The Immortal Wound

A long conversation with Harold Bloom at the NYPL:

The Sage of Concord

Harold Bloom on RWE.

The American Religion

"... the concept of faith has lost its genuine meaning and has received the connotation of 'belief in something unbelievable.'" --Paul Tillich, The Courage To Be, Yale University Press (1957), 172.

Resurrection

(not in Easter's splendor

but in the shameful anxiety

of the Word Scratcher

who tries to write life)

A Philosophy of Man

In Emersonian fashion, Ernst Cassirer argued that "We cannot define man by any inherent principle which constitutes his metaphysical essence--nor can we define him by any inborn faculty or instinct that may be ascertained by empirical observation. Man's outstanding characteristic, his distinguishing mark, is not his metaphysical or physical nature--but his work. It is this work, it is the system of human activities, which defines and determines the circle of 'humanity.' Language, myth, religion, art, science, history are the constituents, the various sectors of this circle. A 'philosophy of man' would therefore be a philosophy which would give us insight into the fundamental structure of each of these human activities, and which at the same time would enable us to understand them as an organic whole" (Cassirer, An Essay On Man, p. 68).

Gauguin Triptych

"From where do we come What are we Where are we going"

Not Suited To Be A Party Man

"He who thinks a great deal is not suited to be a party man: he thinks his way through the party and out the other side too soon." --F. Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human, vol. 1, aphorism 579.