Field Study's Man in E11 insists Iain Sinclair howled at a waning crescent moon somewhere near Tower Hamlets Cemetery.
"What?"
"There, there it is. Can't you hear it?"
I couldn't. "I think you are hearing things," I suggested.
"Yes, yes, a howling!" he insisted.
"No, no - hearing things as in things that do not exist to be heard. Figments. Auditory hallucinations.What is 'an Apache dog' anyway and where or who did you get this idea from?" I demanded, sighing heavily, resigning myself to yet more of our nonsense.
"I've been to see Iain Sinclair. He was part of an event, a panel discussion, The Changing Faces of the East End, organised by Shuffle Festival, at St Clements Hospital (26/2/14) - linked to the redevelopment of the site of St Clement's Hospital for housing by East London Community Land Trust (ELCLT)."
"How many times have I told you not to talk to strange men?!"
"I wasn't alone. The room was full to capacity. As part of the discussion, Iain Sinclair read an extract from a new work (of his) in progress about the railway network and interconnectivity in London. He transported us to Hackney, Morning Lane where 'Tesco Town' and 'Hackney Village' co-exist in some sort of weird watery psychic landscape of 'submerged complicities' which (I think) really require his idiosyncratic (idiosyntactic - boom boom) prose to be revealed, enjoyed, revelled in and un-explained. I think I heard him say he tracked a nearby railway line 'like an apache dog howling'."
"Those sorts of events usually include a Q&A section. Did you ask him if you had heard him correctly and what, if you did, an Apache dog is, and what it sounds like?"
"No I didn't ask him about the howling dog. I think I didn't need to. All through the discussion after his reading I kept seeing and hearing him transform into various howling canine apparitions. It was a very disturbing thing. One moment he would be talking seriously and earnestly about how 'psycho-geography has lost it's boundaries as a term' - the next I'm seeing him as a bizarre feral mongrel incarnation, a lycanthrope tied up outside a supermarket, howling pathetically as if he had been abandoned by his owner."
"I believe we are in the 'waning crescent' lunar phase so your spurious vision of Iain Sinclair as a werewolf/dog is probably infeasible or mistimed. What did you ask him?"
"Yes well er er. I had to ask him a question as a way of trying to snap myself back to hard reality, to displace that lycanthropic vision. So I er er er, I mean I, you know, well I didn't want to ask him a boring question, or a question boringly, but it er just came out that way, if you know what I mean. I asked him what he thinks of architectural obsolescence and the shorter lifespans of contemporary buildings."
I yawned, very loudly. "What did he say?"
"He said it's not a good thing that buildings are not made to last longer and many of the contemporary landmark buildings are just metaphors for money. It was the penultimate question put to him very close to the end of the discussion so my capacity to absorb more of his wisdom was very nearly used up - and there was probably a sense that, given the timing, answers would need to be shorter and less elaborated.
I had considered asking him if he might actually share with us the howl of an 'apache dog'. Iain Sinclair actually baying a waning crescent moon in the ornate surroundings of a room in the John Denham Building of St Clements Hospital, rather than virtually on a railway siding close to a Tesco superstore on Morning Lane, would have been, I mean was, something else. Far out man! A real or fantastic American Smoking Beat Werewolf in London moment; the conjoined spirits of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs moaning, growling and ululating from the throat of that rather ordinary unassuming looking man. I kept that fantasy on a leash until, while walking my beloved bicycle home, I was haunted by flashbacks from 'An American Werewolf in London' - in particular the scenes of carnage around Piccadilly Circus as the hapless werewolf, 'David' went about his killing spree."
I looked at the field student in a way that said he is an idiot. "I think we need to return to 'architectural obsolescence'. What do you know about it? What is the relevance of it to the discussion as a whole i.e. the main themes or issues?"
" I don't know much about it other than what is probably a simplistic myth that buildings today are not made to last much beyond a hundred years - if that - and that this phenomenon is very different to building prior to the modern era.
I asked the question in the context of 'the erasure of place through capital investment', 'the violent fictions' which inform and promote some contemporary redevelopment, the processes by which people are 'exiled', 'expelled' and 'dispossessed' from places, the nature of memory and belonging, and, of course, 'hallucinatory myths'.
"Hallucinatory myths?"
"They came up in the discussion when Iain Sinclair was asked if American Smoke (his recent tome) represented his abandonment of London, as if his 'London' was lost to him. He replied, 'not at all' to the suggestion he had abandoned London, and that American Smoke was a way to create a new mythology to shield against a sense of loss caused by the 'hallucinatory myth' of the Olympics and others - shopping malls, skyscrapers and such like. He recounted being at the Cheltenham Festival with Laura Oldfield Ford and how their rejections of the myths were not well received by some in the audience and that Oldfield Ford was nigh on 'attacked' for her opinions. He concluded, 'London is endless' and there are always ways to resist displacement imposed by grand projects."
