Abandon is too dramatic a word

27 Zaři 1990, Čvrtek, Praha

DIARY

Into the office, yet again. This time for a Dictionary meeting. It seems obvious that Manda Burrows will be the most efficient. That Robin (male) Farmer will be jokey and trivial. Ned is a Neanderthal, as I suspected.

Milena was doing her best to waste time although her brutal editing of Ned’s Beverages list – including ‘Fuzzy Navel¹’, a kind of cocktail apparently, might have helped.

Picked up a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order For the Access Professional in LF. ‘Item 5. Avoid meetings and memos. Most meetings are a waste of time… Any meeting longer than 45 minutes begs for a merciful end. Nothing will be said that hasn’t already been said…’ But Item 12 reminds us, ‘Don’t let the bastards wear you down.’

It has been a hard week. It took a lot to get through the last two lessons on Thursday. Only next week left.

No letters. From Martin or Paddy or Mark.

NOTES

I have stopped taking real notice of Prague. One cannot maintain that level of attention for long enough. I always go back to Auden’s phrase ‘love is intensity of attention’².

It might well be argued with The Prague Metro that with the Isherwood side of my method — self-quotation particularly — that I am being presumptuous. This would be a better novel, people could well say, if written twenty years from now. What is my reply? Only that I can’t wait twenty years doing nothing. And if I stop writing the Metro I have nothing to do. Also if it starts to appear bad enough to me I can always stop writing it. (Abandon is too dramatic a word.) Part of what is interesting about the novel is the lack of distance from the material. I think the narrative needs to be stronger in the first section to pull people through the theory. Perhaps excerpt the Literary autobiography, make them a separate first section and put the story, in short, in their place.

1. One of the simplest cocktails to make. Mix 3 ounces peach schnapps with 3 ounces orange juice, freshly squeezed. That’s it.

2. The correct quote is: ‘The first criterion of success in any human activity, the necessary preliminary, whether to scientific discovery or artistic vision, is intensity of attention, or, less pompously, love.’ Early Auden, Later Auden: A Critical Biography, Edward Mendelson, Princeton University Press, 2017, p 364.

I intend to travel

26 Zaři 1990, Středa, Praha

DIARY

Went out to the Press Jazz Club with Tammy Rich. The band was quite good.

Went to Čedok¹ to find out about the prices of tickets. I can get a return train ticket, second class, for 6400 kčs. A single plane ticket is 7530 kčs². But one of the train routes only has one change, at Mainz, so it will be easier than the last trip. Departing at 12:43 pm, arriving at 15.24 pm. I intend to travel around the 20^th of October.

NOTES

The jingle that introduces the World Service news, like variations on Rock-a-bye-baby on the tree top…³

A spraycanned Swastika has appeared on one of the thin metal pillars holding up the arcade section of Roztyly Metro station.

Advertising on the Metro. Quite a while ago ads for Prague CO-OP appeared on the back of the fluorescent tube lighting in Můstek. There are ads for Canon copiers and various computer firms appearing on the side of Metro carriages. I heard what I thought was an ad over the P.A. in Kačerov.

1. Travel agency. Est. 1919, nationalised 1948. Pretty much a monopoly in 1990.

2. Around a month’s wages for young-Toby.

3. The song is ‘Lilliburlero’ — (also spelled Lillibulero, Lilliburlero, or Lilli Burlero) is (I find out) a march composed by Henry Purcell popular in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Is she young, sexy, fun and rich?

25 Zaři 1990, Utery, Praha

Not much time for myself recently. Have done work towards the Dictionary. Writing a Guidelines sheet for the teachers at the weekend. Handed it out at an eleven o’clock meeting today. Milena disorganized. But gave me a letter saying I’ve only earnt Czech crowns with which to buy a ticket. I must find out about Air Fares. I would love to fly home. October can’t be that busy. Milena is going to America to buy Applemacs. We are renting the office next door which has been a sweatshop for the last sixty years. Other projects include — a business dictionary, a tape + book to improve the pronunciation of Czech English teachers, a course to teach them the Angličtina method of teaching. I heard a new English course start yesterday on the radio – “Who is that?” “That is Whitney Houston.” “Is she young, sexy, fun and rich?” “She is young…” Angličtina Pro Vas¹ everywhere. Tapes. Videos. Newspapers. Heard a newspaper seller today saying his publication contained ‘Anti-Bolsheviky humor, Economicky humor, Ecologicky humor, Eroticky humor…’ More porn, Sexbox edition 2, Angličtina Pro Vas, Gyerita Tarto. Martial arts magazines — Warrior.

