"...the desire of raising other men into a perception of the infinite...." Ezekiel's answer to Blake's question "why he eat dung"....
Patrick White presumably quotes this at the strart of "Riders in the Chariot" to suggest a link between Blake's reverence for the eccentric prophetic and visionary imagination and his (White's) own fascination with ( Read more... )

            It was a strange experience.

Imagine standing before a floor to ceiling glass window; looking out into broad daylight...you know, one of those windows where you can see out, but anyone on the other side will be damned if they can see in...tinted, you know...you know what I’m talking about.

Imagine life...going on ( Read more... )

I think Alf Dubbo is like a symbol of poetic genius - and I'm intrigued by your introducing the idea of the infinite into this...

Does Dubbo perceive the infinite? I think in a way yes, and in a way no...I think he perceived something, but not everything - I think what Patrick White is getting at throughout the whole novel - especially through the ( Read more... )

EXIT

did you ever think tonight would be forever

ever?

did you ever think tonight we’d be together

ever?

do you think that when you wake you’ll wish you’d never

ever?

did you catch my eye to keep our gaze alive forever

did you leave and turn around

and turn your smiling to a frown

or maybe you just went away

and that was how you hoped to leave

with just a ( Read more... )

I couldn't help but stop to ponder over katie's journal from September 12 which begins with a "STOP BUSH" badge and proceeds with comments the likes of "Bush has brought NO GOOD" and "Leaders...are bringing terrorism closer and closer to our lives"...

Now admittedly I don't get on LJ and put forth my own political and moral objections/opinions/ ( Read more... )

Malouf states in his introduction, writes from "The Prodigal Son" that in the Australia of today "the mind is the least of possessions, the rich man as the important man..." etc. I took this to mean that we have become a place where there is nothing but reality and the cold heartedness of "facts, facts, facts" as Gradgrind might say...clearly then ( Read more... )

I liked the discussion we started yesterday in class about whether or not Ms Hare's religious experience was indeed restricted because of her lack of language, and I would have been interested to continue that line of thinking to see where it leads us and what conclusions we might have made.

For my part, I found the line "I believe in what I can see ( Read more... )

RECKLESS

if you stand tall

and you fall

I will catch you

I assure

doesn’t matter what you’ve done

what it was that made you come

(all the way down)

I would catch you from your fall

and you’re no burden

ever at all

but what about the other side

of that coin little darlin’

will you be there

saving face

the day that I come crashing down

the day I ( Read more... )

After sitting there and listening to David Malouf talk yesterday about his novels, his writing, his influences and his obvious love of what he does and of literature in general I have to say I'm somewhat inspired...

and god knows it doesn't happen very often

but realistically, before going to the discussion with Malouf I would have said I was not ( Read more... )

THE PARADE

tried runnin’

but I couldn’t find my way outta town

tried strummin’

but I couldn’t even make a single sound

tried nothin’

but something always seemed to give

tried lovin’

tried...

tried...

tried but then I gave it on in

[chorus]

tried givin’

but all I gave you

you pretty quickly gave away

tried marchin’

but I was never in the lead ( Read more... )