A VAST SHADOW HOUSE: DAVID LINDSAY'S VISION - WORLD PREMIERE

My documentary/essay film on David Lindsay, A Vast Shadow House, will receive its world premiere at the Maine International Film Festival on 12th July. The film will screen again the following day. Tickets and more info can be found here.

Admired by the likes of Philip Pullman, Nina Allan, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, Lindsay’s novels explore the theme of a real world, hiding behind the mundane everyday. Influenced by the German Romantics and the fantasies of George Macdonald, Lindsay’s books depict a world of illusion that must be transcended and ultimately escaped from. This essentially gnostic philosophy predates the work of Philip K. Dick, who explored similar themes, by some 30 or 40 years. Lindsay’s later work became more matriarchal, feminist and pagan in its themes, although the vision of the false and true worlds remained.

A Vast Shadow House explores Lindsay’s life and works, the philosophy in his works, the difficulties he had in finding an audience, and his posthumous success. It features interviews with some of Lindsay’s original supporters and champions, including critic and poet J. B. Pick, biographer Bernard Sellin, and critics Harold Bloom and Gary K. Wolfe. Also appearing are Alan Moore (comics writer, novelist, wizard), Brian Stableford (sci-fi author, translator), and Gary Lachman (writer, and, in a previous life, founder member of Blondie – although we didn’t get around to discussing Gary’s musical career in the interview. That will have to wait for my next film…). My filmmaking colleague Louise Milne acts as our guide and interviewer.

More information on Lindsay and his work can be found at Murray Ewing's authoritative Lindsay website, The Violet Apple. (Murray also appears in the film.)

Fish Poetry Prize: Shortlisted

 

My poem "The Troubles" has been shortlisted for the 2022 Fish Poetry Prize, judged by former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

New TV appearance: Cursed Films - Stalker

Cursed Films, season 2, episode 3, on Tarkovsky's Stalker, premiered yesterday on Shudder. The film tells the story of the troubled production of Tarkovsky's legendary 1979 science fiction film, and the myths that have grown up around the film. The episode features a great cast of informants, including the late Tarkovsky scholar Robert Bird, cinematographer Roger Deakins, photographer Arvo Iho (all of whom, at one time or another, I've met - gents all). Oh, and me.

My contribution was shot - after some discussion about where to actually do the interview - in New York State, somewhere in the Sleepy Hollow/Ossinning region. I was actually in Boston at the time, and after deciding against shooting in the UK, I agreed to go down to NYC to meet the guys and do the interview in what I originally thought was going to be somewhere uptown. This meant getting up at 0500, and going down from Cambridge where I was staying in a very nice AirBnB on Prospect Hill in Somerville to get the 0700 MegaBus from South Station. I got into NYC late, due to the bus getting stuck in traffic in the Bronx/Uptown. I met the crew at the Met, and then we then went back uptown - more Manhattan traffic - but carried on into the countryside, where it transpired we had the use of a very nice house somewhere around Sleepy Hollow (as in Legend of...). 

But it was far from a sleepy interview. We were now very behind schedule: not only had I to be back on the 7pm MegaBus back to Boston, but Jay, Brian and the guys had to get to La Guardia to fly to Chicago to interview Robert Bird. The interview was done at breakneck speed, all shot in about 45 minutes or less. And then we ran back to the van, and got on the road again. They dropped me at the Cotton Club, and drove hell for leather to the airport (they made the flight), while I got an Uber downtown to the Madison Square Garden area and got the bus. I remember the air con was broken, and the driver couldn't switch it off. We arrived back at South Station in Boston absolutely frozen. I got the T back to Cambridge, and was in bed around 0200. A 21-hour day.

Anyway, luvvie story aside, it's a great episode, and I recommend it. A pleasure to have been part of such a great project.

Now on Patreon

 

I've decided to launch a Patreon, which can be found here: www.patreon.com/seanmartin. If you're interested in my work and would like to support me, I'd be very grateful. Subscribers can expect patron-only blog posts, videos, drafts of works-in-progress, and probably other things as well (when I have anything else!). I'll try posting every fortnight to start with, and see how we go. I've never done this king of thing before, but I'm hoping that it will be a worthwhile thing to do; it should certainly remind me to keep writing!

This week's update: I am working on updates for A Short History of Disease, which will be published in the spring. I hope to get those done by the end of this week, so that next week I can get on with the next book, which has been on the back burned for far too long.

I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, and let's hope this year is better than the last two...