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Synopses
of Literary Works
In
Opera D'Oeuvre 2 by
John
O'Loughlin
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DOSSHOUSE
BLUES:
My first real collection of poems, written on and off during 1973-5,
reflects
the lyricism and formal simplicity of youth, showing the influence
of poets
like Rimbaud, Ezra Pound, Adrian Henri, and Doors lead singer Jim
Morrison on
my formative years as a writer. - A modest but by no means
insignificant start
to my literary career, which began pleasantly enough back in Merstham,
Surrey, before progressing, as here, first to Finsbury Park and then
to Crouch End in
North London (where I got the inspiration for the title poem),
'Dosshouse
Blues' will intrigue those who have personal experience of solitary
life in
cheap lodgings.
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A
MAGNANIMOUS OFFER:
This little collection of prose pieces is composed of four one-act
plays, or playlets, two of which are
straight dialogues, together
with a couple of short stories which I wrote at about the same time
(1976), and
which I believe to have a loosely poetic quality and deserve, for
stylistic
reasons, to be included with the playlets,
the title
piece of which is a shamelessly facetious spoof on Oscar Wilde.
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CHANGING
WORLDS:
My first novel, written during the summer of 1976, is a largely
autobiographical account of three days in the life of a
clerk-turning-writer by
name of Michael Savage, whose disillusionment with the drudgery of
office work
has led him to quit his job in London's West End in order to
dedicate himself
to a literary career ... come what may. In this regard, Savage
is a sort
of Henry Miller, who doesn't believe in doing things by
half-measures and,
consequently, to him there is no sense in remaining a clerk when one
has an
imperative desire to become a writer and thus effectively 'change
worlds'. For him, it is a make-or-break situation, all the
more poignant
for its unfolding against a background
of indifference
or hostility from colleagues and relatives alike! Of all my
novels,
'Changing Worlds' is (together with 'Fixed Limits') by far the most
subjective,
with long passages of interior monologue which often overlap, to
ironic effect,
with conversational or observational settings, though I have taken
extra care
to differentiate reflection from conversation by utilizing single
quotes in the
one context and double quotes in the other - a stratagem which,
though
unorthodox, has probably done more than anything to condition my
preference,
contrary to literary norms, for double quotes in relation to
conversational
passages virtually right the way through my fictional oeuvre.
However
that may be, it was probably the degree of this novel's subjectivity
combined
with its revolutionary technique which alienated most London
publishers (apart
from 'vanity press' ones) when first I attempted to have it
published back in
the late 1970s, and to this day I am proud of the fact that I was
able to subvert
literary objectivity to such a radical extent that ... the result is
more
philosophic than fictional, thus heralding my true destiny in the
more
unequivocally philosophical works to come!
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FIXED
LIMITS: If
'Changing Worlds' betrays the influence (through souped-up
interior
monologue) of James Joyce on my early fiction, then the chief
inspiration
behind this fictional journal was undoubtedly Jean-Paul Sartre or,
rather,
Sartre's first novel 'Nausea', which made such a profound impression
on me ...
that I simply felt I had to attempt something similar - albeit
within a
necessarily different milieu and social setting. This was in
the autumn
of 1976, and the result was an account of some three weeks in the
life of the
very same character whom we first encounter as a disillusioned clerk
in the
earlier novel, but whose existence here, as a budding writer, is
nothing short
of a spiritual rebirth! Now that Michael Savage has become or,
at any
rate, is in the process of becoming his intellectual self ... we are
led into
an even more subjective world than that of his previous incarnation,
with further
opportunities for both autobiographical and philosophical
speculation on my
part. In fact, 'Fixed Limits'
should be regarded
as the sequel to 'Changing Worlds', without prior reference to which
much of
its subject-matter and settings would seem difficult if not
impossible to
understand. For me, this was the literary Black Hole which led
into a new
universe of fictional writings thereafter, beyond the reach of my
early
mentors.
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BETWEEN
TRUTH
AND ILLUSION: My first exercise in philosophy,
originally
penned in 1977, takes dualism as its starting-point and develops its
commonsensical logic through three parts, the first of which is
essayistic, the
second of which is a series of aphoristic reflections on the
philosophy
outlined in Part One, and the third of which is a dialogue between
me, the
so-named 'philosopher', and an imaginary student ... that strives
both to
clarify and enlarge upon the main contentions of the work.
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THE
ILLUSORY TRUTH:
Also divided into three parts, of which the first is by far the
longest, this
companion volume to the above expands on the dualistic theories
outlined
before, abandoning the more literary approach of 'Between Truth and
Illusion'
for an essayistic and aphoristic purism in which I began to develop
an almost
existentialist awareness of the extent to which many so-called
truths are
founded upon illusory concepts and, to that extent, are not really
'true' at
all.
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A
QUESTION OF BELIEF:
I first got the idea of writing a series of dialogues from reading
the French
philosopher Diderot, one of the great masters of the genre, and the
result,
several weeks later, was four fairly lengthy philosophical
dialogues, which
enabled me to continue developing the dualistic theories begun the
previous
year (1977). Their subject-matter ranges from book collecting
as an art
and the morality of films to the influence of astrology on writers
and
historical perspectives, and although they tend to be a little
one-sided, they are
at least broad enough to be of some interest to the general reader.
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THE
FALL OF LOVE:
The six essays included here, dating from 1979, signify a
transitional stage
away from the dualism of the above works towards the Spenglerian
historicism that, with the influence of environment upon the rise
and fall of
civilizations, was to characterize my literary work at around this
period. Subjects discussed in such a light include literature,
music,
meditation, art, environment, and love.
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CROSS-PURPOSES:
This
novel moves beyond the largely autobiographical concerns of my
earlier
experiments in the genre towards a more fictional integrity which
led me by the
nose, so to speak, into contexts and settings largely outside the
domain of
personal experience. To be sure, the subjectivity of my first
novel is in
some degree still present (witness the opening chapter ... with its
highly
philosophical considerations), but it is now subordinate to the
unfolding
narrative ... as we follow the fortunes of James Kelly, a
self-styled
philosopher, through successive love-affairs which clash with his
loyalties to
friends and benefactors alike, culminating in deception and tragedy
for all
concerned. One would think that 'Cross-Purposes' was a
philosophical-novel-turned-romance, and so, up to a point, it
is. But it
is also a tribute, in no small measure, to both Lawrence Durrell and
Henry
Miller; though one might be forgiven for detecting an implicit
condemnation of
the latter in the 'Paris chapter', as I like to think of Chapter 7,
where
Kelly's attitude to sexual promiscuity is concerned! However,
that is
still my favourite chapter in what is probably my best novel.
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AN
INTERVIEW
REVIEWED: This novel was written just after the above
and
is both more complex and subtler than its stylistic precursor.
Basically,
the plot revolves around the efforts of Anthony Keating, a young
correspondent
for an arts periodical based in London's West End, to conduct
a
prearranged interview with world-famous composer Howard Tonks
when, to his dismay, the person who would normally have conducted
the interview
had gone down with influenza at the last moment. Due to lack
of
experience in this field Keating fails to complete his
assignment on the
specified day and is obliged to accept an alternative date for later
that same
week, when Tonks is due to return from
a professional
engagement in Birmingham. However, the composer is detained
there an
extra day and, due to a combination of unforeseen factors, Keating
ends-up
seducing his daughter ... with disastrous consequences for both of
them!
For they are discovered in flagrante delicto
by Mr Tonks'
elderly housekeeper,
and word eventually gets back to the composer himself, causing
serious
allegations and misunderstandings which put not only the interview
but
Keating's very career as a correspondent for 'Arts Monthly' in
jeopardy.
Ultimately only Howard Tonks' daughter,
Rebecca, can
save Keating from additional humiliation, but not before several
turns in the
plot have led him into deeper trouble with his boss and colleagues,
and duly
resulted in his dismissal. However, thanks to Rebecca's
influence with
her father, the interview eventually goes ahead, and the resulting
dilemma for
'Arts Monthly' is whether to publish or shelve it in view of the
surrounding
circumstances and the dismissal of its principal instigator from his
post. It is the composer himself, however, who has the final
say, and it
comes as both a shock and a delight to Anthony Keating. -
Those looking
for philosophy in 'An Interview Reviewed' will find much food for
thought, as
will those for whom humour is a sine qua non of literary
entertainment.
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A
VISIT TO HELL:
My first real collection of short prose, written during the autumn
of 1979,
combines literary and philosophical themes. Surprisingly, the
overall
result is not displeasing and, although the subject-matter and
settings of one
or two of the contents are slightly dated, the best of them retain a
freshness
and relevance to the contemporary and, I hope, future world which
should stand
them in good stead for several years to-come. Of the eight
examples
included, I especially recommend the title piece, 'A Visit to Hell',
as a
reflection, albeit slightly distorted by literary licence, of
contemporary life
in all its diabolical frenzy and hell-bent
cacophony!
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THE
TRANSCENDENTAL
FUTURE: This collection of philosophical writings,
dating from 1980, begins with an introductory essay and progresses
through some
five lengthy dialogues. Subjects tackled include spiritual
truth,
environmental transformations, the concept of a transcendent future,
psychic evolution,
and the rise of transcendentalism in art. In sum, 'The
Transcendental
Future' is a far from definitive but nonetheless highly engaging and
sometimes
mind-boggling debate on a variety of controversial issues.
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THWARTED
AMBITIONS:
This, the first of three loosely-related novels written in 1980 and
dealing
with art and artists, is the tragic and, in some sense, pathetic
account of a
young artist by name of Robert Harding who is so obsessed with
advancing his
career ... that he becomes blind to the sexual machinations of Henry
Grace, a
wealthy and influential art critic, to seduce him whilst ostensibly
posing as
his admiring patron. For Grace seems to be just the answer to
Harding's
professional ambitions, and the artist allows himself to be led from
commission
to commission by the older man without the slightest suspicion of
what the
latter is really all about. But it is Carol, Harding's
modelling
girlfriend, whose suspicions are first aroused and, together with
both the
writer Andrew Doyle, who is Harding's next-door neighbour, and a
professional
acquaintance of hers, she plots to thwart Grace's sexual ambitions -
with
tragic consequences for the critic, as things turn out in this far
from
implausible narrative!
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SECRET
EXCHANGES:
An artist is invited by his girlfriend to visit her
parents in the provinces and, failing to get on with her father,
duly finds
himself inviting her mother to his London studio where, to his
shame, he allows
himself to be seduced by her whilst apparently teaching her to
meditate.
Thereafter things go from bad to worse for Matthew Pearce, not to
mention his
girlfriend's mother, whose tetchy and ailing husband has discovered
what he
believes to be concrete evidence of her infidelity. Yet
Deirdre Evans is
determined to capitalize on Matthew's previous hospitality, just as
the latter
is having serious doubts not only about her but, thanks in part to
their
affair, about his relationship with her daughter, Gwendolyn, as
well!
Then, one evening, a friend of Gwen's turns up at his place and,
before long,
she precipitates him into a new and more passionate affair - in
fact, the kind
of affair for which he had been hoping all along! So now it
seems he can
dispense with both Gwen and her mother and take up with Linda
instead -
provided, however, that she can secure a divorce from her husband on
grounds of
incompatibility. For Linda Daniels is also a married woman,
and, like Mrs
Evans, the man to whom she is married proves himself to be no friend
of Matthew
Pearce! Could that be the main motive for Pearce's
willingness, bordering
on recklessness, to enter into affairs with both women? The
reader is
left to decide this and so much else for himself
in
what is, by any account, an ironic commentary on human relationships
and their
social and ideological interactions!
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LOGAN'S
INFLUENCE:
Invited to a party by his friend, Martin Thurber, the avant-garde
writer Keith
Logan quickly begins to turn their host against him by his radical
views on
God, evolution, religion, literature, etc., with a result that he
quite spoils
the party atmosphere for Edward Hurst, and unwittingly puts the
future of
Thurber's employment as an art critic for Hurst's magazine in
jeopardy ...
when, under duress of a hangover the following morning, the
publisher decides
to dispense with his art reviews partly in revenge for the
intellectual
humiliations inflicted upon him by Logan the previous night.
Yet Hurst
has a crush on Thurber's girlfriend, who was also at the party, and,
bumping
into him in the street one afternoon, Greta Ryan elects to place her
body at
Hurst's disposal if only he will agree not to take any disciplinary
action
against Thurber. Reluctantly,
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FROM
THE
DEVIL TO GOD: Largely following-on from the above,
this
collection of short prose, written on and off during the winter of
1980-1,
starts in a relatively literary fashion with the account of a
clandestine visit
of a masseuse to a priest who can no longer cope with his celibacy,
and ends in
a profoundly futuristic manner with an account of evolutionary
progress towards
a definitive Beyond, as envisaged by a radical philosopher. In
between
there comes a fairly balanced alternation between literary and
philosophical
subjects ... as we follow the voyeuristic pleasures of a man
covertly watching
his wife getting dressed from the comfort of his early-morning bed;
explore the
evolutionary revelations of a de Chardinesque
gnostic in the face of atheistic
unbelief; witness the
horror of a Mondrianesque ascetic,
whose rural
daytrip out of London with some friends proves to be more unsettling
than he
had bargained for; and go beyond conventional concepts of the
Millennium, as of
Millennialism, with a revolutionary thinker who believes that only
when human
brains are artificially supported and sustained will there be any
prospect of
heavenly salvation of a definitive order.
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SUBLIMATED
RELATIONS:
A young religious writer named Timothy Byrne accepts an invitation
from Lord Handon, an aristocratic
admirer of his work, to spend New
Year's Eve in the company of a select gathering at Rothermore
House, Handon's country retreat, and
winds up first
dancing and then falling in love with one of his fellow guests, who
happens to
be an opera singer. Much debate and festivity take place
before Timothy
discovers, in conjunction with the other guests, that the real
motive for their
presence there is to learn of and offer his services to the 'Voice
Museum', an
extraordinary project situated in London's Piccadilly which houses
voice
recordings of famous people in soundproofed booths where, for a
small sum, the
public can sample words of wisdom and/or folly at the touch of a
button.
Thus it is that Timothy Byrne agrees to allow his voice to be
recorded for
future use by the museum's principal director, Girish
O'Donnell - as, of course, do each of the other guests, all of whom
are either
established or budding talents in the arts. Meanwhile Lord Handon has been attempting to conduct a
low-key
relationship with Sarah Field, the opera singer, though with little
success, in
view of her preference for Timothy and knowledge of the viscount's
secret - a
secret which has more than a little to do with the strange nature of
his
relations, necessarily sublimated, with women. Equally
unsuccessful are Handon's attempts to
subvert Byrne's spiritual standing as
a self-styled guru through his daughter, Geraldine, though,
unbeknown to anyone
else, the writer has already undermined it through Sarah and has no
need of
further seductions! Another of my philosophic-turned-romantic
novels, 'Sublimated
Relations' is nevertheless much bolder and freer than the others.
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THE
WAY OF EVOLUTION:
Dating from 1981, this collection of nine essays is thematically
more
homogeneous than those included in 'The Fall of Love', and reflects
a more
optimistic outlook on evolutionary progress, as something which
should
culminate in a future paradise having nothing whatsoever to do with
the cosmic
inception of life. Art, literature, music, sex, gender,
history,
technology, and religion are the principal themes under
consideration here, and
they are generally treated in relation to my philosophy of
evolution, which
owes not a little, in its origins, to the estimable likes of
Nietzsche,
Spengler, and Theilhard de Chardin.
As
usual for my work of this period, 'The Way of Evolution' ends with a
series
of maxims, which both summarize and encapsulate its overall
philosophy.
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DREAM
COMPROMISE:
This collection of short prose, dating from the autumn of 1981,
includes what
is arguably the most literary piece I have ever written - namely 'A
Canine
Crime', which deals with the problems of dog ownership in an age and
society
which has turned against such a thing, making it illegal. Also
of special
note here is the fetishistically erotic
'Nolan's
Investigations', which opens the collection,
and the
partly autobiographical title piece 'Dream Compromise', which has a
trick in
its tail, so to speak.... As, incidentally, does the volume as a
whole, in that
it ends with a series of aphorisms, in keeping with the broadly
philosophical
bias of my maturer literary works.
