Epic Simile

Litotes

Jerome Seckler interviews Henri Matisse

JS: There is a great deal of talk especially by hostile art critics that modern art is the equivalent of a fraud, that the artist is trying to put something over on the public. And although the public accepts modern art when incorporated into architecture, advertisements, posters, and even household articles, it still refuses to accept modern painting. What do think can be done to close this gap?

HM: Who occupies himself with that question? They are the painters and the critics. It began that way, criticized by everybody, but I didn’t bother myself about it. I said to myself, “when what I paint will be clearly expressed, everybody will understand.” I continued and I have been admitted.

 Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) 1905-06 

Please click HERE to read the full interview.

Robert Massie

And that's an "OK" you can depend on!

Fitzhugh L. "Fitz" Fulton, Jr, Test Pilot

Butterworth Show, Continued

Here's an announcement and related news from the Exhibition Centre for the Life and Use of Books in Manchester:

Please click HERE.

The announcement concludes: the "success of [the Butterworth show] has prompted research and further filming for a feature length documentary by Manchester-based artist Clara Casian, taking the innovative and experimental art and writing of the Corridor series as a starting point to examine the wider culture surrounding Savoy, and the lives and work of Butterworth’s peers."

Pictures from the Butterworth Show at Kent State University

Emanations I is visible in the last two photographs.

From Professor Hassler's introduction to the exhibit:

Please excuse my own voice initially to introduce these materials in the Michael Butterworth/Savoy Press Exhibit. The voice of Butterworth himself is on all the caption cards in the cases. It is a clever and witty voice that I characterize further below. But first, the radical nature of the materials, their European origins, and why we at Kent State should notice.

All American history is partially a product of invasions from Europe. I arrived at Kent to teach in the middle of the sixties, roughly the same moment as the Beatles invasion. I knew a lot about the radical and diabolic Lord Byron, about the French Revolution. But I was not prepared to be told by my friends about the Cleveland poet d.a. levy, who died defiantly in 1968. In fact, the country, the University all matured rapidly in the psychedelic sixties that climaxed for us at May 1970. Now 45 years later, I have completed my tenure of teaching—some radical and some conventional literature. I am fortunate to be able to introduce this bookish exhibit and “invasion” again of European radicalism and shall describe it in much more detail at my March 4 talk here. In the meantime, read carefully the captions by Butterworth in the cases. His voice is the voice of Swift, the voice of the French barricades in radical Paris, and of the diabolical Lord Byron (Lord Horror). He is clever, intense, informal; and this is solid literary history about banned books and about radical publishing. I think all of this helps to appreciate our very American history of radicalism inspired by our European roots—by this mixed and croaking speciation.

As we know, the frog is able to live underwater but is able, also, to sparkle in the sun. We hope for such amphibian complexity in what is exhibited here.

Nigerian Poet Seeks Critic

Nigerian poet Ebi Robert, whose poetry appears in Emanations: Foray into Forever, has contacted me seeking help with his play An Empty Kingdom.  He is looking for a critic interested in writing a short introduction or afterword. Mr. Robert has provided me with the following prospectus:

The play is about the struggle of power between the people and the few.  Set in the south-south, Niger Delta region of Bayelsa State of Nigeria, the play presents the struggle of governance between the people and a group of persons who believe in an oligarchical authoritarianism based on an ancient order of kingship by inheritance. The late King had no son, hence there was no one to continue the bloodline. The late King's uncle demands that he be made king, being the only surviving seed of the bloodline. The people refuse because nothing good has ever come out of the custom, save injustice. Thus they choose Tuaton, a man from another land who had lived with them. But the aristocrats refuse saying he is not a son of the soil. Thus, on and on, they struggle to influence the authorities and make one of their own King. Eventually, I plan to develop the concept into a trilogy. I currently seek someone to write a foreword for the play. Search the name "Ebi Robert" to contact me through facebook, or use my email:  ebi [dot] fortune [at] yahoo [dot] com.

Unfortunately, I am tied down and can't write the forward--anyway, not at this time.  In the meantime, if someone can lend a hand here, please contact Mr. Robert as per his instructions.  Incidentally, more of Mr. Robert's poetry will appear in Emanations V.

Ebi Robert

Quick Update

Receiving many fine submissions for Emanations V.  A dystopian theme is evolving.  The deadline is February 15.  Please click HERE to view the Call for Submissions.

Editing Tasso's Il mondo creato (Creation of the World) Day 6.  Should have it back to Dario and Salwa in a few days.

Meanwhile, more Tasso news (as always) from Dario:  please click HERE.

Stay tuned.

The Deontological Mystique

Faroe Islands: lake on a clifftop, suspended above the sea

Epicenters of Circumspection

Allegory of Encroaching Narratives

Philip Murray-Lawson interviews Juan de Nubes

Please click HERE to read Philip's interview with French artist Juan de Nubes.

Col. Jack Broughton

Click HERE for the LA Times obituary.

Click HERE for a Highbrow note on Col. Broughton's court-martial (with a comment by Ed Rasimus).

Speculative Fictions issue #1

Editor Gareth Jackson has announced that Speculative Fictions issue #1 is now available as a free download.

The second volume of Speculative Fictions (the first volume was #0) features writing by Harpy70, Chris Pressey, Michael Butterworth, Vera Insomniac, Langdon Jones, Gareth Jackson, Ian Johnson,  Robert Meadley, Tantra Bensko, and yours truly.

Click HERE for the free download (issue #0 also available).

Kaushiki Chakrabarty performs raga Multani in Vilambit Khayal followed by a dhrut composition

Test Your Highbrow I.Q. Can You Draw the Object?

Study the following animation and consider the complex structure that it describes. It is helpful to consider yourself as a point of reference that is moving through the structure.  To confirm your comprehension, draw a diagram of it.

Wang Dang Doo

The Art of the Christmas Meme

William Blake via Dario Rivarossa: the human family encounters itself in a lively science fiction allusion.

From Tiziana "Selkis" Grassi: indefatigable support for the literature of ideas in the guise of a colorful fantasy: