Author Archives: Lee

Labyrinths

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Lee

For Borges a labyrinth is a place, somewhere you might find yourself, which has the quality of being infinite. It might be a house and the house might have only fourteen rooms. But if those fourteen rooms are your whole … Continue reading →

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

A little says a lot

Posted on July 6, 2023 by Lee

“In the chair / I decided to call Haiku / By the name of Pop” I like Jack Kerouac’s approach to haiku. As everyone knows, haiku means a poem of seventeen syllables. But Kerouac didn’t think the syllable restriction worked … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Godspeed

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Lee

“This day winding down now / At God speeded summer’s end” are the first two lines of Dylan Thomas’s “Prologue.” William York Tindall points out how the “now” and “end” stand at the ends of the lines, giving these words … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Literature | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Clinging On

Posted on May 30, 2023 by Lee

There’s an old man in a story by Nabokov, a terrible old man, whom the narrator makes quite sure you could have no love for – he’s lecherous, sour, selfish – but perhaps still you can feel sympathy because he … Continue reading →

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

One Life

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Lee

“Always merry and bright!” is the ironic refrain throughout Henry Miller’s “The Tailor Shop.” Miller doesn’t hide the bad in those times, the dark and the grim; he doesn’t hide his own “bad heart” or the bad in the other … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Literature | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Paradox and Buffoonery

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Lee

“You gotta fight for peace.” And some in the audience must have agreed. If bad people will do bad things you’ve got to do something to stop them. But others just saw the paradox and laughed. One of those who … Continue reading →

Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Conscientious One

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Lee

“I am the one I must be,” says Zarathustra. He accepts himself fully the way he is. And he walks with a carefree step. So carefree that in fact he is sometimes careless. And walking through the swamp he steps … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Waiting

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Lee

It’s difficult to wait for something. How many times in your life have you really had to wait? Usually if something you look forward to is happening in the future, you pass the time until then. The show is on … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Philosophy | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Monsters

Posted on March 16, 2023 by Lee

I’ve been playing Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) quite regularly for five years or so now, and so I spend a lot of time thinking about monsters. But what is a monster? I’ve been looking through Medieval Monsters by Damien Kempf … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Mythology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Bag Thief

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Lee

There’s a story in the Arabian Nights in which two men are being interrogated in the office of the police chief. One of the men had snatched the bag of the other but, when the victim called for help, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Literature | Tagged , | 2 Comments