The remoted edges #5

Like the previous Remote Edges post, I have sought the best photographs from a limited resource. The weather hasn't been all that good over the last two months, so I've only been able to go out on a couple of occasions.

This month, I shall post photographs from the 'entrance' to the woods situated around the place separating Dronfield from Sheffield... I recall that Jenny remarked "I can't believe no one goes there" about Firth Wood... Well, more people go there than the area I'm covering in this and subsequent posts... So it's more of a privilege to see it, then. :)

Walking through here reminds me of my shitty, awful poem 'The Infinite Plain'... Indeed, it was inspired by it.

Finally, here we have the beginning of the woods... We shall go in there in the next Remote Edges post... :)

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I urge people to leave comments on the last State of Mind post.... It would make me very happy - be it positive or negative.

My bedroom walls 2/2

This is part 2 of the previous post. I decided to subdivide this topic into two posts as it would have been a bit too much to have it all in one big post. It would have also been too time consuming... Thanks to Sofia and Ryan for replying instantly to the previous post, too. :)

Unfortunately, the images seem to be a bit too big to be viewed fully. If you click on them, you're linked into the full thing, however.

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This is a photograph my father framed for me of John Coltrane performing live around 1964, I believe, when he was at the peak of his powers. Coltrane is my favourite saxophonists and one of my favourite musicians. This image is astounding in itself even if you know nothing of the artist.

This is a shirt of the national team of Chile. The shirt is from 1998, a glorious era when Chile where doing spectacularly well, with players like Zamorano and Salas. I often wore this shirt while playing football as a young boy. Displaying this shirt on my wall is a reminder of great times, a treasure that ignites nostalgia.

This is a painting by Willem De Kooning. Out of all the abstract expressionism I have come across, he is my favourite. His paintings are like strange landscapes one comes across in dreams - images that don't mesh together in any logical kind of way but are extremely captivating. My parents bought me this as a birthday request, but this is the only painting print of his that's available for sale.

Underneath De Kooning I have a painting by Hiernonymus Bosch. There is so much going on in his paintings; you can look at them for 2o minutes without getting bored, discovering new facets contributing to the whole. He was a surrealist way back in the 16th century, predating the surrealists from subsequent generations by centuries. Bosch opens up the human head and exhibits our interior world. Fascinating.


This is a painting by Don Van Vliet, otherwise known as 'Captain Beefheart'. I got this painting as a birthday gift, and I deeply grateful to my parents for getting it for me. Van Vliet is a truly exceptional person.


Underneath the Van Vliet painting, I have two literary lists. The one on the left is my 'Top 10 Books' list whilst the other one is a record of all the books I read in 2008. I was up to a lot of reading that year. :)

This is an obituary of writer J. G. Ballard. Not only is he one of my favourite writers, but he has been an extremely significant figure in my life. During my psychotic episode, he was the light at the end of the tunnel... I've always felt some sort of 'contact' with him, so the news of his death came as a disappointment to me. I used to have a photograph of him on my wall (where the Godard image is now) and he died on the day I took that image off! I felt obliged to put this obituary on my wall to compensate for that. He also died a day after I finished reading his last novel Kingdom Come.

This is a little bit of art-work my sister did for me as a Christmas present. She researched into Willem De Kooning when she was told that he is one of my favourite artists. My sister is very, very gifted at art and she has done lots of other paintings and drawings which are very impressive.


This is a list of 15 records that I wrote when I was 15 years old and got published in The Wire magazine! The list also has a plug to my website which then displayed my musical recordings. Unsurprisingly, no-one visited the site. :)


Here's a shirt of Fernandez Vial, which I also used to wear to play football with. I explain what Fernandez Vial in my previous blog post.

I usually have nothing on this wall, but it currently has yet another item of Fernandez Vial memorabilia. I'm thinking of putting a more traditional painting on this wall to create an equilibrium with the more modern stuff at the other side of the room - maybe Monet or something, I don't know yet.

My bedroom walls 1/2

This is the first of 2 posts where I am displaying my bedroom walls. I was originally going to display it all in one big post, but I have subdivided it into 2 posts because the photographs totalled up to a number of 25. I shall post the rest of the photographs tomorrow.

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This is what the the walls looks like from afar....


