After a pause I have resumed writing. I have now attempted to ‘close’ one section (the first part, City Golf Club in the currently first chapter, Writing), i.e., to use one and just one sentence out of each of the currently 31 books in the list (a few more very recent mostly self-published books are waiting to be added to the list, but I don’t like them that much so I am delaying entry).
This turns out to be a new and different way of writing: Using all the books at the same time and writing from the increasingly focused context of just one section causes a much more directed resonance that foregrounds just those sentences that have a potential fit.
Something (some focus, topic, flavour) needs to be in the section already before this way of writing works. But attempting to close a section feels very different from the more aimless browsing and fitting of sentences tom a particular book across the entire text.
If you have no clue what I am talking about here, read About “Killing time”.

The ‘I’ in Killing Time – probably none other than a rambling, resourceful, ineffective, insensitive, forgetful investigative reporter – possibly a reporter dabbling as private eye, lay counsel or spiritual leader, possibly becoming a criminal and con in the course of narration.

While browsing the books and looking out for resonance to select sentences to include, there is a constant tension between wanting to ‘transport’ the source and the thrill of seeing its fragments become something else in the context that slowly builds up. I think it is worth being aware of the aggressive element in the method. Even those books that seem stylistically poor have a life in them that seems to form something akin to a mould, a negative form, an after-image of the author. I feel myself drawn in – today, I read Noel Fellowes‘ account of his fear to be ‘shived’ by the cons in the prison once it would transpire that he was an ex-copper. I felt the fear he describes. I became unable to ‘look out for sentences’ that would fit.
Re-using any such sentence in a new context that goes against the grain of the original context creates a thrill that always also has a whiff of abuse. Sure, one can just assume the air of the cool appropriation artist and point at numerous examples where stuff has been recontextualised (loads of examples can be found in ‘Against Expression‘). Indeed, I believe that all the effort to get clearance for my re-use is probably unnecessary from a legal perspective, considering the remote likelihood of any libel against my recontextualisation. But I realise that I also identify with each of the numerous authors, including authors of those books I don’t enjoy much.

While writing has already started, I have tried to come up with a scheme, a kind of grid of headings, to cover the diverse books – a grid that may well need updating or modification for the non-fiction titles. The idea is to cover all the books used in terms of my personal reading experience, plot, characterisation, tropes, structure, style, language, and reviews by others. I have done this now for the titles by David Wickes and Frank Tallis.

I have already received direct permission from a number of ‘Killing time’ authors. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles had referred me to her publisher, Little, Brown Book Group. They are now the first to respond and officially grant permission:

Little, Brown Book Group have no objection to granting non-exclusive, World English Language print & electronic quotation permission for the use of approx. 100 non-continuous sentences from KILLING TIME by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. (…) We will accept that this falls under the terms of “fair dealing” and we will not charge any permission fee for this use.

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group and of course Cynthia Harrod-Eagles!

Where and how to start, and whether to start before all books are in, whether to start  before permission has been granted, has been on my mind for a while.

I’ll try an as-if start by browsing through one of the books the title of which you will know (the latest to arrive, today, signed by the author, David Wickes, who I suspect is currently still unaware of this project):

• “We are only interested in the last twelve hours or so.” [22-230-1]
• By eight-thirty he had showered  and tucked in a healthy breakfast… [22-116-3]
• “Christ”, said Jack. [22-222-2]
• …, and his artful skills on the connubial couch,… [22-213-13]
• His long hair, full beard, and moustache gave him a new look. [22-213-4]
• In the country the snow was pure white. [22-213-24]

This is not an attempt to put anything in any order – since all these are from the same source, they should not link up anyway (see rules). Having added position mark-up [book no. – page – line] after the sentences, I am a bit worried that it will break up the flow – but I guess later it can be shown and hidden with CSS.

The strange thing, when re-reading these sentences put here apparently in no particular order, is that something gels, regardless – is that down to some common plain tone of the common source, or was I unknowingly picking and ordering sentences in a way that would create a sketch of sorts?

The Wikipedia editor has marched right in and thrown out half of the extra ‘Killing time’ entries I added this afternoon to the ‘Killing time’ disambiguation page as if they did not exist, or did not matter. The rule of disambiguation is likely to be that only those entries shall remain that link to an already existing Wikipedia entry.

Is it really a service to Wikipedia users to spare them the awareness of other books of that title for which no one has yet cared to create an entry?

An entry without a link may spur users to create one. Deletion just serves to maintain the threshold where things only exist when they are in Wikipedia. I do not believe the editor went to the trouble of checking whether the books by, say, David R Dow, Sandy Fawkes, Noel Fellowes or Wade Hemsworth are worthy of coverage in Wikipedia. I am curious if adding an entry with a link yet without target would meet an editor’s inclusion criteria.

I just updated the Wikipedia ‘Killing time’ disambiguation page which under ‘Literature’ had only shown a few of all books with that title. I wonder if some bossy editor will now march in and weed out those entries that he or she thinks are not worthy of remaining in there.

Looking at Wikipedia I realised that I have actually omitted a title, Killing Time, a 2003 novel in the series The Invisible Detective by Justin Richards, probably on the grounds that… I can’t remember – maybe because it is a children’s book? I have ordered it now and will update the list of books.

I had hoped to have traced Paul Melia to Staffordshire University’s art history department (if there is such thing), but enquiries have now written back that they have no such name on the staff list. So I studied the book’s imprint and found that Patricia Prater holds the copyright on the cover illustration. It was then just a matter of seconds to find her web page. It shows paintings done in a very similar style. Luckily, the site has a contact form, which I have just used.

Coming back on the night train from Paris, I was delighted to find that another 11 (!) ‘Killing time’ titles have arrived over Monday and Tuesday, bringing the total number to 16 (of 24 25). I have stacked them all up and made a new photograph. Will delve into a few of them in a minute.

The one book that doesn’t have its author marked on the spine, the title ending rather oddly with a full stop, is a crime novel in the ‘Inspector Abaline’ series by Paul R Melia. Apparently, the book is self-published via lulu.com – it was printed on demand by Amazon in Leipzig, Germany, and it has this strange synthetic feel that such books have. I am not sure whether the author is really identical with the English art historian writing about the likes of David Hockney and Peter Greenaway, as the goodreads site seems to suggest. Could well be a namesake. My permission request mail to the art historian Melia has not had a reply yet.

I have set up this WordPress blog to house the emerging text of ‘Killing time’. Set-up was relatively easy – I have started making some changes to the CSS of the theme. Must work out how to best use WP for this purpose…