Traversing Melancholy

Author of Theory of the Solitary Sailor. Gilles Grelet sails across the channel to talk with translators Amy Ireland and Robin Mackay about his ‘antiphilosophical biography’ , with topics ranging from melancholy, silence, and formulaic writing to happiness, how to exorcise a boat’s deadname, writing and twitter, and why sailors never say ‘r****t’. With the voices of Lendl Barcelos and Angus Carlyle. Music: Robin Williamson (with Mat Maneri, Ale Möller, Barre Phillips), ‘Sir Patrick Spens’, from The Iron Stone (ECM, 2006). Kassel Jaeger, ‘Exposure Scales: Tide’, from Toxic Cosmopolitanism (Editions Mego, 2014). Debussy, La Mer (III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer). Leo Ferré, ‘La Mélancholie’ (1964) Extracts from the short film Un bonne manière de commencer, c’est de se donner un myth (Dojo Cinema, 2006). Theory of the Solitary Sailor is published by Urbanomic and is available as a book or e-book from our website: https://www.urbanomic.com/book/grelet-solitary-sailor/