Pages 7-9

So, right before the holidays probably wasn’t a brilliant time to start a Substack. Kind of scrambled to get some things done this week, and being sick most of yesterday also didn’t help. But somehow I found time to finish 3 pages and a couple sketches.

Pages first, sans words (page 8 has no words, so it’s a freebie):

And just a couple sketches this week.

When my son was younger I’d read to him from two books before bed every night. One of his choosing, usually a picture book, and then one of mine to lull him to sleep. I had a handful of favorite authors I usually rotated through for the latter category. Henry James, Wright Morris, Faulkner, Conrad, and a couple others. Books with long rhythmic cadences were best suited for the job. My favorite authors proving to be good strong sedatives for our toddler will never not be funny to my wife.

The book I probably reread the most during that time was Lord Jim. The fact that English was Conrad’s second language, learned as an adult in his 20s, makes his lyrical and startling prose that much more miraculous to me.

“It is when we try to grapple with another man’s intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun. It is as if loneliness were a hard and absolute condition of existence; the envelope of flesh and blood on which our eyes are fixed melts before the outstretched hand, and there remains only the capricious, unconsolable, and elusive spirit that no eye can follow, no hand can grasp.”

There were a lot of nights I kept reading aloud long after my son had gone to sleep. Anyway, Conrad’s birthday is in a few days so he’s this week’s portrait. I told myself I was going to start doing portraits with a looser, less fussy hand, but I guess that starts next week.

For Thanksgiving this year we got a smoked turkey from a barbecue place here in town. It was wonderful, and the pup has since made a new bed of the box we brought it home in. I didn’t mean to make her so plump and juicy looking. In my defense I was thinking of turkey the whole time.

And another sketch from the kid. I’m told this is inspired by a play he’s writing. It’s about a Frenchman and an Italian who try to kill each other. Maybe I’ll make him read Conrad’s The Duel, or just watch the film with Harvey Keitel. I think the one on the left looks a little like Harvey.

As always, for any who are tempted to become paid subscribers, you’ll find the full new pages with words below. Thanks for having a look!