the Taoist vision of perfection
“Sitting before his painted book, [the child] makes the Taoist vision
of perfection come true: he overcomes the illusory barrier of the
book’s surface and passes through colored textures and brightly painted
partitions to enter a stage on which the fairy tale lives. Hua, the Chinese word for ‘painting’ is much like gua, meaning ‘attach’: you attach five colors to the things. In German, the word used in anlegen:
you ‘lay on’ colors. In such an open color-bedecked world where
everything shifts at every step, the child is allowed to join in the
game. Draped with colors of every hue that he has picked up from
reading and viewing, the child stands in the center of a masquerade and
joins in.”
—Walter Benjamin, ‘A Glimpse Into the World of Children’s Books’, 1926, translated by Rodney Livingstone; from The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, 2008.
the ray of colored light
“Just think of the many games that proceed from pure perception to
fantasy: soap bubbles, parlor games, the watery color of the magic
lantern, watercolor painting, decals. In all of these, the color seems
to hover suspended above the things. Their magic lies not in the
colored thing or in the mere dead color, but in the colored glow, the
colored brilliance, the ray of colored light.”
—Walter Benjamin, ‘A Glimpse Into the World of Children’s Books’, 1926, translated by Rodney Livingstone; from The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility and Other Writings on Media, 2008.
a very strange movie
“it’s a very strange movie
It is strange as dulcet gray.”
—Jack Kerouac, ‘Cerrada Medellin Blues, (Second Solo), 3rd Chorus’, from Book of Blues, 1995.
broiled in the oven
“I was broiled in the oven
Of heaven in the silver foil
Of Devil Jesus God
Which is Yr Holy Trinity”
—Jack Kerouac, ‘Horror’, from Book of Blues, 1995.
orange and black
“My real choice was to go
to Princeton—I wanted
to be orange and black
on the football field”
—Jack Kerouac, ‘Orizaba 210 Blues, 50th Chorus’, from Book of Blues, 1995.
Blue, blue, blue
“Orizaba rooftop, Orizaba Rooftop,
Blue, blue, blue
Blue’s made of shiny everyway”
—Jack Kerouac, ‘Orizaba 210 Blues, 61st Chorus’, from Book of Blues, 1995.
festivity and merriment
Some pictures from last wednesday’s opening at the Baton Rouge
Gallery. These were taken early on, as you can see by the
daylight spilling through a doorway. As night fell the attendance increased
dramatically, and soon the galleries echoed with enthusiastic mingling and discussion. Eventually much of the
crowd
wandered to the back patio where live DJs played loud music, and there was much festivity and merriment. Everyone, or if
not
everyone, then very nearly everyone, had a very nice time.
The diamond that cuts through
“The diamond that cuts through
To the other view
That I painted all white for you”
—Jack Kerouac, ‘Orizaba 210 Blues, 19th Chorus’, from Book of Blues, 1995.
Rose
“‘Ah Rose,’ I cried,
‘Shine in the Phosphorescent
Night.’”
—Jack Kerouac, ‘Rose’, from Book of Blues, 1995.
its roseate hue
“At Grand Island he ate dinner, and the food sobered him somewhat. It
sobered him too much, in fact, for he could not stand himself sober
these days. He began drinking again, as soon as he was on the Verdon
train, and gradually the world reassumed its roseate hue.”
—Jim Thompson, Heed the Thunder, 1946.