The Firminist 2

Apologies to regular readers of 19th Hole for my absence over the last few months. This is due mainly to my involvement in several other projects. I intend to get back on track with all things Malc over the next couple of weeks.

The second edition of the Firminist hit the streets in late 2011. The magazine featured the following:

Michael Romer: Malcolm Lowry's Influence on Orcadian Filmmaker Margaret Tait
Colin Dilnot: Postcards from Malc
Julia Courtney: Einstein Asks the Time in Malcolm Lowry's Under The Volcano
Sherrill Grace Remembering David Markson (1927-2010)
Plus the editorial and crossword.

You can obtain copies from the edtitor Mark Goodall:
m.goodall@bradford.ac.uk

Big thanks to Mark, Helen Tookey, Bryan Biggs, Jonny Biggs and Rob carter for another excellent issue!

Writer Jorge Martinez exhibited in Liverpool in 2009

I found this on the Universidad de Playa Ancha website:

23/11/2009

Noted writer and academic of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Playa Ancha, Jorge Martínez García, had the privilege of participating in the exhibition "Under the Volcano"in honor of the centenary of the birth of poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry, an activity which held from September 25 to November 22 The national artist presented "Under the Volcano and other works: graphic interpretations of Malcolm Lowry Literature, "a play, which began in January 2006 - which is based on thirty images that arise as a form of interpretation of the works the poet. This will amount to exponents of Latin American and the United Kingdom to share the admiration for the work of Lowry. After the exposure, the neo-Baroque painter well-developed a series of lectures at universities in Britain and Canada.

You can read a thorough article by the Bluecoat's Artistic Director Bryan Biggs about the exhibition, which was staged to celebrate Malc's centenary, in the first edition of The Firminist magazine.

The Firminist Issue 1

Last Friday's inaugural Lowry Lounge featured the launch of the Firminist magazine. The magazine is published by the University of Bradford in association with The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Editorial

Mischievous world over which merely more subtle lunatics exerted almost supreme hegemony, where neurotic behaviour was the rule, and there was nothing but hypocrisy to answer the flames of evil, which might be the flames of judgement, which were already scorching nearer and nearer…

The above words are the thoughts of William Plantagenet, the protagonist of Malcolm Lowry’s story Lunar Caustic. Lowry began the tale in 1935 after he was interned in Bellevue Hospital, New York following a bout of alcoholic excess – an occurrence he described wryly as a ‘deliberate pilgrimage’. The book was finally published as a novella in the UK in 1963 after, typically, many revisions.

Lowry had a gift for the prophetic. His most famous character Geoffrey Firmin – ‘the Consul’ in his most famous novel, Under the Volcano – stood for the perpetual failure of human beings to achieve wholeness because of desire, fate, weakness and bad luck. Beneath the dense language and layers of symbolism and mysticism in Lowry’s work one can find a profound if unpartisan political message. Plantagenet’s words ring out as a haunting description of our current social, political and environmental malaise.

But ultimately Lowry asked us to accept the fragmentary nature of humankind as somehow ‘normal’, often expressing this through humour. We all experience our own ‘tooloose-Lowrytrek’, but moments of redemptive joy intermittently break out. Lowry left only a small, though vivid, collection of works (stories, novels, poems, songs), but fortunately also a large collection of brilliant letters, which, still echoing out across time and space, remain a source of inspiration and wonder for writers and artists.

The Firminist is an occasional journal devoted to the work of Malcolm Lowry containing essays, reports, graphics – and crosswords. It is of course not intended to supplant the considerable body of research on Lowry already conducted or underway (and we note here especially the work of the Canadian group of Lowry scholars who ran, from 1984 to 2002, The Malcolm Lowry Newsletter/Malcolm Lowry Review), but will, we hope, make a modest contribution to the promotion of Lowry’s work – especially in the UK, the place of his birth and death.

The Firminists
October 2010

Issue 1 Contents

'Tooloose'on the Wirral: A Report of The Voyage Never Ends
The Firminists
Mark Goodall, the leader of the Firminists reveals what a group of Lowry acolytes got up to one Autumnal day last October to celebrate the spirit of Malc on Merseyside.

Drawn Out: The Appearance of Malcolm Lowry in Contemporary Art
Bryan Biggs
Bryan catalogues the art exhibition, which he curated, the centre-piece of last year's Lowry Centenary Festival at the Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Bollocky Bill and Seraphina: Music in Malcolm Lowry's Ultramarine
Colin Dilnot
A snapshot of my on-going research into Lowry's use of music.

The Consul in the Pharmacy: Orphaned Writing, Alcohol, and the Pharmakon-Structure in Under The Volcano
Helen Tookey
Helen's insightful essay throws up some intriguing thoughts on Lowry's "life and death struggle" with language.

In the Footsteps of Lowry in Oaxaca
Alberto Rebello
Alberto takes on a tour of Oaxaca to discover the place where Lowry's demons caught up with him.

Notes on Contributors

Malcolm Lowry Crossword, No 1

For correspondence, advertising, subscriptions, reprints, permissions, or citations, please contact below:

Mark Goodall
Bradford Media School
University of Bradford
Richmond Road
Bradford
West Yorkshire
BD7 1DP

m.goodall@bradford.ac.uk

0044 (0)1274 236071

The Firminist

Mischievous world over which merely more subtle lunatics exerted almost supreme hegemony, where neurotic behaviour was the rule, and there was nothing but hypocrisy to answer the flames of evil, which might be the flames of judgement, which were already scorching nearer and nearer…

The above words are the thoughts of William Plantagenet, the protagonist of Malcolm Lowry’s story Lunar Caustic. Lowry began the tale in 1935 after he was interned in Bellevue Hospital, New York following a bout of alcoholic excess – an occurrence he described wryly as a ‘deliberate pilgrimage’. The book was finally published as a novella in the UK in 1963 after, typically, many revisions.

Lowry had a gift for the prophetic. His most famous character Geoffrey Firmin – ‘the Consul’ in his most famous novel, Under the Volcano – stood for the perpetual failure of human beings to achieve wholeness because of desire, fate, weakness and bad luck. Beneath the dense language and layers of symbolism and mysticism in Lowry’s work one can find a profound if unpartisan political message. Plantagenet’s words ring out as a haunting description of our current social, political and environmental malaise.

But ultimately Lowry asked us to accept the fragmentary nature of humankind as somehow ‘normal’, often expressing this through humour. We all experience our own ‘tooloose-Lowrytrek’, but moments of redemptive joy intermittently break out. Lowry left only a small, though vivid, collection of works (stories, novels, poems, songs), but fortunately also a large collection of brilliant letters, which, still echoing out across time and space, remain a source of inspiration and wonder for writers and artists.

The Firminist is an occasional journal devoted to the work of Malcolm Lowry containing essays, reports, graphics – and crosswords. It is of course not intended to supplant the considerable body of research on Lowry already conducted or underway (and we note here especially the work of the Canadian group of Lowry scholars who ran, from 1984 to 2002, The Malcolm Lowry Newsletter/Malcolm Lowry Review), but will, we hope, make a modest contribution to the promotion of Lowry’s work – especially in the UK, the place of his birth and death.

The Firminists
October 2010

I have contributed an essay to the above on Lowry's use of music in Ultramarine.

Please contact me direct to purchase copies:

colin.dilnot@gmail.com