peter morrison 2011

Today is Russell Hoban's 86th birthday, to celebrate, have a quote from the first novel of his that I ever read:

Empty Spaces

‘A sense of loss pervades the paintings of Peter Diggs,’ wrote the critic Cecil Berkeley about my last show at the Fanshawe Gallery. ‘His palette is muted his compositions unsettling. The figures in his pictures seem about to depart, and there are odd empty spaces that make the viewer wonder who or what is coming.’

But that’s life, isn’t it? And those of us who think about the empty spaces tend to paint pictures, write books or compose music. There are many talented people who never will become painters, writers, or composers; the talent is in them but not the empty spaces where art happens.

- from Amaryllis Night and Day

Posted to Tumblr and LiveJournal

I think this quote is particularly significant [on my Tumblr art blog] - about the empty spaces that drive creativity.

The dream stayed with me so strongly that I could play it back like a videotape: the bus stop in the summer dusk, the street lamps lit against a sky still light - that time of day that always catches at my heart.

There was the sign that said BALSAMIC; the letters were sharp and clear; they riffled like rail departures but the name stayed the same. There were those shaky-looking buildings and the bust stop and there she waited, the thin woman with the straw-coloured hair, blue eyes, and pale face, unknown but seeming to look at me round the edges of my memory. Sleeping or waking, I’d never seen her before.

Again and again she gestured with her clenched fist and said “Yes!” silently. She wanted me to follow her. Why? Here came the bus: FINSEY-OBAY, yellow, pink and orange rice paper and bamboo lit from within - like a Japanese lantern. Such a light against that not-yet-dark sky! Again she looked at me as she boarded the bus and I felt the thrill of terror as stepped back. And again the sense of loss. What did she want? How could I find her again?

She was gone; I was left behind in the present moment, which not a simple finite thing measured by the clock; it’s a palimpsest of all the present moments before it, their images, music, words and whispers rising up through the layered years from the oldest present moment to the newest; and in those moments live, remembered or forgotten, sleeps and wakings and dreams.

- from Amaryllis Night and Day

Posted to Tumblr

While this is from the third chapter, it recaps the dream that occurs in the first chapter, it is this image which caught my attention, this image being the reason I bought this book in the first place. I’d love to see that image come to life, the bamboo bus in its yellow, pink and orange rice paper.

Twitterers, Facebookers and Bloggers 2011

After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?

- from Turtle Diary, tweeted by Joe Snow

Place of dismemberment? said Kleinzeit.
Everywhere, all the time, said Hall of Records.

- from Kleinzeit, tweeted by David Dixon

Sometimes now I dream of music. Not opera music, what it is I don't know. Over me, under me, all around me. I can hear it, I can feel it. when I wake up it is gone. Lost, nothing remembered.

- from Come Dance With Me, tweeted by John D here and here

‘A sense of loss pervades the paintings of Peter Diggs,’ wrote the critic Cecil Berkeley about my last show at the Fanshawe Gallery.

- from Amaryllis Night and Day, tweeted by remotevoices

There's nothing beyond the last visible dog but us.

- from The Mouse and His Child, tweeted by Chris Bell

(Bat bowl from the Victoria & Albert Museum that inspired The Bat Tattoo)

Facebooked by Olle Lawson

A Dog shall rise and a Rat shall fall.

- from The Mouse and His Child, Facebooked by Alison Baker

I do not like the way you slide,
I do not like your soft inside,
I do not like you lots of ways,
And I could do for many days
Without eggs.

- from Egg Thoughts and Other Frances Songs, Facebook-commented by Becky Morgan

I am actually a believer. I have faith that there's nothing that cares about us one way or the other.

- from The Bat Tattoo, tweeted by Danielle Carr

I searched in my A to Z for anything Balsamic but there was nothing.

- from Amaryllis Night and Day, tweeted by Squirmelia

And finally, here's a lovely post on the happy birdaycake blog from 7 February 2011 in which a mother and daughter make a real "Marzipan Pig" - not exactly a 4qation but just as tasty...

Nick Campbell 2011

Here’s my Hoban quotation contribution. It’s from Pilgermann, and I think it demonstrates him pretty well:

Certainly we are slaves of that which looks out through our eyes, and it is nothing simple, that outlooker; does it want to live, does it want to die? As with my arms red up to the elbows I sew up the wounded I crave to be where the shouting is, the cries and groans, the clash of weapons. I am afraid to be there but what looks out through my eyes wants to put me there, it doesn't want to be left out of anything, it wants to be everywhere at once, it wants to be included in all matters of life and death, wants to be at the same time here in the shuddering light of the torches and there across the river in the obscurity of battle and night.

- from Pilgermann

Blogged on a pile of leaves

Richard Cooper 2011

This 4th February I failed to do any "proper" 4qation beyond posting this to Facebook:

Fidelity is a matter of perception; nobody is unfaithful to the sea or to mountains or to death: once recognized they fill the heart.