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DECEPTIVE
MOTIVES:
With an opening chapter that highlights the duplicity of a husband
towards his
wife, this novel builds on the marital dissatisfactions and grudges
of its
principal heroine, Julie Foster, and couples them to the literary
and social
dissatisfactions, grudges, etc., of one Peter Morrison, an
unpublished and
seemingly unpublishable writer, as the
two characters
bump into each other in a restaurant, after many years, and Julie
agrees to
accompany Morrison back to his squalid flat where, contrary to her
expectations, he simply proceeds to expatiate on his political and
philosophical views, and to disburden himself of a number of
anti-social
grudges. He does, however, invite her to visit him again and,
to his
surprise, she accepts the invitation and turns up a couple of days
later.
This time they get down to some serious sexual congress but, in the
process,
Julie impulsively reveals that she is married and Morrison, aghast
at her deception,
loses his temper and proceeds to strangle her. Overcome with
remorse, he
attempts to mollify Julie, now a corpse, by taking photographs of
her in a
variety of erotic poses, and is then faced with the unsavoury task
of disposing
of her body. However, an old friend of Julie's becomes
suspicious by her
failure to turn up at a pre-arranged rendezvous and, aware from a
prior phone
conversation that Julie was intending to visit Morrison, begins to
make
inquiries about him from what little information she has.
Eventually, she
tracks him down to his latest address and, mindful of the fact that
he once had
amorous leanings towards her, falls into a frantic sexual coupling
with
him. Things are looking good for Peter at this point but,
whilst he is
out of the room, Deirdre discovers photographic evidence of Julie's
murder and
proceeds to accost him with it on his return. Unable to calm
her down or
explain away the evidence, he is obliged to kill her too, thus
saddling himself
with the problem of disposing of yet another corpse!
Subsequently he
moves to
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THE
IMPORTANCE
OF TECHNOLOGY: Written in the winter of 1981-2, this
collection of dialogues is more stylistically and thematically
evolved than
those included in 'The Transcendental Future', with subjects ranging
from the
significance of spiritual development to the nature of philosophical
truth, the
unitary goal of evolution, different types of decadence, and the
parallels
between literary figures such as Henry Miller and Malcolm Muggeridge.
Also
featured, as per custom, is an aphoristic appendix, which both
subsumes
and expands on a variety of the subjects under discussion.
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STRESSING
THE
ESSENTIAL: This little collection of twenty-five
mainly
philosophical poems, written during 1982, should confirm, more than
anything,
that I had considerably deepened my approach to and concept of
poetry since
'Dosshouse Blues', and the result should not prove displeasing to
anyone who
would prefer to see me, as I myself do, primarily as a philosopher
(albeit a
self-taught one) who occasionally dabbles in other things, poetry
not
excepted. Doubtless the fact that I am an Irish citizen who,
brought to
England as a young child, has spent the greater part of his life in
exile from
his native country ... has something to do with this paradoxical
state-of-affairs, since one is often exposed to contrary influences
and
predilections, both natural and artificial, neither of which greatly
ingratiates one to less complex or, perhaps I should say,
paradoxically
confused people? Be that as it may, I accept that I have, at
various
times in my life, been prepared to dabble in poetry, even if from a
philosophic
rather than a strictly poetic standpoint, since the adoption of
alternative
genres makes for variety both in the presentation and conception of
one's
thought, and that can be most beneficial to the writer himself, who
could
otherwise bog down in one mould and grow stale or bored, as the case
might be.
'Stressing the Essential', the first of four collections of
philosophical poems
written in successive years, precluded me from experiencing such a
stultifying
fate, and was thus of indirect benefit to my philosophical
will. It was
not, however, any the less easy to write!
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FUTURE
TRANSFORMATIONS: This volume of philosophy, combining
essays,
dialogues, and maxims, goes way beyond the scope of my earlier
philosophical
works in outlining what I consider to be the logical stages of
evolution beyond
man which will have to be passed through before definitive salvation
can be
achieved in a transcendent goal of evolution ... analogous to Teilhard de Chardin's
Omega
Point. One could say that I have attempted to concretize
Nietzschean
notions concerning man's overcoming ... in respect of specific
post-human
stages. Hitherto, when I wrote about more advanced stages of
life, it was
generally within the scope and definition of man. Here, by
contrast, the
attainment to a more artificial stage of evolution is, ipso facto,
chronologically beyond man and thus implicitly
post-human. Such
was the revolutionary break with my earlier thinking which occurred
early in
1982, and it is, I believe, of momentous significance!
Henceforth my
philosophical task was largely to be a refinement upon and
modification of
contentions outlined here. Obviously, in the many years that
have passed
since then, several changes, some of them quite drastic, have
occurred in my
perspective. But the beginnings of my mature philosophical
oeuvre are
here, in 'Future Transformations', and it was from this time onwards
that I
began to grow into what I like to think of as a sort of messianic
self-awareness.
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FALSE
PRETENCES:
Written in the late-Spring of 1982, this novel has something of a
Spring-like
ebullience about it which takes us to the Norfolk countryside and to
the
stratagems of a radical writer-turned-artist by name of Jason Crilly (who for the most part remains veiled
behind
first-person narrations) to shake off a depression he contracted
while living
alone in an insalubrious part of North London. His wife Susan,
whom he
married shortly after moving to
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BECOMING
AND BEING:
Divided into two parts, the first of which is autobiographical and
the second
biographical, this project strives to outline my development as a
writer and
the influences, both literary and philosophical, which shaped me
over the years
leading up to 1982. The first part, containing subjects
ranging from sex
and politics to health and writers, is slightly Nietzschean in its
speculative
approach to autobiography, while the second and more voluminous
part, which
deals with the estimable likes of John Cowper Powys, D.H. Lawrence,
Aldous Huxley, Hermann Hesse,
Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Arthur Koestler, Lawrence Durrell,
Henry
Miller, and George Orwell, is intended to provide a biographical
summary and
fairly blunt appraisal of authors whose works were to inspire me
during my
formative years as a writer. It is as though they were the
beings whom I
was eventually destined to become or, rather, that I became
being
- and hence a writer - through them. Finally, there is an
appendix
comprised of a list of reading material borrowed from Hornsey
Library over a
twelve-year period from 1977-89, which should intrigue those
interested to
discover how a self-taught, and even self-made, person can fare with
regard to
the acquirement of a literary culture that owes little or nothing to
school or
college.
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POST-ATOMIC
PERSPECTIVES: Combining maxims with aphorisms,
essays, and
dialogues, this work goes beyond the scope of my previous
philosophical
projects in both its form and content, opening out towards a
post-atomic future
in what amounts to an entirely new civilization. As conceived
of here, the
aphorisms are slightly longer and freer than the maxims and thus
lead,
logically enough, to the essays, which constitute Part Three of the
book.
Subjects include the direction of literature in the civilization to
come; the
transitional nature of contemporary literature; revelations
concerning future
life forms and their relationship to what is called the Ultimate
Creation; the
nature of divine love in relation to other types of love and its
bearing on
messianic credibility; antithetical equivalents - such as birds and
planes or
horses and motorbikes - in the evolution of human and other life;
how the State
'withers' and why; the paradoxical allegiance of Christian pagans,
or so-called
Christians whose loyalty is rather more to the Creator than to
Christ; and transcendental
transvaluations in a world that has
largely turned
its back on nature. Part Four is comprised of four dialogues,
which
continue the philosophical debate in a slightly more dramatic vein.
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POST-ATOMIC
INTEGRITIES: This little novella, based around an
autobiographical
fantasy, shares with 'False Pretences' the stylistic device of
first-person
narrative, and relates the nocturnal visit of an old acquaintance to
the flat
of an admirer who had optimistically written to her in the hope of
receiving a
positive response. What follows is a romantic pact in which
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MILLENNIAL
PROJECTIONS: This fictional compilation, dating from
1982, combines
some sixteen short-prose pieces with subjects ranging from musical
evolution to
Christmas trees, Black Holes to Esperanto, and space travel to
modern
art. Of this number, my favourite is the title piece, a
fantasy
projection into a millennial future in which we enter the mind of a
superman
who is preparing to undergo an 'acid trip', view life in what is
called the
'post-human millennium' from a spiritual leader's standpoint as he
grapples
with his counselling responsibilities vis-ŕ-vis the superhuman
flock, and
sample a controller's perspective on post-human life from the
administrative
sidelines. One could argue that this is my 'Brave New World',
but it was
with a view to refuting Huxleyite
cynicism that I set
out to fashion so positive a futuristic projection.
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SPIRITUAL
INTIMATIONS: Comprised of thirty-four poems, this
collection of
verse is slightly freer, overall, than the previous one, and ranges
across a
wide variety of topics ... from politics and sex to literature and
money ... in
what I prefer to regard as a loosely poetic way, though not one
devoid of
stylistic methodology or thematic consistency!
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THE
WILL TO TRUTH:
My main philosophical project of 1983 combines dialogues and essays
with
aphorisms and maxims in a four-part volume of which essays form the
greater
proportion. However, nine dialogues is no mean undertaking,
and they
range from subjects as diverse, albeit interrelated, as the freeing
of art from
mundane attachments as it evolves from pagan to transcendental
times; the
distinction between Jews and Israelis; the development of awareness
at the
expense of feeling in art; the moral implications of sexual
sublimation; the
evolutionary struggle from gravity to curved space; the development
of religion
from the personal to the universal; the nature of petty-bourgeois
art; the
possibility of denominational progress in Western religion; and the
apotheosis
of the 'universal man'. Such, then, is the scope of Part One,
while Part
Two enlarges on many of the subjects touched upon in the dialogues,
as well as
introduces a number of new ones, including the main distinction
between
Christianity and Transcendentalism; the psychology of swearers;
the irrelevance of punishment to a transcendental society;
architectural and
sartorial relationships to gravity both upwards and downwards;
understanding
Jazz in relation to other types of modern music; the distinction
between philosophy
and pseudo-philosophy; and the nature of ultimate music.
Originally
intended as a sort of sequel to the above, Parts Three and Four move
us from
the phenomenal realm of dialogues and essays to what I like to think
of as the
noumenal realm of aphorisms and maxims, in which the will is One
with the truth
it strives to convey through the most concise means and is, if not
Truth
itself, then at any rate certainly truthful! Subjects treated
here
include the relation between sexuality and dress; the nature of the
self; the
significance of Israel; the role and nature of worship in popular
religion;
poetry verses philosophy; the evolution of the arts; the metaphysics
of modern
music; the psyche; God; ideology; and gender. Although 'The
Will to Truth'
should not be taken for the Truth, it signifies a
significant stage on
the road to my achievement of greater degrees of philosophical truth
in due
course, and is certainly more radical than anything preceding it in
this field.
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A
SELFISH MAN:
Another volume of short prose, in which a number of my principal
philosophical
themes are recycled in literary guise for the benefit of a wider
understanding,
this collection begins with the title piece, a first-person
narrative by an
advocate of spiritual selfishness, and winds its way through fifteen
other
examples of my art in this field, culminating in a section of
interior
monologues which features twelve different thinkers who successively
elaborate
on their likes and dislikes from a similar ideological standpoint,
thereby
establishing a unity of mind which transcends their phenomenal separatenesses. In between these two
extremes there
are varying amounts of unity and disunity between the characters,
but all are
caught in the throes of a vigorous philosophical debate. For
here, as in
other kindred works, action is subordinate to thought, whether we
are dealing
with a drive to the cinema, a couple watching television,
reflections on a
soapbox orator, a clandestine affair, or the vicissitudes of a
revolutionary
politician. Sometimes the characters have names, sometimes
not.
Sometimes they are a fairly transparent projection of me, at other
times a
degree of fictional objectivity has gone into their
fashioning. Whatever
the case, 'A Selfish Man', dating from 1983, bears ample witness to
this
philosopher-artist's search for literary perfection through thought.
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ABSTRACTS:
The essayistic
introduction to this little collection of abstract poems attempts to
clarify a
distinction between poetry and antipoetry,
and then
to contrast both of these with what I have termed superpoems
- the abstract poetry of a transcendental age or civilization which
strives to
dissolve grammatical appearances into a non-descriptive
essence. Whether
or not I was successful in my clarifying endeavour, or even correct
in my
theorizing at this time (1983), 'Abstracts' is a collection of poems
which,
whilst mostly readerly, is devoid of
conventional
significance, and therefore has to be read or, rather, understood in
relation
to the underlying significance, where apparent, of the form, which
lifts each
poem above the usual phenomenal realm of descriptive poetry towards
a
transcendent realm of pure abstraction.
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SOCIAL
TRANSCENDENTALISM - 'Means to an End': This
collection of essays,
dialogues, aphorisms, and maxims, dating from 1983-4, is largely the
reverse,
in formal terms, of 'The Will to Truth', inasmuch as its first part
is
essayistic and its second part entirely composed of dialogues,
thereby again
bringing these two modes of philosophical phenomenality into harmony
or, at any
rate, close juxtaposition. Here, as before, the essays
constitute the
main part, and they are once more conceived within the protective
umbrella of a
uniform ideology - namely the Social Transcendentalism which I had
been
building towards in earlier works but which here comes to
ideological
fruition. Thus, whatever the subject, it is treated from a
uniform
standpoint, the standpoint of a socially transcendent outlook upon
life, and
this even when I am not consciously aware of the fact. Such an
outlook is
beyond humanism and all other worldly ideologies, having to do with
evolutionary striving towards a 'divine kingdom'. Yet this
'divine
kingdom' does not follow death, as we customarily understand it, but
presupposes the ordering of society according to certain idealistic
principles
designed to free mankind from its atomic past. Hence in each
of these
essays and dialogues, not to mention the ensuing aphorisms and
maxims, a Social
Transcendentalist concern with Truth is what really matters, and it
is this
which leads us towards the heavenly millennium to-come.
Whether the
subject is art, literature, sex, politics, psychology, drugs, or
whatever, the
emphasis on Truth from a specific ideological perspective is what
lifts 'Social
Transcendentalism' beyond the sterile realm of intellectual
speculation to the
potent challenge of universal freedom.
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BEYOND
THE PALE -
'Growth of a Messiah': Comprised of various autobiographical
sketches, this
literary work is divided into four sections, the first dating from
1983, the
second from 1985, the third from 1993, and the fourth from
1996. These
sketches are written in the notational vein of my mature philosophy
(especially
from 1985 onwards) and often overlap with general speculations on a
variety of
subjects which have played a significant role in my personal
life. Thus
they are anything but purely autobiographical, although
autobiography forms the
basis of this project, which is certainly beyond the pale of 1983 so
far as
three of the four sections are concerned.
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THE
MODERN DEATH:
Dating from 1984, this collection of forty-four poems continues in
the
free-verse style of 'Spiritual Intimations', albeit the verse is at
all times
prevented from degenerating into prose through the application of a
methodological consistency which continues to favour the
definite/indefinite
article at the expense of lesser words. More significant of
this
collection is its greater concern with metaphysics, or subatomic
theories,
which, though far from definitive, enabled me to dig beneath the
surface of my
themes to what I hoped would be their spiritual depths. In
retrospect, I
can see how much ground I still had to cover, or perhaps I should
say unearth? in order to arrive at the
Truth. But this was still a
significant stage in my progress as a metaphysician, even if it took
a poetic
turn.
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THE
POLITICS
OF SEXUALITY: A six-chapter novella of first-person
and
loosely autobiographical tendency, this title explores the concept
of sexual
politics, or the notion that every mode of politics has a sexual
corollary. Although such an idea was by no means new to my
work at this
time (1984), it hadn't been explored to anything like the same
extent before,
and it is a theme to which I have since returned quite frequently,
always
seeking to improve upon my initial theories, which, through bitter
experience
over the years, I've learnt to regard as more of a springboard to
better things
than as a definitive statement.
