Author Archives: leewatkins

See What I’m Saying

Posted on February 18, 2020

First sentence of William Burroughs’ The Wild Boys: “The camera is the eye of a cruising vulture flying over an area of scrub, rubble and unfinished buildings on the outskirts of Mexico City.” Burroughs thinks in pictures and his books … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to Begin (Notes on the Introduction to Hegel’s Phenomenology)

Posted on January 28, 2020

It’s no use starting with the assumption that thought and being are identical. For one thing, no one will know what you’re talking about. Hegel started by looking at the philosophical thinking of his day and showing how it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hegel’s Democratic Spirit

Posted on January 23, 2020

The Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit is a good place to begin with Hegel. The key question he’s asking in these pages is: What is philosophy? And his answer tells us a lot about what kind of philosopher he … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Notes on Ursula Le Guin’s “The Dispossessed”

Posted on January 20, 2020

Stepping off a train onto a crowded platform. Anxious glances of the passers-by. Shevek wonders at this anxiety: is it a function of the capitalist economy here? The fact that each of these people must make enough money to live? … Continue reading →

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Notes on Nabokov’s “The Seaport”

Posted on January 13, 2020

The whole scene is bright, with sunshine everywhere. Colours: the blue of the sea, the green of the woman’s dress. These things stand out. The sunshine gives colour to everything. Each thing seems to have its own distinct colour: no … Continue reading →

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Happenings

Posted on December 16, 2019

In W.H. Auden’s poems, there are “happenings” and there are “ways of happening.” Poets create ways of happening, and this is why such people are generally considered useless – at least by the practical people in our society who concern … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Spengler’s Logic of History

Posted on November 4, 2019

Oswald Spengler tells us that he’s trying something new, a kind of historical study that he calls “predetermining history”: he’s going to use an historian’s methods in order to tell us something of what is going to happen. History is … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Spengler | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments