Not As Grim As It Looks…. From ‘Unbound’….. From Campaign Against Arms Trade….
by Bernie Bell - 09:26 on 10 September 2023
Not As Grim As It Looks…..
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2023/09/08/death-and-burial-1/
Connecting things…as I do….
In ‘Underland’…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2019/07/08/down-down-deeper-and-down/ Robert MacFarlane writes………“In burial, the human body becomes a component of the earth……..”
Prof. Richards sees it becoming one with, not only the earth, but also the stone in which it’s placed…..
And, in her piece https://archaeologyorkney.com/2019/03/12/what-makes-ruination-and-decay-attractive/ Dr Ragnhild Ljosland of Orkney College UHI comments………….
“In his seminar on “Decaying flesh and the instability of substances” 28/2/19, Colin Richards spoke about the blurring of the categories ‘animate’ and ‘inanimate’. That the type of Neolithic building which we call a ‘tomb’ may in fact not be a static disposal unit for dead bodies, but rather the opposite: A living transformation. “The monument itself becomes a living thing,” he said. “It is all a process of becoming.” It has been deliberately built with layers of stone ‘skin’. The stones of the inner walls have been carefully split to create an ‘open’ face inwards, ready to absorb the persons who are put inside. Through this process, the entire building and bodies together become something new. We don’t know what they called it, but we can think of it as something along the lines of an ancestor.
This made complete sense to me, both in terms of my own personal response to ruins, and as a researcher who is interested in Viking Age, medieval and early modern folklore and beliefs. In the Orkney archive, there are accounts from as late as the 1920s telling us how people saw ancient burial mounds as alive. Opening or destroying it meant bad luck. The inhabitant of the mound was called a “hogboy” or “hogboon” (from ‘mound dweller’ in Old Norse) and he could be dangerous if his mound were to be disturbed. You could tell that the mound was alive by observing the strange fire that would burn above it on certain nights. The fire is like the beating heart of the burial mound, just as the peat fire in the hearth was the heart of a croft-house.
Both for ancient ruins and more modern ruins, the following holds true: When human life in it, or human use of it has come to an end, the building nonetheless still has its own life. It continues to live and interact with nature and the world around it. Abandonment, ruination and decay is not about stopping time, but about transforming into something else. As Colin Richards put it: Decay is a generative process. Perhaps the root of my fascination lies here, in the notion of a ruin being alive. And perhaps this is why once the ruin is consolidated, made secure by Historic Environment Scotland and opened up to ticket-buying visitors, it loses some of its appeal to me?”
And – a poem – by me…………………
All things have life
A building is seen as in-animate
Stone and wood
Yet stone has music in it
and wood still lives
Though cut.
Then we live in it
and breathe our life into it too.
I don’t see a building as in-animate
Do you?
Bernie Bell
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From ‘Unbound’…..
“Hi
Today's newsletter brings you books that are books and books that are not books, from the minds and hands of our talented authors.
These books are funding and need your help to get them over the line.
Read more below...
When is a book not a book?
An Accordion Book doesn’t open, it unfolds. One side is filled with beautiful watercolour images of an animal: sometimes in motion, sometimes at rest. The other is filled with text – poems, descriptions, invocations – inspired by the same animal. Together they work as spell to summon the animal’s spirit.
Jackie has painted them using antique watercolours, some from boxes which haven’t been opened for over 150 years, woken from their slumber with a single drop of water.
ACCORDION BOOKS: HOUND by Jackie Morris
'The hound book would always have been a celebration of my beautiful companion, Ivy, a Bedlington Whippet cross, an elegant goddess of a hound ... She died a few weeks ago so the paintings are made from memories. Someone once said that grief is love with nowhere left to go. This book is for anyone who has ever loved and lost, for in spite of the pain of loss, the joy of life remains greater and creative grieving really helps the soul to come to terms with the loss'
ACCORDION BOOKS: HARE by Jackie Morris
'Brown hares are such ethereal creatures. They live their lives touching the earth lightly. Vagabonds. I have watched hares waking into a day, rising with small clouds of breath from frost hard earth, as if they emerge from the very ground. Warm blood, soft furred, woodcats. To become a hare would be such an amazing thing. Learning their shape and form takes a lifetime, but this is what I try to do when I paint. This is the closest I can get to becoming a woodcat'
THE GHOST CAMERA
by Robert Llewellyn
The Ghost Camera is a gripping sci-fi thriller in which a British hi-tech start-up accidentally discover an alternative use for one of their inventions – by creating a tiny, momentary black hole in a lab, they can capture images that defy all attempts to explain them. Told through the lab janitor's observations, but also through clippings from newspapers, tech magazines and websites from all over the world – The Ghost Camera offers a Black Mirror-style parable about where technology might lead us.
FIFTY TALES
by Hugh Lupton
Stories are living things. They are viral. They enter us through our eyes or our ears and they take up residence inside us. Hugh Lupton is one of Britain's best-loved storytellers, and in Fifty Tales reaches into world mythology and shares fifty tales from the heart of his repertoire.
OUT THIS WEEK!
Pre-order at your favourite bookshop or on Unbound.com
WOMEN WHO WON
Women Who Won is a celebration of 70 women from the last 100 years: politicians from around the globe who fought for election in a man’s world… and won.
Women of the past, but also women of the present and future. Women who smashed the political glass ceiling. Women who fought to leave a positive legacy for future generations. Women who paved the way for girls of today to become women who won.
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From ‘Campaign Against Arms Trade’….
“Deliveries to Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), one of the world's largest arms fairs, were brought to a standstill on Thursday morning when peace campaigners blocked the road. The protest at the ExCeL centre took place during the No Faith in War day.
Several hundred people came together to oppose the London arms fair, with events including a Quaker meeting for worship, and an Anglican prayer service taking place in front of one of the gates. After several hours, and with the number of trucks waiting to go onto site building up, the police moved in, and imposed conditions on the protest. Nine people were arrested.
DSEI is due to take place at the ExCeL centre in London between 12th-15th September. Protests began on 4th September, with the first week targeting the setting up of the arms fair. Over 2,800 suppliers of weapons and military equipment will be courting deals with representatives from human-rights abusing regimes, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Bahrain, Qatar, and Israel. Campaigners argue that the deals done at DSEI lead to death and devastation across the world.
Stop the Arms Fair (STAF) is coordinating the fortnight of resistance, with other groups organising specific events or days. These days will highlight the intersections of the arms trade and the different areas and communities it impacts including migrant justice, the climate crisis, policing and prisons and more.
This weekend sees a Festival of Resistance and Critical Mass bike ride on Saturday, and Abolition Now! saying no to DSEI, Police and Prisons, on Sunday.
Find out what is happening via the Stop the Arms Fair website or the CAAT Events page, and join other campaigners in resisting this dreadful fair!
Thank you for your continuing support!
Kirsten Bayes
Campaign Against Arms Trade
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/04/20/the-irish-connection-among-others/
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