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  • Just for Jolly

    Dear all,

    I've turned out a bit of loose, associative prose that may or may not be the start of something more substantial. Would be very curious to hear what anyone thinks.

    Cheers!
    Harry


    At The Gate

    7.30 p.m., Monday February 25, 1957. St. John’s Hospital, Chelmsford, Essex

    An old woman stands in the rain. At the gate. In the rain. At the gate in the rain. Gate to the hospital. Decaying Victorian redbrick splendour. Former workhouse. Dressing station. Barracks. Warehouse barracks infirmary workhouse dosshouse workhouse casual ward maternity ward mental ward head case mental home whorehouse asylum infirmary whorehouse

    Mortuary

    NO

    Not yet

    It’s chucking it down. Bleak, forbidding redbrick walls, getting sodden in the rain. Stain spreading slowly down. Red brick, darkening. Neglected. Saggy guttering. Wind shudders the skinny trees. Hammering on the windows. Cats and dogs. Raindrops, drip drip drop. Hair, streaks of black and white plastered to wrinkled forehead. Hooded grey eyes, staring, straight ahead. Dead ahead, staring, straight, into space. Dead. No! Not yet. Staring at the sodden brickwork; darkening, red rotting brickwork. Cracked walls. Quiet wards. Ticking clocks. Sagging beds. Creaking floorboards. Muffled moans. Sleeping sighs.

    Woman just stands, staring, still. Up at the lighted windows. Lights on, flickering, candlelight, nightlight, black night, strip light; lights on, no one home. Left home. Left alone. No home. Broken windows, leaky roof. Peeling walls, bare boards. Empty cupboards, ash-filled hearths. Broken windows. Locked doors. Blocked chimney, cold ash in the grate. Kettle with a melted spout. The Fisherman’s Widow, on the wall. Waiting, in vain. Waiting, in pain. Broken promises. “Whatever shall we do for the rent?” Door locked, key missing. Pull back latch through broken pane, can you reach? Don't cut yourself, there is glass, sharp, shards, stuck in the frame, will cut you, cut you, cut you up, cut you open, slash you up, rip you up, you filthy stinking whore

    "I am down on whores", he said.

    rip out your innerds, chuck your guts over your shoulder, you filthy dirty rotten stinking degraded

    “Unfortunate”, they said.

    What a cruel, stupid waste. Once you were pretty, young, carefree. What a waste. Gone bad, gone wrong. Unfortunate. Gone to the dogs. Gone destitute. “Don’t go wrong and turn out like I have”, she said. Just twenty-five. She said. “What chance do you have?”, she said. A makeshift cradle to a pauper’s grave.

    The old woman stands at the gate in the rain. Sodden headscarf knotted tight. Crimson scarf. Darkening. Knotted at the throat. Tight. Tighter. Darkening. Wet. Too tight. Cutting in. Checked silk neckerchief “knot pulled tight and around to the left-hand side, the lower edge frayed as if by a sharp blade. Not so long, but very sharp. Such as a slaughter man

    butcher boot-maker hairdresser porter plasterer cabman carman cat's meat man

    might use, but well ground down. Possibly jerked by the assailant from behind; a sudden assault giving no opportunity to cry out. No signs of medical skill are evidenced in this instance …”, they said.

    "I ain't a doctor
    I ain't a Yid
    Nor yet a foreign skipper"
    he said.

    Standing, speechless, by the hospital gate in the rain. Big, fat, splashy raindrops. Teasing. Laughing. Look at her, standing there. At the gate. In the rain. Old woman. Scarf cutting into her neck. Checked scarf. Red neckerchief. Choking. Turning red. Raindrops, drip drip drop, along the bridge and off the end of her nose. Bignose. Hooknose. Roman nose. Caesar. Caesarean

    NO

    Not that

    “There were no injuries about the body until just about the lower part of the abdomen. Two or three inches from the left side was a wound running in a jagged manner. The wound was a very deep one and the tissues were cut through. There were several incisions running obliquely across the abdomen. There were three or four similar cuts running downwards, on the right side, all of which had been caused by a knife which had been used violently and downwards. The cuts must have been caused by a long-bladed knife, such as a surgeon

    sailor master tailor saddler scavelman sumpter gaoler stringer stripper Jewish tailor

    might use. Moderately sharp, and used with great violence”, they said.

    Big nose, big hooked nose. Jewish nose. They're everywhere.

    "The Juwes are the Men that will Not be Blamed for Nothing"
    it said, on the doorjamb, in a round schoolboy hand.

    “My name is Nothing”, she said, as she went out into the night.

