Miguel de Cervantes, on his birthday September 29

Satire, Absurdism, the birth of Humanism, self-referential metafiction half a millennium before its time; with Don Quixote, the civilization of Europe awakens from its long slumber, shakes off the spell of church and state like a giant rousing itself from an evil poison, and begins to question itself again. Miguel de Cervantes ignited the Renaissance … Continue reading Miguel de Cervantes, on his birthday September 29

Maurice Blanchot, on his birthday September 22

Maurice Blanchot is a matador, wielding the nonteleological sword of Nietzsche against the atavistic barbarism and monstrous brutality of history and of authoritarian tyrannies, his words swirling like a cloak of diversion and concealment. And it is as a performance that I esteem his works classics of world literature; with dazzling wit, nimbleness, and grace … Continue reading Maurice Blanchot, on his birthday September 22

Viktor Erofeyev, on his birthday September 19

Combining the qualities of his idols who are also the subjects of his brilliant scholarship, the layered philosophical depth of Dostoyevsky and de Sade’s satires of power and eroticism of transgression brought to life with the lyricism and hallucinatory nightmares of French Surrealism, Viktor Erofeyev spins myths of postmodern decadence.      His novel Russian Beauty, … Continue reading Viktor Erofeyev, on his birthday September 19

William Carlos Williams, on his birthday September 17

Strangeness and dreamworlds, nonsequitors and wordplay, fantasies which intrude into our reality and realities which fragment and grow in kaleidoscopic transforms of gorgeousness; William Carlos Williams jostles our expectations and unbalances his readers to make us see anew. Like so much of American poetry, his was built on the foundation of Walt Whitman’s poetics of … Continue reading William Carlos Williams, on his birthday September 17

Pierre Reverdy, on his birthday September 13

As from a genie’s lamp Pierre Reverdy summoned Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, and a cinematographic poetics. His reimagination of literary and visual arts was crucial in the invention of the modern world; read therefore his poetry, and his novels The Thief of Talant and Haunted House.       There are many interesting connections between Pierre Reverdy and … Continue reading Pierre Reverdy, on his birthday September 13