{"id":1998,"date":"2005-02-27T08:18:13","date_gmt":"2005-02-27T08:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2020-09-25T08:39:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-25T07:39:54","slug":"standing-stone-and-talking-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/standing-stone-and-talking-pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing Stone and Talking Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or the View Over Imalogos<\/h4>\n

Recently, I said (quite) a few words as a totally unqualified commentator about the recent cataloging of standing stones in the Neuch\u00e2tel region for a local radio. (No, I don\u2019t know what I said, I never listen to broadcasts, preferring to spare myself the ordeal of hearing what I had to say from the outside as it were.)
\nBelieve it or not, this modest canton has a concentration of menhirs that doesn\u2019t pale in comparison with Brittany or Scotland, making it, along with the exceptional site of La T\u00e8ne, a place worth pausing for a second to admire the view.
\nNot being an archaeologist or a historian, I am blessedly relieved of all responsibility for what I say\u2026<\/p>\n

I do love standing stones. They are stalwart, only great adversity can make them supine, otherwise they sturdily shrug off rainstorms and centuries. Around them time makes eddies and backwaters for drifting leaves like myself to gather in.
\nTo stand near them is to have time wash over you, to pool in your eyes and ears and mind.
\nAnd, no matter where they stand, there is a lovely view, be it in a vale or a thick wood.
\nThe place you see is that place that is always the same\/never the same.<\/p>\n

I love these places-of-the-mind into which you can never physically enter. I have grown accustomed to my statute of forever-foreigner, so much that even now in Canada I am not sure where I stand. When I can stand still, that is\u2026<\/p>\n

I am such a hopeless hiker in time.\u00a0 When alone, I cannot slow down, the urgency of so much to see keeps me breathless. (Isn\u2019t it curious how much your eyes can see and never be full?) When in company, I make everyone miserable by my erratic progress and frequent stops to stare at things incongruous. In museums, I spend more time trying to find everyone else than I do visiting what is on display. (Usually they are in the cafeteria, nursing tepid coffee and impatiently consulting watches.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why menhirs are so useful. They are the \u201cPoint of View\u201d or Lookout\u201d signs that dot life\u2019s scenic routes. \u201cThis is a place of some significance\u201d they declare. \u201cThe view from here, looking out or looking in, is worth stopping for.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this end, I would like to coin a word. No neologism is not going to frighten me, even one mixing (purists quail in horror, but they are always flighty birds) Latin and Greek. My first entry in the Howe\u2019s New English Dictionary (work in progress) is the following:<\/p>\n

IMALOGOS im-\u00e0-lo-gos, n. the meaning of images (L. imago, image. Gr. logos, word).
\nAn imaginary place, where images have meaning. The capacity of images to express meaning.<\/p>\n

The place where images have meaning. On my maps of the mind, if Byzantium is where the all the images are, then when they travel they disembark at Imalogos, like bales of some shimmering fabric or sacks of spices. Or perhaps they wash up on the beaches nearby, to be gathered like bright shells by curious travellers and exchanged in far markets\u2026<\/p>\n

Besides, it sounds rather akin to Imaldris, Galapagos and Celephias, with a hint of Mythago thrown in. Good company to be keeping.<\/p>\n

This spring\u2019s excursions are already spoken for: we\u2019ll be out finding stones to stand beside.
\nOF LORDS AND BRUSHES<\/p>\n

The Canadian documentary is nearly wrapped up. The film has been slowly pared down from 2 hours to the required one-hour format (45minutes in the US, 52 over here, where viewers are deprived of seven whole minutes of advertising per hour\u2026) and will be delivered at the end of the month. Personally, I am in that state of indifferent panic where things like this always place me –\u00a0 the fate of the laid-back control freak.
\nGETTING IN TOUCH<\/p>\n

Just a quick note to say I have finally updated the \u201cCONTACT\u201d section with a brand new (and rather complicated) bit on the postal rates<\/a>. Please read carefully before sending anything.
\nOtherwise, quite a few letters have been returned to me – admittedly, I took so long to reply that people have had time to mowe more than once. Sorry about that.
\nON THE ROAD (AGAIN)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be signing books again at the bookshop La Dam\u2019Oiseau in La Chaux-de-Fonds, on Wednesday March 16th at 4: p.m. There are also quite a few other dates of different sorts lining themselves up; I\u2019ll announce them as they are confirmed.
\nThe event in Bristol has been cancelled, by the way. So much for the song and tap dance routine Alan and I had been working on\u2026
\nON THE SITE (AGAIN)<\/p>\n

Dom and I have been busy, adding new images to the click-to-get-closer function. Other features are in the works, so watch this space.
\nWASHING UP<\/p>\n

Porcelain plates are the best palettes. Somehow, an illustration is like a meal – no matter how good the dessert was, you still have to deal with the dirty dishes\u2026 There are times when I\u2019d prefer to frame the plates rather than the finished illustration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or the View Over Imalogos Recently, I said (quite) a few words as a totally unqualified commentator about the recent cataloging of standing stones in the Neuch\u00e2tel region for a local radio. (No, I don\u2019t know what I said, I never listen to broadcasts, preferring to spare myself the ordeal of hearing what I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[461,486,119,485],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles","tag-lord-of-the-brush","tag-palette","tag-standing-stones","tag-washing-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PY8Y-we","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.john-howe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}