The Banquet Years

See also:  [Constructivism]
                  [Suprematism ()]
                  [de Stijl]
                  [Hermeticism (Italy)]
                  [Group 'G']
                  [Art Movements]
 

The Banquet Years

       (i found myself floating up higher and higher,
        and i thought to myself that i should be 
        afraid; for indeed, i have always been
        affraid of heights. But, somehow, there came
        to me a certain calmness that i have never
        known. After frolicking among the clouds, it
        came to me to find out who this mysterious
        writer that had so captured -- indeed liberated
        my imagination was. In a flash, i found myself
        plummeting towards the land again; tracing a
        a gentle parabola towards the library. In this
        astral form, i flashed thru the wall of the 
        library and slowly glided along the centrl
        study area, where the tables are arranged in
        great long rows with a central lane between
        them for the librarians to push their carts
        along to reshelf the books. Along the edges
        bordering the tables, electrical cords stretched
        from several tables to the electrical outlets
        at the sides of the central study area -- plugged
        in, the computer notebooks of students bent over
        books and the electronic marvel of the laptop.
        As i slowed, a priest who happened to be in
        library seemed to perceive my passage -- perhaps
        to him, i appeared the white, cloud-like elongated
        ovid that i perceived myself to be. He crossed
        himself; possibly, not know whether i was angel
        or demon. Indeed i do not consider myself to be
        either, when at last i reached the secton of 
        bookshelves, the knowledge literally flew out of
        books and into mine mind. All lay clear before 
        me as if on flash cards that children use to
        learn their number facts. Each topic (no matter
        how complex its nature) reveled itself into mine
        mind in the utmost simplicity and became into
        mine mind as though i had learned it at my 
        grandmother's need in childhood. The facts raced
        in each garnering for itself a place in mine mind,
        the words and images, facts and ideas, onslaught
        they came:

           "when his faith suddenly deserts him, the
            priest struggles, secretly hoping to cope,
            he crosses paths with associates on the
            complex margins of the church facing modern
            politics in the early 20th century. Bereft of
            hope, the priest plunges into the dark abyss
            of the world's inhabitants, all the while
            only Father Chevance struggles to save him
            from his doubt... handing over the weighless
            bhndle of rags, from which a childish moan
            emerged, to an officer amid laughter in the
            police station, he flet a terrible and 
            un-dreamt joy....
               -- P.193, "The Imposter", - Georges Bernanos.


Eugenio Montale,

"Cuttle Fish Bones" (publication)



The Usual Suspects


Kasimir Malevich () ()


See also: [Performance Art]
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) (Postal Clerk for the REIGHT!)


Chronology