Episode 534: Minor Roadblock, Now Resolved

Realised that the thesis statement in my introduction wasn't forceful enough. Or to be more precise, the thesis of my essay was defused across so many sentences that I wasn't sure it would be at all clear to anyone reading the introduction what exactly the rest of the essay was going to be about. Have now restructured it, so that the thesis is clearly the final (long) sentence of my opening paragraph. What the essay is about hasn't changed at all, merely that this long sentence now actually touches on all the things I want to deal with. I'll leave it overnight, and if I still like what I read in the morning, I can run with it. Did a bit of secondary reading for 'The Eve Of St. Agnes' before the Francisco Goldman event in the Arts Centre, and I must say, it's gratifying to know that there are plenty of critics out there providing me with quotes that confirm my suspicions about the complexity of this poem's structuring, something which I'd heretofore taken completely for granted on the assumption that anything this long surely must have more to it than meets the eye. Then I found the time to complete a poem inspired by the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, which I thought turned out to be a nifty piece of work. Have perhaps gone a bit heavy with the alliteration, for no reason other than that I could, but I like the twist in my version. The Francisco Goldman event was great by the way. He talked about the experience of writing The Art Of Political Murder, which is really an intriguing book that I'm so tempted to buy, but won't because I have neither cash nor space to spare right now. He also read out an excerpt from his new novel, Say Her Name, inspired by his relationship with his late wife. I thought it was beautiful, kind of reminded me of Kundera in parts.