"I’m fighting myself. I know I am. One minute I want to remember. The next minute I want to live in the land of forgetting. One minute I want to feel. The next minute I never want to feel ever again. - Benjamin Alire Saenz, Last Night I Sang to the Monster." This painting is … Continue reading Imperfection is a Form of Freedom. Acrylic on canvas 40.6 x 40.6 cm by Shaharee Vyaas.
The Dark Sides of Religion (part 5/5): Replenishing at the Well of Justification. Acrylic on canvas 45 x 45 cm by Shaharee Vyaas.
In this work I'm focusing on extreme fundamentalists who believe that their religion gives them the right to tell everyone else what they are and are not allowed to do and commands them to kill certain non-believers. Religion is often used as a well of justification for some of the most horrendous and heinous human … Continue reading The Dark Sides of Religion (part 5/5): Replenishing at the Well of Justification. Acrylic on canvas 45 x 45 cm by Shaharee Vyaas.
Twilight Utila
Twilight Utila is in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. Its boundaries are those of imagination and it lies behind a door that you unlock with a key of magic. What is the Utila Twilight … Continue reading Twilight Utila
Make Russia Great Again
This painting (acrylic on canvas 32' x 18 ' by Shaharee Vyaas) features the Russian president Vladimir Putin as the Big Pacificator who set as goal to denazify Ukrain at all cost and to send its indoctrinated population to reeducation camps in Russia so they can be made aware of their false believes and realize … Continue reading Make Russia Great Again
The $12 Million Stuffed Shark
Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock’s drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million? Economist Don Thompson explores it in his book, tracing the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt … Continue reading The $12 Million Stuffed Shark
The Ripping Blogoclowns.
This article whines about the ripping and attention seeking blogo-clowns.
Writing in Times of Pestilence
Now that society is struggling to deal with a devastating flu pandemic, I found the time ripe to give this subject some thoughts in a literary context. The first plague writings emerged around 1665 and resulted in innovative dialogues on a long endured illness. While the collective memory of the plague as an affliction was … Continue reading Writing in Times of Pestilence
Why do people always want to read about misery?
The simple answer? Because it makes them feel fortunate.
The Decline of Reading
Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.
Monomania and Literature.
The most common monomaniacal behavior associated with the literary field is of a very mundane nature: the obsession of writers with writing and that of the readers with reading.
The Moral Crusaders and Literary Criticism.
Once an artist releases a product, it stands on its own and must be judged as such. The only views and opinions that count, are those ventilated or provoked by the artistic creation itself.
Pseudo-intellectualism in Modern Literature.
People who presume, not-entirely-unreasonable, that "literary fiction" represents a value judgment, fail to understand that "literary fiction" is just a marketing category (coined in the 1970's by publishing and book retailers) characterized by slower pacing, stylized prose, introspection and a focus on interior life over exterior action, a focus on character over plot. What they are not, though, are inherent markers of quality.
Morbidity as a Fashionable Lifestyle.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines being morbid as “an attitude, quality, or state of mind marked by excessive gloom”. It’s beyond doubt that most of us have, into different degrees, some fascination for some morbid aspects of our existence. I know people who’re fascinated by cemeteries, all the way up to people who’re dedicating their life … Continue reading Morbidity as a Fashionable Lifestyle.
The Maharajagar 