Bukowski

Whiskey, scotch, beer, wine, vodka, gin. One more drink … Left thumb dead, liver shot, high blood pressure, haemorrhoids, ulcers and Christ knows what! Cigarette after cigarette. And symphony records.

Picture credit: Alcoholic Calavera, 1888, Jose Guadalupe Posada (source: WikiArt).

See we've got to communicate by Charles Bukowski.

From journal, April 2023.

On the Method and After Descartes' Meditations

A method, the method, his method, an instrument for action. It alone effective; it alone – in rooting out error and welcoming doubt – leading to certainty; it alone unifying thought, all thought, his thought. Mathematics. The sciences underpinned by it; our structural understanding of the external world governed by it. Descartes, a thinker, spectator rather than actor in the comedies/tragedies played, writing a fable – a moral instruction – to awaken the mind. Examples to perhaps follow, examples to perhaps not copy. Our thoughts, made and unmade by others, informed by observation and experience, entirely our own.

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Certain that he is; he is, he exists. Certain that I am; I am, I exist. He thought he was a man; I think I am a woman. But what is a man, a woman? A 'whole machine made up of flesh and bones'. I am, I exist. He was, he existed. I am, he was, something. A thing that thinks. And feels. But what Descartes asked, I ask now: if I cease to think, will I cease to be, to exist?

What thinks? The mind or the soul? Are they one and the same? Immortal?

Picture credit: Rene Descartes and a Moving Matter, Alexander Roitburd (source: WikiArt).

See Discourse on Method and The Meditations by René Descartes, Penguin Classics.

From journal, March 2023.

Shakespeare and ...

Perhaps with … with … revised by … by Shakespeare and … Thomas Nashe; George Peele; George Wilkins; Thomas Middleton; John Fletcher. No consensus. For/against. Credit given where the play seems weak; not where it is strong. Any shortcomings, dissatisfactions with structure, style and quality must be due to collaboration. God forbid Shakespeare have an 'off' play. But is there convincing evidence? Yes and no. It's debated; the plays in question – Henry VIII (aka All is True) being one – are compared to those held to be sole Shakespeare; portions in supposed dual-authored texts are attributed, to no end, however. And as no agreement can be reached, interest shifts, falls away. What does it matter? Well, it just does, doesn't it? If Shakespeare questions, examines, the nature of truth, then we should do the same – consider the alternative: allow the sun to shine on other names.

Picture credit: The Plays of William Shakespeare,1849, Sir John Gilbert (source: Wikipedia).

From journal, March 2023.

Clashing of Swords

A critical clashing of swords. A writer criticised for what he/she has or hasn't written. They give in their works no direct mention of monumental events – events they're lived or are living through: war, epidemics, economic depressions; whereas other writers define themselves by doing just that – write into their fiction the changing politics and social conditions; use their pen or literary reputation to protest, to voice what they've observed or have identified as truth. Their truth; the people's truth.

Is that what literature should do? Speak for (and to) the marginalised? Reference history in the making or history made? I'm not sure it's a writer's – unless a journalist – responsibility. I don't agree there should be rules or standards. A writer should be free to write what he/she wants, and that includes mentioning or omitting what he/she feels like. Perhaps they want to be loose with time. Perhaps they see – in their present moment – no point in flinging more words, more mud, more truth, (even in novel form) at a subject. Perhaps the event itself was or is still too fluid. Perhaps writers should be let alone to do their work. Perhaps their works should be let alone during their lifetime and after their death.

Picture credit: Sword Rack, 2003, Dana Schutz (source: WikiArt).

From journal, March 2023.