Passion, madness, chaos, and the looming primordial darkness from which we emerge, but also a poetry of liberation, transgression, the sacredness of nature, and a renegotiation of gender and identity from which new possibilities of being human may yet arise; Ted Hughes is a trickster who wears many masks. A revolutionary feminism and a … Continue reading Ted Hughes, on his birthday August 17
Absurdism, satire, ironic humor, subversion of authority and the play of language; as a forerunner of Existentialism his immortal novel Ferdydurke prefigures Sartre, his narrative pyrotechnics forged as a theatrical dramatist and shaped to a Brancusi-like perfection of ideal form; Witold Gombrowicz remains among the great figures of European literature. His works are a … Continue reading Witold Gombrowicz, on his birthday August 4
A grand eminence of the San Francisco arts community and an icon of what is best in America, Isabel Allende inhabits the interfaces of nation, culture, and history in a place of masterless agency and freedom, negotiating the boundaries of self and others. An immigrant as once were we all across the whole … Continue reading Isabel Allende, on her birthday August 2
To each of us his own White Whale, to lift us beyond our limits in pursuit of the impossible; this gift has Herman Melville given us in his magnificent novel Moby Dick, written as an answer to the Book of Job. And yet more; fables which intertwine with our histories to magnify and deepen … Continue reading Herman Melville, on his birthday August 1
In celebration of the author and her perplexing novel, which continues to provoke impassioned discourse and afright the horses. Emily Bronte saw herself as the Titan Prometheus, cast out of heaven like Milton’s rebel angel, and bearing the stolen fire of the gods. I have always seen in her a kindred spirit, and myself … Continue reading Emily Bronte, on her birthday July 30
Here Be Dragons; bizarre, mysterious, terrifying and seductive writing, off the chart of the known world; William H. Gass is among both our greatest intellectuals and essayists when discussing literature and its themes, and a pioneering storyteller who has shifted the role and scope of fiction. An account of his classics of fiction … Continue reading William H. Gass, on his birthday July 30
From his stunning debut collection of short stories, 13 Stories and 13 Epitaphs, through his Great Books The Royal Family and Whores For Gloria, his subversive chronicles of American history including Argall: The True Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, and his transgressive autobiography and world travel journal The Atlas, William T. Vollman has … Continue reading William T. Vollman, on his birthday July 28
“Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all women love to be mastered” G.B.Shaw, Pygmalion afterward Socialist and Irish rebel, humanist and playwright, George Bernard Shaw crafted stunning satires and critiques of the established order, his particular windmills being capitalism, patriarchy, religious authoritarianism, racism, and colonial imperialism. His incendiary radicalism is … Continue reading George Bernard Shaw, on his birthday July 26
The collective unconscious which unifies all humanity as a transhistorical colony organism below the surface of our personalities and awareness and referential to Platonic Idealism and Logos, being human as a process of growth he called individuation and modeled on alchemy as a pancultural spiritual faith, synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle; personality as an … Continue reading C.G. Jung, on his birthday July 26
At his best, in the Great Books Grendel, October Light, and The Sunlight Dialogues, beautifully written and wonderful, illuminating, living philosophy argued with elegance and wit between unforgettable characters, John Gardner stands among the giants of our canon of literature. As a Platonic philosopher who also writes fiction, he compares to Iris Murdoch. His … Continue reading John Gardner, on his birthday July 21
Dollhouse Park Conservatory & Imaginarium 