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A
TRUE EXTREMISM:
This collection of fifteen short-prose pieces puts my ideological
philosophy
through a literary prism, as we explore a variety of interrelated
themes from a
loosely fictional standpoint. In fact politics, whether
associated with a
correlative mode of sexuality or not, also figures quite prominently
here,
though usually in connection with Social Transcendentalism, which is
both
political and more than political. Those especially interested
in
philosophy will find the last three titles in this collection
particularly
intriguing, since they were conceived in a loosely aphoristic vein,
the final
one being a kind of oblique tribute to Nietzsche's 'Thus Spoke
Zarathustra'.
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EVOLUTION:
The sixteen
prose poems here should be ideally suited to those who prefer their
poetry
prosy and mainly concerned with philosophical issues or, at any
rate, with a
philosophical treatment of issues and subjects that could be treated
more
frivolously, if one lacked the intellectual machinery and moral
insight with
which to tackle them in this way. I suspect that my first
attempt at
prose poems, back in 'Dosshouse Blues' (1973-5), was more poetically
frivolous
than is to be found here, though that would be in keeping with my
work of the
period. Ten years later and the results are far more
interesting, with
perhaps a little hint of Baudelairian
influence here
and there, albeit without conscious intention on my part.
However that
may be, these prose poems are not essays, whatever appearances might
suggest to
the contrary, but painfully contrived pieces which never part
company with the
context in which they were conceived.
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TREES:
It seems that I add ten poems to each new
volume of poetry, for this collection has some fifty four, dating
from 1985,
which carry on, both stylistically and thematically, from
approximately where
those in 'The Modern Death' leave off, with, if anything, a slightly
deeper
metaphysical and ideological bias. The title derives, as
usual, from one
of the poems, and has to be read to be believed!
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CONTEMPLATIONS1:
Unlike my previous collection of abstract poems, simply called
'Abstracts',
this project is non-readerly and hence
abstract in a
patterned and completely formal way such that requires nothing more
than
contemplation, as suggested by the title, of its monosyllabic
structures.
Thus all 395 (divided into 3 volumes) of these lower-case poems are
intended to
assist one in developing a contemplative frame-of-mind at the
expense of readerly norms, thereby
transcending the intellect in what
could be regarded as a mode of literary salvation.
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CONTEMPLATIONS2:
See
Contemplations 1 above.
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CONTEMPLATIONS3:
See
Contemplations 1 above.
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PORTRAITS:
Comprising
thirty-three biographical sketches of some of the
twentieth-century's most
influential and powerful people in both politics and the arts,
including
Hitler, Stalin, de Valera, Mussolini, de Gaulle, André Malraux,
Bertrand
Russell, Dali, Lenin, Simone de Beauvoir, and David Ben-Gurian,
'Portraits' (1985) seeks to provoke as well as to praise, and should
prove of
interest to those who are curious to learn how various exceptional
men - and
one exceptional woman - measure up to a Social Transcendentalist
analysis or,
more correctly, to the scrutiny of someone who approaches life from
a specific
ideological standpoint with a view to measuring the achievements of
others in
relation to it. Although I had dealt with some of the
subjects, including
Sartre, Huxley, and Durrell before (see 'Becoming and Being'), my
treatment of
them here is much more subjectively critical and thus a reflection,
in large
measure, of the way my thinking had progressed in the intervening
three years
since my earlier excursion into biography which, characteristic of a
more
relativistic approach to literature colouring my work at that time,
also
embraced a series of autobiographical sketches. No such
relativity applies
here, however, although the choice of both politicians and artists
is anything
but absolutist.
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EVALUATIONS
ANF
REVALUATIONS: Although a relatively minor work in
itself, this
volume of essayistic aphorisms and aphoristic notes is significant
inasmuch as
it signifies another of my attempts to approach and develop Truth
from a
consistently aphoristic not to say ideological angle, and may be
regarded as a
harbinger of the types of projects that were to preoccupy me during
the years
1985-93. Divided into two parts, both of which are largely
concerned with
evaluating and revaluating various philosophical positions either
already taken
or common to my work in general, it paved the way for the systematic
evaluating
and revaluating which was to become so characteristic of my work
from now on,
and to prove of such significance in my ability to develop and
summarize Truth
thereafter. The principal theme and concern of 'Evaluations
and
Revaluations' is Social Transcendentalism and its relation to what I
term 'the
Centre' - a politico-religious concept which the ideology in
question wishes to
democratically advance at the expense of traditional state/church
relativity.
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DEVIL
AND GOD - 'The
Omega Book': Originally intended to be my last and ultimate book,
this project,
dealing with distinctions between the Devil and God, embraces over
250 supernotes, my definition of which
is something that falls
between an essay and an aphorism, not generally as long as the
former nor as
short as the latter. In fact, it is the indeterminacy of this
genre which
most characterizes 'Devil and God', since one can proceed straight
from a
few-line entry to one which is several pages in length. Also
significant
of my definition of supernotes is the
fact that they
are anything but scrappy or off-the-cuff, like notes often tend to
be, but have
been carefully fashioned with the attention one would give to an
essay or an
aphorism. They also follow a strictly determined philosophical
path, not
veering wildly between disparate subjects the way notebooks often
do, and are
subject to the sort of evaluating and revaluating I outlined above,
so that no
theme is ever wholly laid to rest until it has been explored from a
variety of
angles and reconsidered in the light of greater insight. In
such fashion,
any project based on these supernotes
will have a
curvilinear inner structure which is the product of spiralling
ideas, and which
contrasts with the outer, book-based structures more typical of
academic or
conventional philosophy. In that respect it is effectively
theosophical.
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FROM
MATERIALISM
TO IDEALISM: Akin to the above in structure, this
1986-7
project combines nearly 250 supernotes
(or essayistic
aphorisms and aphoristic notes) in its investigation of a wide
variety of
subjects, with particular reference to the relationships between
materialism,
naturalism, realism, and idealism in what is conceived to be an
evolutionary
framework. Hence the title 'From Materialism to Idealism', in
which a
fourfold view of history and of the world is systematically
developed.
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TOWARDS
THE
SUPERNOUMENON: Carrying on from where the above
leaves off, this
volume of supernotes is more intensely
philosophical,
as it introduces to the aforementioned fourfold structures the
concept of
devolutionary/evolutionary antitheses in historical evolution,
coupling this to
an investigation of certain key philosophers, including
Schopenhauer, and
contrasting his noumenal-phenomenal approach to philosophy with what
I have
called a superphenomenal-supernoumenal
one intended
to illustrate the distinction between 'artificial' modernity and
'naturalistic'
antiquity. In this respect it could be said to reflect a
contrast between
philosophy, as traditionally practised by alpha-stemming thinkers
like
Schopenhauer, and theosophy, in which an evolutionary drive towards
the omega
of things is discernible.
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ELEMENTAL
SPECTRA:
Dating from 1988-9, this more philosophically advanced work
investigates the
significance of the basic elements, viz. air, fire, water, and
earth, with
regard to a variety of different contexts, including science,
politics,
economics, and religion, and seeks to draw ideological and moral
lessons from
the apperceived correlations. Of additional significance in
relation to
the elements are the relationships between being and doing,
awareness and
emotion, mind and brain, nature and artifice, and individualism and
collectivism. There is also, within 'Elemental Spectra', a
critique of
Arthur Koestler's tripartite theories, as developed in books like
The Act of
Creation and Janus - A Summing Up, as well as a refutation of his
psychological
pessimism concerning the dichotomous relationship between what he
calls the
'old brain' and the 'new brain'. In fact, Koestler is no less
the principal
philosophical target of this work than Schopenhauer was of the
previous one,
and although I acknowledge my debt to him as an influence on my
thought, I was
able to move beyond him at this point and accordingly dispense with
a number of
his theories.
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CRITIQUE OF POST-DIALECTICAL IDEALISM:
Although
not a critique in the strictly analytical sense, this work is
nonetheless
sufficiently methodical and wide-ranging in its comprehensive
treatment of a
variety of interrelated subjects to warrant serious consideration as
a vehicle
for the advancement, on a Social Transcendentalist basis, of
post-dialectical
idealism (truth) in a world too long torn between the conflicting
claims of
realism and materialism. Of especial significance here are the
T-like
diagrammatic structures which enabled me to flesh-out, in fairly
comprehensive
vein, the various components of any given subject and to analyse it
in relation
to my overriding idealistic bias. Subjects tackled include a
theory of
the connections between a given mode of attire and the most
appropriate approach
to sexual intercourse in relation to it, as well as an investigation
of the
relationships between 'naturalistic' and artificial products or
technologies at
both 'head' and 'bodily' levels.
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PHILOSOPHICAL
TRUTH:
Akin to the above, this work builds from its initial dualistic
introduction to
a fully-fledged Social Transcendentalist critique, in which the
by-now familiar
quadruple structures of the earlier work are examined in regard to a
number of
new contexts, with particular emphasis on music and its relationship
to
ideological parallels.
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VERITAS
PHILOSOPHICUS: This book derives its Latin-sounding
title from the
use of 'V' structures in a majority of the diagrams which
characterize it and
which enabled me to approach Truth from a more systematic and
comprehensive
standpoint, building on the 'T' structures common to both the
'Critique of
Post-Dialectical Idealism' and 'Philosophical Truth' (see above),
until I had
amassed a considerable number of diagrammatic quadruplicities
of the sort deriving from their 'elemental' theories. Of real
significance here is the modification of perspective which develops
from the
use of two different types of diagrammatic structure, and it is
characteristic
of my methodology that the earlier perspective is either corrected
or refuted,
as we move into a more logically advanced structural mode.
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LAST
JUDGEMENTS:
This is the final (and shortest) volume of what I now like to
loosely think of
as 'The Omega Octet', i.e. all the volumes of supernotes
stemming from 'Devil and God - The Omega Book', and, not
surprisingly, it tends
to sum up or refine upon a number of the principal theories already
discussed,
as well as lay the foundation for the next stage of my philosophical
advance.
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MAXIMUM
TRUTH: If
the essayistic aphorisms and aphoristic notes of 'The Omega Octet'
are of
indeterminate length, then what follows here, dating from 1993, is
of an
aphoristic purism which allows for little or no deviation from the
basic
form. One could say that I had passed through the darkness
into the full light(ness) of Truth at
this point, and the result is a
vindication not only of the aforementioned octet, but of my entire
philosophical quest to-date. Comprised of 707 maxims which
have been
given 'a/b' subdivisions, 'Maximum Truth' succeeds in achieving the
sort of
metaphysical comprehensiveness which I had been struggling towards
all
along. One could say that it signifies a refinement upon the
essayistic
aphorisms and aphoristic notes of 'The Omega Octet', though the
tendency to recycle
ideas, by now a veritable principle of my work, persists here to
even greater
effect, insofar as it was this technique that made the attainment of
what is in
some respects a maximum degree of truth possible.
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TRUTHFUL
MAXIMS:
Following on from the above, this text is written on a slightly more
straightforward, though no less truth-intensive basis, and extends
beyond most
of the material contained in 'Maximum Truth'. It is also comprised
of 707
numbered maxims.
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INFORMAL
MAXIMS:
This collection of maxims, also dating from 1993, continues from
where the
above left off, and does so in a similar, albeit less stylistically
intensive
vein, achieving what I hold to be the elaboration and exploration of
a
conceptual comprehensiveness quite unique to philosophy.
Comprised of
nearly 600 maxims, some of which are slightly longer than in the
earlier
compilations, 'Informal Maxims' duly paved the way for 'Maximum
Informality'
(see below).
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MAXIMUM
INFORMALITY:
The text of this work is not only stylistically less formal but
thematically
more complex, as we proceed through over 1000 maxims of disparate
length in
what is, by any standards, a demandingly mind-expanding
philosophical
adventure!
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SUPERCONTEMPLATIONS:
This little collection of non-readerly
abstract
poems, also dating from 1993, is comprised of sixty poems utilizing
a
combination of lower and upper case monosyllabic words, thereby
extending
beyond the lower-case scope of the three volumes of 'Contemplations'
(1985)
into more complex and aesthetically-gratifying examples of the
genre.
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FROM
SATAN TO SATURN:
Conceived in a loosely cyclical form, this 1994 project harks back
to the works
comprising essayistic aphorisms and aphoristic notes in respect of
the greater
variety of length and treatment between the contents, some of which
are
arguably aphoristic, others essayistic, but all of which
thematically carry-on
from my previous philosophical work in a no-less comprehensively
methodical
vein.
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FROM
PUNISHMENT
TO GRACE: Akin to the above in structure, this title
develops its curvilinear style through some seventy-two cycles each
comprised
of a number of aphorisms, which continue my quest for philosophical
perfection
along both old and new channels of speculative investigation.
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ULTRACONTEMPLATIONS:
Another and more structurally advanced example of my non-readerly
style of abstract poetry, 'Ultracontemplations' (1994) is comprised
of some
sixty-four poems which have been entirely constructed, along
monosyllabic
lines, with the use of upper-case characters, thereby passing beyond
the
mixed-case style of 'Supercontemplations' to what I regard as a
conceptual
plateau of poetic abstraction.
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OCCASIONAL
MAXIMS:
This 1994 project is composed of some 323 notational maxims of
variable length
and quality, most of which are nevertheless significantly more
complex than
anything previously attempted in the genre, with subjects, as usual,
ranging
right across my philosophical spectrum, from science and politics to
economics
and religion.
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MAXIMUM
OCCASIONS:
This text, comprised of over 170 maxims of which not a few are
virtually
essayistic, is in effect largely a refutation of 'Occasional Maxims'
... as we
move from a philosophical bias to one that is effectively
theosophical, and
develop, in the process, an enhanced sense of logic which both
contrasts with
and complements a number of the earlier contentions.
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LAST
(W)RITES:
Continuing the revolutionary transvaluations
characteristic of the above, this title returns us, in due
cumulative fashion,
to the cyclical style adopted in 'From Punishment to Grace', albeit
with the
use of side titles rather than numerals, and with a view to bringing
to
completion a task which really began several years ago ... when I
boldly set
out on the long and difficult path that leads to Truth. Little
did I
realize, at the time, that not only would I eventually get to the
Truth (which,
in any case, I maintain no-one had previously done to anything like
the same
extent) but ... actually overhaul it, in what is effectively a
literary
parallel to Heaven.
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ETERNAL
LIFE - 'Supernotes From
Beyond': Progressing through 125 cycles of
essayistic aphorisms/aphoristic notes, this title brings my
philosophy to a
theosophical head in what is arguably one of the most thematically
perfect of
all my works and one which, so I believe, should stand near the
conceptual apex
of my oeuvre, as I both sum up and elaborate on and/or revaluate
previous
truths with a view to advancing the cause of eternal life in a world
which is
still, alas, all too temporal!
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BOOK
OF BELIEFS -
'The Omegala': More informally cyclic
than the above,
this 1996 project combines aphorisms with notes in what is one of
the most
comprehensively exacting and demanding of all my works, but also, in
the long
run, one of the most thematically rewarding.
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OMEGA
MAXIMS: Dating
from 1996, this title is a further instalment of the aphoristic
purism to which
I had last committed my pen with 'Maximum Occasions', and
constitutes what I
regard as the best work of its kind prior to its companion text
'Maximum Omega'
(see below). In all, there are over 1000 maxims in this
project.
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MAXIMUM
OMEGA: Also
dating from 1996, this work constitutes possibly my finest
collection of
maxims, doing more justice to Truth, and thus philosophy, than any
of the
previous works, including the cyclical ones mentioned above.
In fact,
here at last, in this collection of 575 maxims, is my magnum omega,
bringing to
completion, in this particular genre, my quest for philosophical
perfection
through what is arguably the most advanced philosophy ever
elaborated.
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OMEGANOTES
OF
AN IDEOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHER: Despite the above, 1996
saw me bring to
a close a further instalment of philosophical writings which rose
above what I
had already achieved in terms of the degree to which I was able to
refine upon
and perfect my concept of Truth, bringing to a head my quest for the
most
exactingly comprehensive and logically definitive text, a text both
more
thematically essential and structurally informal than ever before,
and one
which was to serve as a springboard to the two texts listed
below. Such,
at any rate, is how these 'Omeganotes ...' now strike me, as I cast
my mind
back over the torturous paths that were to lead to the definitive
realization
of Truth and set me free of metaphysical uncertainties.
