Grayson Perry: The Descent of Man

Pithy critique of masculinity by the contemporary artist.

Because I am a transvestite, people often assume that this gives me a special insight into the opposite gender. But this is rubbish: how can I, brought up as a man, know anything about the experience of being a woman? It would be insulting to women if I thought I did. If anything, it gives me a sharper insight into what it is to be a man, since from the age of twelve I have been questioning my own masculinity.


Examining masculinity can seem like a luxury problem, a pastime for a wealthy, well-educated, peaceful society, but I would argue the opposite: the poorer, the more undeveloped, the more uneducated a society is, the more masculinity needs realigning with the modern world, because masculinity is probably holding back that society. All over the globe, crimes are committed, wars are started, women are being held back, and economies are disastrously distorted by men, because of their outdated version of masculinity.

Leonora Carrington: Down Below

Surrealist relates her mental health breakdown in Spain at the dawn of WWII.

I think she was mistaken when she said I was torturing myself. I think that she interpreted me fragmentarily, which is worse than not to interpret at all.


How could I write this when I don't even dare think about it? I am terribly anguished, yet I cannot continue living alone with such a memory...I know that once this has been written down, I shall be delivered. You must know, otherwise I shall be persecuted to the end of my living days. But shall I be able to express with mere words the horror of that day?

John Braine: A Room at the Top

Working class narrative on social mobility and romance in postwar Northern England.

For all that, it gave me far more pleasure than the dressing gown
I have now, which was bought from Sulka's in Bond Street. Not that
I don't like the Sulka; it's the best, and I always wear the best. But
sometimes I feel uncomfortably aware that I'm forced to be a living
proof of the firm's prosperity, a sort of sandwich-board man. I've no
desire to be ill dressed; but I hate the knowledge that I daren't be
ill dressed if I want to. I bought the cheap rayon garment to please myself.;
I bought the expensive silk garment because always to wear clothes of
that quality is an unwritten term of my contract. And I shall never
be able to recapture that sensation of leisure and opulence and
sophistication which came over me that first afternoon in Warley
when I took off my jacket and collar and went into the bathroom
wearing a real dressing gown.

Sophie Calle, Paul Auster: Double Game

The New York artist on the intersections of her work with Paul Auster's Leviathon.

Personal Instructions for on How to Improve Life in New York City:

Smiling
Smile when the situation doesn't call for it. Smile when you're feeling angry, when you're feeling miserable, when you're feeling most crushed by the world--and see if it makes any difference. ... Smile at strangers in the street. Smile at the bank teller who gives you your money, at the waitress who gives you your food, at the person sitting across from you on the train. ... See if anyone smiles back at you. Keep track of the number of smiles you are given each day. Don't be disappointed when people don't smile back at you. Consider each smile you receive a precious gift.


Talking to Strangers
There will be people who talk to you after you smile at them .. Some of these people will talk to you because they feel confused or threatened or insulted by your show of friendliness. ("You got a problem, lady?") Plunge in immediately with a disarming comment. "No, I was just admiring your beautiful tie." Or: "I love your dress." ... With so many things driving us apart, with so much hatred and discord in the air, it is good to remember the things that bring us together. The more we insist on them in our dealings with strangers, the better morale in the city will be.


Feeding Beggars and Homeless People
I'm not asking you to reinvent the world. I just want you to pay attention to it, to think about the things around you more than you think about yourself. ... Stock up on bread and cheese. Every time you leave the house, make three or four sandwiches and put them in your pocked. Every time you see a hungry person, give him a sandwich. ... If you can't think of anything to say when you give the food to the hungry person, talk about the weather.


Cultivating a Spot
People are not the only ones neglected in New York. Things are neglected as well. I don't just mean big things like bridges and subway tracks ... look closely at the things around you and you'll see that nearly everything is falling apart. Pick one spot in the city and begin to think of it as yours. It doesn't matter where, and it doesn't matter what. ... Keep it clean. Beautify it. Think of it as an extension of who you are, as a part of your identity. Go to your spot every day at the same time. Spend an hour watching everything that happens to it, keep track of everyone who passes by or stops or does anything there. Take notes, take photographs. Smile at the people who come there. Whenever possible, talk to them. If you can't think of anything to say, begin by talking about the weather.

Stewart Home: Defiant Pose

Marxism, pornography, Oi! and class war.

The satisfying crunch of splintering bone.


'Ministers, Fat Parsons, Vicars, Lecturers and Monarchs have been the chief instruments of all horrid abominations which cry for vengeance.'


The future of the fuck and the orgasm had more to do with the relentless drive of post-industrial production than old-fashioned penetration.


After the revolution everyone would be middle class and the traditions which the European bourgeoisie had bequeathed to the world would at last become a truly universal culture.



'These drug-peddling ethnics are corrupting our upstanding white youth with their degenerate habits.'


'The task of repelling the tide that threatened to swamp the unique identity of the British people.'


'Hundreds of police accused of sexual exploitation.'


'Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets form an ancient kingdom which must free itself from the tyranny of Westminster and Brussels.'

Manuel Rivas: The Carpenter's Pencil

Prisoners of Franco discuss their pasts.

A Life of Richard Arkwright

A self-published hardback provided in the 'workers cottage' accommodation in Cromford, UK.

Arkwright's machines require so few hands, and those only children, with the assistance of an overlooker. A child can produce as much as would, and did upon an average, employ ten grown up persons. Jennies for spinning with one hundred or two hundred spindles, or more, going all at once, and requiring but one person to manage them. Within the space of ten years, from being a poor man worth £5, Richard Arkwright has purchased an estate of £20,000; while thousands of women, when they can get work, must make a long day to card, spin, and reel 5040 yards of cotton, and for this they have four-pence or five-pence and no more.