Invisiblish Cities

"I had sent away for a plan of Anaskol and had received this map in return. 

It was accompanied by a note saying Anaskol did not exist, but would this do."

 I wrote before, here, about my ambivalent relationship with maps of non-existent worlds at the beginning of books, but non-maps of non-existent worlds compliment fantasy's undependability far better, and so are fine... Once, last century, when I was allowed to be a film critic for the university paper, I watched Peter Greenaway give an interview in which he said film was the perfect medium for him because he was interested in text and images, and I remember thinking, maybe he should be working in comics instead, because film isn't just words and pictures, it's also time, and his films are quite boring. But I hadn't yet grown to appreciate drifiting in and out of a work, nor had I yet seen his early funny stuff.

"According to Tulse Luper, Antilipe in Syria was the home of a unique species of 

black maritime rook that mated with seagulls. That was obviously another Antilipe."

A Walk Through H (The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist) is a delight, and also forty minutes long. The film can be enjoyed in its entirety here, and if it weren't a film but simply a book of Greenaway's text and images, while I wouldn't feel so hassled by Michael Nyman's score (normally I love minimalism, but normally minimalism doesn't sound so impatient) I also wouldn't get to enjoy Colin Cantlie's brilliant - and swift - narration. A series of excellent sentences doing their thing rather than a saga, the script recalls Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, and Cantlie's delivery of it recalls Simon Jones' Arthur Dent, a perfect match, so I couldn't have been happier when this particular Ollie Evans posted the film on my f*c*book today saying my videos of Defoe had reminded him of it. Thank you, Ollie. Today's reading however is probably a bit too swift. Apologies for the gabble, but within it you will hear of the tribulations visited upon both those who were shut up because of the plague of 1665, and those who had to guard their doors (one of whom gets blown up SPOILERS!!!)

"I am the watchman! How do you do? What is the matter?"