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REVOLUTIONS
OF
AN IDEOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHER: One could regard this
1997 project as
being conceptually similar to the 'Omeganotes ...' alluded to above,
since it
is no less essential and informal in structure, and just as
thematically
exacting in the extent to which philosophical comprehensiveness is
achieved at
the expense of partisan or partial perspectives. But it is
also deeper
and more radical in its scope, bringing my philosophy to an all-time
peak, as
we progress from cycle to cycle in what is, by any standards, a
consummate
resolution of the contending elements.
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REVELATIONS
OF
AN IDEOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHER: Also written in 1997 and
originally
intended as a sequel to the above, this work continues the cyclical
progressions from approximately where they left off in the previous
text, with,
however, greater depth and philosophical insight, such that
completes a loose
trilogy of works sharing a similar compositional structure.
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THE
IDEOLOGICAL
PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALISM: Structurally
following on from the above, this work enlarges on the scope and
content of the
aforementioned works, as we are made aware of the extent to which
Social
Transcendentalism is both ideological and philosophical, that is to
say
practical and theoretical, serving not merely as a vehicle for
Truth, but also,
and no less significantly, as a catalyst for radical social change.
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DEISTIC
DELIVERANCE
VIA SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALISM: Also penned in 1997,
this
work - originally and somewhat over-politically entitled 'Deistic
Liberation' -
returns us to a more thematically-oriented cyclical structure of
philosophizing, as it passes beyond a number of formative stages to
a
definitive working-out of the ideological philosophy of Social
Transcendentalism in relation to both psychology and psyche, as they
impact
upon and are in turn conditioned by both physiological and elemental
factors.
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ULTRANOTES
FROM
BEYOND ('The United Kingdom/Ireland'): Abandoning
cycles, this
collection of what, in relation to earlier 'notational' integrities,
I am wont
to regard as ultra-notational aphorisms, brings to a resounding
conclusion my
quest for philosophical perfection, as it addresses a variety of
Social
Transcendentalist concerns in relation to 'Kingdom Come', not the
least of
which being the salvation of what I have called Subchristians
from theocracy, and the correlative presentation of a meritocratic
alternative
to all forms of religious tradition.
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THE
SOUL OF BEING:
Conceived in continuous aphoristic terms, this 1998 text is
nevertheless
divided into twelve sections, each of which bears a headed title in
quasi-essayistic vein. Examples of such titles include 'Fair
to Life',
'Collective and Individual', 'Self vis-ŕ-vis Not-Self', 'Form and Content(ment)',
and 'Metaphysical
Salvation'. There is also, at the end, a fairly long appendix
which has
the merit, not uncharacteristic of my appendices, of both summing up
the text
and, in this particular case, illustrating the reculer
pour mieux sauter,
or
stepping back in order to leap forward, attitude which underlines
much of the
foregoing philosophy. Certainly this text goes deeper than the
previous
one ever did, in terms of its understanding of the self and the
methodology of
self-actualization or realization by which the bridge from ego to
soul is
crossed.
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THE
CORE OF THE SELF:
Continuing on from above, this further text in my philosophical or,
as I now
prefer to think of it, superphilosophical
journey
brings us, via twenty-three headed sections numbered afresh in each
case, to
the 'Core of the Self', the 'Holy Grail' of self-fulfilment which
lies at
journey's end as its heavenly reward. Although principally
concerned,
like the previous text, with the self, this work does more justice
to the
totality of the self, including, for virtually the first time, the
id, which it
analyses both in relation to the self as a whole and to modern
society, with
particular reference to the West. The id, however, is not the
'Holy
Grail' of self-fulfilment for me but, rather, the antithesis of the
soul which
needs to be guarded against and, if possible, transcended in favour
of that
path which truly leads to the 'Core of the Self'. Let the
reader judge
for himself as to the success of my
journey and the
sincerity of my conclusions!
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THE
KINGDOM
OF THE SOUL: With implications that stretch into
'Kingdom
Come', this text adds one or two fresh ideas to the above, as well
as
highlighting the extent to which kingdoms, when genuine, are
commensurate with
one or another extreme of the self. The extreme I favour is,
of course, alluded to in the title, and
it is one that I believe could
have wider application than simply to the British Isles, as
described in the
text.
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TERMINOLOGICAL
DICTIONARY
OF SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALISM: Conceived in
alphabetical
order, this 'dictionary' of my philosophy ranges from A - Z in what
is arguably
the most thematically comprehensive and structurally definitive of
all my
texts, one that not only sums up the ideological philosophy of
Social
Transcendentalism but still manages to refine upon and remodel, in
typical
cyclic vein, some of the accepted wisdom of the past, as well - dare
I say - as
add new material to the overall corpus of philosophical ideas.
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THE
TRIUMPH OF BEING:
No sooner had I completed the above-mentioned 'Terminological
Dictionary ...'
than a seismic shift occurred in my thinking not only in regard to
the subject
of morality, about which I had theorized on a somewhat different
basis in the
past, but also, and more importantly, with regard to such concepts
as
'superman', 'supermasculine',
'supernatural', and so
on, which, in long-standing deference to Nietzsche, I had previously
taken too
much for granted. Now, with a deeper concept of nature, I was
in a
position to revaluate such terms and effectively displace them from
what had
been a metaphysical perch, setting up a new evaluation for that
which sensibly
pertains to the divine. The result, not surprisingly, may come
as a shock
to those who had supposed me too set in a Nietzschean mould.
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BEYOND
IMAGINATION:
This is another high-point in a long and winding philosophical
career which has
led this pilgrim, inexorably, towards the 'celestial city' of
heavenly truth
and thus towards the omega point of his oeuvre, wherein many
subjects are
explored afresh and one or two long-standing assumptions or
presumptions
summarily abandoned. Certainly the title was based on
conclusions I had
reached about the religiously undesirable nature of imagery,
imagination, and
other such appearance-based variations on a common metachemical
theme, from the
standpoint of philosophical essence.
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BRINGING
THE
JUDGEMENT: This delves deeper into the distinction
between
primacy and supremacy, the inorganic and the organic, than any of my
previous
texts, and arrives at conclusions which make it impossible to
underestimate the
part played by contemporary urban civilization in the destruction,
through
environmental and technological factors, of inner harmony and
peace.
Fortunately a solution to the problem is offered, but it is not one
that is
likely to ingratiate those for whom contemporary materialism is an
end-in-itself rather than something to reject in the interests of
self-respect. The 'judgement', however, has yet to come.
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THE
TOTALITY
OF NATURE: Each time I write a new book or, rather,
word
disc, it is as though it were the literary equivalent of a music CD,
with a
number of titles that, by and large, are independent of each other
and which
encourage one to proceed from one subject to another in what is
invariably a cyclical
progression. In this particular project there are some twenty
cycles, all
of which are self-sufficient and yet also interrelated in what
becomes a bigger
picture of an overall philosophy stretching ever further
omega-wards, as it
were, in the quest for ultimate truth and perfection. I
needn't elaborate
on any of the subjects here, because most of them will have been
explored to
some degree in my work before, but I doubt whether I have ever
written or,
rather, composed, methodically and meticulously, anything better,
least of all
in relation to the complex philosophical and moral problems posed by
the
distinction of 'right' and 'wrong', which here undergoes what I
believe to be a
morally definitive presentation.
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THE
PROMISE
OF 'KINGDOM COME': Similar to the above in structure
but
more consciously tailored to the space limitations of aural CD
transcription,
this work proceeds through nine cycles with titles ranging from 'The
Wisdom of
Sensible Truth' to 'Saving and/or Damning from the World'. Not
all of it,
however, is profoundly philosophic, and some lighter material is
certainly
provided by 'Bottles, Cans, and Beakers', arguably one of my most
thought-provoking cycles!
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THE
RIGHT TO SANITY:
Yet another cyclical text of aphoristic purism which goes to the
roots of
Western insanity and offers both an explanation of and alternative
to the
dilemma of what I call the paradoxical primacy afflicting modern
society which,
granting undue prominence to the inorganic, has the effect of
twisting moral
and other evaluations towards an anti-natural perspective in which
ugliness
passes for beauty and falsity for truth, to name but two
categories. Also
of especial note in this text is an attack on what the author likes
to think of
as the delusion of curved space in relation to spatial space, and
his solution
not only to the nature of space as something divisible between
straight and
curved, but to the division of time, volume, and mass along similar
gender-based, albeit element-conditioned, lines.
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MAGNUS
DEI: With
a title that is obviously a pun on 'Agnus
Dei', this
eighteenth example of my cyclical philosophy expands on the above to
embrace a
deeper analysis of the distinction between 'right' and 'wrong', or
immorality
and morality, and does so in relation to a number of dichotomous
contexts,
including sensuality and sensibility, competition and cooperation,
insanity and
sanity, race and culture. In fact, this text delves into the
racial
dichotomy between Nordic and Celtic and seeks to deduce certain
moral
distinctions between the two races, as well as to compare them with
the
generality of darker races on this planet from what the author
contends, on the
basis of metaphorical illustrations, to be a higher racial
standpoint.
Not least of the subjects under investigation here is the
distinction between
immanence and transcendence, which few thinkers would seem to have
treated with
the subtlety and profundity it deserves.
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OPUS
D'OEUVRE: With
subjects that range from modern architecture and myth to the
relationship of
sensuality to sensibility and the evolution of media technology,
this text is
sufficiently variegated to be of general interest even if it did not
contain
material which expands on the above - as, for example, race - and is
instantly
recognizable in relation to the nature and development of my
philosophy within
an elemental structure which not only evaluates things or situations
from a
standpoint based in the four elements, but embraces a moral
evaluation of them
on both sensual and sensible terms in either inorganic or organic
contexts.
This text certainly does that to a conclusive degree, and a fuller
understanding of some subjects, including literature, the Arts in
general, and
the relationship of science to religion or of politics to economics,
would not
be possible without such a comprehensive perspective which, whilst
doing
justice to every element or subject discussed, never looses track of
its
priorities and the goal that such a philosophy inexorably leads to
when, as
here, a proper moral and ideological evaluation of the various
options has been
systematically undertaken and achieved.
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PATHWAYS
TO
'THE KINGDOM': Composed in part of an overspill from
the above
and also of several fresh cycles, this short text expands on the
relationship
between sin and grace on the one hand and crime and punishment on
the other by
incorporating, in more detail than ever before, anthropomorphic
distinctions
between Father and Son in the one case, and Daughter and Mother in
the other,
showing how such symbols can be applied to religion and what the
consequences
are when they are seen in a religious light. Also of especial
importance
here is the correction which I was at last able to make concerning
an old
phrase ('salvation from sins and/or punishments of the world') that
had been
taken for granted in certain previous texts but was dealt its final
death-blow
here in what, with its philosophical consistency and greater
profundity, I like
to think of as my ultimate cyclical work.
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PRIVATE
OBSERVATIONS
- 'Personal and Universal': Here, at last, is a much more informal
and even
relaxed work which enabled me to lay one or two old autobiographical
ghosts to
rest while still continuing to haunt the realm of philosophy in no
uncertain
metaphysical terms. In fact, it may be that this further 2001
project
enabled me to lay one or two long-standing philosophical ghosts to
rest as
well, since I did not shy away from a fresh look at some old
theories and was
duly rewarded, I think, by a new perspective on certain things which
I had
begun to take - foolishly or naively - for granted, even though my
previous
treatment of them had been anything but conventional or
standard. I
believe that courage is its own reward, and that he who dares to
venture where
none has gone before deserves the beneficial consequences, whatever
they may
be. All I can say is that in this text certain very
complicated and even
paradoxical philosophical and moral issues have been tackled afresh
and solved,
to the best of my ability, in a way and with a structural
comprehensiveness
which leaves very little room for dissent. In that, I think I
have
achieved, with a text that went on to become more universal than
personal, far
more than I could possibly have hoped for at the beginning!
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THE
MYTH OF EQUALITY:
Reworking much of the material contained in the above, this text
goes deeper
into the distinction between gender-conditioned forms of culture and
civilization, as well as develops a more comprehensive perspective
on sin and
grace on the one hand, and crime and punishment on the other,
specifically with
regard to a distinction between nature and psyche in both sensuality
and
sensibility. Also of special note here is the departure from
previous
ascriptions of will, spirit, ego, and soul to each gender in favour
of the
modification of psyche attendant upon a natural bias and,
conversely, the
modification of nature attendant upon a bias for psyche. All
in all, 'The
Myth of Equality' succeeds in bringing my philosophy to an inequalitarian
and very pluralistic head, such that confirms the desirability of
elemental
comprehensiveness on both class- and gender-conditioned terms.
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FREEDOM
AND
DETERMINISM - 'The Gender Agenda': Building
on the
greater comprehensiveness achieved above, this text returns us to
the concept
of the triadic Beyond and explains the distinction, hitherto
unstressed,
between primary and secondary forms of both salvation and damnation,
according
to denominational predisposition and gender affiliation, within the
subdivisions of any given tier. It also builds upon the
dichotomy between
nature and psyche in both sensuality and sensibility to explain in
greater
detail why either nature conditions psyche or, more
sensibly, psyche
conditions nature. Of course, the author openly acknowledges
the extent
to which gender factors-in to the distinction between free nature
and free
psyche, but suggests that, through environmental progress,
we have the ability to change the relationship of the one to the
other in the
interests of a more sensible outcome. Finally, he
reaffirms his
opposition to religious affiliations based on psychic determinism
and argues in
favour of the environmental justification for an ultimate religious
manifestation, within the triadic framework alluded to above, of
psychic
freedom, simultaneously restating the terms and means by
which this may
officially be brought to pass.
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POINT
OMEGA POINT
- 'The Omega Standpoint': This directly follows on from the above
text not only
with a deeper understanding of the distinction between Nature and
Civilization,
but with greater insight into the division within both Nature and
Civilization of sensual and sensible alternatives, as well as with a
wider
interpretation of Nature and Civilization such that brings a more
exactingly
comprehensive perspective to bear on each, whilst still adhering to
a specific
civilized bias, as before. But as well as an enlargement of
perspective
which allows for a sharp differentiation between the natural and the
man-made,
there is an enhancement of logic such that clarifies the issues of
salvation
and damnation as never before, so that there can be no doubt as to
the issues
involved and on what basis a sensible alternative to a sensual
predominance
must be achieved, if it is to be achieved. In this respect,
the
distinction between freedom and binding, so characteristic of
various earlier
texts, is less symptomatic of the one or the other than of both
sensual and
sensible contexts, if with vastly different emphases, as described
in some
detail in what is, by any accounts, the most lucidly and logically
consistent
apologetics for an omega alternative to an alpha-besotted decadence
and/or
barbarity that could be imagined. Finally, I have to say that
the
appendix is virtually as significant as the work itself in the way
in which it
brings to a long-overdue head a dichotomy which until quite recently
I hadn't
realized was expressive of a generalization but which at last, in
rather more
than Kantian or Schopenhauerian
fashion, I was able
to utilize in both concrete and abstract, natural and psychic realms
on terms
which do it altogether more specific contextual justice - the
dichotomy, I
mean, between the phenomenal and the noumenal which, at long last, I
have
decided to bring into line with that elemental comprehensiveness for
which, I
hope, my philosophy will be esteemed in times to-come.
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THE
OMEGA POINT OF CULTURAL TRUTH: The real
point of this philosophical text becomes obvious enough as we
proceed ever more
comprehensively through the elements and their various subdivisions,
and
discover the actual basis of the distinction between soma (formerly
nature) and
psyche and of how they exist, according to gender, on both primal
and supreme
terms. In fact, this text tightens-up on so many of the
theories and
findings which preceded it that it would be difficult to imagine
anything
tighter and effectively more definitive in relation to them, since
it provides
logical evidence for the distinction between profanity and sanctity
as applying
not merely to men, much less women, but also to gods and devils, as
explained
in some detail. Yet it also drives home the real point of
cultural truth,
contrasting it not merely with the moral bankruptcy of civilized
knowledge, but
with the agonizingly annihilating prospect of those secular
realities which
hang over the contemporary world in self-denying philistinism and
are likely to
claim ever more victims as time goes by, unless the alternative I
have
suggested, and advocated all along, is democratically put in place
and
permitted to develop in the logical unfolding of an evolutionary
solution to
the problem of Man (as defined in the text). For modern Man is
a problem,
not a solution, and until his reign is officially consigned to the
rubbish bin
of world history, it is impossible to see a brighter future for
mankind in
general, the sort of future outlined in the above title which is but
the final
player in the game of life.
