Thank you to the sixty or so of you paid subscribers who joined live on Zoom last night to listen in on what proved to be a fascinating conversation with
about taking beauty seriously.Between us, we were able to sketch out a story of how the richest, longest-lived societies the world has ever seen could also be strangely lacking in beauty, meaning and skill, in ways that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors. More importantly, I think, guided by Caro’s example, we landed on a way of telling this story that won’t allow us to get trapped in melancholy – because there is just so much left that we can do, starting from where we find ourselves.
The first forty minutes of the recording is free to everyone – but things moved to another level in the discussion that followed, where
and were among those leading us into themes including:The difference between learning horticulture and learning computing.
What we do with the experience of beauty, the way it seems to call for a response.
The role of magic and animism in ways of living that are woven through with beauty and meaning.
The relationship between “art” and “craft”.
And whether you could still have that feeling of something “coming through” from somewhere else, if you’d been making the same kind of pots for thirty years.
To watch the full recording, you’ll need a paid subscription to Writing Home – which is also your ticket to join us live for the second in this season of “overheard conversations” when I’ll be talking to Michael Reynolds of Roimata Food Commons in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. That session will be at 8pm CET on Sunday 24 March.
Shownotes
Follow
’s work by subscribing to and find details of her book, Found and Ground: A practical guide to making your own foraged paints, on her website.Theresa Emmerich Kamper is the experimental archaeologist who Caro brought to Östervåla last year for a session in Skolunkans, the old shoe shop at a school called HOME.
wrote about Viking boats in ‘Notes on Ritual’.David Fleming’s Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It is online here.
Iain McGilchrist’s work on the divided brain is presented in The Mastery and His Emissary and The Matter With Things. Watch Caro’s conversation with Iain here and the story of our trip to visit him on Skye in February 2023 is here.
Here is a taste of the polyphony of Le Mystére des Voix Bulgares.
’s Shop Class as Soulcraft was published on this side of the Atlantic as The Case for Working With Your Hands.The quote I struggle to remember from an early president of the United States is this one from John Adams.
Here’s a taste of Caro’s sojourn in the music world, from the album she made with Rothko.
