“They saw their injured country's woe;
The flaming town, the wasted field;
Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, - but left the shield.”
―Philip Freneau
.
And by a prudent flight and cunning save A life which valour could not, from the grave. A better buckler I can soon regain, But who can get another life again?
Archilochus
The Enemy was the 'Royal Academy' full of pseudo-intellectuals and standard bearers for "modern" artistic convention.
Wyndham Lewis, Eliot, Pound, the Vorticist's (a conservative movement) were outsiders, as the "oficialista" Commies (Bloomsbury Group) had captured the "inside" (Royal Academy).
The following quotation, from Plutarch’s Moralia, appeared inside the front cover of each issue of The Enemy:
“A MAN of understanding is to benefit by his enemies…. He that knoweth that he hath an enemy will look circumspectly about him to all matters, ordering his life and behaviour in better sort … therefore it was well and truly said of Antisthenes, that such men as would be saved and become honest ought of necessity to have either good friends or bitter enemies. But forasmuch as amity and friendship nowadays speaketh with a small and low voice, and is very audible and full of words in flattery, what remaineth but that we should hear the truth from the mouth of our enemies? Thine enemy, as thou knowest well enough, watcheth continually, spying and prying into all thine actions. As for our friends, it chanceth many times that they fall extreme sick, yea, and die while we defer and put off from day to day to go and visit them, or make small reckoning of them; but as touching our enemies we are so observant, we curiously enquire even after their very dreams.
“The end of all those combats that our forefathers in the old world had against wild beasts was that they might not be wounded or hurt by strange or savage beasts; but those who came after have learned, moreover, how to make use of them; not only take order to keep themselves from receiving any harm or damage by them; but (that which more is) have the skill to draw some commodity from them, feeding of their flesh, clothing their bodies with their wool and hair, curing their maladies with their gall and rennet, arming themselves with their hides and skins.”
The following lines, printed on the front cover of Wyndham Lewis’ final issue of The Enemy, provide insight into both the magazine’s style and Lewis’ Enemy persona.
The “Enemy” is the notorious author, painter and publicist, Mr. Wyndham Lewis. He is the Diogenes of the day: he sits laughing in the mouth of his tub and pours forth his invective upon all passer-bys, irrespective of race, creed, rank or profession, and sex. This paper, which appears occasionally, is the principal vehicle of his criticism.”
ALL forms of rigid orthodoxy administered by heartless hierarchical organizations are undesirable, but we must never forget that "Doing the direct opposite of something is just another form of imitation."
Virtually ALL these Modern-post-Modern forms of REBELLION in the names of PROGRESS and LIBERATION quickly became every bit as oppressive and stultifying as Mediaeval Cathoicism or the Bourgeois forms Bigotryembodied by nineteenth-century "Academies."
To become a genuinely knowledgeable and discernug member of a civilized society one must assume the burden of cultivating intense CURIOSITY that could lead one to learning for ONESELF the differences between Beauty and Kitsch, Trite and True, Originality and Affectation, Satire and Travesty, Noble and Pompous, Geniuus and mere Cleverness, etc.
Such is the work of a lifetime, –– for me at least. The Search, which for the truly curious becomes increasingly intense as one ages, has made life the blessed experience it has been for me, despite the inevitable heartaches, disappointments and setbacks that beset nearly everyone.
Fixing one's gaze forever UPWARD, regardless of one's changing circumstances, has proven to be The Key –– for me at least –– to making the most of whatever Life hands out.
8 comments:
Why 'the enemy'?
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GRANNY NANNYS GRUNGY FANNY! GRANNY NANNY'S GRUNGY FANNY!
POO POOPA DOO POO POOPA DOO DOO DOO!
POO POOPA DOO POO POOPA DOO DOO DOO!
POO POOPA DOO POO POOPA DOO DOO DOO!
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POO POOPA DOO POO POOPA DOO DOO DOO!
POO POOPA DOO POO POOPA DOO DOO DOO! ad infinitum
The Enemy was the 'Royal Academy' full of pseudo-intellectuals and standard bearers for "modern" artistic convention.
Wyndham Lewis, Eliot, Pound, the Vorticist's (a conservative movement) were outsiders, as the "oficialista" Commies (Bloomsbury Group) had captured the "inside" (Royal Academy).
The Code of the Herdsman"...
The following quotation, from Plutarch’s Moralia, appeared inside the front cover of each issue of The Enemy:
“A MAN of understanding is to benefit by his enemies…. He that knoweth that he hath an enemy will look circumspectly about him to all matters, ordering his life and behaviour in better sort … therefore it was well and truly said of Antisthenes, that such men as would be saved and become honest ought of necessity to have either good friends or bitter enemies. But forasmuch as amity and friendship nowadays speaketh with a small and low voice, and is very audible and full of words in flattery, what remaineth but that we should hear the truth from the mouth of our enemies? Thine enemy, as thou knowest well enough, watcheth continually, spying and prying into all thine actions. As for our friends, it chanceth many times that they fall extreme sick, yea, and die while we defer and put off from day to day to go and visit them, or make small reckoning of them; but as touching our enemies we are so observant, we curiously enquire even after their very dreams.
“The end of all those combats that our forefathers in the old world had against wild beasts was that they might not be wounded or hurt by strange or savage beasts; but those who came after have learned, moreover, how to make use of them; not only take order to keep themselves from receiving any harm or damage by them; but (that which more is) have the skill to draw some commodity from them, feeding of their flesh, clothing their bodies with their wool and hair, curing their maladies with their gall and rennet, arming themselves with their hides and skins.”
The following lines, printed on the front cover of Wyndham Lewis’ final issue of The Enemy, provide insight into both the magazine’s style and Lewis’ Enemy persona.
The “Enemy” is the notorious author, painter and publicist, Mr. Wyndham Lewis. He is the Diogenes of the day: he sits laughing in the mouth of his tub and pours forth his invective upon all passer-bys, irrespective of race, creed, rank or profession, and sex. This paper, which appears occasionally, is the principal vehicle of his criticism.”
The Enemy. 1:3 (Mar. 1929).
I C.
;p
ALL forms of rigid orthodoxy administered by heartless hierarchical organizations are undesirable, but we must never forget that "Doing the direct opposite of something is just another form of imitation."
Virtually ALL these Modern-post-Modern forms of REBELLION in the names of PROGRESS and LIBERATION quickly became every bit as oppressive and stultifying as Mediaeval Cathoicism or the Bourgeois forms Bigotryembodied by nineteenth-century "Academies."
To become a genuinely knowledgeable and discernug member of a civilized society one must assume the burden of cultivating intense CURIOSITY that could lead one to learning for ONESELF the differences between Beauty and Kitsch, Trite and True, Originality and Affectation, Satire and Travesty, Noble and Pompous, Geniuus and mere Cleverness, etc.
Such is the work of a lifetime, –– for me at least. The Search, which for the truly curious becomes increasingly intense as one ages, has made life the blessed experience it has been for me, despite the inevitable heartaches, disappointments and setbacks that beset nearly everyone.
Fixing one's gaze forever UPWARD, regardless of one's changing circumstances, has proven to be The Key –– for me at least –– to making the most of whatever Life hands out.
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