Last Bender

THE STONES OF AUSTRONESIA
 
Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula
By Paul Michel Munoz
Editions Didier Millet
Singapore
2006
 
Southeast Asia
from prehistory to history
Edited by Ian Glover and Peter Bellwood
RoutledgeCurzon
New York and Oxford
2004
 
I have been reading in Bellwood and Glover’s book Southeast Asia: From Pre-History to History and in Paul Munoz’s Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago [...]

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
          Linda drove a bulbous hunk of metal golden rod. The engine purred and rocked beneath its shining hood. The view from the seat was of some luxuriously painted moon rising against a bleak planet. She gripped the enormous calfskin steering wheel and glided into traffic. People overflowed the sidewalks, danced between cars stilled [...]

A Luxury of Primes: Jack Gilbert
 
Why is Jack Gilbert’s book Monolithos only available used, starting at the royal price of $75.00?
 
Because it is out of print and because it is one of the most moving and brilliant books of poetry of the 20th century. No one ever sells their copy, they only look to buy [...]

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
          Two thumbtacks of light were pressed into my eyes. I sipped scalding, bitter coffee from a bowl. To my left, on a quilted pot holder arranged diagonally on a tile trivet, sat the percolator. Across the room, eyes distant, fully dressed, amused and slightly contemplative, sat Wanda Watts, with a loaded brandy snifter [...]

Insight/Oversight
From the Preface to Bernard Lonergan’s Insight
Thus, insight into insight brings to light the cumulative process of progress. For concrete situations give rise to insights which issue into policies and courses of action. Action transforms the existing situation to give rise to further insights, better policies, more effective courses of action. It follows that if [...]

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
          Barca Langousto was tucked away in a quiet residential block on the east side, occupying the first two floors of an old brownstone. Standing guard by the coat check was a formidable Maitre D’, in cut-away coat and tails, wearing the prosperity of his belly with comfort. As soon as I stepped in [...]

SYMBOLIST AESTHETICS AND EARLY ABSTRACT ART
Sites of imaginary space
 
By Dee Reynolds
 
Cambridge University Press, 1995
 
Following up on comments and thoughts in this blogh on Joyce, Jarry, Rimbaud, Mayakovsky, O’Hara, Henry Corbin et al, and inter alia:
 
“The principle aims of this book are threefold: firstly to reinstate the imagination as a central concept in literary and art [...]

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
          Nothing I did then qualifies as thought. He dragged me into his car and jerked out a three-point turn. The tires squealed. He sped through a stoplight, crossed the double yellow line, and drove straight into a pack of headlights separating slowly as they started towards us through the fog. There was a [...]

For a while in the late seventies and early eighties, among certain people in a variety of places, Dom Deluise became a sort of shorthand for everything that was hilariously awful about the world. I have no idea how, but I do remember the place, a pool house, in a suburb, and three very drunk [...]

Well, I’ve started a new novel. We’ll see where it goes. Here’s chapter 1.
THE WORST IS YET TO COME
 
By Buzz Callaway

“I see the girls go by
Dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head
Until my darkness goes.”
 
–Jagger/Richards, Paint it Black
 
 
 
 
“My advice is to not let the boys in.”
 
–Bob Dylan, Tombstone Blues
 

CHAPTER ONE
She was seventeen [...]