¡Bienvenidos a la Pared! Welcome to The Wall.
Issue 5, Vol I
The photo at the left was taken in the fall of 2017 and has many memories: a late evening meal in a garden courtyard; chance conversations at a tapas bar; heat, even for southern Spain where this little medieval-era Moorish village, Almonaster, sits in the hills. Its views are of vineyards spreading out on those hills, best seen from under the outermost arches of the oldest mosque in Europe. Though not an active place of worship, the mosque is a physical reminder of times when the three monotheist religions managed to live with one another in relative harmony and when they enjoyed many creative and intellectual exchanges among them. Ibn Sina (Avicenna,) Maimonides, Al Haytham, father of the scientific method; poet Aisha bint Ahmad al-Qurtubiya of Cordoba...I would be here into the wee hours listing them all. Sadly, that tolerance suffered mortally under the Spanish Inquisition, and much, much later, under Franco; and we are seeing the injunction to respect the humanity of others once again straining at the seams, not so much here, as in our own country, in Eastern Europe, and elsewhere.
The town is not too far from Huelva and Palos, from where El Colón set off on his maiden voyage to what he thought would be the Indies. Instead, Colón bumped into the Americas, though he died without acknowledging that he had encountered, to Europeans, a new continent. |
In this issue, our pocket anthology is devoted to what we have called "Criminal Elements": two exceprts from crime novels, one by Tom Carney and the other by Allen Learst, as well as a chiller by the Iranian writer, Amir Ahmadi Arian. And, by the way, do note: Learst, who grew up in Detroit where his piece is set, tells me that his grandfather ran numbers on the side and knew a fellow in the Purple Gang, an actual historical mobster cohort. "That part I didn't make up," he says. Crime Writing II follows the pocket and ponders on the relationship of crime and detection to the contemporary state.
Eric Darton offers a series of Feuilletons--which include meditations on "wallness," thoughts on the '68 uprising in Paris, on A.J. Holmyard's Alchemy and Translation, and a flash on "Juche" and the transmigration of language. According to Merriam Webster a "feuilleton" is a part of a "European newspaper or magazine devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader." According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the word derrives from the Latin root from Latin folium "leaf," [in turn, from PIE (proto-indo-european) root *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom."] Darton's Feuilleton on Alchemy and Translation quotes extensively from A.J. Holmyard's Alchemy and, per Holmyard, references an Islamic Golden Age when intellectual achievements of all cultures were being sought out and translated by Caliph Al Maʾmūn's House of Wisdom translators in medieval Baghdad (and a bit beyond) so as to fulfill the yearning for knowledge amongst them. One may take the central analogy of alchemy, apply that to transforming utility into beauty, lead into gold, and to the stunning openness of medieval Islam to gathering and translating whatever was precious no matter what culture or religion or people produced it. Translate this! It is of great value to knowledge, to learning, to art. It was also a great gift to science's beginnings, and I have noted Jim Al-Khalili's book on that most fascinating age in our "Summer Reads," to be found at the end of Remarkable Reads.
And on a still different take on language, the Remarkable Reads selections include two reviews of work in pidgin, humble languages in the lively act of transformation and cultural translation, as well as a return to Issue#1 contributor Slovakian poet, Brane Mosetic, and his new book, Unfinished Sketches of a Revolution. Was it not Strabo, the Greek geographer, philosopher, polymath of his day who, in his Geographia, corrected Eratosthenes for saying the the goal of every poet was to entertain, not instruct? No, asserted Strabo, "poetry is a kind of elementary philosophy."
In addition to the Remarkable Reads we have gently called your attention to over several issues, take a look at the aforementioned "Summer Reads," at the end of the section. Those books are not meant to be those hot off the press; rather, in they are treasures to be visited, revisited, and savoured in the languid days of the season. Even in its dog days.
And, speaking of taking a look, we are pleased to offer not one, but two portfolios and more InSight. Portfolio I comprises photographs by Bill Gubbins with an artist's statement that prefaces what we show here, a small part of a larger effort which he hopes to complete in 2020. In these difficult political times, it may be useful, if we can, to journey with the artist, to look at "the waking daydream that is everyday life in the United States of America." Given his title, This American Carnage, that daydream may be dark indeed; and while he does not touch upon history, one cannot help but think of what the country was and what has become, and to cherish hopes for a better future.
The second Portfolio features paintings by Caroline O'Connell, a lavish and skilled sampling of work that rejoices in color and our good fortune to be able to see light's extravaganzas—we humans, the bees, the birds and the cephalopods (through their skin, it seems.)
Verbally and visually, we continue to appreciate the work of Kelvin James: "Bagboy," his flash fiction piece is prefaced by his photos, gathered under "InSight" and taken on the hoof, I presume. Save for their original size, these are reminiscent of "art trouvé," found art, but in large. Urban art. A flight of birds on a blank wall that appears ironic, in this ugly climate of xenophobia in the US; for, unbeknownst to us it was conceived as a part of a project on immigration that repeated, in effect, the welcome inscribed under the statue of liberty. Quite by accident we stumbled upon a website with a timely, though perhaps naive, comment on photos of this wall:
We forget that the dividing lines specifying countries were mereley drawn by politically hungry men.
