What's been inspiring you, recently?
A non-exhaustive list of things that have been inspiring *me* recently.
This week’s artwork is Hossein Behzad’s “The Big Cypress” (1955), courtesy of WikiArt.
Let me know if this sounds familiar: you have a bright spark idea that you eagerly scrawl in a notebook, thinking “Oh yea, that’s gonna be a thought-provoking piece of literature when I flesh that out”.
Cut to three weeks later, and it has decidedly not been fleshed out. It remains only a one-liner in a OneNote draft, at best.
At times, I feel as though writing is like paying off debts (which I gratefully don’t have besides my student debt, but still). It’s easier to start small and absolve the little one, rather than trying to chip away at the big one. That way, you build momentum; traction. Ironically, this is (more or less) what I teach about product development for clients. Do one (small) thing to completion, get it out, then do the next (bigger) thing.
For recovering perfectionists, especially, the thought of getting out a “perfect” piece of writing that’s well-researched, eloquent, enjoyable to read, and purposeful is paralysing. See also
‘s “Is consistency worth it?”.This leads us to today, where in an attempt to get Mutability off life-support and back doing its thing, I present to you, a(nother) listicle: what’s been inspiring me.
See, I like to ask people “What’s been inspiring you lately?”, instead of “What have you been doing lately”.
It won’t surprise you to hear that we’ve been conditioned into feeling we must always be doing. That pesky little devil-gecko, capitalism, has done it again. Rest assured, it’s perfectly acceptable if you aren’t doing much of anything.
Therefore, I put it to you to ask yourself and your dear ones: what’s been inspiring you lately?
Sophie Strand’s “The Flowering Wand” has been in my ear all week.
Fortuitously, “The Flowering Wand” marks its 6 month birthday this week! I was enraptured to find it on Scribd, and no less because
herself narrates it. I find it an intimate and Orphic experience to have an author reading the work they've put so much of themselves into. It’s one of my favourite books of the year, and I feel critically important for our age 🍇I recognise I’m biased. I’m already a nerd about most all the topics she writes on. Gundestrup Cauldron? I wept when I finally laid eyes on it last year. Iron Age Celtic myths? I’ll stew in them for hours. A whole chapter on the minotaur? Many (cognate) world mythologies in a single book? Please put more of my oddly specific interests in one place.
Strand’s writing weaves threads from mythology, spiritual ecology, gender studies, and of course mycology. It’s a timely reflection on masculinity and patriarchy - and I will use any opportunity I can to reference this article on how LoTR revived soft masculinity. What I’m taking from it is that we both wanna see more men forehead kissing one another.
Over the last couple of years, Strand has inspired me by steadily sowing an ever growing network of readers and acolytes to spread her words far and near. Her Susbtack,
is a favourite of mine, where I can study her essays in their full and sinuous length 🍄Not to mention, I adore how often she uses the word “mutability” in her book.
The many members of Imby 🏡
Our little community continues to grow, as it passes its second birthday! 🥳 Our people always put a spring in my step, light up my day with their reflections or photos.
Sometimes, it’s a simple reassurance to have someone who’s going through what you are, or to be able to have some friends on a call while you do some writing or painting. We mix it up with profound and stimulating debate threads on social issues, but the fact that everyone has space to do their thing and be cheered on for it, well, that’s just the fuzziest feeling.
BTW, we have a fresh merch collection that just dropped! 🎩
Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now (Taylor’s version)” is not part of Imby’s merch-drop.
“Speak Now (Taylor’s version)" gets announced and fans the world over lose their minds.
Fi-na-lly. The day I never thought would come. My favourite Taylor album, closest to my heart, containing the most nostalgic memories and which provided the background to many of my formative years and experiences is getting a second life.
For me, this is the quintessential Swift. At the zenith of her crossover from country to pop, filled with the best songs to belt out on a car-ride singalong with your friends, and spanning the elegiac melody of Back to December to the cute and naively romantic Sparks Fly. Plenty of excellent riffs, a well-balanced album that acts as a time capsule for the artist and fans alike, and which still holds up lyrically (especially compared to “Midnights” 🤢). Just look at the photo she recreated!! 😭
Listening to Seamus Heaney recite his own (lauded) translation of “Beowulf” was tantalising.
