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Cluster index: Alan Wall

Was Jesus a humourist?

By Alan Wall. ◊ ot a bundle of laughs, the New Testament, let’s be honest. And yet there is a subtle realignment constantly going on, which qualifies the texts for examination as the overall work of a humourist. That humourist is Jesus, and what he is up to is defamiliarizng morality. He cannot see a […]

Ego scriptor.

By ALAN WALL. ◊ ehoshua of Nazareth, renamed by our culture Jesus Christ (a name he would not have answered to), was a contrarian. Whenever he saw a legalistic statement, he tended to reverse it. The last would be first, the poorest (the anawim) were in truth the richest; you know that you must hate […]

from White Ivory, chapters 29 & 30

< chapters 27 & 28 A Fortnightly Serial.By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Twenty-Nine. The Blues in Paris HARLIE TOOK his thesis with him. He would give it to Jennifer with all the corrections when they returned. He was still uneasy writing a thesis about the blues, even though it was effectively finished. He always remembered […]

from White Ivory, chapters 27 & 28

 < chapters 25 & 26    chapters 29 & 30 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Twenty-Seven. Black Dog O THE FATHER of Malcom and Jessica Filey was arrested. Suspicion was lifted from Will’s shoulders. The Inspector had been in no doubt that it wasn’t him anyway. As he told his Sergeant: […]

from White Ivory, chapters 25 & 26

< chapters 23 & 24   chapters 27 & 28 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Twenty-Five. The Dolphin’s Back IS FATHER was in bed sedated, and Charlie was sitting nursing a coffee in his grandfather’s bathroom. The old man seemed to have gone into some sort of trance. Charlie peered through the […]

from White Ivory, chapters 23 & 24

< chapters 21 & 22   chapters 25 & 26 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Twenty-Three. Thesis RUE IVORY for the purist comes only from the tusk of the elephant. It’s a modification of dentine which in its transverse sections or fractures exhibits striae which proceed though the arc of a circle. […]

Imaginator.

By ALAN WALL. ◊ he word has not survived, except in the far reaches of rock music, and some off-beat business ventures. Imaginator. One who makes it all up. The word became entangled in the seventeenth century with the Docetists, which might have led to it being treated warily. The Docetists believed that Jesus was […]

from White Ivory, chapters 21 & 22

< chapters 19 & 20   chapters 23 & 24 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Twenty-One. Old Friends HARLIE HAD BEEN working hard on his thesis when the call came.  ‘Come on Charlie. Two slots on a CD, it’s all set up. You can do Whiskey Straight and Sitting On Top Of […]

Tragedy: The modern heist.

By Alan Wall.  •  The Tragic Dilemma he gods still lurk in the background of modern tragedy. Characters cock one ear to see if they can make out the congratulation or tears from afar. But they hear nothing, or perhaps they hear the distant sound of laughter. It is not a cheering sound. It is […]

from White Ivory, chapters 19 & 20

< chapters 17 & 18         chapters 21 & 22 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Nineteen. Vale of Llangollen T THE BEGINNING of the Apology, Socrates asks that his judges look upon him as a stranger. He might have said, as William Blake was to put it a few […]

from White Ivory, chapters 17 & 18

< chapters 15 & 16     chapters 19 & 20 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Seventeen. The Return ill gave Paul Quinto his drink and sat down on the sofa opposite him. Paul stared at him in silence for minutes, not touching the drink, and Will finally couldn’t take it […]

from White Ivory, chapters 15 & 16

< chapters 13 & 14      chapters 17 & 18 > A Fortnightly Serial. By ALAN WALL. • Chapter Fifteen. Absent Voices, Absent Faces ILL GOT BACK to his flat in Oswestry that Friday to find the light on his answering machine flashing. ‘It’s Paul.’ He dialled 1471 and for the first time was […]

from White Ivory, chapters 13 & 14

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from White Ivory, chapters 11 & 12

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from White Ivory, chapters 9 & 10

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