In reality the earth is open. There are no countries, no borders. It belongs to no one. We are transient
visitors and should travel as we please. (Faith XLVII)
More InSight photos include mother nature breaching human construction, the pleasure of accidental encounters...
Eric Darton offers a series of Feuilletons--which include meditations on "wallness," thoughts on the '68 uprising in Paris, on A.J. Holmyard's Alchemy and Translation, and a flash on "Juche" and the transmigration of language. According to Merriam Webster a "feuilleton" is a part of a "European newspaper or magazine devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader." According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the word derrives from the Latin root from Latin folium "leaf," [in turn, from PIE (proto-indo-european) root *bhel- (3) "to thrive, bloom."] Darton's Feuilleton on Alchemy and Translation quotes extensively from A.J. Holmyard's Alchemy and, per Holmyard, references an Islamic Golden Age when intellectual achievements of all cultures were being sought out and translated by Caliph Al Maʾmūn's House of Wisdom translators in medieval Baghdad (and a bit beyond) so as to fulfill the yearning for knowledge amongst them. One may take the central analogy of alchemy, apply that to transforming utility into beauty, lead into gold, and to the stunning openness of medieval Islam to gathering and translating whatever was precious no matter what culture or religion or people produced it. Translate this! It is of great value to knowledge, to learning, to art. It was also a great gift to science's beginnings, and I have noted Jim Al-Khalili's book on that most fascinating age in our "Summer Reads," to be found at the end of Remarkable Reads.
And on a still different take on language, the Remarkable Reads selections include two reviews of work in pidgin, humble languages in the lively act of transformation and cultural translation, as well as a return to Issue#1 contributor Slovakian poet, Brane Mosetic, and his new book, Unfinished Sketches of a Revolution. Was it not Strabo, the Greek geographer, philosopher, polymath of his day who, in his Geographia, corrected Eratosthenes for saying the the goal of every poet was to entertain, not instruct? No, asserted Strabo, "poetry is a kind of elementary philosophy."
In addition to the Remarkable Reads we have gently called your attention to over several issues, take a look at the aforementioned "Summer Reads," at the end of the section. Those books are not meant to be those hot off the press; rather, in they are treasures to be visited, revisited, and savoured in the languid days of the season. Even in its dog days.
And, speaking of taking a look, we are pleased to offer not one, but two portfolios and more InSight. Portfolio I comprises photographs by Bill Gubbins with an artist's statement that prefaces what we show here, a small part of a larger effort which he hopes to complete in 2020. In these difficult political times, it may be useful, if we can, to journey with the artist, to look at "the waking daydream that is everyday life in the United States of America." Given his title, This American Carnage, that daydream may be dark indeed; and while he does not touch upon history, one cannot help but think of what the country was and what has become, and to cherish hopes for a better future.
The second Portfolio features paintings by Caroline O'Connell, a lavish and skilled sampling of work that rejoices in color and our good fortune to be able to see light's extravaganzas—we humans, the bees, the birds and the cephalopods (through their skin, it seems.)
Verbally and visually, we continue to appreciate the work of Kelvin James: "Bagboy," his flash fiction piece is prefaced by his photos, gathered under "InSight" and taken on the hoof, I presume. Save for their original size, these are reminiscent of "art trouvé," found art, but in large. Urban art. A flight of birds on a blank wall that appears ironic, in this ugly climate of xenophobia in the US; for, unbeknownst to us it was conceived as a part of a project on immigration that repeated, in effect, the welcome inscribed under the statue of liberty. Quite by accident we stumbled upon a website with a timely, though perhaps naive, comment on photos of this wall:
We forget that the dividing lines specifying countries were mereley drawn by politically hungry men.
In reality the earth is open. There are no countries, no borders. It belongs to no one. We are transient
visitors and should travel as we please. (Faith XLVII)
More InSight photos include mother nature breaching human construction, the pleasure of accidental encounters...
And much thanks to Eric Darton for indefatigable efforts, both on and behind the screen; and to Hardy Griffin, for his lifesaving assistance when it counted most.
Before we sign off from this introduction, please join us in giving many kudos, congrats, and clapping of hands! Issue 4 InSight contributor Bill Hayward's feature film, Asphalt, Muscle & Bone, has been selected for the Amsterdam International Film Festival in August and nominated for several awards including Best Cinematography. Other images by may be seen via Instagram at: The_House_Of_Dragons_NYC
Here we are again, a Colophon, notes on our contributors, and may we present, Ladies and Gentlemen—Issue Five!
Before we sign off from this introduction, please join us in giving many kudos, congrats, and clapping of hands! Issue 4 InSight contributor Bill Hayward's feature film, Asphalt, Muscle & Bone, has been selected for the Amsterdam International Film Festival in August and nominated for several awards including Best Cinematography. Other images by may be seen via Instagram at: The_House_Of_Dragons_NYC
Here we are again, a Colophon, notes on our contributors, and may we present, Ladies and Gentlemen—Issue Five!