When I started this Substack I regularly included pieces expanded from my ongoing practice of writing to, and thinking with, friends, which is, apart from discussions at the table with food and wine, my favourite mode of meaning-making. It’s time for another recent instalment culled from my trusty ancient Hotmail account, that tireless μεταφορά (removals, transporter, metaphor…) machine.
I have removed anything personal to my correspondent, my friend Nicholas Wilkinson, added links and tidied the grammar somewhat, but as usual, I feel it is better left in its original, rather rambling, epistolary shape. Sometimes I feel like an eccentric gardener in the feral edges of the thought garden others have generously cultivated in the world. So here's me bringing you some wild fruit from the margins. Compost it or make jam as you see fit. It’s that season, after all.
First published here with full transcript, notes and more images, August 21st 2023.
Episode 40 - The Oxford lacuna