    “Good night, old ****!” she cheerily waved, staggering off towards her grave.

    Standing at the gate in the rain. Jerking forwards now, knee up knee down, with the air of an automaton – a broken puppet, stings about to snap, doesn’t realise the puppet master is long gone – she hobbles through the rain; through the gate in the rain, towards the sodden red Victorian brick, inside, into the warm, back inside, a friendly, tired voice says “come on in love, you’ll catch your death, it’s warm and safe indoors …”

    “You will be comfortable”, she said.

    Then she starts walking, through the gate in the rain, jerky, like an old wooden doll, through the hospital gate, and in through the big glass doors, swing doors, red light of the winter sunset falling in horizontally with her, throwing a swathe of luminescent scarlet across the blue and white tiles, mosaic of a woman’s head; caring, haloed, saintly, Holy Mary, Save Our Souls, we are all poor sinners here. Then a friendly voice: “Hello love, can I help you? What’s up love? Come inside, we’ll look after you.”

    “You will be alright for what I have told you”, he said.

    He said,
    "I ain’t a doctor
    I ain’t a Yid
    Nor yet a foreign skipper

    Merely your light-hearted friend
    Yours sincerely,
    Jack the Ripper"
    Last edited by Harry the Hawker; 10-28-2012, 01:20 PM.
    aye aye! keep yer 'and on yer pfennig!

  • #2
    Harry - I couldn't really begin to express how much I loved this...

    I confess that I didn't ever appreciate this style of writing before, and so I started off scanning the first phrases with a rather cynical eye....and then I had to stop dead. Went back and read the lot through fast just letting go...

    I'm a very visual person, and this is just such an immediately visual piece that I could 'see' all the images clearly in sharp focus nightmare.

    For better (or worse) I'm soaked through and massaging my neck for comfort, and sitting in the light close to the fire, and I really don't want to go back out
    tonight.

    What do you intend to do with this ? Do you have any finished work that I can read ?
    http://youtu.be/GcBr3rosvNQ

    Comment


    • #3
      Wow, thanks for the response Ruby, I really wasn't expecting anyone to be so positive! I really didn't know whether it would 'work' for someone else, so you've really made my day
      I have written a few little bits & pieces, but nothing that's really a finished article I'm afraid. My idea for this is to try & turn it into a novel, not all in this style, that switches between 1888, the 1950s, the 1970s and today, set in London and revolving around three characters who may or may not have some connection to the Ripper case. Thanks to your encouragement, I'll put up some more as and when I am happy with it. Many thanks again for your kind words!

      Harry

      (I just realised the two last paragraphs repeat one another, I've fixed it.)
      Last edited by Harry the Hawker; 10-28-2012, 04:54 PM.
      aye aye! keep yer 'and on yer pfennig!

      Comment


      • #4
        My idea for this is to try & turn it into a novel, not all in this style, that switches between 1888, the 1950s, the 1970s and today, set in London and revolving around three characters who may or may not have some connection to the Ripper case.
        Now you have frightened me !!

        I think that one thing that's good about it is its immediacy. It's very concise, and speaks for all the victims (at least the canonicals). It is quite dream like (I said nightmarish) in the way that it's got a big image and then keeps focussing down on repetetive details that are very real.

        I don't know if you should touch it much. Write the novel by all means, but don't chuck that out...I think that sometimes the best things are those that come straight out, without any artifice or agonizing, because they are unselfconcious, and speak directly to other people.

        I certainly want to read more though...
        http://youtu.be/GcBr3rosvNQ

        Comment


        • #5
          I just went back and read your piece on Annie...I love all the reds...do you paint ? You obviously are also very visual, and have a great deal of empathy with the people you write about...
          http://youtu.be/GcBr3rosvNQ

          Comment


          • #6
            I just reread this piece again...were you an Ian Dury fan ?

            ( "white face, black shirt
            white socks, black shoes
            black hair, white strap
            bled white, dyed black")

            and "What a waste"

            I said that I'd never liked that style, but actually I must have, all along.
            http://youtu.be/GcBr3rosvNQ

            Comment


            • #7
              Actually, I never realised there were Ian Dury references in there. But it's quite possible my subconscious slipped them in for me - the first record I ever bought was 'Hit Me With Your Rythmn Stick' and I am still a big fan.
              I've had the odd go at painting, a good friend of mine is a painter, but I don't think I've got much talent. But I am certainly very visually oriented, to the extent that I have to try when writing not to get lost in reams of visual description at the cost of everything else.
              Thanks again for the encouragement
              aye aye! keep yer 'and on yer pfennig!

