Writing on the Wall (2011)

Mark Joseph: Paul

Photos 

Quotes 

• Paul : [Set in exterior: Hoxton, London]  At least we've lived there before it became all trendy.

  Mary Jane D'Arbanville : Trendy, my ass! Hoxton indeed! Bloody Old Street, Shoreditch. The price of an average run-down squat rocketed from 50 000 to 3 million... In spite of all this we have the muggings, burglaries, pollution and the local mafia shooting up in broad daylight.

  Paul : That's London for you! You do have to pay for live entertainment!

• Paul : The nineties have absorbed the seventies. June 1993. Why is London so trendy? In a recent expose about the London dangers, we tackled the ever-never unresolved extremely growing problem of pollution. The killer smog well, well Raising his voice well above tolerated limits. Near Canary Wharf -The New London skylines city built in the East End as a result of the Eighties boom- the asthma levels among children are twice the national average. US health studies show that soot particles known as PM10s is killing 2000 people prematurely every year in cities like London, from heart attacks and respiratory problems. Sometimes the level goes as high as 140 to even 150 parts per billion. When levels of nitrogen dioxide across the big cities of Europe are beyond the national average, it prompts them to a curb and even a ban on traffic but it never ever prompts any extraordinary measures in London.

• Paul : In a town like London alone it is reported that the rat population is almost one billion, but who can really tell? A proper census would be rather difficult to conduct.

• Paul : Jails are like the good old days of chuckles and straw; moldy water and rancid bread. If the decor and the props may have changed, the principles remain. The beatings and abuses are omnipresent. There was a man who has just been released after serving a third of his life in jail. For allegedly murdering his neighbor when in fact the guy died of a heart attack. He was a healthy young man when he was sent to the reservoir dogs. On his release he was old, very old. He could barely walk. If he dies now it would be of a heart attack, ironic! He was lucky!

  Mary Jane D'Arbanville : Lucky?

  Paul : Yes, lucky! He was released by chance. Some researchers who investigated the case managed to access the body. Who would otherwise agree to take on a case like this after twenty-five years?

• Paul : London has always been known to possess one of the highest rat and mouse populations in the world.

• Paul : I got caught in a circle of hell and became a virus entering someone's body. I became a rat and lived into the far end of the gutter. I've lived with my fellow rats and mice in the streets of London. Wherever I went to, I left some marks in order to later in time draw a map, a map of the universe.