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Picture from 'The Book of Sand'

Note on site Text

This site is intended primarily as a LARK. So go first to the stories - some of which are quite weird. Then try the self-indulgent autobiographical items, especially the pictures USA, Aussie, Europe, Spain. After that... check around.

Because classifications merge, some items may appear misplaced: ie, an article under 'Great Minds' might seem more to belong in 'Perceptions', or an item in 'Political' seem more appropriate in 'Stories'. Placing them was an uncertain subjective decision.

Being more attracted to concepts of anarchy than conformity, the essays may appear abrasive, even 'dangerous' - though what, I wonder, could be more lethal than the brutal greed-ridden, war-mongering, biosphere-destroying Big Corp mob we have currently ruling - at least in the 'West'?

Added Feb 2013: (This page was written in 2006, 3-years after 2-million demonstrators in London + numerous intellectuals and many others across the world had been totally ignored by the UK government which thought it better that > a million people should be murdered, the lives and homes of millions of others should be wrecked... etc, etc. in order to placate a mob of Zionists, justify the US military economy, boost the arms industry, and grab some free oil into the process.... And the climate crisis continues to mount.)

If no-one reads any of this, I won't know - unless MI5 or the CIA come banging the door in...

As you'll soon realise, I'm no writer. To be a writer - like to be a musician - one has to begin in one's teens. I began in my 40s. Otherwise this site would be more gripping, more concise and probably more alarming; and I'd be writing books and articles to sell - instead of spending time doing it here for nothing. Or not quite nothing, because there's always that peculiar warm feeling one gets from just the act of creating - even, curiously, when there's little prospect of an audience.

Even though I quite like some of what I write, I recognise ( too clearly) that amongst other things, it lacks 'shine' - a key detail that renders it un-sellable. And instead of the non-fiction reading like bombastic, arrogant bluster.... as alas much of it does from me.... a skilled writer would present identical views like well-informed wisdom.

Rod, however, who conceived of and gave birth to this site, thinks my writing is mostly fine, and he is much more enthusiastic than I about the site. Since it was him who nudged me along (see 'Profile'), I suppose that stands to reason. I wish I could share his veiw - or improve enough to justify it. Alas, I don't have the necessary experience, depth of vision - whatever it is - that strange elusive quality that shines out from the work of Hesse, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Conrad, and many others. I'm glad of Rod's enthusiasm, though, because writing can be fun even when you're not making stuff up and are stuck at some inferior superficial level. (I've told Rod: if he can sell any of my stuff, then he's more than welcome to the royalties - he certainly deserves them more than I do).

I should add as a kind of excuse for what I readily acknowledge to be lousy work, that virtually every time I glance back at some item or other, a story, essay... I feel impelled to re-write. Everywhere I look I see phrases, words, sentences, even whole paragraphs, that need tweaking - or deleting! Often some new thought: a better description, a more apt expression... springs into my head, and I can go on forever like this. Nothing's ever finished.

What rescues me from these continual attempts to correct and improve, is reminding myself of the following quote from Chekhov (see also 'Writing Stories'):

'... ... only he is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.'

...or of the inept way they're written, I add. There's the thought, too (which helps), that at least one person (Rod) appreciates these meagre creative efforts of mine.

But in the end, after me and Rod have enjoyed the mad stories and commentaries, the ideas and various pap, it's you as reader who I trust (as a kind of bonus) can get something from it too... so dive in - Welcome... make yourself at home!

....................................................................Phil Clarke (Nov 06 - & undated!)