Now, peering in....

This is a photograph of me aged 8 next to my hero Themo Lobos. My father organised a special event where he came over and spoke to the students of my school. And he stayed over at our house for 3 days! Imagine that! He was my hero and I got to know him and he stayed in my room! I'm holding up a copy of Bromisnar de Bagdad, one of the adventures from the Mampato series.


This image is a compendium of Themo Lobos' characters... He gave my family this when we went to visit his house in 1999... The words in the speech bubble read: "Con mis mejores deseos y gran amistad para Richard King y su encantadora familia"... The words in the little rectangle are "Saludos para Simon y Laura!"

I cut this photograph from a newspaper article... It is a photograph of Anna Karina and Jean-Belmondo in Jean-Luc Godard's Un Femme Est Un Femme. Cahiers du Cinema was a publication Godard was a initially a critic for, and it was a centre for the French New Wave.

This is a photograph of one of my favourite writers, Julio Cortázar. He was an iconic writer (and this is an iconic photograph that's usually associated with him) who became one of the main participants of the Latin-American boom that emerged in the early 1960s. His novel Rayuela proved to be a book that opens up many possibilities to a number of readers. His short stories are considered to be amongst the finest in the form and to be put aside Poe and Borges. Next to him is a clown figure one of my cousins gave to me after her visit to Mexico.

Underneath Cortázar is a small wooden ornament I bought in a Cafe in Valparaíso in Chile during my last visit there. It has a small quote from Cortázar's short story La Noche Boca Arriva that reads as "A un metro del techo de roca viva que por momentos se iluminaba con un reflejo de antorcha."


Here is a photograph of Jorge Luis Borges, smiling. Next to him is an extract of his short story El Aleph. In the extract there is a description of a protagonist viewing an object that encapsulates everything on earth - infinity. I believe that Borges is my favourite writer of any sort.


Here I have VINYL of Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. I have reviewed this record previously on my blog and it is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of my favourites. It is very difficult to listen to, but once you penetrate into its topsy-turvy world it is marvelous. Yesterday, my parents had a party to celebrate their 25th anniversary and my mother's 50th birthday party, and one of their friends (who I'd never met before) is a huge Beefheart fan, and he went up to my room where I excitedly showed him my vinyl and he explained that his was worn-out and old. :) Next to Trout is a little replica of Fernandez Vial kit, the football team I supported as a boy. Unfortunately, at the moment they're down in the dumps... They're bottom of the third chilean division. :(


This is a photograph of Igor Stravisnky... I have passionately heard his compositions avidly... He is my second favourite composer (after Bartok :)). He was one of the main figures of the 20th century, and pioneers of modernism of any sort. This photograph is a great representation of his work - the piano looks large and phenomenal!

This is a card of Luis Bunuel's Phantom of Liberty. The card came with a boxset of his I own. The film is rather peculiar, bringing together a number of unrelated vignettes together... Bunuel was an excellent director, and one of the most eccentric characters of the previous century.

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Tomorrow I'll post part 2!

My book collection

From left to right: The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe; El Juguete Rabioso by Roberto Arlt; Los Siete Locos by Roberto Arlt; Los Lanzallamas by Roberto Arlt; Roberto Arlt by Pablo Montanato; The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster; Moon Palace by Paul Auster; The Music of Chance by Paul Auster; The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster; Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster; Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard; The Kindness of Women by J. G. Ballard; Concrete Island by J. G. Ballard; Kingdom Come by J. G. Ballard; Cocaine Nights by J. G Ballard.

The Drowned World by J. G Ballard; War Fever by J. G. Ballard; Vermillion Sands by J. G Ballard; The Unlimited Dream Company by J. G. Ballard; Crash by J. G. Ballard; The Atrocity Exhibition by J. G. Ballard; High-Rise by J. G. Ballard; Running Wild by J. G. Ballard; The Drought by J. G. Ballard; The Complete Short Stories Volume 1 by J. G. Ballard; The Complete Short Stories Volume 2 by J. G. Ballard; Miracles of Life by J. G. Ballard.


