Tag: emotive

That Feeling

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

I was feeling a bit deflated. Football will do that to you. This was nearly not going to be a piece on getting that feeling about things and what it means. I just did the television version of leaving the stadium early. Brighton scored a last kick of the game type equaliser against my team and I switched it off. I never do that. In the end it wasn’t the last kick because we went up the other end, got a corner, a penalty and with the actual last kick of the match scored the winner. Football, bloody hell. I had the feeling we would hold on before they scored. I even challenged what feels like an unspoken rule to never openly predict even to yourself that something is or isn’t going to happen that will benefit your team. I taunted myself in the belief they wouldn’t score because I was so convinced my feeling was spot on. It was going to be the basis of my entire argument in this piece.

Football is great for getting that instinctive feeling about something. I got the feeling Maguire was going to score our initial equaliser earlier in the game just before he did and that set me off. In truth there have been loads of times I’ve got the feeling he was going to score and it’s come to nothing but I’ve homed in on the one time it proves an idea I want to believe in. The truth is though that we do get instinctive feelings about things and they come true. I have no idea what it means and despite there being an infinite amount of books out there with theories I doubt nobody really knows. Trust your gut, go with your instincts.

We have some of the best days and the best adventures when we do trust our guts and go with whatever momentary instincts we feel. I have had some fun as a result. Just imagine we lived every day like that though, it would be a type of carnage for sure. It would certainly be exciting, if not frustrating too. The constant lack of rational actions. But then people seem reasonably irrational in their actions already. Maybe I’m just too rational, think out each situation too much and never trust my gut feeling and which ever flow it could take. Well I trust it today just before we had a goal scored against us. We did go up the other end and get one ourselves so maybe I was right, but also maybe I wasn’t. Really I have no idea. I’m not sure I’m connected along the earths meridian or energy lines to a football game thousand of miles away. Maybe I’ve just watched enough football to know or understand the likely outcomes. Look at me trying to rationally break it down. You see that’s where I go wrong. Got to stop trying to understand things and just go with it. Go with that feeling. It certainly makes life more interesting, maybe I should experiment a little with that for the next few days.

BR#Seven – Waves

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It was only a few days ago that I wrote about the last graphic novel I had read and it appears the theme has very quickly continued. The same night I finished Red Rosa, while looking at others books I stumbled upon a story called Waves about a couple struggling to conceive a baby before losing it when they finally do. It seemed liked an interesting concept for something that is ultimately a comic. It’s a very short novel. I thought I would have a quick look at it before going to work, but had read it before I’d even finished my coffee. It is eighty six pages but this is a graphic novel so that doesn’t really mean anything. Like plays I enjoy the satisfaction of not taking weeks to read something. There is certainly an importance to committing time and effort to a good book of prose but I am prone to getting distracted by other books and wishing I could get stuck into them. I love reading but it can still take discipline. To read this whole story then in twenty minutes was probably a little too quick but then that’s not the point. Time should never be a denominator for appreciation with a book in any form, or at least the appreciation of whether it was worth it.

Waves deals with the trauma of losing a baby and the author at the end explains that the story was based upon her own experiences. Whenever you discover something is based on real events it adds another layer of appreciation for what you have just read. She explained that writing the story was in itself part of the therapy required to process the trauma. She is ordinarily an author of children’s books and this was her first attempt at the graphic novel. I imagine there will be an element of short text and pictures in her children’s books too though. It’s a powerful introduction to the genre to say the least and knowing the emotional importance of what you’re reading, knowing this is someones personal journey; adds an immeasurable value. I have read three graphic novels now and all three seem to be based in different ways around women and femininity. This is entirely accidental but also a theme which I suspect may continue in some form and quite revealing to see that graphic novels are not just story books revolving around superheroes. There’s certainly a lot to be said for language and art being combined as one. When the story and the book itself has an emotive quality it’s not something to be scoffed at.

Another Political Pervert

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

Another day another pervert ousted in politics. Pervert may be a little strong but you shouldn’t try and seduce sixteen year olds when you’re twenty-two let alone when you’re forty-two. Maybe it is because they’re in the public eye so much and that they work in such a sneaky corrupt industry but politicians seem to get caught out in so many sex scandals. I must also commend Boris, or should I say Dominic Cummings, and Rupert Murdoch for such a perfectly executed political assassination. The night before Derek Mackay, the Scottish finance minister, is about to release the budget proposed by the Scottish Government, one already delayed because of shenanigans between the Scottish Parliament and Westminster, the Scottish Sun release their exclusive about him contacting a schoolboy who he thought was “cute” over a six month period. They’ve done him, they’ve taken him out. No matter what moral beliefs you hold on this it is undeniably a work of art. They have sat on this story and waited for the most opportune moment to release it. A future leader of the SNP apparently. Not anymore.

If anything though it does highlight the lack of neutrality in the press and the influence of people like Rupert Murdoch within our political system. This piece though is not going to be about one of my favourite topics; that of a perennially corrupt media. It is more just about being an acknowledgement of what they’ve done and despite the fact I dislike these people immensely it is important to be able to tip your hat to them when you can see how well they’ve played something. Saying that I also don’t have much time for any forty-two year old who harasses school children so morally this one is all over the place.

Politicians are a remarkable people though and it shows the lure of power that despite the obvious dangers to a free and happy life so many get involved in that murky world. These next five years are going to be incredibly interesting for the objective observers, and a mix of great and terrifying for everyone else. For every person who is horrified that Boris is ripping up a centuries old rulebook of tradition there will be another delighted about it. Change needs to happen and with current events in Britain, as well as around the world, this is clearer now more than ever. People are angry and when emotive responses like that are your main driver you are also easy to manipulate. The fear then is that while everything needs a good shake-up, when it’s this mob doing the shaking we perhaps should be a little concerned. And not only that, but while we can tip our hats to their work, never forget that this and worse is exactly what they’re capable of.