Puzzles / Amen Corner (running viral day 18)

Puzzles / Amen Corner

Back to the 'tentative d'epuisement d'un lieu bracknellien' survey today, I covered Amen Corner, the part of Bracknell that has the John Nike Centre, Popeswood (neighbourhood), and the 'ski hill'. 

I'm sampling from Perec again today as I try to alternative between running in town itself and those that go significantly out of town limits. We are technically not really in the London suburbs anymore, being more a remnant of the outer edges of Windsor Forest / Great Park, and thus completely surrounded by both forest and that which has been converted to farm land.

The puzzle is, I guess, how all these pieces fit together, and what do they have to do with Coronavirus (if anything)? The shape itself is beginning to resemble the virus, and I want to work on the round exterior shell of Bracknell to firm that impulse up a bit.

Otherwise, the puzzle is how to generate a narrative from this, some kind of meaning in the face of the absurdity that is our present collective existence.  You could do worse I think, in response, and many are.  Quebec has shut its borders to outsiders. Face masks are making a comeback. We are erecting barriers where actually, a lot of handwashing and common sense would do just as well.

I mean, I obviously don't touch anyone when I run. In normal times, I really really don't like touching people. I'm a bit 'Sheldon' (Big Bang Theory in case you've already forgotten) in that regard.  I'm all scratched up and bruised from flinging myself into blackberry brambles as I pass other pedestrians and dog-walkers.

The puzzle is just how to carry on with everyday life in the midst of absurdity, and this is in the nature of the book whose cover image I've reproduced above. We need to be creative in how we deal with the disruptions to everyday life by opening ourselves up, perceptually, to our surroundings, not by closing everything down and erecting barriers. 

Scientifically they don't really work either. From a science perspective, we need massive numbers of surgical strikes using the tools of surveillance and testing. It was good to hear our minister speaking in these terms during last night's Covid19 update. Let's hope they hold the line and make good.

If we can learn anything about holding the line and working out puzzles (and mathematics) it is with Perec, whose creative work inhabits a productive zone at the crossroads of creative and logical thinking, where philosophy of science meets literature and its practical application.