J. G Ballard by Andrzej Gasiorek; Lost Illusions by Honore De Balzac; Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille; Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett; Molloy/Malone Dies/The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett; First Love and Other Novellas by Samuel Beckett; Zama by Antonio Di Benedetto; Los Suicidas by Antonio Di Benedetto; Llamadas Telefónicas by Roverto Bolaño; El Gaucho Insufrible by Roberto Bolaño; Los Detectives Salvajes by Roberto Bolaño.

2666 by Roberto Bolaño; El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges; Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges; Antologia Poetica by Jorge Luis Borges; Historia Universal de la Infamia by Jorge Luis Borges; El Libro De Arena by Jorge Luis Borges; Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges; The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury; Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury; A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess; Junky by William Burroughs; Queer by William Burroughs; Naked Lunch by William Burroughs; The Ticket That Exploded by William Burroughs; My Education: A Book of Dreams by William Burroughs; If On A Winter's Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino.

The Plague by Albert Camus; The Fall by Albert Camus; The Outsider by Albert Camus; In Cold Blood by Truman Capote; The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda; Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine; Don Quijote De La Mancha by De Cervantes; The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler; The Selected Works of Joseph Conrad by Joseph Conrad.

Bestiario by Julio Cortázar; Final Del Juego by Julio Cortázar; Las Armas Secretas by Julio Cortázar; Historias de Cronopios y de Famas by Julio Cortázar; Todos Los Fuegos El Fuego by Julio Cortázar; Los Premios by Julio Cortázar; Rayuela by Julio Cortázar; 62: Modelo Para Armar by Julio Cortázar; Blow-Up and Other Stories by Julio Cortázar; The August Sleepwalker by Bei Dao; White Noise by Don DeLillo; Underworld by Don Delillo.


El Mocho by José Donoso; Casa de Campo by José Donoso; El Obsceno Pájaro de la Noche by José Donoso; Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky; Collected Poems by T. S. Eliot; Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner; Light in August by William Faulkner.


As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner; The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner; The Wild Palms by William Faulkner; Museo de da Novela de la Eterna by Macedonio Fernandez; Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert; Querelle of Brest by Jean Genet; The Immoralist Andre Gide; Selected Poems by Allen Ginsberg; Dead Souls by Nikolay Gogol; Lord of the Flies by William Goldling; The Man Within by Graham Greene; The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene.


Catch-22 by Joseph Heller; The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse; The Prodigy by Herman Hesse; Atomised by Michell Houlebecq.

Obras Poeticas en Frances by Vicente Huidobro; Altazor by Vicente Huidobro; The Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley; Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; Dubliners by James Joyce; A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce; Ulysses by James Joyce; The Castle by Franz Kafka; The Trial by Franz Kafka; Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; On the Road by Jack Keroac; The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing; The Habit of Loving by Doris Lessing; Mi Nombre es Malarrosa by Hernan Rivera Letelier.


The Periodic Table by Primo Levi; If This Is A Man/The Truce by Primo Levi; The Wrench by Primo Levi; The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi; Selected Poems by Li Po; La Fiesta Del Chivo by Mario Vargas Llosa; Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann; Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy; No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy; If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor; Cien Años De Soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.


Plexus by Henry Miller; Paradise Lost by John Milton; Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima; Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov; Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov; Ada or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov; The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov; Delta of Venus by Anias Nin; La Vida Breve by Juan Carlos Onetti; Dejemos Hablar Al Viento by Juan Carlos Onetti; Nineteen-Eighty-Four by George Orwell.


Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec; The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; Malcolm by James Purdy; 63: Dream Palace by James Purdy; The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon; Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon; Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan; Blindness by Jose Saramago; Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre; Words by Jean-Paul Sartre.


Waterland by Graham Swift; The Key by Junchiro Tanizaki; A Confedarancy of Dunces by Joseph Kennedy Toole.


Identities by Mathew Mead; Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada by Pablo Neruda; Residencia en la Tierra by Pablo Neruda; Walden by Thoreau; Collected Poems by Sylvia Plath; Forty-Two Tales by Edgar Allan Poe; The House of the Solitary Maggot by James Purdy; Vineland by Thomas Pynchon; Pedro Páramo/El Llano en Llamas by Juan Rulfo; Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut; To the Lighthouse by Viginia Woolf; Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf; The Dream by Emile Zola.