Would You Rather be Buried or Curated?

[steepholm]

Via my sister-in-law, here's a picture of my aunt, Ruth Siverns (formerly Bowman), part of a Philip Larkin exhibition currently showing at the University of Hull. It's a nice enough photo, but I'm less enamoured of seeing her next to a large sign reading "Wild Oats", even if that's the name of a poem she co-starred in. It's a pretty reductive way to characterise a seven-year relationship (including a two-year engagement). But then, the twenty-first century is an age of sans-serif soundbites. (Mind you, for future conference organisers I suspect this will be known as the "long twentieth century" - a period that ended when Trump dropped a nuke.)

Comments

[radiantfracture]

That does seem obnoxiously reductive. I guess the title was too much to resist.

It's a cool photo, though. She looks clever and skeptical.

{rf}

[steepholm]

She was a very interesting person.

[cmcmck]

Yer man Larkin has local connections of course!

[steepholm]

Very much so. Ruth was a schoolgirl in Wellington when he was librarian there: it's how they met.

[cmcmck]

He now has his very own window on the pheasant pub in town!

[steepholm]

My goodness! This I hadn't seen - thanks!