Adriano Bulla's Blog - Posts Tagged "adriano-bulla"

As I promised, here I am to continue our conversation on literature or anything else you wish to discuss.

Ade

Hello,

Long time, I know; I'm not a natural blogger, in fact, I joined Wordpress and never got past uploading my picture on there...

Still, I have to bow to Clive S. Johnson not just for being an outstanding Poet and writer, but for inviting me to join this blog hop . I'll be honest; it took me some time to understand what a blog hop is, and he explains it much better than I could ever do on his blog post>>> , among his many other wonderful posts, which include previews of chapters from the Dicca Series and his beautiful poems...


So, seven things I think readers don't know about me...

1- Have you ever heard of synaesthesia? I'm not talking about the literary device here, but the 'condition', as I think it's defined as, though I feel the two things are connected. Well, if you haven't, I suppose I'm a good person to explain it, because I'm synaesthetic. The word means 'the mixing of the senses', but I prefer the more positive definition as 'the spreading of the senses', though, trust me, it does mix you up! How to explain it? I'll give you the example of the most 'common' (it's a rare condition) type of synaesthesia, the same one I have (some people say suffer from, I'd think I enjoy it...): when I hear a sound, I also see a colour... These colours appear as flashes of light in front of my eyes, there's no way you can get rid of them, and the flashes have many hues in them, they are very detailed indeed. The colours I see depend on the quality of the sounds I hear; the funny thing is that talking to other synaesthetics, we have found that we tend to see the same or similar colours for the same sounds. This has some consequences on my life; for example I get lost all the time... Imagine, you take a walk, see a house as a reference, take a turn, and then look for it again, but the sounds around you have changed... It confuses me so much! My thing is that I love colours, big time, and I use them as references... Not a clever move, but I go round and round in circles a lot. I think it helps me write though; I often describe colours as sounds and sounds as colours, and at a more artistic level, I mix music and paintings, I sort of see them as being very similar. This happens also when I think of words, or write them down.

There are different kinds of synaesthesia and I am not sure if I also have a touch/sight/hearing one, but I know that the very feeling of writing, and this is one of the reasons why I write by hand, gives me very strong sensations.

The last thing I want to say about synaesthesia is that, in my personal experience, synaesthetics recognise each other instantaneously; there aren't many of us at all, but, well, I can't explain how, but we just know we are...

2- I love gardening and plants; I think many of us do, and I've always thought I'd like to be a gardener. There's something wonderfully therapeutic about gardening, there's the fact that you are nurturing another living being, the fact that you have time to meditate and the fact that you are part of a process that does not give you immediate results, you have to wait for them; this for me creates a form of anticipation of joy as well as a delayed happiness, which creates waves back and forth in time... My favourite flowers are orchids; they are incredibly sophisticated and they have a very slow metabolism; they fascinate me so much. And yes... I hug trees and talk to plants...

3- I am obsessed with time. I've never fully worked out what time is; as a child and adolescent, I used to envisage time as a spider in whose web our lives fell. I'm not sure about that now, but I still am engrossed by anything that has to do with time. I don't for a second believe (hyperbole, sorry, let's say I am not convinced) that time is linear and only goes in one direction. Classical perceptions of time used to see it as a helix, though more simplistically it's referred to as circular... I think we Humans are limited in our perception and only see time as a line, but, as Blake said, 'If the doors of perception were cleansed...' (Yes, I love The Doors, as an addendum).

4- I'm not a great fan of Darwin... Apart from having issues with Darwinian Evolution from a scientific point of view, which I won't enter into here, I have huge concerns about the ethical, moral and philosophical consequences of Darwinism... . Darwinian Evolution is based on the survival of the fittest, and this is the point that seems to crumble under scrutiny; the very known history of Mankind has a long span when we were by no means competitive, and there is no reason whatsoever why we should have evolved in that direction, losing quadruped speed for biped, and only later start using hands to gain a competitive advantage. Oddly enough, the 'second generation' of dinosaurs had done the same... But the biggest issue I have with Darwinian Evolution is ethical: all the excuses of the modern world are based on it, Hitler saw the colossal potential of Darwinian Evolution to justify his politics; Capitalism has repackaged and resold the same ideology as Hitler... If you are poor, tough luck, that's what the survival of the fittest is... Not only tough luck, but blame yourself, you are not fit enough. Now, even assuming it worked in nature, aren't we meant to be 'evolved'? There is no social evolution without contemplation and self-correction, yet we still work along an ideology which is bestial in the worst possible sense....