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ALPHA
AND OMEGA -
'Beginning and End': This work, divided into four evenly-structured
parts,
takes a closer look at such age-old questions as to whether mind
precedes
matter or matter precedes mind, and answers them in a way which does
equal
justice to both, as well as throws new light upon the distinction
between 'the
Father' and 'the Son' which amounts, for me, to a complete rejection
of my
previous standpoint and a reappraisal of their respective standings
on the
basis of a logically incontrovertible insight such that I had been
building
towards all along, not least of all in relation to the dissimilar
ratios and
significances attaching to soma and psyche according to
gender. It is
this work above all others that, when the contents of all four parts
have been
taken into account and their conclusions carefully analysed, will
expose the
humbug of conventional wisdom and morally challenge all who would
stand in the
way of evolutionary progress and seek to undermine that very sharp
distinction
between right and wrong, honesty and cowardice, sincerity and
hypocrisy, truth
and lies.
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VALUATIONS
OF
A SOCIAL TRANSCENDENTALIST: Carrying on the multipart
style of
writing of the above, this text is divisible into three six-chapter
parts
entitled 'Revaluations', 'Evaluations', and 'Transvaluations',
and
therefore approaches the task outlined in the title from three
different
standpoints, albeit without undue inflexibility or too methodical a
distinction
between them. Nevertheless the result, overall, isn’t
logically
displeasing, and each part has something new and different to offer,
not least
of all the third, which is closer to the 'transcendentalism' of the
ideological
title than to its 'social' aspect in the way the emphasis has been
placed on transvaluating; that is, on
shifting the concept of various
notions or ideals or realities from alpha to omega, soma to psyche,
not-self to
self, in the interests of a transvaluation
of society
along lines likely if not guaranteed to lead to the sort of positive
outcomes
which I have identified with virtue and, hence, morality, as
befitting an
alternative kind of society to that which generally prevails at
present, and
not only in countries or contexts where it is demonstrably official,
but also
wherever it exists unofficially in consequence of the overwhelming
influences
and pressures which have been brought to bear on virtually all
Western
societies by their more powerful neighbours. Nevertheless this
text is by
no means defeatist but, on the contrary, cautiously optimistic as to
the
prospect of some kind of alternative dispensation, broadly
identified with
'Kingdom Come', for the future. With certain revaluations of
previous
philosophical positions taken by me and a number of fresh
evaluations also
included along with these transvaluations,
I feel
that I can confidently claim to have finally reached the omega point
of my
oeuvre, and thus satisfied my claim to messianic credibility,
whatever others
may think.
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TOTAL
TRUTH: Here at
last, in this four-part work, is the actual omega point of
my
philosophical oeuvre as far as the achievement of a definitive
insight into the
relationship of freedom to binding in both sensual and sensible
contexts is
concerned, with an enhanced sense of the distinction between a
variety of terms
that may previously have been used interchangeably or as
equivalents.
Here, too, I can safely claim to have done more justice to the
conflicting
relationships between the individual and society than in previous
texts, as
well as developed a superior understanding as to the desirability of
universal
culture in the service of genuine religion for a world that needs to
reject its
factual and/or illusory shortcomings if civilization is to attain to
its omega
point in the blessedness of sensible freedom and be truly at peace
with itself.
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ETHNIC
UNVIERSALITY
- 'The Next Totalitarianism': Once again I must swallow my words and
put aside
claims to any given work being the 'omega point of my oeuvre', for
this text
takes my philosophy to an even more definitive level in relation to
those
attributes of each of the elements which make will, spirit, ego, and
soul
possible and jostle for primacy or supremacy, according to the
context, in individuals
both separately and collectively, in civilization as a reflection of
one sort
of society or another, depending on a variety of factors, not least
of all
environmental. But this text is equally definitive in relation
to its
understanding of people's civilization and why, despite appearances
to the
contrary or what anybody might say, such a largely urban
civilization, built
around the proletariat, can only be totalitarian and is, even now,
totalitarian
in what most characterizes it and what the author holds to be the
precondition
of an ultimate totalitarianism, as alluded to in the title, which
will take
this civilization to its omega point and therefore definitive
realization.
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NO
MAN-OEUVRE:
Conceived on the more informal basis of the above text, this title
lays down
the case for godly rights in relation to the development of
globalization to
its universal summation, and contends, with the aid of comprehensive
logical
structures which stretch through the elements (in general terms)
from cosmic
and natural to human and divine, that since godliness has still not
attained to
its per se manifestation there is no reason to regard such godliness
as has and
does obtain as the end of the religious road but, rather, to see how
religion
still has to develop beyond its traditional structures if God is to
supersede
and, in a sense, supplant man as the logical outcome of historical
development
and, indeed, evolution. To that end, it has been part of the
duty of this
text to de-bunk conventional religion, both Western and especially
Eastern, in
order to demonstrate that all religions leave something to be
desired from the
standpoint of true universality in relation to the final development
of
religion, of soulful totalitarianism, in genuinely global terms.
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THE
HIGH-WAY
OF TRUTH: Following on from the above, this companion
text
takes a closer look at people's civilization as it bears upon the
development
of globalization, and distinguishes between national and
international forms of
'people's ideology' in a way that seeks to demonstrate that even
here a 'gender
war' is in operation which pits not only Fascism against Communism
and
Socialism against Capitalism but the female forms of Fascism and
Socialism
against their male counterparts and, conversely, the male forms of
Capitalism
and Communism against their female counterparts, with interesting
implications
for the future development of ideology as bearing upon the most
logically
desirable outcome of such dialectical struggles in relation to the
most
universally credible form of globalization. As a corollary of
this, one
is left in no doubt that the people who count for most within the
framework of
globalization are more likely to be atheistically opposed to
traditional and
conventional religion than staunch believers in their deities and
even in such
flawed notions as the Second Coming, their own entitlement to
godliness - and hence
religion - being a matter of future judgement when they are able to
come into
their religious own in consequence of their willingness to take
their global
destiny to its universal conclusion.
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THE
END OF EVOLUTION:
This text brings my theorizing to a very absolutist head that
refines upon the
pluralistic consistency of what has preceded it in relation to the
administrative aside to and the triadic Beyond of 'Kingdom Come', as
described
in earlier texts. For the trend of globalization towards a
unitive peak
in a more genuine universality at the expense of both Western and
Eastern
traditions alike presages a transcendentalist resolution which
cannot but
be equally, if not more, absolutist, and thus beyond both
humanistic/nonconformist relativity and fundamentalist absolutism.
Such,
then, is the import of this text as it develops its
revolutionary
message for the proletariat and enters into a more complete
solidarity with
proletarian internationalism than might have been expected even as
recently as
a few years ago. In this respect, too, it signifies a
worthy
component in the long struggle for Truth which has characterized
this oeuvre
over several decades of consistent philosophizing with the end of a
revolutionary transformation of society always in mind.
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THE
VIRTUOUS CIRCLES:
This further text in the ever-advancing oeuvre achieves a more
comprehensive
understanding and delineation of both the convolutional
realities of female hegemonic contexts, regarded as vicious circles,
and the involutional realities or,
rather, idealities of male
hegemonic contexts, regarded as virtuous circles, and therefore as
bearing upon
the title in terms of a positive alternative to and solution
of the
problem, from a male standpoint, of the vicious circles which are
established
whenever somatic freedoms take precedence over their psychic
counterparts, as
in all heathenistic or secular societies. It is also subtler
in its
understanding of the distinctions between binding and pseudo-freedom
as a
precondition of genuine freedom, whether for better, in respect of
psyche, or
for worse, in respect of soma. There is also a certain
religiously-oriented terminological comprehensiveness, mirroring the
above-mentioned circles, which does maximum justice to the various
metaphors
which are convenient shorthand for gender and class realities and
idealities in
both sensuality and sensibility, thereby leaving absolutely no room
for doubt
as to the significance and status of such metaphorical terms,
irrespective as
to which stage of life, from cosmic to suprahuman
(cyborg), they can be variously
applied. Therefore
with careful study there should be no doubt as to the applicability
or
significance of these definitions, or how to distinguish between
them on an
underlying descriptive basis. In that respect, this text
achieves a
logical definitiveness which it would be difficult if not impossible
to improve
upon, and may justifiably be regarded as the intellectual
culmination-point of
my philosophical oeuvre to-date.
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THE
STRUGGLE FOR ULTIMATE FREEDOM: I ought by
now to have learnt my lesson in respect to the sort of claim made
above about
definitive texts but, frankly, some further philosophical progress
has been
made, if in regard to a revaluation - evaluating and revaluating
being germane
to the cyclical structures of my work - of a quite long-standing
evaluation
concerning devolution, which only confirms that intellectual
progress happens
by degrees and is a long and often tortuous process during the
course of which
new insights and logical configurations come to light which enable
one to
re-address an old contention or, in this case, bone of contention,
to a more
satisfactory resolution.... Which does not mean that progress
towards some
definitive position is not possible or is simply a delusion, as some
would have
us believe, but that it takes time and involves many rethinks and
revaluations
along the way such that only a very brave and honest type of person,
more
likely male and not overly concerned with commercial viability or
attractiveness, would be capable of undertaking, given all the
complexities
involved. Nevertheless further progress or perhaps I should
say redress
has emerged here, in this well-nigh definitive text, and it is to my
cyclical
credit that I have been able to recycle old material and thereby
fashion
something new, not least in respect of a more developed concept of
religious
freedom which will require the ideological subordination and even
democratic
supersession of political freedoms if globalization is ultimately to
emerge in
a more credibly universal guise - a contention which, although
touched upon
before, here achieves something like a definitive presentation.
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APOTHEOSIS
OF
THE GNOSIS: If anything seems like a definitive text
it is this,
which enabled me to draw the various strands of my philosophy
together and to
enunciate my worldview with such logical consistency and
comprehensive
exactitude ... that I felt as though nothing significant had been
overlooked
and there was even room for one or two long-standing grudges and
resentments to
be aired in the interests of enhanced credibility. This, to
me, is akin
to a Seventh Heaven, for it is in actuality the seventh text in the
series of
similarly-structured aphoristic works stemming from 'Ethnic
Universality', the
titular independence of all of which is designed to maintain a sense
of and
commitment to individualism in the wake of the rather more
closely-collectivized
and structurally-integrated texts which, divided into book-like
parts, came to
a head with 'Total Truth'. What has come to a head here, with
'Apotheosis of
the Gnosis', is a sense of freedom which owes more to theocracy than
to
democracy but could not materialize, in any ultimate form, without
the
assistance of democracy. That, in itself, is not new to my
work, but the
way it has been described and the extent to which I have exposed the
penalties
of not embracing psychic freedom more absolutely is really quite
something
else, not least in respect of the covert subversion of male virtues
by female
moralities in sensibility which is the price to be paid in the
absence of a
more complete freedom.
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ESCHATOLOGY
OR
SCATOLOGY - 'Judgement at the Crossroads': One can
take humble or
vulgar means, including slang or casual obscenity, and seek to
develop them
philosophically in such a way that things come to light that would
otherwise
probably have remained buried and hidden from view. Sometimes
it were
better that such things did remain buried, but if one can bear to
contemplate
them and grow to understand them better, then the reward is not
insubstantial
but arguably well worth the trouble. So it has been here, and
in this
final individualized instalment of homogeneously-structured
aphoristic texts I
have come full-circle, as it were, and highlighted a significant
distinction
between the two types of people's radicalism which all those of a
progressively
unworldly or extreme left-wing persuasion have to choose between,
often
unconsciously and according to the kind of society or civilization
in which
they find themselves or to which they relate - namely the Social
Theocracy of
the highroad and the Social Democracy of the low road, the former
incontrovertibly determined to bring one aspect of the world to
Heaven, the
latter just as incontrovertibly determined, so far as I am
concerned, to bring
a neo-diabolical mode of Hell to the other aspect of the world,
though to find
out which is which you will have to read the text and thus undertake
a journey
the likes of which you will never have taken before, one which may
even
overtake your prior expectations and leave you marvelling at the
situation in
which you then find yourself, for better or worse.
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APOCALYPSO
- 'The New
Revelation': Divided into four sections, this text carries on
the task of
highlighting the distinctions between Social Theocracy and Social
Democracy,
though always from a perspective favouring the former, and brings a
fresh sense
of exactitude to bear on a number of terms which have either been
used
interchangeably or in a more general way in the past, while
simultaneously
developing a more comprehensively exacting 'take' upon what pertains
to free
psyche and bound soma and what pertains, by contrast, to free soma
and bound
psyche, so that one need be in no doubt that criteria applicable to
the former
are largely if not completely irrelevant to the latter....Which is
why I have
developed a different set of terminological markers for each
context, whether
in respect of noumenal or phenomenal, upper- or lower-class
criteria, so that
there can be no ambiguity or ambivalence as to the sense in which
these terms
are being applied, and no justification, in consequence, for
confusion over
their use. But the 'new revelation' alluded to in the subtitle
has to do
with more than specific terminological practice, no matter how
comprehensively
exacting, since it is a revelation, above all, about life and the
means by
which life can be enhanced in respect of the more than Christian
order of
salvation which is what Social Theocracy is really all about.
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AT THE CROSSROADS OF AXIAL DIVERGENCE:
As
suggested by the title, this text continues to explore the
distinctions between
what have been termed the bureaucratic-theocratic axis of a rising
diagonal and
the autocratic-democratic axis of a falling diagonal, and to do so
in such a
way that there can be no doubt as to the outcome of each axial
progression,
whether it be in respect of Social Theocracy or Social Democracy,
with
eschatological implications which give a contemporary twist to
the
concept of Judgement and the consequences of what is at stake in any
contest
between the two axes, the divergent natures of which have been more
comprehensively fleshed out here than in the preceding text.
But as
anyone familiar with the preceding text or texts will agree, there
can be only
one path for the self-respecting righteous to follow, and such a
path leads up
and in rather than down and out.
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OPTI-MYSTIC
PROJECTIONS: Although structurally and thematically
similar to the
above text, composed as ever of aphoristic notes, this work
represents a
quantum leap forward in certain areas which are explored more
accurately and
rigorously than ever before, progressing from a consideration of the
distinctions between sacred and profane ego to the cultural and
political
differences between Europe and America, and of how Britain's
attraction towards
America undermines Europe and creates problems which even France
cannot avoid
being affected by, much as France differs from Britain in respect of
its
cultural and political traditions and should be judged, I believe,
by criteria
closer, in essence, to those obtaining in countries like Eire, where
the
influence of the Catholic Church is omnipresent. But America
is an
altogether different proposition from France, never mind Eire, and
its
influence on Britain is such as to make one desirous of a radical
change in the
British Isles which will make it easier for any residual influence
to be
minimized or even marginalized in the interests of greater European
unity and
cooperation, a change which, as the reader may have guessed, points
in the
direction of Social Theocracy and its politico-religious
aspirations, as
outlined in previous texts, which besides embracing the
supranational
transcendence of the British/Irish divide include a more authentic
order of
religious transcendentalism as its raison d'ętre. Finally, as
a word of advice,
one should not read this text before one has progressed, step by
step, through
all the preceding ones, but once one has read it one would
probably
incline, as I do, to regard it as the best thing I have ever written
in terms
of what projects furthest into a mystical, or metaphysically
transcendent,
future with the logical optimism which only loyalty to self can
vouchsafe.
