“I am at the stage now of Paris in 1875" (14th Sept 2006)

“I am at the stage now of Paris in 1875, starting to rebuild itself, glorying in the spectacle of the Garnier Opera opening, a sparkling renaissance is beginning, like the war, siege, and commune never happened, like I had learnt nothing. But what else can you do, you must go on, you must find enjoyment and pleasure; though now it is more realistic, blackened and tempered with sorrow and realisation it is merely consolation.” I had to rebuild myself after the failed relationsip with Black Bob, with Pooky, with Florence. All my books will be seen in a post-Florence yellow light now. A Yellow Claw fog on the Embankment of London. A murderous plot is hatching, Fu Manchu is about to strike again. Once the clocks go back I can indulge myself again. Maybe I could go to Berlin in December! I suppose the main theme of my books is “the simple pleasures are the only realities”.What happened with my paradigm shift was that overnight I simplified my life. Write about what you know. Well, what do I know about? I know about strippers, and I know about scopophilia. I know about the nervousness that almost stops you from breathing, as you near Nuremberg, or walk into the entrance hall, or go up the stairs to a model’s door. Or walk from the 91 bus stop down to the Midnight Bell. I know about watching and watching, and never wanting to actually do anything. I know at first that intrigues the girls, then entices them, then bewilders them, and finally makes them contemptuous and disgusted.
“His pamphlets, articles and letters during his thirty years in London form a coherent commentary on contemporary political affairs in the light of his new method of analysis. They are sharp, lucid, mordant, realistic, astonishingly modern in tone, and aimed deliberately against the prevailing optimistic temper of his time”.