Inventors Michael Blumenthal Imagine being the first to say: surveillance … – Howard Nemerov “Imagine being the first to say: surveillance,” the mouth taking in air like a swimmer, the tongue light as an astronaut, gliding across the roof of the mouth, the eyes burning like the eyes of Fleming looking at mold […]
Inventors, by Michael Blumenthal Read More »
“Clearness and vividness in writing often turn on mere specificity. To say that Major André was hanged is clear and definite; to say that he as killed is less definite, because you do not know in what way he was killed; to say that he died is still more indefinite because you do not even
Blanshard on the writing styles of Kant, Hegel, and others Read More »
Revisiting a good joke on pretentious literary modernism: “In a single rollicking afternoon McAuley and Stewart cooked up the collected works of Ernest Lalor Malley. Imitating the modern poets they most despised (‘not Max Harris in particular, but the whole literary fashion as we knew it from the works of Dylan Thomas, Henry Treece, and
The Ern Malley Poetry Hoax Read More »
Great fun: An artworld scam from the 1920s.
Pavel Jordanowitch and the Disumbrationist School of Art Read More »
The poet William Wordsworth said: “Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things; –We murder to dissect.” For more on the meaning and implications of Wordsworth’s claim, see p. 68 of my Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism from Rousseau to Foucault. Information about other editions and translations is available at this dedicated page.
William Wordsworth in Explaining Postmodernism Read More »
I will be a keynote speaker at the first TRAC conference to be held in Europe. Related video: Comments on Odd Nerdrum and Roger Scruton. From Modern to Postmodern Art and Beyond.
TRAC Netherlands art conference Read More »
When he became an American citizen in 1943, Sergei Rachmaninoff said: “This is the only place on earth where a human being is respected for what he is and what he does, and it does not matter who he is and where he came from.” Related: “How Rachmaninoff’s composing was hurt by the Soviet Union.”
Rachmaninoff upon becoming an American citizen Read More »
At the TRAC 2014 conference in Ventura, California (“The Aesthetics of 21st Century”), I participated in a panel discussion on talks presented by philosopher Roger Scruton and artist Odd Nerdrum. Scruton spoke of Beauty and Nerdrum spoke of Kitsch. My comments in response run for 18 minutes, beginning at the 40:16 mark, following a quick
Comments on Roger Scruton and Odd Nerdrum Read More »