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UNFLATTERING
CONCLUSIONS: More than ever I should like this text
to speak for
itself, because it does not paint a flattering picture of
Anglo-American
relations vis-ŕ-vis Europe as a whole and the world in general but
strives to
show not merely how but why the United Kingdom is a problem
for Europe
and the prospect of greater European integration. However, all
problems
tend to invite solutions, and my own solution to the problem of the
UK
vis-ŕ-vis Europe in general but Eire in particular draws on my
ideological
legacy as a self-proclaimed Social Theocrat who, like the French
philosopher
Michel Foucault, is not only ranged against an overly Social
Democratic 'take'
on progress, but has an alternative path to offer which owes a lot
more to
European tradition than ever it does to the long-standing opponents
of that
tradition who would be among the last peoples, as things stand, to
either understand
or be able to tread this new path which, as far as I am concerned,
is the path
to universal harmony and therefore of an end to national divisions.
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RADICAL
PROGRESS
- 'The Only Way Forward': As suggested by the title, this text has a
concept of
progress which is radical and far-reaching in its left-wing
implications,
albeit in relation to the sphere of religion rather than economics,
which is
the only sphere, so far as I am concerned, which can be genuinely
progressive,
provided, however, that the religion itself is genuine and therefore
transcendentalist,
stemming, as I have argued in the text, from an antihumanist
precondition. But that is only one axis, or diagonal, in the
totality of
axial factors at work in different kinds of societies, whether on a
primary or
a secondary basis, and in 'Radical Progress' I have gone into the
distinctions
between church hegemonic/state subordinate and state
hegemonic/church
subordinate societies in no uncertain terms, outlining the different
ideals and
fates which pertain to them with a logical consistency that leaves
one in no
doubt as to the relative value of each type of society, whether
rising
diagonally or falling diagonally, and making a conclusive case for
the society
that has the capacity to lead people higher rather than simply rule
them from a
height in opposition to something lower which is nevertheless
distinct from the
kind of lowness obtaining across the great divide of the world, as
explained in
this my most definitive and outstanding text to-date.
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STAIRWAY
TO
JUDGEMENT - 'The Way to the Eternal Life of Social
Theocratic
Truth': Continuing on from the above work, this text is not
only more
comprehensively exacting than the previous one - and indeed all the
earlier
works - in relation to the various ideological permutations of both
state and
church, politics and religion, but more logically insightful of the
diametrically
opposite ways in which what has been termed 'world overcoming'
operates,
whether from a secular or an ecclesiastical point of view, to the
end of
maintaining either the alpha ideal of somatic freedom from the
standpoint of a
female hegemony or the omega ideal of psychic freedom from the
standpoint of a
male hegemony, neither of which kinds of ideal, respectively
criminal and
graceful, are or ever can be compatible, and therefore necessitate
and
invariably result in contrary types of society which, for obvious
reasons,
rarely if ever 'see eye to eye' but remain at gender loggerheads
with each
other for as long as 'the world' persists. The 'world' as
defined in the
text, however, is no simple monolith where the people are concerned
but is
divisible, on the above-mentioned basis, between those who take the
earth for
granted in what I have described as a democratic/plutocratic type of
worldly
bias and those, on the contrary, who live in hope of salvation from
the world
in what has been called a bureaucratic/meritocratic type of worldly
bias which,
scorning the earth, is avowedly anti-earthly in character and the
precondition,
through sin, of heavenly grace. Therefore, split asunder
between two
types of worldly society, the people, 'the meek', the electorate,
the many,
etc., cannot be evaluated according to any one set of criteria but
have to be
differentiated on the basis of whether they pertain to the one
manifestation of
'the world' or to the other, with contrary fates in both state and
church, as
described in this, my most ideologically conclusive text
to-date.
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A
PERFECT RESOLUTION:
As suggested by the title, this text resolves some outstanding
problems and
anomalies appertaining to the preceding one, including not least the
relative
positions of what has been called pseudo-sin and pseudo-grace on the
one hand
and pseudo-crime and pseudo-punishment on the other hand, drawing
them closer
to their respective primary complements in both state and church, so
that a
more integrated conclusion has been reached in which the hegemonic
gender of
either axis, as redefined in this text, conditions the nature of the
subordinate attribute in relation to the presiding ideal, and
conditions it,
moreover, in its own image. However, this text does a lot more
than
correct the 'heathenistic' aberrations of the previous one; for it
also exposes
the extent to which criteria appertaining to good and evil, not to
mention
wisdom and folly, are significantly dependent on the nature of the
society of
which they are a part, so that at the end of the day it is not
whether this or
that is right or wrong, good or bad, but what exactly is
conditioning people to
take one view or another that really matters, and this, not
surprisingly, is to
a large extent dependent on which gender is effectively controlling
society and
whether or not there has been a 'transvaluation
of
values' sympathetic to a formal departure from sensuality to
sensibility.
For what is 'right' in sensuality can become very 'wrong' from the
standpoint
of sensibility, provided society has officially gravitated to such a
standpoint
- something, I have argued, which contemporary civilization,
characterized as
urban proletarian, has yet to do, with consequences that would
reverse much of
what currently passes for 'good' and 'wise', as explained in the
text.
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THE
LAST JUDGEMENT:
Despite its portentous-sounding title, this work in the continuing
oeuvre progresses
through four sections in much the same way as the previous works and
with all
or most of the same concerns, except that its grasp of the
distinction between
soma and psyche, not-self and self, in relation to the divergent
axes of
state-hegemonic and church-hegemonic types of society is more
consistent and
methodical than had previously been the case, with a consequence
that one can
differentiate quite sharply between the somatic emphasis or bias of
the one
context in relation to evil and good and the psychic bias or
emphasis of the
other context in relation to sin and grace - something that puts a
new
complexion on the corresponding complements of crime and punishment
on the one
hand and of folly and wisdom on the other hand. However, it
must be said,
in relation to the title, that if we are to accept a Last Judgement,
we are
obliged to acknowledge a First Judgement; for no less than God the
Father
logically obliges us to come to terms with the contrary existence of
Devil the
Mother, so Judgement, conceived in this fashion, compels us to
distinguish
between alpha and omega, metachemistry and metaphysics, in terms of
antiphysical and antichemical alternatives which have applicability
to our own
age and civilization in a way which leaves no doubt as to the
significance of
gender in bringing such contrary concepts to pass. For
here as
elsewhere, nothing can be understood without reference to the axial
divergence
which follows from the hegemony of this gender or that gender,
making for a
sharp distinction between alpha and omega, the first and the last,
whether in
respect of Judgement or of anything else.
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THE
FREE
TESTAMENT OF A BOUND GENIUS: Beginning with doubts
about a
certain number too often used in religious connections, this text
progresses
through a development of my own religious theories and numbers
towards a
conclusion which, while not entirely removed from the magical number
cited at
the beginning, endorses a rather larger figure when once the numbers
attaching
to my divisions and subdivisions of each axis - descending and
ascending, female
and male - have been multiplied by four in relation to what has been
regarded
as the principal stages of both death and life as applying in
previous texts to
element-conditioned environmental means, from the Cosmos and nature
to mankind
and cyborgkind, the latter of which is already here, if rather more
on sensual
than sensible terms at present. Nevertheless, this text is
about a lot
more than numbers, however significant or insignificant one chooses
to regard
them, being an extension and refinement of my recent axial
theorizing
which, frankly, leaves little or nothing to be desired - at least
not in terms
of the way and extent to which everything adds up in what must be a
definitive
comprehensiveness that takes my philosophy-cum-theosophy to an
all-time peak,
and establishes if not proves, once and for all, my pre-eminence as
arguably
the foremost metaphysical thinker not only of this age but of
virtually any
age, a self-thought thinker whose corporeal existence remains bound
even as his
largely ethereal thoughts range freely over the entire compass of
devolutionary
and evolutionary actuality or possibility, from the alpha-most point
of Devil
the Mother/Hell the Clear Spirit to the omega-most point of God the
Father/Heaven the Holy Soul.
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REVELATIONARY AFTERTHOUGHTS: Stemming in large measure from
the above text, this work restates in greater detail many of the
principal
contentions of my recent philosophy and arrives at some new
conclusions which
render it all the more logically unassailable and entitled to be
regarded as
the criterion by which not only contemporary morality but the
distinction
between morality and immorality, the light and the dark, should be
judged, even
if this does mean that some or many of one's treasured illusions
should
ultimately be discarded in order that the light of truth may shine
through in
as unimpeded and unequivocal a way as possible. Frankly, I had
no idea,
when I tentatively began this text, that it would blossom into what
is
unquestionably the most eloquent and comprehensively exacting
presentation of
my philosophy so far, a presentation that has the right to be called
revelationary in that much of what it
reveals is so
compellingly cogent as to be positively divine, the divine
revelations of a
thinker who knows the difference between God and the Devil
but does not
make the reductionist mistake of conceiving of history, much less
life, as a
struggle between Good and Evil when all the philosophical evidence
points to
the conclusion that good is merely the relative counterpart of Evil
and no more
than a just retort to something which is not merely antithetical to
anything
godly but the principal obstacle to the salvation of the sinful to
that which,
gracefully transcending the world, is as far removed from being
engaged in any
such struggle as it is possible to imagine, but not, on that
account,
indifferent to the plight of the meek.
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REVOLUTIONARY
AFTERTHOUGHTS: Dealing with essentially the same
subject-matter as
its companion text above, this work is even more exactingly
insightful in its
understanding of the differences between the Eternal freedoms that
rule or lead
and the temporal bindings that submit, in worldly fashion, to the
alternative
dispensations so antithetically ranged above them, whether in
contemporary or
traditional guise. Here there is no question but that the
worldly
division between what has been called the meek and the just is
symptomatic
of two entirely different and largely independent axial
orientations, an ascending axis of church-hegemonic criteria and a
descending
axis of state-hegemonic criteria, and that the salvation of those
who meekly
pertain to the former is crucial to the undermining if not,
eventually,
complete invalidation of the latter, but that salvation, for it to
work, must
be conceived on higher and more radical terms than has ever before
characterized the diagonally ascending axis if the meek, as
defined in
the text, are to be more lastingly and efficaciously delivered not
only from
their own worldly limitations but from the sorts of netherworldly
predations to
which, via those limitations, they are perforce subjected by the
Vain, or those
who rule the just to their mutual exploitative and immoral
advantage. As in all my works, there is both further logical
progress
and, in the achievement of such progress, the necessary correction,
from time
to time, of previous contentions, and this work is no exception, all
the more
gratifyingly so in that what it has progressed to is nothing short
of an
unequivocal endorsement of a truth that dares to speak its name
because it is
genuinely universal and capable of resolving, once and for all, the
dilemma of
worldly division.
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JUDGEMENTAL
AFTERTHOUGHTS: This text brings to a
'judgemental' head a
loose quartet of works beginning with 'The Free Testament of a Bound
Genius',
and has been subtitled 'As Testamentary Evidence of a Free Genius',
since it
rather departs from the terminological bounds set by the other work,
not to
mention the two intervening ones, as it explores, in some detail,
the use and
applicability of common slang and verb-noun expletives from a
comprehensively
exacting philosophical standpoint, with many interesting and novel
conclusions,
some of which might well contribute towards undermining the mindless
alacrity
with which certain persons go about denigrating others in carnally
reductionist
terms. Therefore I have, in a sense, 'judged' such
terms, however
irrational their common usage, and, I trust, brought some logical
sense to bear
on them, thereby removing them from the pit of vulgar or obscene
slang in which
they tend, with unthinking people, to languish. But
that is not
all I have done in this highly demanding text; for the reader will
soon discern
that I have a gift for parables and metaphorical irony which should
shed some
light on recent history and the contemporary political scene most
especially,
thereby preparing the ground for progressive radical change in the
decades
and centuries to come. Finally, I have returned to one
of my
favourite subjects, which might be described as the ideological or
ontological
understanding of literature in respect of its four principal
branches, viz.
drama, poetry, prose, and philosophy, and have, with the assistance
of my
customary elemental and axial theories (here brought to a veritable
apotheosis), endeavoured to shed some light on their differences, in
both
gender and class terms, thereby indicating the path
which leads
not only to the understanding of literature in a deeper and wider
sense but,
hopefully, to its eventual overcoming on the most synthetically
artificial
basis, with especial reference to philosophy of the utmost
truth-oriented order
which, with me, attains to an all-time peak of metaphysical
perfection which
should suffice to expose the poetic half-truths and perhaps,
indirectly, see
off the dramatic lies and prosaic half-lies in the difficult but
interesting
times ahead.
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FATHER
OMEGA'S
LAST TESTAMENT: Despite its slightly ironic title,
this text
is perfectly serious in its most exactingly comprehensive analysis
of the four
main elementally-conditioned class/gender contexts which have been
described as
noumenally sensual, phenomenally sensual, phenomenally sensible, and
noumenally
sensible, the first and third of which form an axial integrity on a
diagonally
descending basis and the second and fourth of which such an
integrity on a
diagonally ascending one, so that they divide into two types of
society which,
as in previous works, have been characterized as either
state-hegemonic and
church-subordinate or church-hegemonic and
state-subordinate.
Therefore each of these contexts is more complex than the initial
terminology
might suggest, because further divisible between male and female
elemental
positions which in turn subdivide into psychic and somatic aspects
which
conform to either church or state on what has been described as
primary or
secondary terms, depending on which gender is hegemonic in any given
context,
be it upper- or lower-class, in sensuality or in sensibility.
Consequently our four basic contexts quickly mutate into eight
positions that
further subdivide along somatic and psychic lines, each of which is
subdivisible between will and spirit in
the case of soma
and ego and soul in the case of psyche, as described in previous
texts but not,
I believe, with the same logical authority as comes to light here
and reveals,
for the first time, just how interdependent state and church can be
for better
or worse, depending on the axis. The conclusions that have
been drawn,
however, are not such that any self-respecting person could quibble
with; for
they point to a solution to the problem of contemporary
state-hegemonic
civilization which would return civilization, in duly transmuted
church-hegemonic guise, to its true
stature as something worthy of the
utmost respect for its moral insight and
accomplishments.
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REVALUAIONS
AND TRANSVALUATIONS: This
text not only revaluates certain positions recently postulated in my
philosophical works, and therefore corrects or modifies their
conclusions, but
extends my transvaluating towards a
totally new
understanding and conception of Christianity and what logically
followed it, so
that the path is prepared, as it were, for the revelations
concerning religion
and the destiny of the phenomenally sensual 'meek' which owe more to
this transvaluation than ever they do
to any conventional or
traditional notions concerning such subjects as the Immaculate
Conception, the
Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and, indeed, the entire belief system
of
Christianity in respect of a Second Coming and Day of
Judgement. In the
end, what transpires is a revaluation of Christianity in light of my
mature
philosophy and its Social Theocratic commitment to Truth of an
ultimate order
which exposes the errors that stem from presumption of the death of
God on the
Cross and lead, inevitably, towards a humanistic dead-end.
I also
expose the limitations of terms like 'mankind' and 'man' in relation
to the
full-gamut of class and gender possibilities which actually exist
and condition
or characterize life from one standpoint or another, and show more
fully how
things actually divide into two axes which are not only divisible in
themselves
but antithetical in virtually every respect, even in regard to sport
and sex,
on both somatic and psychic, state- and church-oriented terms.
In sum,
this important text not only revaluates a number of important
philosophical
contentions on my part, making for a new and better understanding of
ideological
distinctions between 'Left' and 'Right' and of how amorality factors
in to the
opposition between immorality and morality in such fashion that they
are never
strictly polar, but extends my thinking towards a culmination-point
which is
the fruit of both a correct premise and an ability to transvaluate
certain presumptions concerning God and man which turns things
around and
enables one to make sense out of the historical struggles leading,
as it were,
from the 'Garden of Eden' to the world and from the world,
hopefully, to
'Kingdom Come', as reinterpreted from a standpoint firmly centred in
an
ultimate transvaluation, the product of
all previous
revaluations.
