tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2267108998992052698..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Samuel Johnson: The Uses of ForgetfulnessUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-522922058298242502012-12-29T23:25:22.167-08:002012-12-29T23:25:22.167-08:00Sandra,
Yes, I believe we tend to do exactly that...Sandra,<br /><br />Yes, I believe we tend to do exactly that -- provided we are able. A big IF, in that.<br /><br />(Perhaps removing the inconvenient and uncomfortable furniture that clutters the working and resting space of the mind is one of those tasks that is, as the saying goes, easier said than done!)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34370435932554626862012-12-29T17:37:43.866-08:002012-12-29T17:37:43.866-08:00maybe we forget (for mental health) what we "...maybe we forget (for mental health) what we "want" and what we "need" to forget...(?)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-14266857751692253252012-12-29T08:34:01.531-08:002012-12-29T08:34:01.531-08:00Tom,
Thanks for reminding us of this from Dr. Joh...Tom,<br /><br />Thanks for reminding us of this from Dr. Johnson, lest we forget -- "Little can be done well to which the whole mind is not applied; the business of every day calls for the day to which it is assigned"<br /><br /><br />12.28<br /><br />light coming into sky above black plane<br />of ridge, jet passing above pine branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> presence one step at a time,<br /> each in position even<br /><br /> there, “object” grounded in<br /> emotion, “inner sound”<br /><br />cloudless blue sky reflected in channel,<br />sunlit green of pine on tip of sandspit<br />STEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-62078821461654308702012-12-29T08:25:11.189-08:002012-12-29T08:25:11.189-08:00Thanks again, TC.
Got to hear & meet her yea...Thanks again, TC. <br /><br />Got to hear & meet her years ago along the banks of the Colorado River in Austin @sxsw introduced by the most gracious Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Great gospel w/the Rescue finish. What a delight. <br /><br />Hey, do you keep up Vida & Co.? kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-21833081452720346012012-12-29T07:34:29.790-08:002012-12-29T07:34:29.790-08:00Kent,
Glad to hear that there are a few (more?) s...Kent,<br /><br />Glad to hear that there are a few (more?) synapses still firing, out there on the Western Front. <br /><br />Thanks from Fontella (and Vida, and Sam) for leading this<br />heroic <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwt3kr0_l6I" rel="nofollow">Rescue Operation</a>.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-49977848174579443692012-12-29T07:03:32.640-08:002012-12-29T07:03:32.640-08:00Ashamed to say I'd forgotten she was still wit...Ashamed to say I'd forgotten she was still with us, but you TC will forever have given her most useful of eulogies:<br /><br />I don't know what it was exactly<br />that you rescued me from<br />but Fontella Bass<br />couldn't have need a life preserver more<br /><br />from TO VIDA BLUE<br />Tom Clark, FAN POEMS 1976<br />kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-35936322918523393282012-12-28T17:17:20.107-08:002012-12-28T17:17:20.107-08:00None was ever better than Johnson at that lost cra...None was ever better than Johnson at that lost craft, the construction of the English sentence. I've always enjoyed this one, which contains the gist of the piece:<br /><br />"We suffer equal pain from the pertinacious adhesion of unwelcome images, as from the evanescence of those which are pleasing and useful; and it may be doubted whether we should be more benefited by the art of Memory or the art of Forgetfulness." <br /><br />Boswell, writing on the Idler series in his Life of Johnson, left us with this remarkable note on the composition process, suggesting the pieces came, as is said in footy, "first-time":<br /><br />"Many of these excellent essays were written as hastily as an ordinary letter. Mr. Langton remembers Johnson, when on a visit at Oxford, asking him one evening how long it was till the post went out; and on being told about half an hour, he exclaimed, 'then we shall do very well.' He upon this instantly sat down and finished an Idler, which it was necessary should be in London the next day. Mr. Langton having signified a wish to read it, 'Sir, (said he,) you shall not do more than I have done myself'. He then folded it up, and sent it off".TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-78748223568178276152012-12-28T10:55:01.996-08:002012-12-28T10:55:01.996-08:00Given the option, I'd probably take forgetting...Given the option, I'd probably take forgetting. But there is no option. So many things can never be forgot.<br /><br />Ed Sanders sends along a moving tribute to the revolutionary comic artist Manuel (aka Spain) Rodriguez, a salient force in what was (way back when) called the counterculture.<br /><br />Back in 1967 an equally committed revolutionary artist, my round-the-corner-of-Avenue-A neighbor Ed, put on a show of Spain's art. Spain was residing just a few blocks away on Avenue C. I can still remember the opening. So much for forgetfulness.<br /><br />Here's the flyer Spain made for that show..<br /><br /><a href="http://babylonfalling.tumblr.com/post/36814384774/spain-rodriguez-solo-show-at-ed-sanders-peace-eye" rel="nofollow">Spain Rodriguez at Peace Eye Bookshop, 22 September 1967</a><br /><br />Spain's art provided a tense, nervy counter-punch against the power structure he so vividly named "The Hideum". (Ed would deploy the "concept of the Hideum" theatrically, in a Fugs touring number.)<br /><br />Things were different once.<br /><br />Spain passed away one month ago today. RIP 1940-2012.<br /><br />I'd like to think Samuel Johnson, that great collector of urban characters sans portfolio, would have dug Spain's work -- "Trashman" a creation worthy of Hogarth.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com