5- I walk for days sometimes... I roam the streets aimlessly, or without a destination, I should say, and I can do it for days on end without stopping. I even rarely eat on those days, I just go round... I do get exhausted and all dirty and sometimes have little accidents along the way (fall into bramble, etc), but I don't really mind. It all started when my best friend and I decided to have a holiday together, an unusual one for most people, I'd think... We left our wallets, keys etc with a friend and went onto the streets of London to sleep rough. It was the summer of 2007, a really disastrous year for both of us; it looked like every single day Fate had a bad surprise for us, and we really could not stand it any more... The time we spent on the streets was, oddly enough, in a way, the most constructive we had that year... Sleeping rough is scary, horrifying: you really never sleep, every little noise makes you shiver, you are targeted by lots of idiots, who, maybe for fun, decide to urinate on you etc. But that's not what scares you... What scares you is that as soon as you let your guard down, you are totally vulnerable to violence, assault, even rape... There were two of us, so we were safer, but... I can still hear the every step approaching and feel the dread of not knowing the person's intention. Then there's the horrible neglect of so many people who literally pretend you don't exist. So many people won't even look at you, let alone speak to you. On the other hand, we met some wonderful people, homeless or those who just pop by with a roll of bread... And you think of how much you chuck in the bin without a second thought every day, how much the supermarkets throw away (may I praise, and call it publicity if you wish, Pret a Manger, who give all the food and drinks they have left over at the end of the day to the poor? A simple, clear and beautiful example...) Now, unfortunately, my best friend is still always with me but not physically, and I don't even try to close my eyes, I just walk. I still talk to people I meet on the way, but, who knows why, I don't sleep on those days...

6- I eat a lot, when I say a lot, I mean an enormous lot on a normal day. I usually go through six full meals a day, but can go much, much further. Then, as I said before, I have whole days when I don't eat. I eat healthy food though, I think I have not been to that famous burger place that I won't mention for at least ten years. That sort of food does not appeal to me... I cook most of my meals as well, storm scratch, I even make my home made bread.

7- My first memory is when I was very, very little; a few months old, I know that because I remember the cot I was in. It's a strange memory though; I've never been able to make much sense of it. I was lying in the cot, and that was clear, when suddenly I was picked up by something strange; it was purple/violet/auburn in colour; it picked me up and I felt myself spinning, with a weird zoom noise, then found myself crying in my partents' room, with my Mum and Dad looking over me. I remember the rooms well, I remember the decor, checked it, it is correct, it's th bit in between that I have never understood: I think I might have fallen asleep and what I remember is the 'shadow of a dream' I had, but have never really worked it out...

Now... The honour of inviting more writers onto this blog hop....

Robert Dunbar, the genius and author of very original and beautiful books such as Willy.

Roger Hardy, whose novel, Flight Into Darkness is not only thrilling, but had elements of prophecy in it.

Christoph Fischer, I've just finished Time to Let Go and loved it.

Lucie Novak, author of A Woman with (no) Strings Attached, and a real Dame.

Mark Nash, the author of 28 Far Cries and lots of flash fiction; like him, I am a supporter of short, non-redundant creative writing.

Vanessa Vanney Thompson; we met virtually and by chance and have ever since grown to know each other: I have the greatest admiration for her, she's one of those catalyst in the world who turn hardship into joy that she shares with the whole world, a bit like the Sun; poet (Words of Expressions on a Page: Poetry Love, writer of fiction, as well as children's books, a real eclectic with her pen and with her heart.

Paul Douglas Lovell, author of Paulyanna International Rent-boy; I feel a great affinity towards him; we both write starting from our own experiences (which match in many ways) and make fiction out of reality...

Kenneth Fore, because in his books, like THE WOLF TATTOO, he uses adventure and his own life experience to talk about the resilience and beauty of the Human Spirit, something we really need to rediscover in our days....

Doris Dawn, author of MATRYOSHKA - Sex in the Golden Age and many other books promoting freedom, for the mind, heart and sexual. Go on Sister!

Catherine Carrigan, a very positive and sunny person (just look at her smile) expert healer, and one of the few people in the New Age forum, author of What Is Healing? Awaken Your Intuitive Power for Health and Happiness and lover of orchids...

Roger Kean author of many graphic novels and historical novels such as A Life Apart and The Complete Chronicle of the Emperors of Rome; Vol. 2, but also a legendary trail blazer in the UK, editor of an iconic LGBT periodical that, unlike others, did not focus on muscles, but on serious issues and culture.

I'd like to invite Brandon Shire, do I need to mention any of his books? Well, The Value of Rain, Listening To Dust and many others... I know he's a busy man though.

Finally, an author who has just had her first novel, Becoming Julie published; an honest and courageous account about transsexualism, a topic that I feel is still very much misunderstood or forgotten; she's not on Goodreads but you can read about her book here>>


Thanks for reading,


Ade