tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post1158608740259239909..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Something Occurring by the Side of a RoadUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-71945618587092474932010-07-28T11:46:44.563-07:002010-07-28T11:46:44.563-07:00That's certainly an injustice to the Moai of R...That's certainly an injustice to the Moai of Rapa Nui, Curtis.<br /><br />(The carbon black Sunray man appears to possess the strange immanence of an Easter Island figure...)<br /><br /><br />hb, yes,"a play in 3 acts..."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-89925952460859801422010-07-28T01:53:25.837-07:002010-07-28T01:53:25.837-07:00Tom!
what have you done?!
this is exquisite!
put...Tom!<br /><br />what have you done?!<br /><br />this is exquisite!<br />putting the whole knowledge one needs in life in a play in 3 acts... or a story in 3 episodes... or a poem in 3 stanzas...<br />:)<br /><br />the magic of your words again!<br />and your mind...<br /><br />rarely does anyone write like this!human beinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09232419187783429903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-25234985317743016372010-07-27T11:02:51.487-07:002010-07-27T11:02:51.487-07:00Thanks so much. All of this, and particularly the ...Thanks so much. All of this, and particularly the memory of childhood fever, is very easy to picture. I am now, as they say, off to the races with Halliburton. The Seven Wonders reference, by the way, made me think of your recent post, Mute, showing the Easter Island statuary. A couple of years ago, an organization called the New 7 Wonders Foundation, ran an online poll for the selection of an updated, expanded Wonders list. Easter Island was nominated but finished in runner-up position in the top 10. We were slightly disappointed because even though the whole exercise was kind of phony, the father of one of Jane's schoolmates is a native of Easter Island and we were encouraged to vote. Santi, by the way, is a remarkable looking man, and clearly a kinsman to the stone figures.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-70386267768699455182010-07-27T10:31:14.685-07:002010-07-27T10:31:14.685-07:00Curtis,
Further recollections of a Halliburton ha...Curtis,<br /><br />Further recollections of a Halliburton haunted childhood. His legend hung over one like a taunt and a dare.<br /><br />At one point I spent a prolonged period abed with rheumatic fever and Halliburton's works strewn about the fever-racked coverlet. It was heaven in a strange boiling half-hallucinated sort of way. I had a ledger tablet and scribbled into it, while convalescing, a longish narrative history of Australia, stylistically influenced by the heroic romanticism of Halliburton. All I recall of it now is the canary yellow red-ruled ledger paper.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-84014507016824115712010-07-27T10:13:09.930-07:002010-07-27T10:13:09.930-07:00It is indeed Richard, Curtis. Excuse the memory sl...It is indeed Richard, Curtis. Excuse the memory slippage, fairly routine it seems. I am hoping to forget twice as many details as I learn every day, until none at all are left.<br /><br />That should happen by mid-afternoon.<br /><br />In his Complete Book of Marvels he presented the Seven Wonders of the World.<br /><br />That one did so well he then produced his Second Book of Marvels, which included the "updated" or "new" seven wonders -- this time including the Pyramids, Mount Fuji, the Great Wall of China, and so on.<br /><br />Both volumes were greatly treasured by yours truly. I regarded the illustrations of the Ancient Wonders as bonafide. It never occurred to me Halliburton would exaggerate or lie.<br /><br />I later learned my trust had been perhaps misplaced. But now of course that has no bearing.<br /><br />In any case he was indeed an amazing fellow, went everywhere, did everything, was amazingly adventurous and gay, and died while doing it all, still young, disappearing in a plane over water, never again seen.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-16738720823066894942010-07-27T09:47:36.715-07:002010-07-27T09:47:36.715-07:00The words you wrote definitely excited me. I trie...The words you wrote definitely excited me. I tried looking up Charles Halliburton's Seven Wonders and found instead information about Richard Halliburton, the author of the Complete Book of Marvels, the Royal Road to Romance, Seven League Boots and Flying Carpet, among other volumes. Is this the same person? The books sound amazing (the reader comments on several sites are really passionate) and Halliburton's biography is truly incredible.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-353405994382682112010-07-27T07:24:43.925-07:002010-07-27T07:24:43.925-07:00Curtis,
Your good eye brings to this another dime...Curtis,<br /><br />Your good eye brings to this another dimension as always.<br /><br />With or without the Sur there is a special kind of Realism in dreams I think, and as time goes by I find it less easy to clearly distinguish the reality we see around us from the reality we dream.<br /><br />In this case I approached Vachon's work from obverse directions, subjective (here), and objective (in the post above), in both cases by way of childhood and that dreaming of space and scale which begins very early on.<br /> <br />Among my favourite childhood books were the travel romances of Charles Halliburton. I was especially taken, c. age five or six, with the Seven Wonders of the World. <br /><br />In my childish dreaming of a larger world I always began with what was palpable and so my earliest actual voyages, to such fabled destinations as the Blackhawk Hotel in Des Moines, or Briggs Stadium in Detroit, or the Missouri Ozarks or the Allegheny River (all Vachon subjects, as it happens), could be extrapolated out, the infinitely small and the infinitely large conflated in space and time, to rival the Colossus of Rhodes or the Mausoleum at Hallicarnassus or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.<br /><br />The strange momentary tingle of otherness which electrifies these prosaic American realities, these distanced or defamiliarized dream spaces, in the Vachon work, excited the words in this post into being.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-81137858810643759822010-07-27T06:42:01.225-07:002010-07-27T06:42:01.225-07:00This series sent me back to my books to look up de...This series sent me back to my books to look up definitions of Surrealism, which always seemed to be in conflict with the works themselves, i.e., the artwork and poetry tended to be deliberate, highly intellected efforts, rather than exercises in “pure psychic automatism.” <br /><br />For some time now, my daughter has been describing her dreams to me, which has been interesting and fun, and brings me back to my own dreams and now to Something Occurring by the Side of a Road, which I would love to see published on its own.<br /><br />You’ve really done something with/to the Vachon photos here and they’ve really done something with/to your words.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.com