I cannot praise his translation highly enough. I owe to him many hours of blissful listening, journeying again to the hall of Heorot after many long winters. The last I read it was in the Old English, and Heaney has renewed my appreciation for it manifold. For more on middle (or old) English poetry, seek ye out Tolkien’s translation of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”.
“Polite Society”, writer/director Nida Manzoor’s first feature film
Take out the narrative of an aspiring stuntwoman trying to save her sister from a creepy arranged marriage, and Manzoor’s writing and direction here still make it an engrossing and joyful watch. I’m recommending it to everyone I can, so far tied with “John Wick 4” as my favourite film of the year.
In 2023, it shouldn’t have to be noteworthy that a brown woman makes an action comedy with an overwhelmingly brown, female cast. Alas, it is, and it is so refreshing and special to see it.
“Polite Society” succeeds largely on chemistry between sisters Ria and Lena, and that of Ria and her two besties. It made me nostalgic for both London, and my own high school escapades. The standout performances from the supporting cast make it easy to believe that these friends really are nerding out over things, and coming up with hair-brained schemes.
The narrative and action stand up on their own; owing largely to Ria’s (Priya Kansara) martial prowess getting the space to flex. Fights feels narrative-driven. The action stays grounded. The stunts lend weight and impact, and the overall fight choreography is superb.
Whether it was meant to be an easter egg or not, my Tol-keen eyes caught that the prop sword used in a scene in the school drama room was no other than Andúril, Flame of the West, the sword that was broken, re-forged. The sword can be seen for all of 3 seconds.
Zumwalt Acres, a regenerative farm I've come to admire.
"Our mission is to foster a new generation of farmers, scientists, and activists to build a better food system and tackle climate change." Who doesn’t want that?
Recently,
put me onto ZA, and they're ticking all the boxes for the kind of organisations I want to see more of: purpose-driven, generating social and environmental value, role modelling new ways of being. They're serving their local community in IL by growing local vegetables, the earth by restoring 30 acres of woodland area to forest farming, and role modelling a sustainable form of land stewardship rooted in Jewish values. Support them if you can, tell your US friends to check out their apprenticeships.“Coleridge: Acollection of critical essays”, edited by Kathleen Coburn (1967)
It has at once re-stoked my ardour for Coleridge, and offered a new depth with which to appreciate one of my favourite poems, his Ancient Mariner. Ever have the British Romantics inspired me, and while I am no longer in my Coleridge era (or maybe haven’t fully reached it, yet?) this book has reminded me that it’s just genuinely gratifying and delightful for me to study literature.
🎵 I made you a mixtape:“Into the West” playlist
Partly because Ella Roberts released a cover recently, and partly in honour of the 20th anniversary of the release of “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” later this year, I’ve put together a playlist of my favourite “Into the West” covers.
For those unfamiliar, it’s the song that plays over the closing titles of “Return of the King”, originally sung by Annie Lennox (also included in the playlist). It was co-written by Lennox and Fran Walsh, the producer and co-writer of the trilogy. The song feels melancholic yet uplifting, bittersweet and finite. If you’ve read the books, or are familiar with the symbolism and lore, it’s imbued with even more meaning (the Grey Elves, Legolas and the gulls, the parting scene at the Grey Havens, Frodo's trip to Valinor).
Robert Hawker’s “Quest for the Sangraal”
“Ho! for the Sangraal! vanish'd Vase of Heaven!” begins the late 19th century poem, and though it’s not canonically Arthurian, there’s something decidedly thrilling about spelling Tintagel “Dundagel”. I learned that Parson Hawker was a curious and tricksy fellow who was known as the local eccentric in his Cornish parish, and it was just joyful to read a little slice of Arthuriana with such sensuous lines as:
“Merlin the bard, son of a demon-sire!
High, like Ben Amram at the thirsty rock,
He raised his prophet staff: that runic rod,
The stem of Igdrasil --the crutch of Raun--
And wrote strange words along the conscious air.”
“That stem of Igdrasil” !!! Ugh, love it.
And lastly, the word “ensorcelled”, originally from the Old French “ensorcerer”.
There ya have it. Here’s hope we see each other next week, for what will be potentially not a listicle ❤️🔥