Carpaccio, “Vision of St. Augustine”

Date: 1502

St. Augustine sits at his desk,

where he has just finished reading a letter from St. Jerome asking his advice on a theological matter. St. Augustine has scarcely taken up his quill to reply when light floods his study and a miraculous voice reveals to him that St. Jerome is dead.

It might be entertaining to speculate on the relevance of the scene to what I’ve been discussing – pointing out, perhaps, the futility of the reasoned answer St. Augustine is preparing in the face of the unforeseen and overwhelming truth. But let’s not. We have a still more entertaining object to contemplate.

In the middle of the floor to the left of the saint’s desk, a little Maltese dog sits bolt upright. He is bathed with celestial light, to which he pays no attention as he stares at his master in an attitude of absolute expectation, as alert in his immobility as was my little fullback in her agile skipping. He is as unconcerned by the momentous event now occurring as he is by literary theory. His attitude might be translated as the human question, What next?

Harry Mathews
Translation and the Oulipo: The Case of the Persevering Maltese

“Vision of St. Augustine” (detail)

Carolina Victory

casual encounter #25

Seeking Julian Assange Look-A-Like for Dirty roleplay - w4m - 23

---

Date: 2011-01-10, 1:26AM EST

---

Seeking a techno rebel cute guy that can take charge and play hard. I'm creative, fun, and safe.

• Location: Williamsburg

Paul Thek, Untitled (Meat Piece with Flies)

Wood, melamine laminate, metal, wax, paint, hair, and Plexiglas

O the glassy towns are fucked by yaks

Frank O’Hara

the future is now

big fun

what is the avant-garde?

Novelty in the arts is either communication or noise. If it is noise then there is no more to say about it. If it is communication it is inescapably related to something older than itself.

Frank Kermode

the future is now

Awful Library Books

what is the avant-garde?

Mr. Joyce’s liberties with English are essentially unlike Shakespeare’s. Shakespeare’s were not the product of a desire to “develop his medium to the fullest,” but of a pressure of something to be conveyed.

F.R. Leavis

the future is now

what is the avant-garde?

“To be responsible for the happiness of the Universe,” as W.H. Auden points out, “is not a sinecure.” Equally, the apocalyptic-epiphanic mode in fiction is not for minor talents. It should be clear that the more superbly an author throws away the crutches of verisimilitude, the more heavily he must lean on his own style and wit. Experimental novels may have a habit of looking easy (certainly easier to write than to read), but their failure-rate is alarmingly high–approaching, I sometimes fear, 100 per cent.

Martin Amis

the future is now

You can be a cop!

what is the avant-garde?

Schism is simply meaningless without reference to some prior condition; the absolutely New is simply unintelligible, even as novelty.

Frank Kermode