Social Outcasts

Page 136 'The Road to Wigan Pier'

 

«It was in this way that my thoughts turned towards the English working class. It was the first time that I had ever been really aware of the working class, and to begin with it was only because they supplied an analogy. They were the simbolic victims of injustice, playing the same part in England as the Burmese played in Burma. In Burma the issue had been quite simple. The whites were up and the blacks were down, and therefore as a matter of course one´s sympathy was with the blacks. I know realized that there was no need to go as far as Burma to find tyranny and exploitation.»

 

Sorry for not giving you a background, my dear chum, but without realizing it I´ve reached chapter IX of 'The Road to Wigan Pier' and I think I´ve discovered the pearl of this book, at least until what I´ve read.

 

(This, while apparently there´re already more than 90,000 deaths on each side of the war in Ukraine, and the joys and sorrows only come from the footballers of Qatar, that country that trades with the rights of people based on money. It´s clear that morality is like a seasonal garment: when you´re interested, you wear it; if you´re not interested, don´t use it)

 

Page 137

 

«Therefore my mind turned immediately towards the extreme cases, the social outcasts: tramps, beggars, criminals, prostitutes. These were ‘the lowest of the low’, and these were the people with whom I wanted to get in contact.»

 

In these paragraphs of this chapter we find the germ of Orwell's best-known works: Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

From my Borstal.

LDR

 

Orwell, G.- The Road to Wigan Pier. Collins Classics. London, 2021

 

Door by the River 

Dear Fran,

I would like you not to take what I am going to tell you as something pretentious —you are aware that I hate vain people—, but yesterday, at the inauguration of the La Rinconada painting prize, I had a feeling that I had not had in competitions previous. It was the first time that when entering the exhibition hall I noticed that my work (inspired by one of the American expressionist artist De Kooning) did not clash among the other 13 finalist paintings.

In fact, before proclaiming the two prizes of the night, I was hoping that one of them (of course, the second) would go to me; and even when they announced the name of the second prize, I thought that maybe I could be the first winner!

Door by the River

As far as I know, about 70 works have been submitted to this contest and mine was hanging in the magnificent Sala Maga.

The exhibition will remain there until next November 13. Do you decide to visit it?

Y. a.

Mary

 

Comply or die

 

Orcs only like music from their rifles.

RIP Yuriy Kerpatenko.

 

From my Borstal

LDR

 Seagulls

      What I am going to tell you is possible that someone has already gone ahead of me and written it some time ago.

     Do you know the Van Gogh painting titled Wheat field with crows? Surely you do. Apparently it was, if not the last, one of the artist's last works and where I have always seen a kind of premonition of the end of his life: on a beautiful wheat field (symbol of plenitude and creation), the Dutchman painted a flock of crows (symbol of bad omen) to balance life and death.

     On the death of the author of Sunflowers there has been speculation and will continue to be speculated with various theories. Was it suicide or not? In my opinion I think so and I'm going to tell you why.

     Dear friend, in 1955 Nicolas de Staël died. The suicide put an end to his tormented life and left his work The Concert unfinished. Shortly before, he had painted Seagulls, perhaps following Vincent van Gogh's behavioural guidelines.

     Y. a.

     Mary

 Nicolas de Staël

     Dear Fran,

     Do you know a painter named Nicolas de Staël?

     He was an artist who lived in the first half of the last century and who during his short life was struggling to reconcile classical and figurative painting and modern and abstract painting.

     It turns out that his work has hypnotized me; more than his work, his way of painting. And do you know why? Because I identify with the way of constructing the painting.

     He was a man who never stopped learning from his colleagues, whether they were older or younger than him. He had an insatiable curiosity to know the artistic currents that were in force in the Paris of his time, as well as to scrutinize the canvases that museums hang on their walls. I am about to think that he never managed to consolidate his own style (or that his style was the one that appeared at all times when he stood in front of the canvas), although we are capable of recognizing one of his paintings because in addition to dying very young he got tired very soon of what he was doing and then he changed and looked for another way of expressing what he felt.

     Fran, something like this is what is happening to me right now. If he allowed himself to be influenced by others, I am allowing myself to be influenced by him.

     Y. a.

     Mary

 The trappist   

     Dear Frank,

     this time I have not had any luck. My proposal has not been to the liking of the Carmona jury.

     This year I wanted to risk in one of the most important contests in the country and my work, The trappist, has not been selected to be exhibited during the local festival days of this city.

     When I received the email thanking me for participating in the contest, I was a little disappointed, since I had high hopes that the portrait of Justo Gallego would hang on the old walls of the Town Hall; however, just after a few seconds, two thoughts invaded me. On the one hand, this rejection makes me continue with more conviction along the path I have chosen for painting portraits, and on the other — even more important — my place will have been filled by a young artist who is taking her first steps in this difficult world of Art. In the end, dear friend, how many years of artistic activity (or any other activity) do I have left?

Y. a.

Mary

 You never have to look back 

 

«Thank you very much for your words. Save those beautiful memories you have of my brother because I don´t think you could talk to him. Mike has memories, the problem is that he can hardly ever express what he feels because he can´t find the words; this leads him to become frustrated and remain silent.

Finally, thank you very much for your interest. I´ll tell Gertrude, and you receive my best regards.»

 

This was the terse reply I received from Johnny.

Johnny, Mike´s brother, is four years younger than him and we will have exchanged three or four words in our lifetime and that was fifty years ago.

The message (DM) has put me into a demoralised kind of mood. It´s curious how something like that gets you down. I don´t know if it was a coincidence or what, but at the moment I was reading the DM, a Barber adagio was playing on my stereo, I don´t know which one, but it´s the saddest music I´ve ever heard in my life.

And all for wanting to look back and step on the path — as the song says — that shouldn´t be stepped on again. Because neither Mike nor I are the same dimwit we were when we were just starting out.

From my Borstal.

LDR