Monthly Archive for July, 2011

Our summer holidays…

SBA

Published on July 26, 2011 in News.

Dear Readers,

Throughout the month of August, and some of September, Some Blind Alleys will be re-publishing classic essays, stories, and comics – works published during its first incarnation (from 2008 to 2010). Publication of new work will resume in September. During this time, submissions will still be considered, and the work of editing pieces accepted for publication will continue.

For those considering signing up for creative writing courses: Online booking is open, and Some Blind Alleys will be in contact immediately upon receiving a booking notification. If you’d like to contact SBA with a query, please email workshops at someblindalleys dot com.

Two stories

Cathy Sweeney

Published on July 19, 2011 in The Journal.

The Majesty of the Night Sky

It is a tableau – a plywood box painted crimson and gold. The curtain swishes back and a thousand hands clap. Entertainment deserves the smacking of one hand against the other; smack, smack, smack. The figures are attached by powerful cables to a pulley system somewhere in the sky. It yanks them from the seat of their pants and makes them look ridiculous, but all the more real for it. One of the figures is thin with a thin moustache and glasses; it is Yuri. The other figure is Alexander, a man of appetites that eat him; he is prone to jocularity and depression and has a fat gut. There is a woman, but she remains undeveloped as a character.

The scene is a flat – Alexander’s – in Pushkin Street. Yuri is staying there. From one window of the flat, a cathedral can be seen, and from another a launderette. Above the launderette is a brothel. At night Yuri chain smokes and listens to light opera. He is an out-of-work engineer, recently divorced. Alexander is a failed writer (deservedly so) who drinks in the bars of hotels. The men have been friends since their student days.

Continue reading ‘Two stories’

Online booking for the autumn creative writing courses is now available

SBA

Published on July 18, 2011 in News.

Online booking for the autumn 2011 creative writing courses at Some Blind Alleys is now available. The courses currently on offer are: an Introduction to Fiction and Personal Essay, taught by Rob Hopkins, and an Introduction to Fiction and Poetry, taught by David Mohan. You can read detailed course descriptions and more information about the courses and tutors through the links provided or on the Some Blind Alleys Creative Writing Courses Home Page.

Introducing… the autumn creative writing course list and the new Some Blind Alleys tutors

SBA

Published on July 15, 2011 in News.

The autumn creative writing course list is up, and online booking will be available from next week. Rob Hopkins and David Mohan will be teaching the courses. Rob’s course is an introduction to fiction, with a small introduction to memoir and personal essay. David’s course is also an introduction to fiction, with a small introduction to poetry.

Please read more about Rob and David, and their courses, through the following links:

About Rob Hopkins/About Rob’s course
About David Mohan/About David’s course

Some Blind Alleys courses are literature courses for writers and aspiring writers. They are designed to strengthen participants’ critical abilities by introducing them, with huge enthusiasm, to great work week after week, and also by intense critical focus on work each participant produces for the class. They require a lot of work, but they’re a lot of fun. You can read a little more about them here.

Civilization and sadomasochism

Catherine Conroy

Published on July 12, 2011 in The Journal.

HOUSE OF LORDS
(Case notes)

The appellants belonged to a group of sado-masochistic homosexuals who over a ten-year period from 19xx willingly participated in the commission of acts of violence against each other, including genital torture, for the sexual pleasure which it engendered in the giving and receiving of pain. The passive partner or victim in each case consented to the acts being committed and suffered no permanent injury. The activities took place in private at a number of different locations, including rooms equipped as torture chambers at the homes of three of the appellants. Video cameras were used to record the activities and the resulting tapes were then copied and distributed amongst members of the group. The tapes were not sold or used other than for the delectation of members of the group. The appellants were tried on charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, contrary to s 47 [a] of the Offences against the Person Act 1861, and unlawful wounding, contrary to s 20 [b] of that Act. The Crown’s case was based very largely on the contents of the video tapes. Following a ruling by the trial judge that the consent of the victim afforded no defence to the charges, the appellants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to terms of imprisonment. The appellants appealed against their convictions, contending that a person could not be guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm or unlawful wounding in respect of acts carried out in private with the consent of the victim.

Continue reading ‘Civilization and sadomasochism’

From Lazarus among us

Jean Cayrol (translated by Ciaran Lawless)

Published on July 5, 2011 in The Journal.

Concentration camp dreams
From the day he arrives in the concentration camp, despite the various horrors of his everyday struggles, the inmate knows to savour all the night may grant. Rising several times in the night due to the diuretic power of the soup, for example, he’d have the occasion to lift his head toward the starry sky, even if walking barefoot in the snow; then he’d dig himself back into sleep, for a few short, intense hours. Thus there formed, as I’ve already said, a kind of community of impenitent dreamers who from early morning would share with each other their nocturnal impressions.

Landscape-dreams were the most frequent; for the most part immense panoramas stretching out to infinity.

I can’t but recall to myself that admirable line of Pierre-Jean Jouve: “In the distance, meanwhile, are blue mountains like gentle hymns.” All our sincerity found refuge among those static horizons, those horizontal lines, truly a landscape of “human innocence.” Already the faces of our family had faded away, were lost from view.

Continue reading ‘From Lazarus among us‘