              Comment


              • #8
                I have to try when writing not to get lost in reams of visual description at the cost of everything else.
                What do you come out with when you don't restrain those " reams of visual description" ?

                I'd love to read that...

                I'd really love to read other things...could you pm me them ? (if you want to, that is..)
                http://youtu.be/GcBr3rosvNQ

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Harry the Hawker View Post
                  Dear all,

                  I've turned out a bit of loose, associative prose that may or may not be the start of something more substantial. Would be very curious to hear what anyone thinks.

                  Cheers!
                  Harry
                  Hi, Harry,
                  This is wonderful. You really have quite a knack.

                  Your other postings are good too. Very engrossing, but I like this one the best of all.

                  I encourage you to "go for it"!

                  Oh, and of course your work echoes other works that have influenced you. Don't worry about it when you're writing, but when you finish, go back and try to recognize if any is too close, then re-write that part.

                  Very, very nice.

                  curious

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    It's a fascinating piece Harry...I love it...it draws me in and make me want to know more...

                    But as Lesley implies, it's a delicate balance...continue and make it too obvious too soon and the whole thing falls like a stone...the puzzle needs to continue (or there needs to be a good twist!) for a while...

                    I'm genuinely on tenterhooks about where you're going next...

                    All the best

                    Dave

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Thanks

                      for the compliments! Keeping it interesting without giving too much away is indeed a tricky busines; there is more but I'm not happy with it yet. And I'm suffering from the perennial problem of trying to find time to write among the myriad other commitments. But you've really encouraged me to stick at it, many thanks again! I'll will post some more soon.

                      Harry
                      Last edited by Harry the Hawker; 10-30-2012, 08:25 AM.
                      aye aye! keep yer 'and on yer pfennig!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        [QUOTE=Harry the Hawker;244211]Dear all,

                        I've turned out a bit of loose, associative prose that may or may not be the start of something more substantial. Would be very curious to hear what anyone thinks.

                        Hi Harry

                        I like this - it reminds me of the sort of fleeting glimpses you get in films like Cloverfield. It's very cinematic, and the 'pictures' of telling little details remind me of the best graphic novels.

                        You might like to see if you can improve it by cutting out anything that reads like a cliché - 'Victorian...splendour' would be an example. I've now published 26 books, and one of my revision routines is to go through and cut clichés: sometimes, turning them into something unexpected can come over as really sparky.

                        I've got some tips for writers on my webpage: http://tinyurl.com/lpdirect.

                        SW

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          [QUOTE=Harry the Hawker;244211]Dear all,

                          I've turned out a bit of loose, associative prose that may or may not be the start of something more substantial. Would be very curious to hear what anyone thinks.

                          Just a thought - have you read The Magnetic Fields (surreal free-associative prose from Andre Breton - strange stuff!)

                          SW

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            [QUOTE=Simon Webb;244800]
                            Originally posted by Harry the Hawker View Post
                            Dear all,

                            I've turned out a bit of loose, associative prose that may or may not be the start of something more substantial. Would be very curious to hear what anyone thinks.

                            Just a thought - have you read The Magnetic Fields (surreal free-associative prose from Andre Breton - strange stuff!)

                            SW
                            Thanks very much for the advice, Simon. Exactly the kind of pointers I need. I haven't read The Magnetic Fields, but will certainly put it on my list. Inspirations specifically for this were Stewart Home and particularly David Peace; I hope it doesn't come across as too derivative of them. I've tried to be less unremittingly bleak than Peace, and a little more comprehensible/accessible than Home. Very good tip about cliches, much appreciated!

                            Regards,
                            Harry
                            Last edited by Harry the Hawker; 11-01-2012, 02:17 PM.
                            aye aye! keep yer 'and on yer pfennig!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              [QUOTE=Harry the Hawker;244801]
                              Originally posted by Simon Webb View Post

                              Thanks very much for the advice, Simon. Exactly the kind of pointers I need. I haven't read The Magnetic Fields, but will certainly put it on my list. Inspirations specifically for this were Stewart Home and particularly David Peace; I hope it doesn't come across as too derivative of them. I've tried to be less unremittingly bleak than Peace, and a little more comprehensible/accessible than Home. Very good tip about cliches, much appreciated!

                              Regards,
                              Harry
                              It's a pleasure. This is the kind of critical exchange that leads to good work & isn't destructive!

                              It strikes me that sections in the style of your piece could come from the mind of the Ripper, or somebody with a strange view of the world, in the context of a longer piece where they're contrasted with a more conventional narrative - the reader would have to decide which was more true - you can never whose viewpoint is truest - that's post-modernism.

                              SW

                              Comment

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