The Science Of Imaginary Solutions (Pataphysics); The Sargasso Sea.

The Science Of Imaginary Solutions (Pataphysics)

This sounds like a particularly good idea today. I have some problems that I need to solve and an imagination also. I’m not sure what’s occupying the space between these two areas, i.e., those problems and that imagination, but something is and that something reminds me of the Sargasso Sea I learned about a long time ago.

The Sargasso Sea

Based on what I’ve recently read on the subject, most of what I was taught in school about the Sargasso Sea was incorrect and my memories, which resemble woodcut illustrations of ancient marine ghosts, are of a piece with the fairy tales and fictional adventure stories that were read to me when I was a child. The new information is far more interesting. It’s nice to have access to photos and maps of the deep blue, teeming with life, “Sea Of Expanding Shapes”, which is still a place of mystery. (The more you think you know, the deeper and more profound the mysteries become.) Predictably, these help to describe, but not solve, my dilemma. It’s enough to make a person want to consult an oracle or perhaps set out on a sailboat for Argentina and a good long think.

MASTER OF THE BURIN: THE BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF JOHN BUCKLAND WRIGHT, 1897-1954 (PART 1)

'In my office appeared a tall, young Englishman, slightly nervous about the meeting he was imagining, with a probably bearded Belgian publisher of about 60 years old, who would give him the assignment to make a few wood engravings for a minimal honorarium or that would politely send him away after a few words.' So recalled Alexander A. Stols (1900-1973), the director of the Maastricht-based Halcyon Press, on first meeting JBW. It was a successful meeting, with JBW commissioned to illustrate a limited edition book of John Keats's Sonnets (1930), his first published engravings. This is one of eleven prints from that debut publication.

Illustration to poem 'To G. A. W.' from John Keats, The Collected Sonnets. Maastricht: Halcyon Press, 1930. Private Collection.

MASTER OF THE BURIN: THE BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS OF JOHN BUCKLAND WRIGHT, 1897-1954 (PART 2)

The Stols-JBW relationship was a fruitful one. Between 1930 and 1940, Halcyon Press published over a dozen books illustrated by JBW. The eighth book for Halcyon was Poe's The Masque of the Red Death, with JBW completing the engravings at his studio in Buttes Chaumont, Paris. Later he and his wife Mary would move to 9 bis rue de Valence in the Latin Quarter; their residence until the outbreak of World War II. It was an ideal apartment, having a separate room for a work-space and an abundance of northern light by which he could work.

Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death and Other Tales. Maastricht: Halcyon Press, 1932. Special PS 2612 A1 1932.

Reverse Transformational

Transformational

Easter Sunday, 2010

Everybody knows that the perceived length of days is unpredictable, but yesterday, Easter, seemed like a very long day.

I’m grateful for that because it was a very fine day also. I felt fully involved in everything I did and blessed with the very best companionship, including:

1. Caroline and Jane.

2. Andy and Edie.

3. Two people I like at the gym who made the early morning wake up and filled me in on “the news”.

4. Tom Clark and readers/correspondents at Beyond The Pale. I read fine poetry, prose and commentary and learned things about grammar and rhetoric. Through analysis and intuition I divined the path to “paratasis” and found that I hadn’t gotten lost.

5. The members and attenders present at the Cornwall Monthly Meeting Easter Meeting for Worship. It had been too long since we had participated there and Cornwall’s “living silence” spoke volumes to us.

6. The people we chatted with at Easter lunch overlooking Tuxedo Lake, which was as beautiful as I’ve ever seen it. Seeing how thoughtfully Jane treated the younger children present made me very proud.

7. My companions in the wildly entertaining dreams I had while Caroline drove back to Berwyn.

8. Jane (singling her out again) for reading aloud from The Code of the Woosters and loving the book and for finishing her math problem packet. It will break my heart (which can be a hard one on subjects like this; I must improve; that’s part of what Easter is all about) to wake her in 32 minutes so that she can begin the school week on time by performing a task that has turned a little sour for her. I’m grateful I understand why this is so now and also for the fact that we’re finally on the same page about it. And Jane for doing her axels and spins with such aplomb.

9. The person who cooked my miso soup with “asari” (clams) and enoki mushrooms last night. It tasted like the best thing in the world.

10. Eduardo, Bentley, the McFadden’s black and white cat, Pitch (where are you?) in Tuxedo, and the full complement of our animal family in Berwyn, i.e., Rose, Eddie, Eddie, Jr., Bunny, Felix, Claude, Princess Daisy, TigerLily, Honey, Tige, KingKing, Skip, Flip, Rainbow, Ruby and always, Pansy, U and Santa. (I’ve already mentioned Andy and Edie.)