abtw777

We often hear the loss of community cited as a symptom of the decay of society under the onslaught of consumer-capitalism. We hear of plans to build towns and cities that try to promote a return to community, with walkable neighbourhoods and local shops. Part of me thinks this is worth a try. One reason is that the support and friendship of neighbours can be a good and healthy thing – especially for those who live alone and for the elderly or infirm. Another reason why compact neighbourhoods can be good is that they can help reduce infrastructure costs and foster a reduction in car use. Right now though, things are heading in the opposite direction. Suburbs are spreading out further and further. Shops and entertainment venues prefer sites where they can capture passing road traffic. City centres are often large transport hubs with corporate headquarters the only folk who can afford the land and rents. The fact that so much stuff can now be delivered to our doors, rather than us...

Enchantment is a word I’ve chosen to use in other pieces of writing to mean something very specific. I don’t mean it in the sense of fantasy – as some kind of magic spell that might occur in a fantasy novel, film or game. I mean enchantment as a particular way of looking at and seeing the everyday world around us and as an ability to see the beauty in our everyday world. I also mean it as a particular kind of pleasure – the ability to find pleasure in our lives just as they are right now, without having to seek too far outside of ourselves. Enchantment, in this sense, is to know ourselves and know our pleasures. Fantasy is to escape the world, enchantment is to embrace the world. But I’m writing this because I recognise that all of the above is problematic. For one thing, perhaps the explanation I’ve given is just difficult for people to follow. (Perhaps you, dear reader, have found it puzzling.) Why not just say beauty or pleasure? The reason I offer is that I’m talking abou...

Wednesday evening. 7.00pm. The class is beginning. Life drawing, it’s called – which is an odd name, when you stop to think about it. As if people aren’t alive unless they’re naked. I am the model. Naked in front of some 50 people. Or I should say, nude. Because it’s really a bit of a performance, and we models put on our nudity as if it were a costume. Whilst being naked can be about being truly ourselves, it can also mean to be exposed, vulnerable and powerless. To be nude, by contrast, can often mean to take control, to command the space and to celebrate the body. Which, after all, is what all this is about – I mean, celebrating the body. Life classes don’t go in for costumes like skimpy underwear or what have you. This is not burlesque. Even slipping off a robe at the start of the class is done with a quick flurry, so it doesn’t seem like striptease! The first few poses are short standing poses. This is where the theatre begins, because if someone is just standing abo...