Lost Socks

I have a slight concern. Mr Socks has not been in touch with a press release this week. And he did two last week. I am hoping that he is okay, or that the message he left at the end of the last blog about him did not signal a freeze in our relationship.

In my dealings with Mr Socks, I experience the same bisociation that the best theatre can give me. When I read his press releases, I see two Mr Socks at the same time. When I am watching a version of Othello, I get the same feeling.

Buy this at twww.amazon.co.uk

Bisociation is the ability to perceive an object through two competing reference systems at the same time. So, when I watch Othello, I am seeing what is really in front of me (a bunch of guys reciting words they have learnt) and what is supposed to be in front of me (an African warrior about to get hardcore on his wife).

Some people believe that the experience of watching theatre is about the suspension of disbelief - that they really believe, on an emotional level, that Othello is choking his innocent wife to death. Oddly enough, I doubt that anyone ever suspended their disbelief to think Donald Sinden was really Othello.

I am not saying that he isn't a great actor, but I am worried that even the picture of him is racist. It is certainly a reminder of times when theatres did not recognise that black-face was offensive. Suspend disbelief if you like, but the convention of blacking up goes a long way towards preventing it.

Anyway, back to Mr Socks. When I got the message from him, I felt joy and fear at the same time. Aristotle would be proud of me. And this is because I see Mr Socks through two competing frames of reference.

One is that Mr Socks is the person who has this lovely website, designed around the aesthetic of The Chap - self consciously old-fashioned, but overall a good egg who would find my blog amusing, and chuckle about it with his mates at the gentleman's club.

The other is that Mr Socks is a gangster in a lock up with too many boxes of black socks to shift. This Mr Socks is going to come round and give me a doing.

Maybe I ought to calm down. I reckon he's a gentleman, and he'll being doing something special for Valentine's Day. Either way, can somebody get a subscription and tell them you were led to his site by me?