- from The Medusa Frequency

My original intention was to 4qate only quotes from Angelica Lost and Found, Russ's latest novel, which I read and enjoyed over Christmas, but failed to do that either. As some might say, "Fail better!" So, unless anybody objects, my personal SA4QE contribution this year is to post my favourite quotes from that novel to this site. Here goes:

Afterwards, lying in his arms, I saw that he was crying.
'What is it, Clance?' I said, and kissed him.
'I can't describe it exactly,' he said. 'There's a great sadness come over me, what a little short thing it is to be alive and so strange. Maybe it's just the whisky.'
'No, it's the sense of loss, something lost so far back we can't remember it.'

(p83)

There is a jukebox in my head. Coloured lights, bubbles going round into vanishment and reappearing to go round again. I have no choice in what songs are played. Sometimes a lissom cheerleader inserts the coins, sometimes a tattooed truck driver; the mystic arm rises and descends with the silent disc which then blossoms into song and I dance or cry or shake my head accordingly.

(p85)

Is there a placebo effect, I wondered, for 'Everything is OK'? So if you think it is, it is? I tried it but I didn't really think it was and it wasn't.

(p93)

A first love is the one that took you to a place you never knew before, so it'll always be part of you.

(p110)

Did God invent Handel or did Handel invent God? ... 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' sings the soprano. From what are we redeemed? Original sin? Unoriginal sin? I think uncertainty is what we are redeemed from by this redeemer whom we have invested with the power to redeem us. The extra-strength placebo. If you think it works, it will.

And, unaccountably, it does. Listening to 'Messiah' I feel redeemed.

(pp139-140)

'You don't look like a shrink,' I said.
'I charge like one though,' he said. 'What can I do for you? If anything.'
'I have a reality problem.'
'That's called life.'
'But I'm living in two realities. Maybe more.'
'And?'
'I'm trying to understand them, trying to define what they are.'
'Why?'
'So I'll know, so I can deal with them.'
'Knowing won't help. That's a waste of energy. Get practical.'
'How?'
'It doesn't matter how many realities there are or what they are; just handle them one at a time and do whatever needs to be done.'

(p163)

- all from Angelica Lost and Found

Mike Lynch 2011

‘What did you say?’ I said.
‘I said that fish and chip shops are metaphysical.’
‘Everything is.’

- from The Medusa Frequency

Tucked into an odd piece of street furniture in Haymarket, Sydney, Australia.


Posted to Tumblr and Instagram

Martin Eve 2011

My quotation this year is taken from the beginning of Hoban’s 1998 novel Mr. Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer, definitely not one for the kids, but which I hope proves intriguing. So, without further ado:

He winced. “Please — the idea of Pelléas in English is abhorrent. Must go now. See you later. Or not, whichever.” In the fresh breeze he made as he passed me I smelled money and something else, medicinal and disciplinary, that I thought of as bitter aloes. As far as I know I’ve never smelled bitter aloes but the name suggest the smell I have in mind. The card said, in an elegant little typeface:

T. Rinyo-Clacton

Although Russell Hoban was born in a different era, as were we all to some extent, the world does not stand still. This year instead of printing my quotations directly onto yellow paper, I printed the above QR code, which when scanned on an Android, Blackberry or iPhone device redirects to this very post (producing a pleasing cyclical reference in the picture above).

Here’s three photos of my drop locations (there were many more, but these were the ones I photographed):

Somewhere between Enfield Town and Seven Sisters

The British Library Cafe

Somewhere in the British Library.

The above photos were posted to Martin's blog and to his Facebook profile

Ra McGuire 2011

Good evening,

Thanks again for this opportunity to participate!

Russell Hoban’s birthday began, in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada, with a menacing darkness squatted defiantly over Semiahmoo Bay. My yellow paper had been wrapped in plastic, as always, to protect it from an inevitable rain coast pelting - and subsequent melting - of Mr. Hoban’s words, but the particularly unwelcoming weather kept me inside until early afternoon …

At 2:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, on Russell Hoban’s naming day when he come 86, the dark clouds parted and the sun shone down. I headed down to the beach with my lovely wife, yellow paper in hand.

Reality is ungraspable. For convenience we use a limited-reality consensus in which work can be done, transport arranged, and essential services provided. The real reality is something else--only the strangeness of it can be taken in...

- from the foreword to The Moment Under The Moment

It was left on the best bench. Close to the water but distant from the action. A peaceful yet powerful spot. The wind was still whipping up the water. The gulls like that.

I am proud to once again represent for White Rock. I hear that, as of this year, I’m no longer the only Canadian contributor to SA4QE. This makes me proud as well.

My best to all members of the Kraken Community ...

And Thank you again, Russ, for the joyous mystery and the mysterious joy

Happy Birthday!

All best

Ra McGuire

This was also posted to Ra's blog and his Twitter feed

Lindsay Edmunds 2011

And I think of the sun over the water, the sun through the water, the eye holding the sun, being held by it with no thought and only the rhythm of the going. . . . Then it doesn't seem hard to believe. It seems the only way to do it, the only way in fact to be: swimming, swimming, the eye held by the sun, no sharks in the mind, nothing in the mind.

- from Turtle Diary

The above quote was included in Lindsay's contribution to The Huffington Post on 4 February entitled The Kraken rising: Russell Hoban's 86th birthday

The following was posted the same day by Lindsay on her own blog, Writer's Rest:

Under our ordinary speech there are always invisible subtitles in an unknown tongue.

