"The poison is exactly the alienation you speak of, and it is not the individual, not society, but what comes of being an individual helpless to liberate himself from the images that society fills him with. It is a very fine picture of hell sometimes. When I see advertisements I want to curse they make me so sick, and I do curse them. I have never seen TV, that is never watched it. Once when I did happen to pass in front of a set I saw the commercial that was on: two little figures were dancing around worshipping a roll of toilet paper, chanting a hymn in it honor. I think this is symbolic enough, isn't it? We have simply lost the ability to see what is right in front of us . . . . "
Thomas Merton
writing to Czeslaw Milosz
Striving Towards Being
Accidents.
Chance collisions.
Coincidences.
Synchronicities.
Karmic fallout.
They have not brought me any money, but they have enriched my life considerably.
I may have heard of Czeslaw Milosz previously, but if I had, the only information I had about him was a two word descriptor: Polish poet. And I'm not even sure that I had that, because I now find it impossible to separate my current knowledge from my previous ignorance.
But when I saw the title The Captive Mind on the spine of a book in the bargain section of Half-Price Books, I had to take it down and have a look. And when I took that look, I had to take another. And when I took another, I had to buy the book.
And even though I didn't start reading The Captive Mind right away, I did start looking for some information about this Czeslaw Milosz. And I started with the Louisville Free Public Library, which just happened to have a book of his letters to and from Thomas Merton. And since I know a little bit about Thomas Merton and have great admiration for him, I ordered that book from the library. And it arrived promptly, and it was a small, thin book, so I started in on it right away. And it was so good that I continued to read it. And it got even better. Both of these writers just blow me away. It's like reading a spiritualized version of Noam Chomsky. Or a latter day William Blake.
I'll be finishing this book in another couple of minutes, and from there I most definitely want to (1) read more Czeslaw Milosz, (2) read more Thomas Merton, (3) watch some videos I have found of Czeslaw Milosz, (4) read some of the books alluded to in the course of Striving Towards Being, and (5) start writing again. I think it is time to get back to Flies & Bees, which I left stranded in the middle of a two hundred and fifty page ocean awhile back.
I think it's time to stop caring about whether anybody else wants to read my books and just write them because I need to write them. I don't want to leave too many dregs in my skull when I finally do get The Big Promotion.
You know?
P.S. So I originally took down most of my blog entries because I became concerned about stepping on somebody else's copywrites. And I've slowly been putting up some of the older posts after "cleaning them up"--either by scrubbing the pictures or by making my own. And I thought of that as a real pain in the ass, and I really bemoaned the loss of the thousands of posts (literally: 2,445 posts are in draft right now). But you know, I am really starting to enjoy this making my own pictures, whether it be photographs or drawings or satiric collages. It's kind of become a thing for me. A good thing. Just goes to show, I suppose.
Time will tell.
Chance collisions.
Coincidences.
Synchronicities.
Karmic fallout.
They have not brought me any money, but they have enriched my life considerably.
I may have heard of Czeslaw Milosz previously, but if I had, the only information I had about him was a two word descriptor: Polish poet. And I'm not even sure that I had that, because I now find it impossible to separate my current knowledge from my previous ignorance.
But when I saw the title The Captive Mind on the spine of a book in the bargain section of Half-Price Books, I had to take it down and have a look. And when I took that look, I had to take another. And when I took another, I had to buy the book.
And even though I didn't start reading The Captive Mind right away, I did start looking for some information about this Czeslaw Milosz. And I started with the Louisville Free Public Library, which just happened to have a book of his letters to and from Thomas Merton. And since I know a little bit about Thomas Merton and have great admiration for him, I ordered that book from the library. And it arrived promptly, and it was a small, thin book, so I started in on it right away. And it was so good that I continued to read it. And it got even better. Both of these writers just blow me away. It's like reading a spiritualized version of Noam Chomsky. Or a latter day William Blake.
I'll be finishing this book in another couple of minutes, and from there I most definitely want to (1) read more Czeslaw Milosz, (2) read more Thomas Merton, (3) watch some videos I have found of Czeslaw Milosz, (4) read some of the books alluded to in the course of Striving Towards Being, and (5) start writing again. I think it is time to get back to Flies & Bees, which I left stranded in the middle of a two hundred and fifty page ocean awhile back.
I think it's time to stop caring about whether anybody else wants to read my books and just write them because I need to write them. I don't want to leave too many dregs in my skull when I finally do get The Big Promotion.
You know?
P.S. So I originally took down most of my blog entries because I became concerned about stepping on somebody else's copywrites. And I've slowly been putting up some of the older posts after "cleaning them up"--either by scrubbing the pictures or by making my own. And I thought of that as a real pain in the ass, and I really bemoaned the loss of the thousands of posts (literally: 2,445 posts are in draft right now). But you know, I am really starting to enjoy this making my own pictures, whether it be photographs or drawings or satiric collages. It's kind of become a thing for me. A good thing. Just goes to show, I suppose.
Time will tell.
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