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By Mattie Lennon
QUILT, APHANTASIA AND THE MULTITALENTED MAN FROM MOYVANE
The closing of Listowel Writers’ week was too close to the deadline for the May/June Pencilstubs for me to give you much information about that wonderful festival.
Quilt, a novel, by acclaimed writer/ playwright and Listowel native Tony Guerin was launched on May30th. Quilt is set in the fictional village of Kilinver, it is a novel in which stories, feelings and prejudices stretch across several generations. One character is Nell Burrows and her long-standing resentment of poet Pete Crotty. Revenge at its best . . . or worst.
It is published by JM Agency www.jm.agency. The publisher worked through every stage of the journey with the author Tony Guerin, including editorial development, design, production and marketing. One of Listowel’s favourite literary sons and contemporary voices has managed to get inside the head of each one of the characters in this 45 chapter 710 page novel including Nell Burrow’s dog, Blue. Using a type of Kerry Stream of consciousness he successfully passes the result on to the reader. Dublin native and award-winning author Christine Dwyer Hickey describes this treasure as, “‘a melody of varying colours and shades of diamonds, some stitched with threads of gold, others with barbed wire”
Beckett said, “Mr Joyce puts everything in, I leave everything out.” I think Tony Guerin falls somewhere between the two.
What would either or both think of him and what would Omar Khayyam think of Lowry from Kilinver sketching his poetry in English and Irish for adults and for children insides of about seventy Gold Flake boxes, “near enough the full-full-stretch of Rubaiyat . . . in its intricate imagery”?
Quilt, a novel, by acclaimed writer/ playwright and Listowel native Tony Guerin was launched on May30th. Quilt is set in the fictional village of Kilinver, it is a novel in which stories, feelings and prejudices stretch across several generations. One character is Nell Burrows and her long-standing resentment of poet Pete Crotty. Revenge at its best . . . or worst.
It is published by JM Agency www.jm.agency. The publisher worked through every stage of the journey with the author Tony Guerin, including editorial development, design, production and marketing. One of Listowel’s favourite literary sons and contemporary voices has managed to get inside the head of each one of the characters in this 45 chapter 710 page novel including Nell Burrow’s dog, Blue. Using a type of Kerry Stream of consciousness he successfully passes the result on to the reader. Dublin native and award-winning author Christine Dwyer Hickey describes this treasure as, “‘a melody of varying colours and shades of diamonds, some stitched with threads of gold, others with barbed wire”
Beckett said, “Mr Joyce puts everything in, I leave everything out.” I think Tony Guerin falls somewhere between the two.
What would either or both think of him and what would Omar Khayyam think of Lowry from Kilinver sketching his poetry in English and Irish for adults and for children insides of about seventy Gold Flake boxes, “near enough the full-full-stretch of Rubaiyat . . . in its intricate imagery”?
Don’t miss Quilt.
A Natural Variation in Some Human Beings.
Imagine you’re hungry and trying spuds with cabbage and bacon in your mind but—surprise!—there’s just a void where your imagination should be. There are people who can’t.
I’m sure you have met at least one person who, when told that a nut should be turned anti-clockwise, will put a lot of effort to turn it the opposite way and tighten it further.
Usually it would be pointless to ask such a person to visualise the Sydney Opera House, Mount Brandon or a beautiful blonde beside the Blessington Lakes... Such a person is unable to voluntarily create mental images in their mind’s eye.
Just imagine if you were trying to picture any one of the above in your mind’s eye but—surprise!—there’s just a void where your imagination should be. There are people who can’t because they have a condition- and I have just discovered the word for it,- it’s Aphantasia. It’s a condition where the “mind’s eye” is on permanent vacation. Now, mix that with the famously vivid storytelling tradition of the Irish, and you’re in for a curious clash of cultures.
We, the inhabitants of this green and misty island, are renowned for our ability to paint pictures with words. We don’t just tell you about a sunset; no, we practically make you taste the salty sea breeze and feel the peat smoke in the air. But what if someone with Aphantasia tries to keep up? The Irish storyteller begins, “And the hills were as green as the shamrocks in spring…” Meanwhile, the Aphantasic person sits silently, thinking, “So… green? Like, exactly how green? And what kind of hill are we talking about here?”
In a land where imagining the leprechaun’s pot of gold or the shape of the dancing Riverdance is practically a national sport, Aphantasia is like being asked to describe Dublin’s fair city without ever having seen a map. For the Irish Aphantasic, hearing a poetic description might feel like trying to follow the plot of a soap opera with half the characters missing and the rest speaking in riddles.
On the bright side, the Irish with Aphantasia never have to worry about nightmares of banshees or phantom hounds. The ghost stories are endless, but the images? Utterly blank. It’s like a comforting mental pub where the imagination stays quiet, nursing a pint of reality.
And the good news is that according to the experts this condition is considered a medical one, a disease or disability. We are asked to think of it as a natural variation in some human beings. And we are warned that while, “Mental imagery is a visual form of memory, and memory is of course required in various types of learning. However, what we need to be wary of is the inference that because ability A (creating mental images) can enhance ability B (reading comprehension) then the absence of ability A is likely to lead to the absence of ability B. As we know, this is simply not always the case in learning. For example, reading sheet music might aid your ability to learn to play the piano, however, not being able to read sheet music does not mean you will not be able to learn to play the piano.”
So here’s to the Irish and our remarkable minds—whether we paint vivid mental murals or prefer a blank canvas. After all, sometimes the best stories are the ones we share, not just see.
Sláinte to the imaginations we have, and the ones we don’t!
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THE MULTI-TALENTED MAN FROM MOYVANE.
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Gabriel Book Cover
Did you ever think you would find the work of those eleven literary luminaries from Ireland, Scotland, Hungary and the USA between the covers of the same book? I thought not. Well new you’ll have it. Gabriel Fitzmaurice. The Poet and His Work edited by Jessie Lendennie and published by Salmon was also launched at Listowel Writers’ Week. And the aforementioned eleven, between them, cover every aspect of Gabriel Fitzmaurice who has, among other things, published more than sixty books. His poetry in English and Irish for adults and for children and his translations from the Irish are all covered. Details from Kerry Writers Museum, kerrywritersmuseum@gmail.com
The late Fred John Johnston summed up Gabriel with brevity, “poetry’s answer to John B. Keane.”
See you in August.
The late Fred John Johnston summed up Gabriel with brevity, “poetry’s answer to John B. Keane.”
See you in August.
This issue appears in the ezine in the blog www.pencilstubs.net at Google Blogger with the capability of adding comments at the latter.
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