Category Archives: books

Getting into a Rut: Notes on The Philosophy of Andy Warhol

Posted on May 8, 2019 by Lee

Andy Warhol writes about time spent alone – in a “rut”, as he calls it. How he gets into a rut: “Go to my room, fluff up the pillow, turn on a couple of TVs, open a box of Ritz … Continue reading →

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Take Heart (Notes on Henry Miller’s Nexus, Chapter 11)

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Lee

Henry Miller falls asleep and has a dream, and that dream becomes a vision. He awakes to see the world with new eyes. It begins with one of those lucid dreams where anything is possible: “Nothing I wished to do … Continue reading →

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Notes on Dante’s Paradise, Canto 3

Posted on May 3, 2019 by Lee

“… think carefully what love is and you’ll see …” This line hands you the key to the poem, if you haven’t picked it up already. The universe of Dante is a hierarchy, where every individual’s place in the order … Continue reading →

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Review of Slavoj Žižek’s Like a Thief in Broad Daylight (Part 1: “Introduction”)

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Lee

Slavoj Žižek begins his book Like a Thief in Broad Daylight by discussing the purpose of philosophy. Its purpose, he says, is to “prod” people – meaning to “corrupt the youth” the way Socrates did, by challenging established norms. I … Continue reading →

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Get Out of My Garden

Posted on April 29, 2019 by Lee

Henry Miller’s Nexus is, above all, the story of Miller’s own development as a writer. He says he is learning to read between the lines. It is difficult for him to explain what he means by this: “How could anyone, … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Lanny by Max Porter

Posted on April 26, 2019 by Lee

A lot of the very best books have a very simple story, made interesting by the new perspective that the author has brought to it. Perhaps it’s a story we have heard a hundred times before, but now it’s full … Continue reading →

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Fantasy and Reality in Andy Warhol

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Lee

Your “aura” is something you have before you open your mouth, says Andy Warhol. People see you and make an impression of you in their minds. If it’s very favourable or very unfavourable, then perhaps you seem to have an … Continue reading →

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Henry Miller’s Christmas

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Lee

Unexpected Cheer Henry Miller always said that he couldn’t write stories: his books are huge spiral-formed stream-of-consciousness works that can’t really be called novels. And he tends to depict the grim and obscene realities of life rather than giving a … Continue reading →

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Kierkegaard vs the Modern World

Posted on December 10, 2018 by Lee

(A Review of Sylvia Walsh’s Kierkegaard and Religion: Personality, Character, and Virtue) Søren Kierkagaard is a difficult thinker in more ways than one. Not only is his writing full of abstractions and speculative notions and references to Hegel, but he … Continue reading →

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Truth in Writing

Posted on November 26, 2018 by Lee

Occasionally people will ask about Henry Miller: was he even a real writer? Wasn’t he a fraud who fooled the world into believing he was the real thing? Miller’s books are, on the one hand, like nothing else that had … Continue reading →

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