Author Archives: Lee

Beat Attitude

Posted on November 23, 2016 by Lee

In Go, John Clellon Holmes sketches some of the leading figures of the Beat Generation. We get a picture of their different attitudes, in every sense of the word: the way they talk, the way they carry themselves, the way … Continue reading →

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Angels Can Make Change Happen

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Lee

“I just started hustling, just knocking around, you know, scrounging, learning I guess.” This is Herbert Huncke: drug addict, criminal and writer. He moves in his own little group of junkies and criminals, otherwise he is cut off from people … Continue reading →

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Stone and Space

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Lee

Being “The worked stone . . . has considered limits and measured form; what it is is what it has become under the sculptor’s chisel.” The statue wants nothing, it rests upon the ground, complete and beautiful. It is what … Continue reading →

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Salut Au Monde!

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Lee

Walt Whitman was a writer of light and vision. He invites us to see: cloud-topped mountains, great lakes and rivers, the oceans and those who sail on the ocean, the many different countries of the earth and the people that … Continue reading →

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Notes on Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Lee

Allen Ginsberg gives us picture after picture of the lost minds, “the best minds of my generation”, images of entire lives lived and lived out and used up, flashes of light and life like the images in Whitman, who also … Continue reading →

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Decline according to Spengler

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Lee

Oswald Spengler tells us that Western civilisation is in decline. This doesn’t mean the end is nigh, this doesn’t mean the end of days. We have centuries left, and when civilisation as we (in the West) know it finally comes … Continue reading →

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Some notes on Spengler as I read him

Posted on October 5, 2016 by Lee

I’ve been slowly reading The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler with a couple of friends. We meet online once a week to discuss the pages we’ve read. What follows is an explanation of Spengler as I understand him … Continue reading →

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Cloud Mind Shadow

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Lee

“I believe that only a dreamer who has fear neither of life nor death will discover this infinitesimal iota of force which will hurtle the cosmos into whack – instantaneously.” What do you do when you have no fear of … Continue reading →

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The Garden Pool

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Lee

(Painting from The Tomb of Nebamun, 18th Dynasty Egypt)   “Viewed from above, as if through the eyes of the gods” To the eyes of a god the world appears flat. The trees lie flat around the flattened pool, and … Continue reading →

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Reading Spengler Again

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Lee

This preface I’m reading says I shouldn’t be literal-minded when reading Oswald Spengler. Yes, his presentation of the facts is dubious, he exaggerates and distorts, he’s polemical – but I mustn’t let this spoil my enjoyment. I’d be missing out … Continue reading →

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