Dogmatism is mind-rot. Dogmatism over fantasies of continuity with a past made alien by time is often dangerous nonsense. While folklore holds hands with yesterday and walks it into the now and tomorrow, it is rarely a hologram fragment containing a clear image of the whole. To try and subsume its diversity into some grand theory of belief usually erases locality and peculiarity – two actions much enjoyed by pisspuffins.
Oh, and it’s wonderful to hear that – C.L. Nolan’s The Turning of the Year will be back in print. Every time I’m in Hookland I check all the Weychester old bookshops and discover many treasures but never Nolan’s masterpiece.
"Often readers make the assumption that an author knows what they are doing. They want to believe the writer has control, competency, a mastery of all the tools in the box. Dear reader, if you think this about me, you are mistaken. There’s an awful lot of tools in the box I can’t even name let alone use. I must confess to always just winging it."
I am the same, Friend. I always enjoy your installments. Thank you.
“It was not the paganism of those who insist their fantasies of continuous worship of old gods are real and revealed through the hidden meanings of folklore…No, if there was continuity it was of the smoke-obscured kind with bonefires past and raising a drunken cheer to the numinous land.” I am so much with the Rev D Hartnell on this. Just lately had a couple of encounters with people insisting their beliefs were the only true and ancient ones. Such dogmatism misses the point of our varied and glorious celebrations of lore and the land.
Dogmatism is mind-rot. Dogmatism over fantasies of continuity with a past made alien by time is often dangerous nonsense. While folklore holds hands with yesterday and walks it into the now and tomorrow, it is rarely a hologram fragment containing a clear image of the whole. To try and subsume its diversity into some grand theory of belief usually erases locality and peculiarity – two actions much enjoyed by pisspuffins.
Each instalment of the Hookland Chronicle is my new favourite. There are so many things I love about this. Thank you
Actual turning of the year in print? That would be grand indeed!
Oh, and it’s wonderful to hear that – C.L. Nolan’s The Turning of the Year will be back in print. Every time I’m in Hookland I check all the Weychester old bookshops and discover many treasures but never Nolan’s masterpiece.
"Often readers make the assumption that an author knows what they are doing. They want to believe the writer has control, competency, a mastery of all the tools in the box. Dear reader, if you think this about me, you are mistaken. There’s an awful lot of tools in the box I can’t even name let alone use. I must confess to always just winging it."
I am the same, Friend. I always enjoy your installments. Thank you.
Hookland County Chronicle is inspiring, thank you. Joyful, unsettling, provocative, insistent, historic and present. All of these things.
“It was not the paganism of those who insist their fantasies of continuous worship of old gods are real and revealed through the hidden meanings of folklore…No, if there was continuity it was of the smoke-obscured kind with bonefires past and raising a drunken cheer to the numinous land.” I am so much with the Rev D Hartnell on this. Just lately had a couple of encounters with people insisting their beliefs were the only true and ancient ones. Such dogmatism misses the point of our varied and glorious celebrations of lore and the land.
23.
The Borland brothers really like boasting about their acts. You wonder how many crytpids they actually killed.