"In passing from history to nature, myth acts economically: it abolishes the complexity of human acts, it gives them the simplicity of essences ... it organises a world which is without contradictions because it is without depth, a world wide open and wallowing in the evident, it establishes a blissful clarity. Things appear to mean… Continue reading On Decisions
Category: literature
On ‘The Imaginary’
I started reading The Imaginary: A Phenomenological Psychology of the Imagination by Jean Paul Sartre (1940) on Monday 23rd March, on the train back home to Glasgow where I would be staying until this whole pandemic thing blew over. I just finished it as lockdown is slowly lifting. It's a book deconstructing the imagination: such as… Continue reading On ‘The Imaginary’
On Saint Sebastian
Detail of 'St. Sebastian' by Sandro Botticelli, 1474 Forbearance in the face of fate, beauty constantly under torture, are not merely passive. They are a positive achievement, an explicit triumph; and the figure of Sebastian is the most beautiful symbol, if not of art as a whole, yet certainly of the art we speak of… Continue reading On Saint Sebastian
On Esmeralda
During quarantine, we've been drinking a lot of vodka and watching Disney films, which has been cathartic as I cry every time (a good way of releasing pent-up emotions). Even though I regularly watch my favourite Disney flick The Hunchback of Notre Dame, (mostly when very hungover) I have more clearly realised how fabulous the… Continue reading On Esmeralda
On Confessions
“The confession has spread its effects far and wide. It plays a part in justice, medicine, education, family relationships, and love relations, in the most ordinary affairs of everyday life, and in the most solemn rites; one confesses one's crimes, one's sins, one's thoughts and desires, one's illnesses and troubles; one goes about telling, with… Continue reading On Confessions
On Françoise Sagan and Sally Rooney
This is a comparative study of two novels by Françoise Sagan (b. 1935, Cajarc, France) and Sally Rooney (b. 1991, County Mayo, Ireland). Just for fun. I read Sally Rooney's Conversations with Friends (2017) straight after consuming her second book Normal People (2018) which my mum had lent me. It was when my parents were down visiting… Continue reading On Françoise Sagan and Sally Rooney
On ‘The Uncanny’
There is in fact a path from phantasy back to reality again - and that is art. Sigmund Freud, 'Introductory Lectures', 1922 Freud's essay on 'The Uncanny' is one of those seminal texts that was always brought up throughout my art-life, especially in my undergrad in GSA, and particularly 2nd year in which everything we made… Continue reading On ‘The Uncanny’
Sertraline Dreams 