Monday, December 21, 2020

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Betelgeuse Dimming by Jean-Paul Garnier

Jean-Paul Garnier (see his short story "Birth of Fire" in Octo-Emanations) has just released a new book of science fiction poetry, Betelgeuse Dimming, which is available as a free audiobook version. It also comes in epub and pdf versions.  Please click HERE for the audiobook.



Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Computer Zero



The Thirteenth Century is missing...

Monday, December 7, 2020

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Looking ahead to Emanations 9

Because of the public health situation and the chronophagous demands of teaching on-line, I am waiting to learn of my college's plan for Spring Term.  If the plan is to go on-line, the Call will have to be postponed until April.  If we are to be in the classroom, the Call should go out in January.  

Wizard Reading a Book by Mannepanne  SOURCE


Thursday, December 3, 2020

Professor Hodges and his Bottomless Bottle of Beer

Horace Jeffery Hodges' novella The Bottomless Bottle of Beer with illustrations by Terrance Lindall originally appeared in Emanations: Second Sight. The work was subsequently published as an illustrated book by the Williamsburg Circle.

In the following series of videos, Professor Hodges reads from the book and then discusses his vision with students and faculty.


 

 
 

 


Monday, November 30, 2020

Saturday, November 28, 2020

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Parade of the Moon God Nanna-Sin

       "New Year's Day at the Ziggurat of Ur" by John McDermott

Assuredly, it was an auspicious day
A little warm, but who knew to care
Or cared instead as the iron image of the god
Came castering on lumpen wooden wheels
Centered amongst a procession of priests and musicians
Across the main thoroughfare resplendent
Thus deeply they wondered at his bearing
Surmised what noble man was selected
To don the sheepskin robe and place
The triple crown of bullhorns aloft
On his propitious brow; see, he holds 
The rod and the reel, the measuring line
Of the Architect and Master Builder,
First of this world, and then of Ur
The First City, whose harnessed populace
Dreams of what at that summit shall transpire
When the god himself shall slow descend
From Heaven, born of light and slipping as a star
One silver drop of divine emanation
Falling into union with the surface of the Earth
Sacred Heaven and Sacred Earth joined
In the embrace of divine human forms
So an erect King and suppliant Queen
Shall contort, inspired, on the golden bed

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Michael Butterworth interview in Parallel Worlds

I have just learned that Jean-Paul L. Garnier interviews Michael Butterworth in issue 15 of Parallel Worlds. Jean-Paul L. Garnier is the publisher of Space Cowboy Books, and he appears in Octo-Emanations. Michael Butterworth began his carer in the British New Wave, publishing in New Worlds. He is a member of International Authors, who has published (in association with Null23) his books Butterworth and My Servant the Wind.  Mr. Butterworth's work has appeared in Emanations since the first volume.

Please click HERE.




Friday, November 13, 2020

“the aggregate sum”

Please click HERE for "Greentopia, the Utopian Place at the Side-West: a Review of Marleen S. Barr's 'Bluetopia' by Nigeria's (and International Authors') Ebi Robert.

Ebi Robert

 

Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Monday, November 9, 2020

Thursday, November 5, 2020

A Hamster Wheel for Neophytes

In a recent Gypsy Scholar blog post (please click HERE) Professor Hodges holds up for consideration the following passage from James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake:

...a way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs . . . . a way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.

Professor Hodges observes, first, that the circular character of the passage is clear but nevertheless it goes neither here nor there, nor has it much to say; if this is Joyce’s point, it really isn’t much of a point, nor is the prosody that interesting—which is supported by Professor Hodges' second, bibliographic, observation that the text itself is an unsettled and ill-defined matter. He writes:

One knows not where to begin . . . plus even before setting forth to read (before the beginning? before the ending?), one must, as I have now come to understand, first settle on a correct manuscript, notoriously difficult in a text that breaks rules.

My comment, to which Professor Hodges signals agreement, reads as follows:

FW is a work exhibiting much mystery and few virtues... A "scripture" for a secular prelacy... A hamster wheel for neophytes.

What's to be done with this over-written text teaming with the endless exercise of linguistic "suggestions" and cultural allusions that trace off into meaninglessness, and (most importantly?) exhibiting an aesthetic that is evidently obscurantist?  I suppose there are some who view the book as a lively expression of "Irish wordplay unbound", an explosion in four dimensions of the "dynamic and wonderfully unpredictable" Keltic imagination. Being somewhat predisposed to a Keltic view of things (and my ancestry is one-quarter Scot, after-all) I am wont to pronounce a Keltic judgment upon the work; to whit, it is a bog full of gibberish.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Friday, October 30, 2020

Highbrow Advice from St. Thomas Aquinas

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Man's task is to control his action in the direction of good so that he may grow from time to eternity, from the smallness of himself to the greatness of God. The means of this control, right reason and good will, are within the power of every man. They are not the privileges of rich or poor, of the powerful or of the weak of this present world. By using the reason and the will properly every man can direct his steps unerringly forward to the vision of God in which his true happiness is to be found.

-- My Way of Life: Pocket edition of St. Thomas; the Summa Simplified for Everyone. p. 186.

This reminds me of Aristotle's advice to cultivate our virtues (or skills) and to moderate our actions through thoughtfulness, as a means to find eudaimonia. But of course when reflecting upon Aquinas it is always appropriate to remain mindful of Aristotle.

If this sort of Highbrow advice is to your taste, please click HERE.

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Paradise Lost Tarot Deck by Terrance Lindall

Terrance Lindall's Paradise Lost Tarot Deck will be available  November 15, 2020.  Contact the WAH Center.

Monday, October 26, 2020

A list of Milton's works linked to descriptive articles

Poetry

Prose

More 

Sources for an American Idea of Revolution


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, October 23, 2020

Thursday, October 22, 2020

If you want me to post in this blog...




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Buy my books. Click the cover images on the right. Thank you.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Professor Hodges on the quest for poetic justice for poets

 Jeffery reflects on his poetry in Octo-Emanations. Please click HERE.




Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Amy Coney Barrett knows her Octo-Emanations

Impressing the Senate today with her encyclopedic knowledge of case law, Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett was asked if she had brought any preparatory notes to help her with the confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to the media, Barrett held up a blank notepad and smiled.  Here is the alleged image of that moment:

















This account, however, does not coincide with the facts.

Moreover, the image circulating around the media has been doctored!

An international Authors correspondent present in the Senate committee chamber has reported to me that when asked if she had brought any notes to help her with the confirmation hearing, Amy Coney Barrett actually raised a copy of Octo-Emanations. This fact is confirmed by the following un-doctored image: