Penda's Fen

good find. i can’t decide without thinking a bit more whether the use of penda’s fen is wanton or meaningful. the equating of corbyn and penda at the end feels purely to do with the structure of the essay. but i’m not sure it’s completely wrong. at the end after vanquishing a christian “tory” couple, on the side of light and purity, penda tells stephen something like “there you can see the true enemies of england, sick father and mother who would keep us children forever.” boomers v millennials innit.

I am still obsessively postponing my first viewing of the YT rip I downloaded of penda's three years ago (I do this when I expect something to be rly amazing)

It was released on blu-ray last year iirc, so it's not like it's not out there. Recommend seeing it highly. (get the postponing though)

'Highly recommend seeing it' that should say.

Fizzles, I should add that the essay was first spotted by Stevie T!

I think Penda is rather tacked on to what turns out to be a standard political analysis, but as Stevie said, the connection made is reminiscent of our old ilx chum Mr Carmody.

Me on ‘Penda’s Fen’ https://t.co/RDYVAndEJO

— Robert Hanks (@RobertHanks) September 3, 2020

Thanks for this, awesome!

wow i really want to see this now

just the greatest thing

It's the best. And I like how it forever returns and enchants new people, leading to new writings or essays every three or four years. They don't all need to be original or enlightening, it's just so clear that everyone who discovers this for the first time is struck and moved so deeply.

I just got a copy of this on DVD - first DVD I have bought in maybe 5 years! waiting for the right time to watch

slowly working my way through The Changes, which is probably okay as an aperitif

Love this so much.

I should get this on DVD, all I have is a VHS rip from when it was re-broadcast back in 1990.

Rudkin's dramatic work for the stage is often slept on, his plays hardly ever get staged these days but Afore Night Come and The Triumph of Death are both totally seminal works.

The book that occasioned that blog (though the blog hardly refers to it) is here:

http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/of-mud-flame/

Probably of interest to fans of the film, and published by the same press as Mark S's last book.