Corey Mwamba

menu

Regular Marvels

I feel we're in a society where we are consumed by a need for visual/pictorial representation. Film adaptations of books; passing off tl;dr as a form of wit; a "need" for a video to listen to music. The World Wide Web is primarily a text-based medium, and yet we found ways of applying video and pictures to it, to the point where this is seen as essential for any web-site.

As you can guess from this, I don't prioritise pictorial media, although I am very much into typography [which is something I need to sort out for this site—one day] and calligraphy. It may be why I still can't read standard Western music notation fluently. I like words, and love reading. Specifically, I love reading about ideas, and what people think: and I like it best when it's dressed in good writing.

So it's been a joy to read the essays at Francois Matarasso's Regular Marvels, especially the sub-set called Bread And Salt, which deals with the experiences of migrants and diaspora. I found lots of resonances with the two collections I made a few years ago, Popular Delusions and Songs for The New Folk, both of which deal with the issues and feelings around being from somewhere where you are not from. Francois' own experience of this is fascinating; there's a lot to delve into.

comments (0)

Sign in to comment using almost any profile.