Category Archives: Literature

Henry Miller’s singing prose

Posted on February 29, 2016 by Lee

Ondřej Skovajsa writes: “In Miller’s attempt to write voice, the usage of parallelism is crucial. Marcel Jousse (1886-1961) interprets the general function of parallelism as mnemonic, connected with and involving the bilateral symmetry of human body and the rhythmical breath … Continue reading →

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Notes on “Who Be Kind To” by Allen Ginsberg

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Lee

“Who Be Kind To” by Allen Ginsberg: a meditation on the importance of kindness, and what it means to be kind. Kindness is important because every individual is “one and perishable”. Vulnerable. To recognise yourself as one and perishable is … Continue reading →

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Notes on Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer Episode 11

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Lee

Sometimes you have some money in your pocket and you feel content and secure. And sometimes you spend that money and fill your belly up with what you desire, and then “you feel empty, disgusted with yourself.” Henry Miller returns … Continue reading →

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Alyosha Karamazov’s Laughter

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Lee

Alyosha’s sinful laugh after reading the love letter. And then the laugh is repeated, it isn’t sinful any longer. With the first laugh he seems to be laughing at the girl who is in love with him. With the second … Continue reading →

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Notes on William S Burroughs’ “Ghost of Chance”

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Lee

William S Burroughs’s Ghost of Chance (1995, High Risk Books) has a simple political point at the heart of it: humanity will perish if it continues at odds with nature. It’s a familiar theme. Human beings are destroying the environment … Continue reading →

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“This is realism”: Lessons from Poetry

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Lee

Langdon Hammer describes the stone that Yeats’s fisherman sits on (in the poem “The Fisherman”) as “resistant” and “non-ideal, that is, real”. This equation of “non-ideal” with its common meaning of “imperfect” (as in “my new flat isn’t ideal…”), while … Continue reading →

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