- from The Medusa Frequency

 

Olaf Schneider 2008

The Kraken speaks from the depths of the exobrain at 3am. Featuring Russell Hoban reciting his own poem from The Last of the Wallendas - an SA4QE exclusive.



If you have problems viewing the video above try watching it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnDx-Z8U-6o

You can also view the original Flash animation at the following link:

The Dream of the Kraken

NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for this Flash animation, and to give it a few moments to load. It opens in a new window as it is hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view it. If you don't, download it for free.

Olaf Schneider 2007

Interactive animations inspired by Russell Hoban writings

NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for these Flash animations, and to give them a few moments to load. All open in a new window as they are hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view them. If you don't, download it for free.

Enjoy! - Olaf

Night outside

Olaf writes: 'One of my (many) favourite quotes from Turtle Diary'.

Turtle navigation

More turtle thoughts swim through Olaf's mind.

Night-drive to Polperro

Take a ride with William and Naeara from Turtle Diary.

Olaf Schneider 2006

Interactive animations inspired by Russell Hoban writings

NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for this Flash animation, and to give it a few moments to load. It opens in a new window as it is hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view it. If you don't, download it for free.

Enjoy! - Olaf

Soho streetlights

Olaf notes: "This year I didn't manage to drop my yellow paper in time. Anyhow, my only excuse is that I wanted to drop my SA4QE close to the place of Istvan Fallok in Soho. And then there was this hopping thing which attacked me. When I got my consciousness back, the yellow paper was gone but I did a photograph of the site of crime..."

Olaf Schneider New Year 2006

Interactive animations inspired by Russell Hoban writings

NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for this Flash animation, and to give it a few moments to load. It opens in a new window as it is hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view it. If you don't, download it for free.

Enjoy! - Olaf

So high, so going-away

As expressed by Kleinzeit. A new year special, to see in 2006.

Olaf Schneider Christmas 2005

Interactive animations inspired by Russell Hoban writings

NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for these Flash animations, and to give them a few moments to load. All open in a new window as they are hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view them. If you don't, download it for free.

Enjoy! - Olaf

Voices of the Starfield

Max and Lola, Lola and Max... a beautiful new animation based on a key scene from Her Name Was Lola, created specially for Christmas 2005.

The Pigeons of Trafalgar Square

An epic journey through the London landmark, as celebrated in Amaryllis Night and Day. Another Christmas special.

Olaf Schneider 2005

Interactive animations inspired by Russell Hoban writings

The Russell Hoban Continuum



Created specially for the Russell Hoban Some-Poasyum (2005 convention) website

If you have problems viewing the above video clip try going direct to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNUxRDzGoyY



NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for the Flash animations below, and to give them a few moments to load. All open in a new window as they are hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view them. If you don't, download it for free.

Enjoy! - Olaf

The Olive Tree

A special animation for 4/2/2005 featuring a classic Hoban quote from The Medusa Frequency.

London Transport Owls

Yellow paper on the escalator - another virtual location-specific 4Qation for 4/2/05.

Olaf Schneider 2002-2004

Interactive animations inspired by Russell Hoban writings

NOTE: Be sure to have the sound turned on for these Flash animations, and to give them a few moments to load. All open in a new window as they are hosted externally. You need to have installed Flash version 5 or later to view them. If you don't, download it for free.

Enjoy! - Olaf

Full moon spring tide turtle wind

An evocative extract from Turtle Diary. The Chopin nocturne of animated Hoban quotes.

Wheel of Action

A quote from Fremder with the words animated by a Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Be warned, this is very science-fiction-like...

The rolling passage in the darkness of my mind

As thought by Sarah Varley on an Underground journey in The Bat Tattoo. Complete with authentic London Underground soundtrack.

"This is your life"

From the "Memory's Arrow" chapter of Amaryllis Night and Day.

Aristaeus's Story on the potsherds

"Broken pieces want to come together," said the brain, "they want to contain something..."

Another delightful piece from The Medusa Frequency.

Three o'clock in the purple-blue morning

An atmospheric extraction from The Medusa Frequency.

The Flickering

Flicker-film by Gösta Kraken, from Fremder and (in part) The Medusa Frequency.

What a convenience

One of my (many) favourite quotations from The Medusa Frequency.

Golden Windows Homeward

Video sequence from the Turtle Diary film with text from The Medusa Frequency.

The Mouse and His Child Dance

A short film of the original wind-up toy used by Russ at his lecture to the San Diego State University on October 17, 1990.

Nighttrain

An animation based on an excerpt from The Medusa Frequency.

Who left the yellow paper?

Inspired by the hibiscus light of The Marzipan Pig.

An animated Fremder cover

Animation of Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction placed on Fremder book cover; accompanied by Chopin’s Mazurka in A Minor, Opus 67, No. 4. Unfortunately it’s not the Ilse Bak recording...

The District Line at Notting Hill Gate

“A poem at its place” from The Last of the Wallendas.

Yellow paper virtually dropped by Olaf at Notting Hill Gate tube station, London.