Author Archive: Peter Jakobsen
Rodent and Firefly
Euclid (the other one) by Domenico Maroli, 1650s
St. Peter: How came you to be down there. Sir Alfred Ayer: You mean in Logical Positivism’s chair? St. Peter: And generally in such infernal spot. Sir Alfred: Specifically, it is a seat best known as hot- However, others burn intensely for theirs it’s not. St. Peter: Bertrand Russell, Berkeley, Hume and Wittgenstein, you mean? Sir Alfred: Precisely and many others now not read or seen. Daubed with the mud of metaphysics, you can see where they’ve been; Off verifying nonsense, their minds are not clean. St. Peter: And why are you in the Seventh Circle? Sir Alfred: I thought…
Continue Reading →Bluebeard
There lived a cold unloving man who dwelt alone in castle walls But tension worthy of a clan kept him company under a high-strung roof. Dreading women, loving battle and the hunt, A Bluebeard; frightened of, frightening children. His cellar stocked with vintage wine and bodies of the loved ones Who knew too late the fate that came of knowing him: Tied to sterile dreams, fated to form an empty vessel, Drained of all emotion, drunk by a leech’s thirst. Speed is of the essence, there’s no time to catch a breath, Hurtling deathwards with precision; He keeps the past…
Continue Reading →Straggler
"Isle of the Dead" by Arnold Böcklin (1880)
He felt he had lost the edge, Somewhere along the way. He thought he could only improve, That his powers were permanent, But he badly misjudged his talents And the transient mood of the throng, Woke to find he had lost the edge, Somewhere along the way. So he glanced more sharply, more often At the image growing closer before him; Rubbed the surface of the mirror with vigor, To gain clarity of perception, But with deep disappointment, he realized That the portrait grew ever still fainter, One day it would blacken and vanish, Somewhere along the way.
Continue Reading →Avida Dollars
"I disanthropise chance." (photo by Roger Higgins) Dali (1904-1989)
Salvador, Feliz cumpleaños! (Born, 1904, 11 May) We had to write out the phrase Avida Dollars, to ensure that it was what we thought: the best anagram ever. Devised by Andre Breton for Salvador Dali, it nicely encapsulated the leftish surrealists’ resentment of Dali’s over-developed commercial sense, and most of all, his success. Since Hitler’s rise occurred about the same time, they tried to smear him as a fascist as well. As Clive James so justly wrote, Marxism will always be popular among artists without talent, since it allows them to blame society for the fact no one wants to hear what they have to…
Continue Reading →Anaesthesia
Image by Francis Dodd
TVC nominates the following pretentious and overblown Celluloid soporifics as the most narcoleptic films of all time: Absolutely Anything (2015) You’d have to go a long way to find a comedy without a single laugh but here we are! A Bridge Too Far (1977) The Arnhem campaign in Holland is re-staged as the 80 Years’ War. The ridiculous length serves to allow the countless star cameos, all of which add up to a big fat zero. Brooklyn (2015) Jesus, Mary and Joseph! What Eejit finagled this? Two hours of ennui, to be sure, to be sure!! Dances With Wolves (1990) Quick, Tom!! Shoot that…
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