Favourite pieces of graffiti² —

TRUMAN CAPOTE

HEDGEHOG

WE DID IT

TŘI SESTRI³

SMOKE

SEX, DRUGS AND ROCKIN’ ROLL

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

PEOPLES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

I’ve come up with a solution to deal with my reluctance to write on the large long lines of this dictionary. agh. diary. Split the page into two columns. On the left I’ll put the Diary section, the right the Notes. I’ll see how it works.

1. English for You.

2. At this time, some of the graffiti is still — charmingly — chalked; aerosols only started becoming easily available a few months ago.

3. Three Sisters.

A beggar or a hunger striker

24 Zaři 1990, Ponděli, Praha

You learn something new about Milena every day. Today I learnt she’s been bankrupt twice.

The dictionary is going to have an initial print-run of one hundred thousand. Milena seems fine about me going home for a break.

On my way to the office this morning I saw a man sitting in Muzeum Station with a large board on which, in Czech, was quite a long text. I have no way of telling whether he was a beggar or a hunger striker. There was no hat at his feet and no-one was giving any money that I could see. I had just a few days ago read the Kafka story ‘A Hunger Artist’.¹

Was moved out of my classroom, downstairs into a conference room. At least there was a blackboard.

1. There were hunger strikes around this period. Those for which I can find a record were by Slovak nationalists who wanted their language firmly established as the official language of an independent state. They hated being ruled from Praha by Czechs. They achieved their wish on 1 January 1993. By that time, young-Toby had left Czechoslovakia, as it still was.

I hope to get the dictionary finished in a month

23 Zaři 1990, Neděle, Praha

Dear Mum and Dad,

not much has happened since I phoned. Work on the dictionary is starting slowly. We were meant to have a meeting last Tuesday morning but Milena cancelled it after coming down with a diplomatic illness. I was on my way to this meeting when I saw the preparations, crowd control etc, for the wreath laying on Wenceslas Square. I saw Mrs Thatcher as well as Václav Havel, and Alexandr Dubček. From Wenceslas Square they drove to the Bar Lucerna, one of the arcades off the square, where Havel’s grandfather established a ballroom, bar, restaurant. Mrs Thatcher has disappointed people here by not bringing any financial aid as a gift. However, she solved my visa problems. From October 1^st I will no longer need a visa. On September 30^th my visa runs out. I am getting a work permit in the next couple of weeks.

I hope to get the dictionary finished in a month¹. Then return to England, for a couple of weeks. I will see what Milena offers me next.

I’ve met most of the new teachers, at a party held by one of them. They seem alright.

I received the books. Thankyou very much. They are very welcome. However I have been helping the state library to find a private tutor and one of the librarians² recently told me that the library has received a great many gifts of books from abroad and that I’d be able to get them out before they go on the shelves.

Last week I read ‘Henry VIII’, the only play by Shakespeare I had left to read. I don’t know whether you knew this but Ampthill is mentioned in the play.

Sec. Gen. But, I beseech you, what’s become of Katherine…?

First Gen. That I can tell you too. The Archbishop

Of Canterbury, accompanied with other

Learned and reverend fathers of his order,

Held a late court at Dunstable, six miles off

From Ampthill, where the princess lay; to which

She was often cited by them, but appear’d not…

Hen VIII, IV.i.23-29

Isn’t Dunstable further from Ampthill than six miles?³

Love,

Toby

1. This is bizarre/insane. It would take young-Toby longer than a month to read a dictionary. He begins by compiling a glossary. The USP of the Angličtina Expres Dictionary (which never came into being) was that it would include swearwords and slang.

Being the sole editor of a dictionary is one of the few links that young-Toby has with a writer who will later become one of his favourites, Samuel Johnson. Samuel Johnson took seven years to complete his dictionary, though he had aimed to finish in three.

2. Kateřina Kostárová.

3. It seems Dunstable is 10.46 miles from Ampthill, and a drive down contemporary roads of 12.59 miles.