The unavoidable implication of the madman’s declaration that “God is dead!” is the dismantling of the notion of a metaphysical world beyond human perception transcendental to this erroneous world of appearance. The notion of this world as appearance and the unseen, absolute or ideal world as truth is a construction of Christian morality, and with the unmasking of Christian morality and the will to (otherworldly) truth, the opposition between appearance and being is irrevocably erased and metaphysical dualism cannot subsist. Appearance takes on …

The genius behind J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is manifold and delightful. In the creation of a wondrous world, we meet a downtrodden but victorious sympathetic hero -– an orphan in the Dickensian tradition. Harry Potter starts out a lonely, goodhearted, courageous boy who is learning his true calling on his journey of growing up. The series uses the timeless morals of good (Harry and Professor Dumbledore) triumphing over evil (Lord Voldemort & the Death-Eaters); open-mindedness (the Weasleys), winning over ignorance (the …

“I am also interested in the discontinuation of contractions. Medial letters are as valid as any others. I have already begun to revise my speech patterns accordingly.”
–Don Delillo, End Zone

It’s a rather minor bit of throw away dialogue from End Zone. But, to ask a leading question, is it really? Jack Kerouac famously rejected the standard seventeen syllable format for the haiku in favor of something which preserved the essence of the format while rejecting the …

How is it possible that two great movements of literary expression, occurring almost exactly one hundred years apart, could be nearly identical? How can it be that the philosophies of Walt Whitman, as expressed through his writing, could be paralleled a century later in the philosophies of the Beat generation of poets, writers, and bohemians? The great Beat writers, namely Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, are the successors of the movement begun by Walt Whitman upon his publishing of …

Strange title? Mental poison? Except that it isn’t, it’s just the first of the many paradoxes in this surrealistic tale. I should warn you — you will wonder what this book’s about and then part way through you will think it’s not about anything. But when you finish it (and you will, because it’s a good read) you’ll realize it’s about “something” only in the way a good poem is about “something”. Or maybe a Richard Brautigan novel. …

One of my favorite images is an illustration on a postcard of a broken light bulb, blue on the inside, out of which a fried egg oozes, in shades of orange. It brings to mind ideas run amok and “your brain on drugs” (from those TV commercials years ago). I always get a chuckle out of it, so you might imagine my delight when assigned to review a book called Breaking Open the Head. I believe, as William Blake wrote, that “The Road …

The 12th Planet is book one in the Earth Chronicles series. Originally published in 1977, it is the original and most well known. The premise of his work, simply, is that life originated outside planet earth. It was transplanted to and genetically modified on here by an alien race of supermen-gods, know collectively as “the Nefilim.” If one can wrap his head around this concept, the research and work following is marginally easier to accept. Sitchin seeks to support a number of scientifically unpalatable and …