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Conference 2010 |
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The Powys Society Conference 2010 The Conference The Powys Society Annual Conference 2010 The Wessex Hotel, Street, Somerset Friday 20th August to Sunday 22nd August
“GRAIL VISIONS”
This year the conference returns to the West Country, and to Street only two miles from Glastonbury, and suitably concentrates on what for many is John Cowper Powys’s greatest novel, A Glastonbury Romance. Glastonbury is certainly Powys’s most populous work: “Why I have the whole life of a community on my hands; with housewives, lawyers, doctors, chemists, innkeepers, procuresses, clergymen, servants, old-maids, beggars, madmen, children, poets, landowners, labourers, shop-keepers, an anarchist, dogs, cats, fish, and an airplane pilot … There are no less than six major love affairs, one murder, three births, two deaths and one raising from the dead.” Philosophically, the book is equally speculative and wide-ranging, with its own home-made cosmology, the visions (or are they “creative lies”?) of Johnny Geard and Sam Dekker, the sceptical disenchantment of John Crow, and the scientific materialsm of his industrialist cousin Philip. Its conclusion, “Never or Always”, strikes the characteristic Powysian note of ambivalence. I do not know what our speakers will say, but I suspect they will speak from very different points of view. Paul Weston is learned in the Arthurian myths of Glastonbury that Powys drew on deeply for his book, and which inform it, often in veiled ways, at every step. Paul will also lead us on a Saturday afternoon walk up Wirral Hill and to many of the sites made vivid in the imaginative world of the novel. Anthony O’Hear will bring an entirely different philosophical background to the book. Harald Fawkner’s talk on “modes of regeneration” suggests the many ways in which, as John Geard might have said, the imagination “brings new life” to a Terre Gastée – the “wasteland” of desolation that was known to the maediaeval romancers, to T.S. Eliot, and to Powys himself. Eivor Lindstedt, speaking about Myrddin Wyllt in Porius, will take forward the story of Merlin, who is present in symbolic and allegorical form in Glastonbury itself. Other Powyses will also be present: Stephen Powys Marks will talk about Caroline Powys (1738-1817), perhaps an exception among the country-bound Powyses, for when not in London, she longed to be in Bath. She was distantly related to Jane Austen, and her journals, spanning 52 years, provide vivid glimpses of upper class life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Saturday evening entertainment produced by Chris Wilkinson and Louise de Bruin will also provide insight in to the lives of unjustly lesser-known Powyses. Katie (Philippa) Powys, whose novel The Blackthorn Winter was recently republished by the Sundial Press, is increasingly becoming recognised as a writer to rank alongside her more famous brothers. The startling landscapes of Kenya, where the youngest brother Will settled and farmed, inspired Llewelyn Powys to write Ebony and Ivory. John Cowper Powys himself will also live and move and have his being: there will be a chance to see again the Fox Movietone screen test made in 1929, in which John Cowper prepares for his debate with Bertrand Russell, “Is Modern Marriage a Failure?” This extraordinary and arresting film, discovered by Antony Head, was last shown at a society conference more than fifteen years ago. Programme Friday 20th
1600 Arrivals 1730 Informal reception; welcome by Chairman 1830 Dinner 2000 Paul Weston: “A Personal Approach to A Glastonbury Romance”
Saturday 21st
0800 Breakfast 0930 Harald Fawkner: “Modes of Regeneration in A Glastonbury Romance” Eivor Lindstedt: “Myrddin Wyllt in Porius: ‘The Protean Herdsman’" followed by coffee 1115 Stephen Powys Marks “My Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandmother Caroline Powys and Her Journals” 1300 Lunch
Afternoon: a walk up Wirral Hill, guided by Paul Weston
1900 Dinner 2000 Presentation of John Cowper Powys’s 1929 screen test for his debate with Bertrand Russell, “Is Modern Marriage a Failure” Entertainment devised by Chris Wilkinson and Louise de Bruin, “The Untold Privilege: With Will in Africa”, the story, largely recounted in letters of visits made by the Powys sisters to their brother Will in Africa.
Sunday 22nd
0800 Breakfast 0930 Anthony O’Hear: “A Philosophical Interpretation of A Glastonbury Romance” 1100 AGM followed by a Powys Quiz 1300 Lunch 1500 End of conference and departure in afternoon
◊◊◊◊◊ About the Speakers Harald Fawkner has been Professor of English Literature in Stockholm University since the mid 1990's, and is the founder of the department’s Phenomenological Research Unit. He has published books on John Fowles and Shakespeare, as well as The Ecstatic World of John Cowper Powys (1986). A frequent contributor to the society’s conferences, The Powys Review, and The Powys Journal, he spoke most recently at Llangollen in 2007, where his talk on “The Indifference of Nature – Realness in A Glastonbury Romance” showed the increasingly theological direction of his thought. He is currently completing a new book on John Cowper Powys. Harald Fawkner is also a keen gardener and member of The Peony Society. Details of other speakers to follow. ◊◊◊◊◊ The Venue The Wessex Hotel is a 2 star hotel at 15 High Street, Street. It is a relatively modern purpose-built hotel. All rooms are en-suite and have been recently refurbished. They have double-glazed windows, free view television, coffee/tea making facilities and a hairdryer! The hotel has a lift, a residents bar and ample car parking. Our lectures will take place in the Wessex Suite on the ground floor. The bookroom will be on the first floor in the Mendip Suite. Our meals will be taken in the Olive Tree restaurant adjacent to the Wessex Suite. Please return your completed conference registration form as soon as possible. Since this is a new venue and we have only been able to book a definite number of rooms, there will be – unfortunately – a good chance we will have to turn you down if we don’t receive your form by the 15th of May. ◊◊◊◊◊ Contact Our Conference Organisers, Louise de Bruin (01258-817825) and Anna Pawelko (email: anna.pawelko@ntlworld.com), will be happy to answer members' questions.
Above: Conference organisers Anna Pawelko and Louise de Bruin Further details about the venue can be found here: www.wessexhotel.com For anyone wishing to look up the site on multimap, the postcode is BA16 0EF If you are not yet a member you may like to consider joining us. To visit the webpage of last year's Conference (2009) please click here. For an impression of the 2007 Conference, please click here DVDs are available of presentations from previous Powys Society Conferences |
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A GLASTONBURY ROMANCE John Cowper Powys |
A Powys Society Meeting |
PORIUS John Cowper Powys |
SOMERSET ESSAYS Llewelyn Powys |
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