Trains

borzoi

Well-known member
i think i copied this from the pynchon sub too.

I can still remember my History professor explaining WWI in terms of the trains. I am no expert at this, but according to what I remember, the trains and the possible use of them as troop transport required that protocols be planned out long in advance. Once the threat of war became imminent, the men were put on the trains. Once the trains were taking men to the front, it was virtually impossible to turn them around. Once there were armies at the front, war could not be avoided. Thus one of WWI's causes is truly mechanical in both cause and effect.
 

luka

Well-known member
pynchon uses trains a lot as a method of imposing order onto the wilderness and merging the mapped representation of something with its actual form. you could say it's the map itself in mason & dixon, the train in against the day, and the v2 rocket in GR. GR also begins with a train ofc.

from against the day:

yes againat the day is the train novel of hes
 

catalog

Well-known member
There's that source direct (?) interview where he talks about jungle as being at the front of the train and you're going back down the carriages grabbing other music as the train propels forward. I'm sure I've not imagined that, someone must've already posted it
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
My Dad was a train freak. Born during the war, loved steam engines, bemoaned the state of rail infrastructure and prices.

One memory of train boredom was being taken to the old breakers yard in Barry (@craner) with my uncles and Dad, looking at rusty trains waiting to be scrapped. We took a football, thank fuck. Have all his train books, vhs and DVD’s, don’t have the heart to give them away. Even a collector would still be a loss.

The train ride from Nottingham to Glasgow is full of views, across the continent even more so. The east coast of the US from Boston southward. Well fuckin Portillo. Yes, trains, quality transport if given the means and funding. An opportunity awaits post-COVID, taking the train round the SE in recent years has been foul.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
 

Leo

Well-known member
Will the Elizabeth line make anyone's life here easier? Seems like it'll be an option from Heathrow.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
Will the Elizabeth line make anyone's life here easier? Seems like it'll be an option from Heathrow.
in theory it will mean i can get from my mum's house to whitechapel in about an hour, which is class. anything in east london is normally such a pain in the arse to get to for me. it's even more of a pain in the arse to get to from the lower east side of course.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Not too long ago I read this book https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/rian-hughes/the-black-locomotive/9781529074420 - it begins by borrowing the plot to Quatermass (and the Pit I think it is) as engineers building Crossrail discover their path blocked by a huge and bizarre object, possibly alien in origin. After that the book mixes in a secret train spotting club, psychogeography and a sinister but surprisingly alien race who sweep all before them as their indomitable belief in their religion is such that it brings about reverse causality and ultimately changes the past so that everyone else has always believed in their god too.

1652930450929.jpeg

The book is beautifully put together and has some fascinating pictures integrated into the text.

fe9d693c-dd7f-4b0a-abfb-379d2847f148.__CR0,1,938,938_PT0_SX300_V1___.jpg

Sadly, overall it's not half as good as it feels it should be for some reason. Additionally and annoyingly it finishes on a huge cliffhanger though and I guess that a sequel will come forth at some point. If it does then I think I will seek it cout and read it as I am sufficiently interested to want to know what happens. And hopefully that will give the author a fair chance to improve the quality and deliver a work that does justice to the ideas contained therein.
 

catalog

Well-known member
I can't find it now but there's an old drum and bass interview with someone like photek, or source direct, but not either of those, maybe it's bad company, can't remember, anyway, skinny white guys who look a bit vampyric, one of em says how it's like they're on the front ofc train, careering into the future and they are going in the back all the time to get soul, disco, hip hop to throw in the burner.
 
Top