Some Reflections on Little Magazines

Virtually every classic American author of modern times served an apprenticeship in the little mags.

THOUGHTS FROM AN UNQUIET MIND X

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The artist must be familiar with the work of his predecessors and rather than think himself creating something entirely new he should be aware of the fact that what he is really doing is building on the past, cultivating and nurturing plants that were seeded long before his time. Although this thought echoes T.S. Eliot’s dictum in “Tradition and the Individual Talent” it is nonetheless true. It is not only the road to humility but to durability as well.
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THOUGHTS FROM AN UNQUIET MIND IX

I can’t quite buy the assertion that criticism heightens rather than diminishes the quality of art. The homage done to criticism is greatest when civilization is the most stifling. Natural endowment is the enemy of professorial dogmas.
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Henry Miller through the Prism of Jack

The body is dead but the work is still very much alive and will be, hopefully, for many, many centuries to come.

Lowenfels’ Elegy for D.H. Lawrence

The impact was immediate, electrifying in fact. There was no one around who could make the English language literally sizzle like Lawrence did.

Apollinaire and Lowenfels, A Death And A Beginning

The poet admits that all his journeys are toward death, yet it is the “eye/that lives in the lamppost” which attracts his mind. It is the x-mark, the unknown quantity in life which is constantly moving on the horizon. The ducks that rise into the sky at night in North Dakota to blot out the moon are symbols of life’s persistence. The brain itself whenever any thinking is done performs an act that becomes an unmistakable sign of life.

Who Murdered Science Fiction?

When a new generation of writers takes up the literary challenges of the age, this is where the quest begins.

There’s Something Rotten In Denmark 2

The very meaning of life seems to nauseate him when he muses on the reality of the anatomical ultimates. Even imperious Caesar is probably plugging up “a hole to keep the wind away.”

The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be Part II

If we haven’t moved from here, if we haven’t found a new way of living, all of the things we’ve done, all of our achievements, will be nothing.

There’s Something Rotten In Denmark

If Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most memorable character creations then surely the Prince of Denmark can be regarded as a prime mouthpiece of the author himself.