The pub has changed, especially in the cities. Some might say everything changes, but the pub can be a good indicator to see how our relationship with each other in society has altered. In the last few years there has been complete change in the place of the pub, in its meaning and its function. It has nothing to do with superficial changes brought about by fashion, such as furniture design, shapes of glasses, types of drinks and the clothes people wear. A seventeen year old girl or boy on their way to see David Bowie in 1972, wearing crushed velvet flares, could have stopped off in a pub for a pint of lager and lime and were standing in a place of history where they were taking their place among others, some of whom would have fought in the First World War, many in the Second World War. They would converse, maybe not sharing the same immediate interests, but all the same, there would be conversations involving beliefs and sharing one's values and gaining insights into the lives of other people. Yet, the pub had brought them together, and had been doing so for a few hundred years, and those seventeen year olds could well have taken their own children in that same pub for a drink many years later. This inter-mixing of generations and different types had a democracy all of its own, a place away from the confines of ordered society. It was a place where people met their future partners, although sometimes a place of violence and criminal trading, but also a place for celebration, merriment and to remember a departed friend. It was a space to be alone, to take the newspaper or a book and sit by oneself; it was a place of solace. Landlords and landladies had their own distinctive character and this situation had existed for a few hundred years, but that has now changed.

The corporation has entered the high street and also inside the lives of people. The pub is now mostly food orientated, theme based and designed to bring in consumers, get them to spend and get them out the door to get other consumers in. A common sight now is to see a person entering a pub, taking out their ear pieces, check about themselves, see a group of people they had arranged to meet, join them, have a burger and beer that is out of the price range of many, and flick a card or phone at a device that will suck money from that person's bank account. The props and prices are aimed at a qualified class, the man with the evening paper standing alone at the bar has vanished, after a few hundred years, he has gone and with it the mixing and acceptance and learning about other people. The Corporate Self is the name of the pub near me, it's selective and it isn't democratic as it symbolises a society with marked divisions.

 Because of the way publishers are nowadays I'm thinking of self publishing - -  I have written a novel called A Comic Breakdown - what do people think of self publishing?  Here's the synopsis:

James Carolan used to be a stand up comedian but suffered a nervous breakdown after years of estrangement from society. His obsessive thoughts about the state and its control over members of society grew to an extent that his confused reasoning led him to believe that all areas of life were directed by the state, and that the state was using him, in his role as a stand up comedian, to propagate propaganda. Being at odds with others in the field of entertainment he hoped to gain greater insights into the mechanism of state control by working in an area of society that has been affected by conflict in an absolute way.

The character becomes increasingly socially alienated as he recedes further from everyday thoughts and pursuits. He journeys inwardly for safety and introspection, but the concerns that haunt him manifest deep distrust and suspicion of everything and anybody around him to a degree where his paranoia renders him detached and dysfunctional in the society he once had such an observant and sharp critical eye upon. How much of James Carolan’s experience is imaginary is impossible to tell. He believes that it is in the realm of the imagination that the state is intent to manipulate for purposes of maintaining control and they will use all measures at their disposal to do so.