“Literature is that which denounces and slashes apart the repressing machine at the level of the signified” Kathy Acker Punk icon and social revolutionary, the Rebel Goddess of Liberty; I so entitle author Kathy Acker, self described King of the Pirates, who was brilliant, fearless, and immensely learned, who lived life on her … Continue reading Kathy Acker, on her birthday April 18
Alienation and the pathology of disconnectedness, inequities of gender and systemic patriarchy, identity as a projection of others fears and desires, the ephemeral and transitory nature of time and being, the self as a function of memory and history; these are the themes which animate the works of Eva Figes . Among the first … Continue reading Eva Figes, on her birthday April 15
A bizarre and hilarious absurdism, full of original ideas and strange insights, vivid oddball characters filling wonderful stories, Bruce Sterling’s fiction is as great as we might expect from the cofounder of cyberpunk, but it is great because it is built of technological, historical, and economic facts of our real world, disciplines of which he … Continue reading Bruce Sterling, on his birthday April 14
I too once bore the icon of Saint Beatrice of the Absurd as did he, following the tracks of Dante through a blighted and ravaged series of otherworlds, bereft of dictums, of referents, a journey in which all the signs had been switched so that self-referential language led outward to realms unknown and the places … Continue reading Samuel Beckett, on his birthday April 13
“It’s important to ask yourself, How am I useful to others? What do people want from me? That may very well reveal what you are here for. “James Hillman Everything James Hillman has written is wonderful and more important, will help you navigate through life. You could make his work a field of study; … Continue reading James Hillman, on his birthday April 12
“Only poets are innocent enough to invent such monstrosities,” everything seems possible!” –Charles Baudelaire A visionary aesthetics and poetry of beauty, fragile and exquisite, crafted with delicacy and imagination, a Romantic who saw himself as aligned with Byron and who pioneered Symbolism; such was Charles Baudelaire the poet, novelist, and critical essayist . … Continue reading Charles Baudelaire, on his birthday April 9
“Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or believe. It’s more like conversation, raising new questions and moving you to answer them for yourself.” — Barbara Kingsolver Her work an explicitly Socratic project, a narrative activism exploring themes … Continue reading Barbara Kingsolver, on her birthday April 8
Absurd and surreal free-associative stories, playful, odd, and totally uninterested in comprehensibility, full of references to literature and philosophy, art and music, but also to pop culture and ephemera, Donald Barthelme’s works are comprised of found texts, collages of words, lists, theatrical declamations, bizarre dislocations and nonsequitors. He used the methods invented by … Continue reading Donald Barthelme, on his birthday April 7
A poet of raptures, of visions, and of the language of dreams as described by Gaston Bachelard, Homero Aridjis charts the action of a dream navigator’s theory of aesthetic value and historical poetics, immerses us in sounds which are the shells of speech, and gives us this praxis as a lever with which to change … Continue reading Homero Aridjis, on his birthday April 6
Sad that her birthday falls on a day of mourning, the assassination of Martin Luther King, a memorial I observe in accord with my own understanding; yet also we must honor their lives, now linked together for eternity, with action as well as with reflection. Let us each perform, as we are able, an Act … Continue reading Maya Angelou, on her birthday April 4
Dollhouse Park Conservatory & Imaginarium 