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THE
CLASSLESS
SOLUTION: As it follows on from the above, this text
is
bound to restate many of the philosophical positions and contentions
already
taken, but it does so with even greater certitude and a more
exactingly
comprehensive assessment of the various components of the total
picture which
leaves one in no doubt that something philosophically definitive has
been
achieved, and that any further revaluations or transvaluations
are only likely to happen in relation to that which is already
broadly or
essentially true, not contrary to it. Yet even then that would
not be
entirely the case, for this text still manages to refine on and even
to modify
certain of the contentions or positions taken above, not least in
respect of
the evaluation of class on a more axially specific basis which
helps, I
believe, to clarify the distinctions between noumenal and
phenomenal, noble and
plebeian, in such fashion that one could never again accept anything
less
comprehensively exacting for gospel or fail to understand just how
different the two axial positions really are.... As in the case, for
example,
of their contrary social and moral fates, not least in respect of
salvation and
damnation, and who or what is saved or damned, counter-damned or
counter-saved,
and how that should be morally or socially interpreted. But I
would be
understating the achievements of this text if, quite apart from its
contribution to our understanding of literature from a more axially
comprehensive point of view, I were to ignore the original
contribution it
makes to an understanding of how civilization progresses or
regresses on both
positive and negative terms in an alternation, stemming from primal
action,
between reaction and attraction which takes it through successive
stages of
devolutionary or evolutionary development on both liberal and
totalitarian
terms towards the possibility of a culmination which, antithetical
to how it
began, will signify a sort of omega freedom that contrasts with the
alpha
freedom as the most positive psychic reaction with the most positive
somatic
action, having passed through several intermediate phases of
reaction and
attraction in soma and psyche which both confirm and advance a
dualistic
alternation between pluralistic and monistic systems.
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THE DIALECTICS OF SYNTHETIC ATTRACTION:
As
suggested by the title, this work carries on my investigation of the
dialectical process in terms of successive stages of civilization
from alpha to
omega, and does so in considerably more detail than 'The Classless
Solution',
not only correcting but expanding certain of the theories put
forward at the
tail-end of the above-mentioned work, with a consequence that what
was
virtually embryonic there has come to something approaching full
maturity here,
even down to the way in which the outcome of the historical process
is
envisaged. For this work leaves nothing, so far as that is
concerned, to
be desired, and I can confidently say that I have achieved here the
summation
of my life's work, bringing to a very confident conclusion matters
that were
first broached several years, if not decades, ago, but with nothing
of the logical
clarity and sophistication which has since ensued. It is even
good to be
reminded that one's texts are cyclical in character, spiralling up
towards an
ever-more comprehensively exacting summit which brings to
a centro-complexifying head things
that, in the very
nature of such matters, it was only possible to introduce in more
general terms
earlier on or, rather, lower down the work's inner structure.
In that
respect, what I have achieved here with regard to the interaction
and interrelativity of psychological
and physiological factors
on either a female or a male basis, depending on the elemental
context,
surpasses, by far, whatever had been achieved before, and not only,
I wager, by
myself. For this final working out of such
psychological/physiological
dualities puts everything in perspective, and it only remains for
those who are
capable of reading and appreciating my work - in all probability a
tiny
minority - to confirm me in the correctness of my vision and the
accuracy of my
truth, a truth which should endure for ever.
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THE
DIALECTICS
OF CIVILIZATION: This work proves like no other that
the
use of certain colloquial expressions can, if revaluated on a
sufficiently
comprehensive basis, with one or two original additions thrown-in
for good
measure, lead to startling insights and enable one to deepen and/or
broaden
one's philosophy in such fashion that it ends-up doing greater
justice to the
truth (in both specific and comparative terms) than had been the
case
hitherto. Thus with this title I have carried what was
achieved in the
preceding title, 'The Dialectics of Gender and Class', to a new and,
I would
suppose, altogether more definitively comprehensive level, a level
which plots
the development of civilization, in the broadest sense, from its
alpha-most
inception to its projected omega-most consummation, and does so with
respect to
both linear and axial perspectives which combine to permit of yet
another fresh
perspective which takes my theorizing to an all-time peak of
dialectical
insight, a worthy culmination to my philosophical quest! For
in this text
I have achieved a well-nigh definitive insight into the distinctions
between
Space and Time which should leave one in no doubt as to the path
that leads to
Eternity and thus to a definitive resolution of life, the
culmination not only
of all civilization but, in a deeper sense, of that which transcends
civilization in truly post-historical terms.
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THE
DIALECTICS OF GENDER AND CLASS: As the
logical successor to the above, this text delves more profoundly
into the
distinctions between 'historical' and 'post-historical'
civilizations, not
least in respect of the shift from a genuine phenomenal and
pseudo-noumenal
status in the one to a pseudo-phenomenal and genuine noumenal status
in the
other proportionate to the degree of post-historicity actually
obtaining.
With that in mind, we also find, in this work, a more definite sense
of the
relationships between gender and class, as well as the extent to
which the
seemingly complementary co-existence of the genders on a given class
basis
requires a hegemonic/subordinate dichotomy between them which,
however it pans
out, enables such a co-existence to prevail in the first place,
quite apart
from the modification of relations which results from the
interactivity of
antithetically complementary classes when once axial polarities have
been established,
with their gender paradoxes, as also described in one or two
previous texts but
with less methodical exactitude than here and certainly less overall
certainty
as to the specific class status of a given elemental position, be it
phenomenal
or noumenal. For the linking of class with element and/or of
anti-element
with anticlass is now brought to a
conclusive
resolution which reaffirms the standing of gender in relation to
each, making
the relationship between gender and class complementary to an
elemental
persuasion, whether in sensuality or sensibility, that is the basis
from which
all gender and class distinctions spring. Yet my philosophy
would not be
true to its genius if it did not also, and categorically, affirm an
ideological
bias in respect of a specific elemental and anti-elemental
persuasion, thereby
bringing to the plethora of options and findings a destiny which,
for the
seeker after ultimate truth, would leave him in no doubt as to the
correct
solution to the problem of choice and reality of options - a
solution which can
have only one outcome, and that of divine devising.
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YANG
AND ANTI-YIN:
After a brief flirtation with numerology and a kind of oblique
debunking of the
esoteric or occult significance of triple-digit figures, this text
quickly sets
about its main task, which was to explore in more detail the
dialectics of Yang
and Anti-Yin, as already intimated at in previous texts, and bring
to a
conclusion matters which, in respect of noumenal sensibility, had
been pending
a more definitive resolution such that, as often in my work, could
not but
spill over into a more general resolution of other factors that had
still not
reached that definitive comprehensiveness which has been my goal all
along and
which, once reached, would confirm and enhance the truth of what
most
specifically pertains to the Truth as an exemplification of
godly
resolve. But for every advance in the development and,
ultimately,
achievement of such a definitive working-out of all the parts in all
the right
places, there must come a corresponding advance to one's commitment
of what
most constitutes Truth and a willingness to illustrate or exemplify
it in terms
of an appropriate textural presentation, one that cannot be merely
phenomenal
and 'human all too human', but must first acknowledge and then scale
and
finally conquer the heights of a presentation of Truth that is
incontestably
godly and thus the only apt vehicle for what would traditionally
have been
called 'the Word of God' but which I, fearing worshipful devotion,
shall simply
call 'godly word' and leave for others to approach according to
their abilities
or capacities for the noumenally sensible heights, whether on a
metaphysical
or, indeed, an antimetachemical basis, as explained, together with
so much
more, in this definitive presentation of my philosophy which
summarizes and
brings to a conclusive resolution what in previous texts had still
been in a
formative stage of logical development and by no means as
categorical a
statement of Truth, together with what is less than and contrary to
Truth, as
is to be found on the pages of Yang and Anti-Yin, the End and
Anti-Beginning of
all philosophizing.
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LAMB
AND ANTI-LION:
Taking its thematic structure from the previous text, this work
delves deeper
into noumenal sensibility and its full gender and ideological
implications,
taking the biblical metaphors of ‘lamb’ and ‘lion’ to their ultimate
conclusions in what becomes an exact parallel to the ‘yang’ and
‘anti-yin’ of
our metaphysical and antimetachemical elemental positions. But
these
elements are also investigated in greater detail, and provide ample
scope for the
enhancement or clarification of certain terms, including those with
other
elemental affinities than that with which we are chiefly concerned
here.
Thus a broadening out from the central and core position of my
philosophy is
once again to the fore, and other positions are accordingly
revaluated and
modified in the light of my principal contentions. Also
modified, in this
respect, are theories concerning life-after-death, which are now
shown in a new
light, not least in relation to my philosophy of history and the
subdivisions
which accrue to each of the three principal stages of
civilization. I
think this is one of the factors which, in this text, has made it
possible for
me to be tougher on the Catholic Church than ever before and to
demonstrate,
logically and rationally, that the destiny of globalization can only
be
independent of both Western and Eastern traditions, since the
full-flowering of
noumenal sensibility is beyond the scope of any tradition rooted in
its
noumenal antithesis, no matter how obliquely.
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CELESTIAL CITY AND ANTI-VANITY FAIR:
Like its
two textural predecessors, this text takes what I had been building
towards in
the previous works to its ultimate logical conclusion and
establishes,
categorically and without equivocation, a definitive presentation of
my work
such that reaffirms the gender distinctions that exist at all points
of what I
am rather metaphorically wont to call our ‘axial compass’, and
underlines the
importance of taking such distinctions to their logical conclusions
in the
interests of philosophical certitude and, where noumenal sensibility
is
concerned, enhanced credibility in respect of godly truth. For
anything
short of this logical distinction between the various gender
positions, not
least in relation to metaphysics and antimetachemistry, will betray
Truth and
render it difficult if not impossible to realize. I hope
others will
agree with me, when they come to read this text, that it is the
crowning
achievement of my philosophy and the product of one who is in no
doubt as to what
Truth is and of just how difficult it will be, even with the best of
ideological wills, to grant it its proper place in the edifice of
religious
progress and, what’s more, keep it there at the expense of
everything else, not
least that which appertains, in one way or another, to beauty.
Difficult,
yes, but not impossible! For this is the summation of reason,
which is
mind utilized in the interests of a beingfulness
so
supreme as to be heavenly and nothing short of the resolution of
godly intent.
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JESUS
- A SUMMING UP
(of supreme theosophical genius): As suggested by the title (which
happens to
be a pun on Arthur Koestler’s ‘Janus - A Summing Up’), this is my
final text
and one that brings my philosophizing-cum-theosophizing,
if not philologizing-cum-theologizing,
to a
cumulative head as I restate some of the conclusive Social
Theocratic theories
of my previous work and modify, expand, and refine upon various of
the more
characteristic theories of the recent past. Also, not
altogether usual
for me, I have allowed these theories to be invaded by a degree of
autobiography which I needed to get out of my system and which, in
any case,
provided a springboard, as it were, to an enhanced approach to my
more regular
approach to writing and thinking. As also noted in this text, much
of the
writing is more blog-like than has usually been the case, and that
doubtless
owes something to the fact that I now blog on the Internet and
regard blogging
as the electronic successor to my e-books or, rather, e-scrolls,
since I prefer
HTML files to, say, Adobe-type files if only because there is a
scroll-like
continuity involved which takes text to an altogether different
place on the
axial compass, so to speak, from where it would otherwise be, and
one, I am
sure, which does more justice to universality in relation to global
civilization than must any electronic extrapolation from books
which, to my
mind, are simply more Western in character. However that may
be, blogging
is gradually taking over from book and/or scroll writing in my
literary
predilections, and therefore it is fitting if my conclusive text
happens to be
more blog-like than book-like. Also, now that I have so many
web sites, I
find it laborious to the point of exasperating to add a new short
text to each
directory, especially since this requires an updating if not
replacement
of any lists and synopses which may already be there in order to
incorporate
the new work. Frankly, even my synopses are now something of a
major work
in their own right! But, that said, I am first and foremost a
writer of
literary texts and have progressed, over the years, from philology
to theology
and philosophy to theosophy, sacrificing knowledge to truth and
pleasure to
joy. My work is its own vindication, and anyone with enough
intelligence
who reads it will sooner or later come to the conclusion that it
both adds up
and provides a basis or blueprint for what has been colloquially
described as
‘Kingdom Come’, a radically progressive alternative to either
regressive or
sensually-based structures of society that should lead, among other
things, to
the salvation of the world, as defined in this and other texts, and
to eternal
peace (for males) in the transcendent Beyond which it has been the
privilege of
this self-styled theologist (the suffix
is
intentional) and theosophist to delineate for the benefit of those
who come
after me and may well inherit, if all goes according to plan, the
‘Kingdom of
God’ in question, such a ‘Kingdom’ being anything but a
kingdom in the
usual sense but, in actuality, the theocratic antithesis to anything
autocratic.
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OPUS
POSTSCRIPTUM1:
This is simply bonus material dating from the autumn of 2005 and
extending into
July 2006 that was drafted in standard word processor and
subsequently copied
to one of my blog sites for enlargement or revision. Less
aphoristic in
character, as befitting my general approach to weblogs, it is
nevertheless
highly philosophical in its treatment of a variety of subjects
common to the
oeuvre-proper and should stand as icing on the cake, so to speak, of
my
journeys to the centre of truth.
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OPUS
POSTSCRIPTUM2:
No sooner had I finished the above than I began working on what was
to become a
second volume of aphoristically supernotational
writings which, reversing the transcription process began above,
takes my
philosophy a step or two further towards what would now seem to be a
definitive
position in which everything is known about everything and nothing
remains to
be added to the oeuvre, not even on a supplementary basis such that
I am happy
to consider a fitting postscript. Incidentally, the ‘icing on
the cake’
alluded to in the previous synopsis is also a fair metaphor for what
transpires
here, albeit the cake … of my oeuvre in general … is decidedly round
and
therefore anything but square, still less rectangular or elliptical
in
shape. It not only deals in metaphysics but brings metaphysics
and an
understanding of correlative factors to an all-time peak such that
should
confirm my pre-eminent status as one of the greatest thinkers of all
time and
certainly as the foremost thinker of my own age.
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PHILOSOPHICAL
RUMINATIONS: Originally drawn from a variety of
lesser blog sites
and subsequently enhanced at a new one, these aphoristic essays
complement the
above volumes and could almost be regarded as constituting
Vol.3.
However, I decided to keep it separate in view of its final
derivation being
from a different blog site than the two volumes of 'Opus
Postscriptum', and
some of the material may already have been broached. Much of
it, however,
is fresh, and it achieves an intensification of the definitiveness
to which my
works have laid claim for some considerable period of time
now. In fact,
it would be difficult to conceive of anything ever being more
definitive as far
as the holding together of disparate material drawn from all points
of the intercardinal axial compass is
concerned. Everything
has its place, and can be known and judged accordingly.
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THEOSOPHICAL
ILLUMINATIONS: With this volume of ‘aphoristic
essays’ derived, like
the two volumes of 'Opus Postscriptum', from my blog site at
spweblog.com, I
have returned to a more systematic approach to philosophizing which
definitely
advances the ideological philosophy of Social Transcendentalism
and/or Social Theocracy
a rung or two further up the ladder of metaphysical ascent, not
least in
respect of its sense of being theosophically
superior
to anything purely or merely philosophical (not that the majority of
works in
‘Journeys to the Centre of Truth’’ ever were!).
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BEYOND
TRUTH
AND ILLUSION: Also derived from the above blogsite,
where they were originally volume two of ‘aphoristic essays’, this
volume of
metaphysical philosophy, or theosophy-proper, brings my quest for
metaphysical
perfection to a close, as it enlarges on and/or corrects some of the
material
contained in the above title, as well as adds some fresh ideas and
new
perspectives, deriving from our by-now standard
intercardinal axial template,
to what has already
been achieved. The title is largely self-explanatory but is
also intended
to stand as a contrast to my first-ever volume of philosophy,
'Between Truth
and Illusion'. Nevertheless that particular volume of philosophical
writings,
which in contrast to the material here could be described as being
largely
comprised of aphoristic essays, was to set the stage for everything
that has
followed, and I can safely claim to have finally reached my life’s
goal with
'Beyond Truth and Illusion' and to have climbed to the top rung of
my ladder of
philosophical-theosophical Social Theocratic ascent, the final
journey to the
centre of truth.
