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I'm a writer and creative director. I make things, collect books, write fiction and don't understand Zen. I'm Vegan.

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On Curiosity

I’ve been enamored with the writings and films of Alejendro Jodorowsky lately. This also rekindled my interest in Surrealism and Andre Bretón.

The intellectual improvisation of mind, following it’s natural curiosity, has led me to some of my greatest discoveries of music, film and culture. Any time I encounter an artistic form that speaks to me, I listen intently and let myself meander and traverse whatever path the Daemon wants me to take. I am always astonished where I end up.

Years ago Trane led to Miles. Miles led to Bird. Bop led to Sonny Rollins and back to Trane which led to Mingus, Monk, Rouse, Blakey, Clifford Brown, Dolphy, Ornette Coleman and scores of other jazz giants. The same has been true in literature and philosophy, even spirituality which went through paths of Buddhism, Zen, Tao, Gnostic, Alchemical, Western Esoteric, Vedic, and on and on and—

To never limit the possibilities of what might be just around the next curve is infinite in its potential for growth and self-discovery. That curiosity is the greatest gift. The illuminative. Even the most shattering and paradigm shifting. But, that’s the idea, right?

SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express—verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner—the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by though, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.

[Source: Manifestos of Surrealism by André Breton]

James Hillman, visionary, iconoclast, father of Archetypal Psychology and intellectual successor to Jung has died. Hillman’s writings on Soul and Psyche have been influential to how I approach writing.

He’ll be missed.

It’s to fiction that we regularly and gratefully turn for the truest picture of life.

– Julian Barnes, from The Art of Fiction #165, an interview in the Paris Review.

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Going inside the mind of Philip K. Dick

The long awaited, oft written about and frequently speculated on Exegesis of Philip K. Dick is set for release November 7th.

His fiction is famous, but his philosophy has been somewhat controversial as he has been called a visionary, a prophet, a latter-day Gnostic Saint and a madman.

I’ve read bits of the Exegesis at the end of VALIS and it was fascinating. I’m sure the full volume will be mind-bending, dark and illuminating.

I can’t wait to read it.

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I, Robot?

Mystic and esoteric teacher G.I. Gurdjieff wrote that,

Man such as we know him, is a machine.

I am too often reminded of this anytime I do something seemingly on auto-pilot. How did I get to work again? When did they build that new restaurant? Why did I just boil water for coffee?

The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes of all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning we cannot begin to see. Unless we see, we cannot think.

- Thomas Merton

A Stunning Existential Documentary

Wow. Wow. Wow.

Still waiting or this to show up where I live, but the trailer for General Orders #9 completely took my breath away.

 

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All The Rage

Roberto Bolaño’s highly-lauded book The Savage Detectives keeps coming up in conversation, on podcasts and among other sources I’ve been reading. So now, it jumps with a bullet to the top of my reading list. I just got the book today. Here’s the opening paragraph.

I’ve been cordially invited to join the visceral realists. I accepted, of course. There was no initiation ceremony. It was better that way.

So concise, so loaded with possibility. A mysterious sounding group. No initiation, although it is perhaps the kind of group that might otherwise need an initiation so I want in.

Simple, direct sentences. And the name: the visceral realists. Wonderful.

More after reading. Unless of course the visceral realists come calling. Then, I make no promises.

olivia

Mu

A monk asked Joshu,
“Has the dog Buddha nature or not?”
Joshu said, “Mu.”