Back to the Future?

        
          According to Jerome K. Jerome, “it is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do” and it was on this principle that I decided to spend the afternoon watching the much-vaunted Avengers: Endgame. The genre is not my thing, but the hype (it had even been reviewed favourably by somebody on Radio 4’s Today) overwhelmed me and the prospect of a busy afternoon held little appeal.
          The film started tantalisingly – soundtrack-wise, at least – with Dear Mr. Fantasy (Traffic) and Supersonic Rocket Ship (The Kinks), two glorious old numbers pressed into the service of a story about time-travel (I think). The euphoria of hearing them on the cinema’s monster sound-system whetted my appetite for more and sustained me through quite a lot of introductory dross – including a scene in which a Superhero consumes a white-bread peanut butter sandwich, which is not good role-model behaviour for healthy eating, considering all the young people who are watching. The action sequences to which I had been looking forward materialised eventually, though so heavily interspersed with schmaltzy scenes that I could not sustain my interest and left, a third of the way through, without hearing any more golden oldies.
          The bulk of the afternoon remaining unspent, I went shopping. Following on from a conversation with an old friend concerning comfortable footwear, I had decided to try on some trainers. So, boldly going where I had not been before – J.D. Sports – I went in search of my ideal: non-branded, non-garish, non-overtly-trainer trainers. I was not hopeful, but I got lucky: there, in the discounted section, I spied what I was looking for – and what everybody else wasn’t, apparently. I wore them from the shop, light of step and pleased as Punch.
          I would have appreciated those shoes earlier in the week, when friends and I did an urban ramble. We explored inner-city canal basins which have been claimed for domestic dwellings and are now populated by youngsters in branded footwear who embrace a 21st century, urban style of living – frequenting the wi-fi enabled coffee shops, sourdough bakeries and craft ale bars that have sprung into being. Following the canal northwards and away from the centre, however, it was not too long before we encountered a different style of living, more reminiscent of 20th century industrial decay and the consequent unemployment and alienation of the population. The tow-path was strewn with empty cider cans, aimless-looking men hung around with fierce-looking dogs and cyclists wearing hoodies rather than helmets trundled past, ominously. It was like time travel – not of the Superhero, but of the Clockwork Orange variety.
          The back-to-the-future theme is especially poignant in this, the week of Leonardo da Vinci’s 500th birthday. Some of his drawings are displayed temporarily at Manchester Art gallery and it was there that I attended a talk by an expert curator. He elaborated on Leonardo’s life in relation to his works and, though focused on the drawings, he included the notebooks on science, anatomy and mechanical invention. Leonardo had something in common with the creators of Avengers: Endgame – a propensity for designing machines for which the technology does not exist. Unfortunately for Leonardo, however, there was no profit to be gained from his inventions, as the fantasy film business was not even nascent at that time. Leonardo, prolific though he was, might have achieved even more but for the necessity, as he lamented, of having to take up paid employment. Nevertheless, he spent his time productively, noting that, “As well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well-used brings happy death.”
          As a busy man, he might have concurred with Jerome K. Jerome’s view of idling. I’m pretty sure, however, that he would have disapproved of Annie Dillard’s advice to, “Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.”