A NILE OF SPHINXES*

Or Pawprints on a Riverbank

Who invented the sphinx? When Prince Thutmose had his dream in the shadow of the Giza Sphinx, it was already so old as to be considered practically ageless. “The sand oppresses me,” said the Sphinx, see how it irks and suffocates me. Free me from its grip and your reign will be long and prosperous.” Or something to that effect. Young Prince Thutmose was dreaming god-king dreams. Or perhaps he was thinking of his legacy. Or, chances are, he was thinking of both, and creating the first legend of the Giza Sphinx in passing.

Thutmose commanded the sand to be cleared from around the statue, built a temple between the outstretched paws, and set a tablet of red granite 14 feet tall, recording the tale.

Seven times the sand was cleared from around the Sphinx, six times it returned. Now it is not sand that surrounds the Sphinx, but drifting crowds of tourists, all come to see what is perhaps the oldest statue on earth.

But if the Giza Sphinx was already old, the very idea of the sphinx was far older, so old as to be forever lost. While the statue at Giza largely defines the Egyptian sphinx for the general public, there are countless others.

THE SPHINX WITH A THOUSAND FACES

Or A Statue in Egypt

Pards, Paranders, Monoceros & Manticores. Charadrius, Cinnomolgus, Amphisbaena, Leucrota & Tragelaphus, and Bonnacons to boot. Medieval bestiaries are rampant with the most extraordinary creatures, but where is the Sphinx? That was the question I imprudently asked myself the other day, resolving (equally imprudently) that I would look up a few things on the subject. I had no idea.

HALF SPEED AHEAD

Or Ce N’est Qu’un Au Revoir

Well, I give up.

PERSPECTIVES

Or Where It’s Really All About One’s Point of View

I think Dover Books must be the publisher the best represented in my library, they do have a habit of publishing all manner of wholly indispensable books on art and history that I simply cannot pass up. So, when asked if I would like to do a foreword for a re-edition of Piranesi’s Prisons, I naturally (and eagerly) agreed. (My own copy of the last Dover edition, which dated from the mid-‘60’s, had long gone the path of books lent and never returned.) Now that the books has come out, here is the preface, with the kind permission of the editors.

DISCURSIVE

Or Thoughts and Words in Some Semblance of Order.
(After a Fashion.)

After having given a couple of evening talks to art and design students recently, I have once again realized how ardently I desire NOT to know what I will say, that the unrehearsed articulation of thoughts and convictions must always remain a quest for the right word, seizing the brief clarity inspired by those same serendipitous combinations.

HEAVEN AND HELL IN A CEDAR TUNNEL

Or A Very Slim Book by Mervyn Peake

At a very trim twenty-two pages, The Craft of the Lead Pencil, by Mervyn Peake, is the briefest of excursions into the well-trodden realm of drawing manuals. *  This said, the modest number of pages is no indication of the keen quality of the book, perhaps one of the best books on drawing ever written by an illustrator. †

TESSERAE

Or a Certain Fragmentation of Thought and Image

I tend to pick up things.

NAPOLEON III, FLUID BEEF, THE HOLLOW EARTH AND BEAGLE FICTION

Or A Certain Concatenation of Concomitance (Or Convolutions of Coincidence, It All Depends)

In 1870, Napoleon III had a problem with Prussia.

A BOOK LONG OVERDUE

JOSÉ SEGRELLES ILUSTRADOR UNIVERSAL

A year ago, we had the pleasure of visiting the José Segrelles Museum in Albaida, near Valencia. Since, I have had the honour and the pleasure of corresponding with the wonderfully enthusiastic people who look after it, so when they asked if I might be willing to write a foreword for a new book of Segrelles’ art, I replied yes the instant I received the e-mail.

PRETTY AS A PICTURE

Or the Capital P on Picturesque

Having always thought that picturesque was just another adjective favoured by my grandmother’s generation, it was with some surprise when the other day I stumbled on Picturesque.

With a capital P.

(Such was my Surprise it deserves a capital S. Just goes to show that while we figuratively tack and veer, each happy captains of our own HMS General Culture bound for far ports of call, thankfully we need not set out to sea in them physically. I for one would have sunk long ago.)

TATTERDEMALION

Or A Few Words on Fantasy and the Fine Art of Unravelling

I’ve often wondered how best to describe what by default must be qualified as an approach or method to fantasy illustration.

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

Or All About Adventitious Roots

Recently did another interview for a web site, where it was question of roots.

SLICING TIME

Or a Certain Dislocation of Perception

Very recently, a correspondant wrote “curious how we partition Time to try to control it…but it just flows on….”

BEST WISHES FOR 2010

Or A Thought or Two for the New Year

After an eventful and really quite busy year, no newsletter for year’s end, just a thought or two.

THE WOOD OF LOST STORIES

ROB HOLDSTOCK, 1948 - 2009

Two weeks ago, Robert Holdstock died from an E. coli infection, in just over ten days. We were following his progress daily, when on the 27th, his condition, which had been improving or optimistically stable, suddenly worsened. He died at 4 a.m. on November 29th. He was 61 years old.

You can easily find all the details of Rob’s career and books on Wikipedia, so I won’t bore you with that here, and homages will abound, as they do, but I’d like to add a few thoughts.

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Welcome to the NEWS section. Newsletters appear, weather permitting, twice a month. Subjects vary, but only according to whim and circumstance. CHRONICLES archives the successive newsletters, OUT & ABOUT announces events and public appearances.

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• A NILE OF SPHINXES*
• THE SPHINX WITH A THOUSAND FACES
• HALF SPEED AHEAD
• PERSPECTIVES
• DISCURSIVE
• HEAVEN AND HELL IN A CEDAR TUNNEL
• TESSERAE
• NAPOLEON III, FLUID BEEF, THE HOLLOW EARTH AND BEAGLE FICTION
• A BOOK LONG OVERDUE
• PRETTY AS A PICTURE
• TATTERDEMALION
• STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
• SLICING TIME
• BEST WISHES FOR 2010
• THE WOOD OF LOST STORIES

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