The Monthly Salon: March
Come and say your piece
Hello readers. My next essay has been slightly delayed, not least because I am having trouble getting it exactly right; but it will be with my paid subscribers in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here’s your monthly opportunity to come and open up a conversation about anything you’d like to talk about.
The photo above is of a couple of hares boxing - a very March sight. This tends to happen when female hares get sick of the attentions of over-amorous males. When we moved to our place in Ireland nearly a decade ago, the fields around us were full of hares. Once, we saw three of them just loping up the road past our front door. There are far fewer of them around now, for whatever reason, but when I do see one my heart leaps. They’re magical animals. In the old traditions of Britain the hare is a shapeshifter: certain women can turn into hares at certain times, and if you see one, you don’t cross its path. It’s best to be careful. The hare is as old as the land itself, and it never quite seems as if it is fully of this world.
Anyway. This is your monthly opportunity to talk about anything you like that may have been sparked by my writing and our overall themes, or anything else that takes your fancy. Fire away.
While I’m here, let me say that tickets are still available for my event in Dublin with Martin Shaw and Jonathan Pageau, which is taking place on Sunday 4th June. You can find out more and buy tickets here.
Would love to see you and Mary Harrington do a regular podcast, maybe once a month.
In recent article Mary Harrington referred to Limbic Capitalism. She referenced the historian David Courtwright who states that “limbic capitalism refers to a technologically advanced but socially regressive business system in which global industries, often with the help of complicit governments and criminal organizations, encourage excessive consumption and addiction.” Since hearing this term for the first time, it has stayed with me. I would love to hear the thoughts of other readers.