SuchFriends Blog
'…and say my glory was I had such friends.' — WB Yeats‘Such Friends’: A Journey
For my last module in the National Academy of Writing [NAW] graduate diploma that I am finishing at Birmingham City University, we were required to write a ‘creative response’ to W G Sebald’s interesting book [Fiction? Non-fiction? Memoir? You decide!] The Rings of Saturn.
As Sebald described his walk down the eastern coast of England, making connections to historical events along the way, it was easy for me to write about my own journey to the places [and, in a few instances, people] which intersect with ‘my’ writers, ‘such friends.’ As Sebald did, I have included photos.
For the purposes of this website, I have posted each of the vignettes separately, so you can choose a place and time and see what they were doing–and what I was doing. The links are below.
I hope you enjoy reading them. I’d love to know what you think. Leave a comment or e-mail me directly at kaydee@gypsyteacher.com.
Bloomsbury, London, October 2006 and 1907
Left Bank, Paris, July 2005 and 1910
Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 27th December, 2004 and 1904
Algonquin Hotel, Mid-town Manhattan, August 1996 and 1919
The West of Ireland, Sussex, and Paris, April-May, 1993 and 1925
3 Comments»
Kathleen Dixon Donnelly wrote @
Thank you! I’m so thrilled you left it and read a comment.
I had visited Yeats’ grave under great Ben Bulben’s head before I even knew who he was. There is a theory, however, that it’s not even him in there…
Looking forward to reading yours and the others.
kate m wrote @
Hello,
it was very interesting to see what you did with this assignment – quite a different approach from the one I took (mine will be uploaded at some point but is not as ready for public consumption as I’d like).
The idea of connecting with the past through place is one I think works very well. The other appealing thing about the “journey” structure you’ve adapted from Sebald is the opportunity to think about journeys of one’s own; all my childhood holidays were spent in Ireland (one of which included a visit to Yeats’ grave with my father) so those sections were particularly enjoyable for me.
Kate
[...] sublime concrete 2010 January 18 by kate m My NAW coursemate, Kathleen Donnelly, recently blogged a creative response to Sebald’s Rings of Saturn. The role of place in her piece interested me. By taking several [...]