Duckweed, 2024, 76 min
Now in his sixth decade and living on the outskirts of London in near-poverty on benefits and the products of his imagination, the supernaturally-inclined English writer Quentin S. Crisp (not to be confused with the other Quentin Crisp, author of The Naked Civil Servant) contemplates the value of living a creative life such as his. As chronic austerity makes security increasingly elusive, and without the assurances of fame, posterity, or financial stability—a condition shared by many—he begins to sense his life and writing edging toward material disappearance.
Duckweed (根無し草) adopts the form of the literary zuihitsu, a style of Japanese literature dating back to the Heian period, where one ‘‘follows the brush’’. This feature-length film-essay is structured around readings of Crisp’s own zuihitsu of the same name, which, in essence, is the story of his life.
As we follow Crisp on a walk deeper into the ‘‘little wood’’ of his private landscape, the binaries of success and failure begin to fade away. The film presents Crisp as he reimagines himself as a simple duckweed plant, floating on the surface tension of earthly appearances. As he explores the implications of this identity, we are invited to speculate on our possible existence in another world; despite the undeniable knowledge of our gradual extinction in this one.
A truly eccentric and original voice in contemporary fiction, Crisp’s body of literary work spans the Japanese I-novel, tanka poetry, memoir, and supernatural and horror fiction, influenced in equal measure by such writers as H.P. Lovecraft, Yukio Mishima and Nagai Kafū. His published works include Shrike (2009) ‘Remember You’re a One-Ball!’ (2010), Erith (2015), Blue on Blue (2015), Aiaigasa (2018), Graves (2019), Hamster Dam (2021), Binturong Time (2022), Ikaho (2023) and I Reign in Hell (2024).
Risograph film posters, Cassette tapes of the original film score composed by Matthew Berka and a selection of Crisp’s books will be available at the screening.