"Don't you think it is a bit silly, even crass, to make light of paranoid delusions, mental disturbance and psychosis especially in the context of this event being in what was a psychiatric hospital, work house and infirmary?"
"Well yes, well no. I am currently (sic) just about keeping my head above water, 247 pages Downriver, nearly overwhelmed by Sinclair's flow of 'compulsive' associating and it's mind altering syntax. He said, at the discussion, 'Downriver' is in part an exploration of 'occult forces driving development'. 'Occult forces' is ambiguous territory isn't it? The book is, I think, a poetically turgid, even rabid salivation of connections and anecdotes that sometimes challenge received notions of correctness. All through the discussion, there was a hum, a deep resonance, an 'Om' of a vibration, which common sense might have identified as the PA system or a generator vibrating. It might equally have been the collective minds of the audience tuning in to the impressive cranial dome and 'uber' mind of Iain Sinclair - a process of orgone accumulation or assimilation, perhaps. It was a case of how to filter the associations and make some sense of the collective hallucination - if that is what the redevelopment of the site of St Clement's Hospital can be understood as."
"The redevelopment of the site of St Clement's Hospital can be understood as - a 'collective hallucination'?"
"I wondered if that is what development/redevelopment projects are - mirages - strange glossy hoardings with tongue in cheek renderings of high street - or rather, in mall, - franchises - 'Starbunks', 'Cafe Zero' - oases promising affordability and the comfort of home."
"How very cynical of you. Isn't the St Clements project different in that it is founded upon a community land trust aiming to provide affordable housing in perpetuity? The project is driven by genuine local grass roots community action."
"Isn't some measure of cynicism necessary given the difficulty in discerning violent fact from violent fiction; Boris Johnson commenting in a speech on the 'ruthless way you bend us politicians to your will'; David Cameron commending Grant Schapps for working hand in hand with community land trusts; Nick Clegg applauding 'a great liberal idea of giving government land to communities' - the unwitting, or witless, irony of that statement only made more so, for barely two breaths later Clegg says, (government land) 'being loaned to communities'. Those comments were made in speeches featured in a video telling the story of ELCLT/London Citizens. What happened to government by the people for the people? Wasn't St Clements originally paid for by public subscription?"
"I don't really know what 'public subscription' is or was. Isn't it very condescending to regard such projects as pawns in a party political game?"
"Earlier in the discussion Iain Sinclair concluded his reading, saying 'we are all powerless against the thing'. If Sinclair had tracked 'the thing' around Morning Lane the discussion did not examine 'the thing' much within the context of the St Clement's project - appropriately perhaps given the devious and perfidious dimensions of 'affordability' as a contemporary myth. There was some talk about how people would think and feel about being at home, living on the former site of a workhouse, infirmary and psychiatric hospital. That issue seemed more focused on personal/familial reflection, and the myriad interconnections of more individual narratives and associations that might subvert overarching political ideologies; which when articulated by Sinclair, register (according to Ben Watson) 'psychic truths missed by the mere citation of statistics'* and upset 'common sense assumptions about the place of subjectivities in everyday life.'*"
"So Iain Sinclair was there as an upsetter, finally penetrating the St Clement's Hospital text?"
"He was applauded resoundingly by the audience so I think he probably didn't upset most people there - except me, that is, with his Warren Zevon impressions; an encounter which I'm sure you will tell me, is completely made up, that never actually happened. It all seemed more urbane than urban, with little of the 'spittle bibbed rudeness' of Downriver. He was partly applauded as a writer about London, whose (upsetting?) work resonates further afield than the behemoth of the capital city. I wondered how, at age 70 years and on, he can or will sustain various energies to keep antagonising 'the cultural values of the establishment'*."
* Ben Watson - Iain Sinclair: Revolutionary Novelist or Revolting Nihilist?
"He said it's not a good thing that buildings are not made to last longer and many of the contemporary landmark buildings are just metaphors for money. It was the penultimate question put to him very close to the end of the discussion so my capacity to absorb more of his wisdom was very nearly used up - and there was probably a sense that, given the timing, answers would need to be shorter and less elaborated.
I had considered asking him if he might actually share with us the howl of an 'apache dog'. Iain Sinclair actually baying a waning crescent moon in the ornate surroundings of a room in the John Denham Building of St Clements Hospital, rather than virtually on a railway siding close to a Tesco superstore on Morning Lane, would have been, I mean was, something else. Far out man! A real or fantastic American Smoking Beat Werewolf in London moment; the conjoined spirits of Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs moaning, growling and ululating from the throat of that rather ordinary unassuming looking man. I kept that fantasy on a leash until, while walking my beloved bicycle home, I was haunted by flashbacks from 'An American Werewolf in London' - in particular the scenes of carnage around Piccadilly Circus as the hapless werewolf, 'David' went about his killing spree."
I looked at the field student in a way that said he is an idiot. "I think we need to return to 'architectural obsolescence'. What do you know about it? What is the relevance of it to the discussion as a whole i.e. the main themes or issues?"
