By: Patrick Read the previous part of the interview here. Interviewer: This seems to connect with something you touched on earlier, about definition. To define is to make a thing distinct, clear – definite. In boredom, the overwhelming feeling is, as you say, of anxiety, uncertainty. What one lacks is a definiteness about one’s…
Author: ShiverWriggle
On Meaning: An Interview (Part #3)
By: Patrick Read the previous part of the interview here. Interviewer: In your recent paper ‘Boredom and Consciousness’ you suggest that boredom may be as much a solution to the problem of meaninglessness as a cause or symptom. By inhabiting my boredom, I am forced to ask what I really want. Do you think…
On Meaning: An Interview (Part #2)
By: Patrick Read the first part of the interview here. Interviewer: That seems like an important distinction, between ‘the meaning’ and the ‘meaningfulness’ of a thing. Yet, why is meaningfulness necessarily important at all? I can imagine a life in which pleasure, or satisfaction, or kindness – a whole array of dispositions – could…
On Meaning: An Interview (Part #1)
By: Patrick Interviewer: In daily life we refer to different kinds of meanings: we talk about the meaning of a person’s actions, the meaning of a word, the meaning of life. What sort of meaning that you have in mind as a philosopher? Are these sorts of ‘meanings’ all the same? Patrick: The kind…
Sunday, Around Midday (2)
By: Patrick Walking back to my car, And suddenly the present, uninvited, emerges. It’s a cloudless, sunny day. I take in the birds, the cars, The voices of a couple of neighbours On the other side of the road. Autumnal colours And all that stuff That poets manage to capture so elegantly: A tree…
The Woman at the Foot of the Bed
By: Vague It was a dark and stormy night. Actually, this is a lie. It was a clear, windy, and typically Northern-Scottish-Autumn night, with the moon shining through the sloped window in my attic bedroom. I had no blind or curtain, not a problem in winter, but at this latitude summers are light, all…
Viola
By: everylittlething Earlier this month I was delighted to discover that one of my young friends has chosen Violet as the second Christian / given name of her daughter. “Vaahlut” as it was spoken locally when I was growing up is such a pretty name when pronounced clearly – “Vi-o-let”. Even prettier is “Vi-(ee)-o-letta”, as…
Saturday Morning (1)
By: Patrick Today My world drags Like a bad movie. I stare at the murky surface of a cup of green tea For minutes on end, Without a thought in my mind. Yesterdays confuse and amuse. Today Is about being slow, Above all about being slow. Silence, time, solitude, All seem eternal, Like the…
Sweet Potato and Peanut Curry
By: Lash Serves 4. Well hi there! It’s getting all autumnal, and that means that the vintagetraceygoodness kitchen is going for hearty, filling, warm-the-cockles dishes that we can bung in the fridge/freezer and dig into when we’re home from a long day. I learned to make this dish yonks ago (I think it was probably…
Willow
By: everylittlething Growing up in the northern reaches of England’s fen lands, willow has featured in my life from the very beginning. Now, in the northern highlands of Scotland, I see it growing steadfast at the edges of the flow country. Some willows should be classed as shrubs rather than trees – like the…