters”)

"Mal Goes to War" by Edward Ashton

An audio book. Mal (short for Malware?) is a Silico-american, a Free AI. There's a battle between the Humanists (anti-augmentation. Not keen on InfoSpace) and the Federals. Mal starts looking after Kayleigh, a woman who looks like a child - genetically modified to age slowly. They meet Asher - male, a humanist deserter? Mal describes himself as a hermit crab - he moves from body to body, though he could live in InfoSpace. The body could be human ("monkeys") or mechanical - for instance a drone. Mal needs a new body - the old one's starting to smell. He's attacked. He uses the castle siege metaphor, creates the appropriate interface using princesses, etc. They're captured and put in a van. Why weren't they killed? A woman, Roan kisses Asher transferring a "gift" to him. She'd been cured of brain cancer by an injection of self-replicating nano-bots which she can pass onto others, though 6k cals/day are needed to sustain them. They catch rabbits, learn how to make fire. They - "a deserter and 2 abominations" - are being hunted down. Mal likes Kayleigh but she tells him to go away so he inhabits a humanist officer, but has trouble getting the tone/register right with his colleagues - he's learnt from historical dramas etc. His colleagues become suspicious. He takes them to look for Kayleigh and Roan. He finds them. A being like him claims that they're the only 2 left, so they should start a new generation.

Quite rich in ideas, and gives an insight into how AIs might struggle with nuance.

Other reviews

• Bonny McDaniel (Mal's voice, snarky and sarcastic and entirely dismissive of "monkeys" until he learns better, carries this book. ... its themes could easily have been expanded to doorstopper length. Other authors might have gone a little deeper, perhaps, but this story is perfectly satisfying as is.)
• Jayne B
• AJ Deane (it’s the differences in emotion, intuition, and logic between man and machine, whether in the theatre of war or on a personal level, which are the true driving force of the narrative. The world-building is kept pretty simple, mainly taking place in rural areas and small settlements, and this allows the technical aspects to shine all the brighter)

"Moroccan Dreams" by Davina Calbraith (Troubador Publishing, 2025)

Suzie, working in a London advertising agency, is told at a month's notice to work in Marrakesh for at least a month. She's not getting on well with her boyfriend anyway. Her friend/colleague Isabel is going too. 20-something Tony from the ad agency shows them around. On p.22, halfway down there's "Eric, their new line manager". At the bottom of p.23 there's "Eric, her new line manager". Isabel's working at HQ while Suzie's taking over a shop. The employees don't like working for a foreign female and leave. She gets help from the "Carpet Man", someone who sells carpets under her winow. He teaches her Moroccan business skills and provides a business plan. Isabel moves out. Suzie's mother and sister arrive unannounced (p.60). They call her about her boyfriend. A page or so later they seem to have gone!? I thought it was a fragment of an old draft left in by accident but on p.87 her sister says "Don't expect us to visit you there again". Suzie applies to be on a TV business series. Isabel tries to keep it secret that she's applying too.

The Carpet Man, Mr Abdullah, is a Berber. He gives her cultural lessons. He spends much of his time in the desert. One day he takes her into the Agafay desert by camel.

After 4 months she's called back to the UK for a meeting. Christine tells her that she thinks Suzie's boyfriend (who Suzie seems to have barely contacted, who moved out of their flat without telling her) is having an affair. She invites her boyfriend to Marrakesh - after 4 months away! While she's briefly in England, her deputy shuts the shop down. Andy, a photographer, saves the day. She returns to Marrakesh. Isabel and Suzie are both accepted for the TV series. Her first ad-campaign (thanks to the Carpet Man) is a big success. The shop is converted into a mini HQ.

The TV show includes a round at Isabel's worklace. Suzie is (unfairly) eliminated after a round in Agafay desert. Isabel is eliminated soon after. There are rumours that Suzie and the Carpet Man are a couple. "He had a hypnotic wisdom when he spoke which engendered a kind of reverent trust in those that listened". Eric calls her suddenly to HQ, accusing her of stealing ideas from Isabel, or leaking ideas to a rival. She's suspended from work. Other people are questioned. She and Tony do some investigating, checking alibis. Eric has a girlfriend at a rival agency. They meet her. Eric finds out and grills them. They keep their jobs. They tell Eric's boss. Christine visits for a weekend. Carpet man returns, having disappeared for months. Eric mails staff to say that the culprit had been found and that they need a new deputy CEO. Carpet man is on the interview panel. Christine phones to tell her that Suzie's boyfriend had been going out with Isabel, who had been popping back to the UK Eric's boss has a talk with her. She's honest. She learns that Eric wasn't the source of the leak, but he'd made misjudgements and wouldn't become deputy CEO. Suzie would. She'd been given a difficult task and the shop was now a success. Isabel has been embezzling, and had been rude to people. Eric's boss had made Suzie's meeting with the carpet man look accidental. The company used Morocco as a training ground.

At the start, Suzie is so often not told about things (personal and company) that she should have been told about that it's Kafkaesque. I didn't get much of a culture-shock feel, or a feel for Marrakesk (I've been there, and into the desert by camel). Some of the events (I've mentioned them above) seem to have no effect - strange.

"Crash and burn" by Alison Bruce

An isolated, abandoned bungalow north of Cambridge is burnt down. 2 bodies are found - one new, and one under the floorboards, decades old. Ronnie (Veronica) investigates. She lives with her brother Alex and nephew Noah, 10 (his mother died). Malakei is in the team - young and single, living with his protective aunt. Nathan Paignton (nerdy brother of naughty suspect Alfie, 15) is suspected to be the victim. When Mariel was 2, she and her mother were abducted. Her mother Jacky wasn't seen again. Mariel was left in Trumpington St, where she now works. Chris Good, the son of the bungalow owner (a builder), had disappeared on the same night 20 years before. Mariel thinks she recognises the bungalow in the news article so she contacts the police.

Investigations reveal that the newer body is indeed Nathan's and that he could have started the fire. Alfie befriends Noah while he's walking from school, pretending he's Noah's uncle Owen. Questioned, Alfie says he did it to see if Ronnie is to be trusted. He confesses to Ronnie that Nathan lit the fire to stop Alfie getting into more trobule in the bungalow. Noah does have an uncle Owen, who he's never met. Ronnie arranges a meeting. 2 other bodies are found under the bungalow - women who were kidnapped for a ransom when Jacky disappeared in 2008. Connections emerge between the dead women and Chris Good. Nathan's father Steve, who owns a garage, is interviewed because Jacky had her car mended there. After (it's his PoV now), he writes letters while taking lots of pills with alcohol. He phones Ronnie, who suspects something's wrong. They find him in time. While recovering in hospital he tells the police everything. He'd been in debt and had gone to Chris Good. He ended up abducting women for him, and collecting the ransom money. He spared Mariel and killed Good, putting the body under "an ugly 1998 Fiat Multipla" in his back yard. They go to Mariel. She'd recalled a man saying "Dooboe" and had always wondered what it meant. Malakei says it might have been "Do both". It sparks memories. She recalls her father at the bungalow telling Chris Good to "Do both" (i.e. kill his wife and daughter). She confronts him, secretly recording the conversation. He tells her he married too early and family life got in the way of business. The father's arrested. Alfie stops bunking off school.

I know many of the locations. I like her internal monologues, though the vocabulary register doesn't always sound appropriate. They're not central to the plot. Nor is the Owen incident. I presume it's there for the benefit of a future book in the series. It's well-enough handled all the same. The final twist is rather implausible. The writing's effective - the flashiest phrase is "her forehead flickering with a frown".