" I don't know much about it other than what is probably a simplistic myth that buildings today are not made to last much beyond a hundred years - if that - and that this phenomenon is very different to building prior to the modern era.
I asked the question in the context of 'the erasure of place through capital investment', 'the violent fictions' which inform and promote some contemporary redevelopment, the processes by which people are 'exiled', 'expelled' and 'dispossessed' from places, the nature of memory and belonging, and, of course, 'hallucinatory myths'.
"Hallucinatory myths?"
"They came up in the discussion when Iain Sinclair was asked if American Smoke (his recent tome) represented his abandonment of London, as if his 'London' was lost to him. He replied, 'not at all' to the suggestion he had abandoned London, and that American Smoke was a way to create a new mythology to shield against a sense of loss caused by the 'hallucinatory myth' of the Olympics and others - shopping malls, skyscrapers and such like. He recounted being at the Cheltenham Festival with Laura Oldfield Ford and how their rejections of the myths were not well received by some in the audience and that Oldfield Ford was nigh on 'attacked' for her opinions. He concluded, 'London is endless' and there are always ways to resist displacement imposed by grand projects."
"Don't you think it is a bit silly, even crass, to make light of paranoid delusions, mental disturbance and psychosis especially in the context of this event being in what was a psychiatric hospital, work house and infirmary?"
"Well yes, well no. I am currently (sic) just about keeping my head above water, 247 pages Downriver, nearly overwhelmed by Sinclair's flow of 'compulsive' associating and it's mind altering syntax. He said, at the discussion, 'Downriver' is in part an exploration of 'occult forces driving development'. 'Occult forces' is ambiguous territory isn't it? The book is, I think, a poetically turgid, even rabid salivation of connections and anecdotes that sometimes challenge received notions of correctness. All through the discussion, there was a hum, a deep resonance, an 'Om' of a vibration, which common sense might have identified as the PA system or a generator vibrating. It might equally have been the collective minds of the audience tuning in to the impressive cranial dome and 'uber' mind of Iain Sinclair - a process of orgone accumulation or assimilation, perhaps. It was a case of how to filter the associations and make some sense of the collective hallucination - if that is what the redevelopment of the site of St Clement's Hospital can be understood as."
"The redevelopment of the site of St Clement's Hospital can be understood as - a 'collective hallucination'?"
"I wondered if that is what development/redevelopment projects are - mirages - strange glossy hoardings with tongue in cheek renderings of high street - or rather, in mall, - franchises - 'Starbunks', 'Cafe Zero' - oases promising affordability and the comfort of home."
"How very cynical of you. Isn't the St Clements project different in that it is founded upon a community land trust aiming to provide affordable housing in perpetuity? The project is driven by genuine local grass roots community action."
"Isn't some measure of cynicism necessary given the difficulty in discerning violent fact from violent fiction; Boris Johnson commenting in a speech on the 'ruthless way you bend us politicians to your will'; David Cameron commending Grant Schapps for working hand in hand with community land trusts; Nick Clegg applauding 'a great liberal idea of giving government land to communities' - the unwitting, or witless, irony of that statement only made more so, for barely two breaths later Clegg says, (government land) 'being loaned to communities'. Those comments were made in speeches featured in a video telling the story of ELCLT/London Citizens. What happened to government by the people for the people? Wasn't St Clements originally paid for by public subscription?"
"I don't really know what 'public subscription' is or was. Isn't it very condescending to regard such projects as pawns in a party political game?"
"Earlier in the discussion Iain Sinclair concluded his reading, saying 'we are all powerless against the thing'. If Sinclair had tracked 'the thing' around Morning Lane the discussion did not examine 'the thing' much within the context of the St Clement's project - appropriately perhaps given the devious and perfidious dimensions of 'affordability' as a contemporary myth. There was some talk about how people would think and feel about being at home, living on the former site of a workhouse, infirmary and psychiatric hospital. That issue seemed more focused on personal/familial reflection, and the myriad interconnections of more individual narratives and associations that might subvert overarching political ideologies; which when articulated by Sinclair, register (according to Ben Watson) 'psychic truths missed by the mere citation of statistics'* and upset 'common sense assumptions about the place of subjectivities in everyday life.'*"
"So Iain Sinclair was there as an upsetter, finally penetrating the St Clement's Hospital text?"
"He was applauded resoundingly by the audience so I think he probably didn't upset most people there - except me, that is, with his Warren Zevon impressions; an encounter which I'm sure you will tell me, is completely made up, that never actually happened. It all seemed more urbane than urban, with little of the 'spittle bibbed rudeness' of Downriver. He was partly applauded as a writer about London, whose (upsetting?) work resonates further afield than the behemoth of the capital city. I wondered how, at age 70 years and on, he can or will sustain various energies to keep antagonising 'the cultural values of the establishment'*."
* Ben Watson - Iain Sinclair: Revolutionary Novelist or Revolting Nihilist?
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