Mind The Gaps – Phil Smith (Book Review)

One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Phil Smith’s writing is the element of ‘the trickster’ that is ingrained into his work. There is an archness that is quite intoxicating. Indeed this is addressed obliquely in the final chapter which states, ‘It would be a sad irony if you were to take seriously the overarching argument in the text about specificities and Generalities.’

That isn’t to say the book isn’t serious, more that as part of the process of reading, you are forced to make choices and – good Lord! – have ideas of your own. It’s not a book that you can read passively. It’s a book you have to act on. It’s rare that a written work does more than occupy your brain for its mere duration, but I’ve found myself thinking about this a lot.

I suppose that is partly because it aligns with some of the work I’ve been doing of late – gaps, voids, things between – but coming from a very different angle, thankfully.

This is a disection of the grand narratives that people refuse to believe are collapsing around them. Smith implores us to stop looking at the big picture and check the edges of those narratives; to notice the disturbances and how they may be interpreted.

There is a nouveau psychedelic feel here. The text trips from one subject to another with impish glee – imagine if Michel De Montaigne had been around in the ’60’s.

As well as the philosophical musings, there are some fantastic tales, engagingly told, that lighten the density elsewhere. My favourite being the sad, tragic (and oddly hilarious) tale of Donald Crowhurst and the Teignmouth Electron. It reads as if the beginning of H.P. Lovecraft’s nautical tale ‘Dagon’ had been updated.

But there are no unspeakable monsters here, at least not in the Lovecraftian tradition. It’s a true story of madness and hubris. Utterly fascinating. Also, playing to the audience of me, is a chapter about one of my top 10 movies of all time, the sublime, shifting world of ‘Dark City’

It’s taken a while to get round to reading Phil Smith’s ‘Mind the Gaps’ which is odd, as I like his writing a lot. Still, with books of my own to finish writing, any thought of reading for pleasure got pushed to the background.

What is utterly delicious about this book is the lack of definites. There are suggestions, skirting around a subject and engaging with the minutiae of thresholds and gaps and yet is as coherent and complete as it needs to be and a completely satisfying read.

The term ‘If Goblins’ is now seared into my academic lexicon, overtaking ‘Inky Bloaters’ as a definition of the uncertain.

Marvellous stuff.

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