Into the Mystic

Into the Mystic is, as I'm sure the sort of cognoscenti who would tune into a website like this would know, a track on Van Morrison's Astral Weeks album. I've never been a great admirer of his music but saw him once without having to pay, which was fine. He's always seemed to me the sort of figure that people who take pop music too seriously like, who value authenticity, or a facsimile of it, rather than admit they like David Cassidy. But as a teenager I had that track on a tape and was used to it. Its title came to mind as I thought about the years ahead, however many of them there may be, with Proust already behind me, Bleak House done, Ulysses begun and a first draft of the project in progress saved in two places for safe-keeping. At this rate, I should have time to achieve quite a lot but once the short list of obvious things is ticked off, it will be into the mystic.

Bleak House was Dickensian and as such was fine. He's a better prose writer than I ever thought and a great cartoonist but the progress made fom that masterpiece, published in 1853, to Ulysses in 1922 is about as astonishing as going from Rock Around the Clock in 1955 to The Faust Tapes in 1973. Neither of which comparison is meant to be to the detriment of the earlier work, but just look how far things moved on in such an apparently short time. I've never been less than thoroughly enamoured of James Joyce and even if his writing is drenched in the morbid, morose atmosphere of Catholicism as much as Dickens is in the dingy streets of London, it is by way of rising above the moribund catechism into art. Both Joyce and Proust make Jews central characters in their major works, too. We will see what we make of that later but, re-reading Ulysses, in the very early stages so far, looks like being another very rewarding part of the process of being retired which is exceeding all expectations so far and long may it continue.

This seeming paradise was only enhanced by the inclusion of a question in the Saturday quiz in The Times about the 1991 film Tous les Matins du Monde with Depardieu pere et fils, a long standing favourite in a genre I have not much to do with, which was crucial to achieving the modest target of 10/20. One of the many reasons why I'll never win a quiz on my own is that I don't know anything about films, or the United States of America, but I knew that one. I had watched the DVD only a couple of nights earlier, which is not a coincidence. Coincidences are mathematically inevitable, as was the 150/1 winner at Royal Ascot this year, if only we'd known. But the film was not as I remembered it. It was more straightforward, seeing it again all these years later after however many times. I had been trying too hard to find more in it that perhaps there's meant to be.

But, augmenting these glory, glory days of having one's life to do what one sees fit with, those who return here (in legions) in the hope of updates on my internet chess career will be thrilled to know the ratings achieved at Lichess reached 1917 for Blitz and 1926 at Rapid (top 10%) and so, not wanting to ruin those, I took to Classical with the 30 minute each time limit. Having W 10, D3, L4, I'm now at 1900 for that and don't want to ruin that, either. My big error was clicking on the wrong time limit and having to defend the 1926 rating at Rapid, failed to extend the winning sequence there to 9 and so I'm back on 1922, only 72 points ahead of the 1850 that I regarded as 'doing very nicely, thank you' only a few weeks ago. It must be something they're putting in the water down here.
But I watched some of Magnus v. Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the 15 minute tournament on Chess24 on Sunday. Before going down 4-2, Nepo produced an extraordinary last ditch blast in game 3 to equalize at 1.5 each, which is only possible in such time limits.
It's this game here,
Nepo-Carlsen Game 3 2/8/2020
This was on the same day that Joe Skipper set a new competition record for 12 hours on a bicycle of 326  miles and one realizes that whatever one did, or does, in whatever sport, it's not quite the same sport as they are involved in. But they are a different breed and it's us that's normal so as long as we enjoy it, we can carry on.