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Author Archives: leewatkins
Building
“We have no need for genius – genius is dead. We have need for strong hands …” How to start writing? Take a building block and set it down. It is Paris, 1930 perhaps, and a day in the life … Continue reading
Posted in books, Literature, Writing
Tagged Art, books, creativity, Henry Miller, literature, Tropic of Cancer, work, writing
1 Comment
Tree Spirits in The Golden Bough
In spring, early summer, or midsummer the villagers would go out into the woods to cut down a tree. They’d bring it back to the village and set it up there (“amid general rejoicings”); or, in other villages, they would … Continue reading
Posted in books
Tagged books, folklore, History, immanence, James Frazer, magic, nature, The Golden Bough
2 Comments
See What I’m Saying
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 books, film, literature, The Wild Boys, William Burroughs, William S Burroughs, writing
4 Comments
How to Begin (Notes on the Introduction to Hegel’s Phenomenology)
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
Hegel’s Democratic Spirit
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
Notes on Ursula Le Guin’s “The Dispossessed”
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
Posted in books, Literature
Tagged books, literature, politics, reading, Ursula K Le Guin, work
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Notes on Nabokov’s “The Seaport”
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
Posted in books, Literature, Writing
Tagged books, literature, Nabokov, reading, writing
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Happenings
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
Spengler’s Logic of History
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
The Perfect Critic
In an essay by T.S. Eliot called “The Perfect Critic” we learn, above all, that art criticism is difficult. For one thing, many art critics don’t make art themselves, and so the criticism they write is shaped by their own … Continue reading