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LITERATURE AND THE INTERCARDINAL AXIAL
COMPASS:
This is yet a further collection of revised and reformatted weblogs
taken from
a variety of sites where I had written material of a philosophical
nature that actually
post-dates, by several months, the previous collection listed
above.
Therefore one would have to regard this as containing material which
in most
instances either goes beyond what was achieved before or adds new
subjects or,
at any rate, a fresh or revised approach to a variety of subjects
which may not
have been dealt with in quiet such a systematic or well-nigh
definitive manner
previously. Another thing that most definitely distinguishes
this project
from the above is that I was far more methodically aphoristic in my
approach to
the reformatting of material that, in weblog form, was virtually
essayistic and
therefore unworthy, as far as I am concerned, of a properly
metaphysical
connotation – something, incidentally, that also applies to the
italic-writerly presentation of ‘the
word’ which, as here, leaves
the printerly norms of weblogging
far behind and thus stands as a further justification for my having
reformatted
previously published material in a way that would be commensurate
with the best
of my writings and with all that I, as a self-taught metaphysical
philosopher,
morally and intellectually stand for.
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THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS: Unlike the above title and
several of those preceding it, this is not a revised and reformatted
compilation of philosophical weblogs but, on the contrary, an actual
e-book
written into a notebook and then transcribed to computer, so that it
is the
first – and probably last – of its kind since at least 'Jesus - A
Summing Up',
and does more summing up, as well as extending and completing, my
philosophy
than even the aforementioned text, with its allusion to Koestler’s
book of a
similar name. In this case, the ‘best of all possible worlds’
is
decidedly metaphysical and pseudo-metachemical
and
therefore germane to what I would call ‘Kingdom Come’, even if an
appreciation
of this requires an understanding of everything else, whether
contrary to or
beneath it, in order that one may be left in no doubt about the
desirability,
from a metaphysical standpoint, of such a perfect world. We
have dreamed
of it for centuries, if not millennia, but it is only now that the
possibility
of actually turning the dream into reality can be seriously
undertaken in the
sure knowledge of what is required and of why its requirement is so
important,
both morally and socially. With 'The Best of All Possible
Worlds' I can
confidently say that I have reached the culmination point of my
oeuvre and
achieved my philosophical goal in what is arguably the best of all
(my)
possible texts!
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THE
QUEST FOR TRUTH:
Subtitled 'And the Meaning of Life', this project derives from a
series of
weblogs I originally published at Helium.com under the alias
'johalin', and
subsequently revised and reformatted in the interests of both
escroll (as here)
and ebook publication, the latter of course signifying a 'printerly'
descent
from an 'italic-writerly' metaphysical norm. That said, this
collection of
revised weblogs both ante-dates and post-dates material contained in
the above
title, 'The Best of All Possible Worlds', since some of it was
written earlier
in 2008, although the majority of its contents, or effective
aphorisms, were
actually written in 2009, with material that seems to extend beyond
previous
texts or simply, as so often in the past, to correct or modify
existing
material, sometimes filling in one or two blanks. All the titles of
this
project were taken from available options at Helium.com, but I think
I am
probably unique in saying that I would approach them from what I had
already
written locally, on my PC, and simply uploaded to the blog host once
I had
found what appeared to be a suitable title. None of the titles,
however, are
what I would have chosen myself, which is one of the ways in which
this project
differs from all of my earlier compilations of revised and
reformatted weblogs.
Yet these aphorisms were also 'farmed out' to other blog sites,
where I was
free to choose a title, and usually the results were more reflective
of the
contents - never particularly easy to peg down to one heading - than
is
arguably the case here, with this final such collection.
Nevertheless, the
contents are, for the most part, philososphically cogent and
incontrovertibly
true, which is to say, logically sustainable. Everything finally
adds up, as it
should do if one is to rest assured of one's reputation, no matter
how
self-appointed, as 'philosopher king'.
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THE
CENTRE OF TRUTH:
If anything sounds like a definitive title it is this one, which is
the last in
a series of reformatted and revised weblogs, in this case of
material hosted by
Anoox.com under the alias yaholin, and now available in both escroll
and ebook
formats for the sake of enhanced appreciation. Certainly I have
managed to wrap
up my philosophy in this 2009 package, and anyone who really desires
enlightenment on the subjects of God, Heaven, Truth, etc., should
have no
difficulty in finding confirmation here of my long and difficult
journey to Truth
or, more to the point, the 'Centre of Truth', which is its
vindication and
ultimate resolution.
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MY
SOUL ON ICE:
This project combines autobiographical with philosophical material
in such a
way as to harmonize with my customary approach to anything remotely
resembling
an autobiography which, as on previous occasions, could not
materialize were it
not for my ongoing or, in this instance, definitive commitment to
philosophy,
which has always been my raison d’ętre for writing and therefore
justification
for anything else, including autobiography. In this, the third
such project,
the combination of the two approaches to literature is brought to a
veritable
apotheosis, and it would be no surprise if this paradoxically turned
out to be
my last literary hurrah – a fitting climax to a brilliant vocation.
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BOLD
AND ECLECTIC:
This project also combines autobiographical with philosophical
material in such
a way as to harmonize with my customary approach to anything
remotely
resembling an autobiography which, as on previous occasions (see
above),
couldn't have materialized were it not for my ongoing or, in this
instance,
well-nigh definitive commitment to philosophy, which has always been
my raison
d’ętre for writing in the first place and therefore justification
for
everything else, including autobiography, so that I am, in many
respects, the
opposite of, say, Henry Miller, the great American autobiographical
writer and
sometime philosopher. In this, the fourth of such projects,
the
combination of the twin approaches to literature is brought to a
veritable
climax, and it would be no surprise to me if this work transpired to
being my
last literary venture – a fitting climax to a literary vocation
without
precedent and unlikely to be superseded.
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INSANE
BUT NOT MAD:
All the titles in this collection of revised and reformatted weblogs
were
originally hosted by a number of blog sites, including, most
especially,
Wordpress.com, and date from 2011. As usual I have been careful to
ensure that
the original chronology of weblogs has been, so far as possible,
replicated, so
that one can proceed through the material with a growing sense of
continuity
and even thematic enhancement, two crucial advantages of e-scroll or
e-book
publication over what may often appear to be the disjunctive if not
chronologically unrelated nature of blogging. Even so, I have
usually tended to
approach weblogs from a standpoint centred in my
metaphysically-oriented
philosophy of Social Transcendentalism and intended, as far as
possible, to
achieve some kind of thematic continuity in spite of the formal
limitations of
blogging, and I believe that, here as in previous such compilations,
I have
largely succeeded in producing a body of work that not only adds up
but also
seems quite inter-related and even cohesive, partly, I suspect,
because few of
my weblogs were ever written in situ but usually derive from prior
notes which
I was then able to copy-in and upgrade or 'beef up', preparatory to
downloading
them to a local file which would subsequently serve as the basis,
following
revision, for a new e-scroll and/or e-book. Hopefully, this one is
as good as
if not better than each of the previous such texts, and it should go
some way
to putting the finishing touches to my overall philosophy and prove,
moreover,
that a man who claims to be insane is not necessarily also mad.
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MUSINGS
OF
A SUPERFLUOUS MAN: All the
pieces in
this collection of revised and reformatted weblogs were originally
hosted by
Wordpress.com, and date from 2011. As usual, I have been careful to
ensure that
the original chronology of weblogs has been, so far as possible,
replicated, so
that one can proceed through the material with a growing sense of
continuity
and even thematic enhancement, two crucial advantages of e-scroll or
e-book
publication over what may often appear to be the disjunctive if not
chronologically unrelated nature of blogging. Even so, I have
usually tended to
approach weblogs from a standpoint centred in my
metaphysically-oriented
philosophy of Social Transcendentalism and intended, as far as
possible, to
achieve some kind of thematic continuity in spite of the formal
limitations of
blogging, and I believe that, here as in previous such compilations,
I have
largely succeeded in producing a body of work that not only adds up,
but also
seems quite inter-related and even cohesive, partly, I suspect,
because few of
my weblogs were ever written in situ but, like previous such texts,
usually
derive from prior notes which I was then able to copy-in and upgrade
or 'beef
up', preparatory to downloading them to a local file which would
subsequently
serve as the basis, following revision, for a new e-scroll and/or
e-book.
Hopefully, this one is as good as if not better than each of the
previous ones,
including its immediate forerunner above, and it should put the
finishing
touches to my overall philosophy and prove, moreover, that a man who
sees
himself as being superfluous in and/or to one kind of society may
well prove
virtually indispensable to another and different kind of society
which is, as
yet, only latent in certain sections of the people.
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FROM
SUPERFLUOUS MAN TO SUPERMAN: All the pieces
in this third collection of revised and reformatted weblogs
originally hosted
by Wordpress.com also date from 2011, which would seem to be a
pretty
productive year. As before, I have been careful to ensure that the
original
chronology of weblogs has been replicated, so that one can proceed
through the
material with a growing sense of continuity and even thematic
enhancement, two
crucial advantages of e-scroll or e-book publication over what may
often appear
to be the disjunctive if not chronologically unrelated nature of
blogging. Even
so, I have usually tended to approach weblogs from a standpoint
centred in my
metaphysically-oriented philosophy of Social Transcendentalism and
intended, as
far as possible, to achieve some kind of thematic continuity in
spite of the
formal limitations of blogging, and I believe that, here as in
previous such
compilations, I have largely succeeded in producing a body of work
that not
only adds up, but also seems quite inter-related and even cohesive,
partly, I
suspect, because few of my weblogs were ever written in situ but,
like previous
such texts, usually derive from prior notes which I was then able to
copy-in
and upgrade or 'beef up', preparatory to downloading them to a local
file which
would subsequently serve as the basis, following revision, for a new
e-scroll
and/or e-book. Hopefully, this one is as good as if not better than
each of the
previous ones, including its immediate precursor above, and may
serve to prove,
moreover, that a man who sees himself as being superfluous in and/or
to one
kind of society could well prove of superhuman and, more
particularly,
supermasculine significance to himself which the type of society he
lives in
would be unable to comprehend, much less appreciate. In this latest
and
hopefully final text I have achieved something akin to a personal
or, rather,
universal resurrection which leaves the 'superfluous man' trailing
far behind
in the depths of worldly despondency, as I scale new heights of
metaphysical
certitude that resolve the long struggle, or 'journey', towards
Truth which was
the original motive for everything I have since written.
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AHEAD
IN THE CLOUDS:
All the pieces in this fourth collection of revised and reformatted
weblogs
originally hosted by Wordpress.com date from 2012, and are therefore
bang
up-to-date. As before, I have been careful to ensure that the
original
chronology of weblogs has been replicated, so that one can proceed
through the
material with a growing sense of continuity and even thematic
enhancement, two
crucial advantages of e-scroll and/or e-book publication over what
may often
appear to be the disjunctive if not chronologically unrelated nature
of
blogging. Even so, I have usually tended to approach weblogs from a
standpoint
centred in my metaphysically-oriented philosophy of Social Theocracy
(Social
Transcendentalism) and intended, as far as possible, to achieve some
kind of
thematic continuity in spite of the formal limitations of blogging,
and I
believe that, here as in previous such compilations, I have largely
succeeded
in producing a body of work that not only adds up, but also seems
quite
inter-related and even cohesive, partly, I suspect, because few if
any of my
weblogs were ever written in situ but, like previous such texts,
usually derive
from prior notes which I was then able to copy-in and upgrade or
'beef up',
preparatory to downloading them to a local file which would
subsequently serve
as the basis, following revision, for a new e-scroll and/or e-book,
as the case
may be. Hopefully, this one is as good as if not better than any of
the
previous ones, including its immediate precursor 'From Superfluous
Man to
Superman', and one may gauage from its title that, in this instance,
the
'Superman' is someone who sees himself in the metaphysical vanguard
of life
even when, contrary to his usual predilection for abstract thought,
he has his
head not only in the proverbial clouds but in the actual clouds, so
to speak,
of what more naturally passes for metaphysics in the sky and may
well be akin,
in loosely parallel terms, to a zeppelin airship.
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PHILOSOPHIC FLIGHTS OF POETIC FANCY:
All the
titles in this fifth collection of revised and reformatted weblogs
originally
hosted by Wordpress.com date, like the above, from 2012, and are
therefore bang
up-to-date. As before, I have been careful to ensure that the
original
chronology of weblogs has been replicated, so that one can proceed
through the
material with a growing sense of continuity and even thematic
enhancement, two
crucial advantages of e-scroll and/or e-book publication over what
may often
appear to be the disjunctive if not chronologically unrelated nature
of
blogging. Even so, I have usually tended to approach weblogs from a
standpoint
centred in my metaphysically-oriented philosophy of Social Theocracy
(Social
Transcendentalism) and intended, as far as possible, to achieve some
kind of
thematic continuity in spite of the formal limitations of blogging,
and I
believe that, here as in previous such compilations, I have largely
succeeded
in producing a body of work that not only adds up, but also seems
quite
inter-related and even cohesive, partly, I suspect, because few if
any of my
weblogs were ever written in situ but, like previous such texts,
usually derive
from prior notes which I was then able to copy-in and upgrade or
'beef up',
preparatory to downloading them to a local file which would
subsequently serve
as the basis, following revision, for a new e-scroll and/or e-book,
as the case
may be. Hopefully, this eScroll is as good as if not better than any
of the
previous ones, including its immediate precursor 'Ahead in the
Clouds', and one
may gauage from its title that, in this instance, the 'philosophic
flights'
would not have been possible without a certain degree of 'poetic
fancy' which
acted as a springboard to those thoughts which derive more from
logical
reflection than from natural contemplation, whether or not the
latter were
infused with speculative flights of metaphysical supposition.
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i>LIMITLESS:
In this, the
third of three books written in 2012, I have abandoned weblogs in
favour of a
return to a more formal, premeditated approach to composition which,
not for
the first time in my literary career, combines autobiography with
philosophy
within the context of a journal, only this time one without limits
and
therefore effectively limitless. I have described this journal as
intermittent,
since there are small gaps in the chronology of days, but that
enabled me to
create a chapter-like parallel in relation to those days which were
consecutive
or in the same month, thereby cutting down on the overall number of
chapters
or, more correctly, chapter equivalents. As the reader will
discover, this book
is also - and even primarily - a travel journal, though only within
the
confines of certain parts of Galway in the Republic of Ireland,
which I visited
again not so long ago. When, finally, I came to choosing a title, I
had my
first literary journal 'Fixed Limits' (1976) in mind, but of course
my whole
approach to writing is now so different that I felt the need for an
antithetical type of title was necessary and, indeed, justified by
much of the
content in this particular journal, which is much less fictional,
overall, than
the first one. As for the title, I naively assumed that it would be
quite
original, not knowing, at the time, that there was also a film by
that name
which, I am bound to say, would have little or nothing in common
with this
work.
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i>RELUCTANCE:
This
autobiographical-cum-philosophical journal is effectively the sequel
to
'Limitless' (2012), since it continues from where the previous such
project
leaves off, being in many respects its
logical
corollary. Not only is the autobiography taken beyond the situation
that
existed towards the close of 2012, but so, too, in a number of ways
is the
philosophy, so that one gets a fuller perspective on both the
subjective and
objective, the personal and vocational aspects of the writer's life
that both
complements and resolves the subject matter of its prequel, taking
it to a new
level in a similar, albeit stylistically different, vein to the way
that 'Fixed
Limits' (1976) went beyond 'Changing Worlds' (1976) and somehow
resolved many
of its outstanding issues, since effectively existing within the
context of a
'changed world' from that in which its principal character, Michael
Savage, who
was of course modelled on myself, had previously lived. So, too, in
'Reluctance' do I find myself existing in a different social
situation and even
mileu from that in which the previous title was written, though
whether or not
it marks an improvement, given the justifications adduced for my
reluctance to
write, is a debatable point, and one which the reader will have to
decide for
himself, much as one would like to think that, even with all the
grounds
adduced for being reluctant, I have rarely written anything
eschatologically and
ontologically better or more credibly profound within the general
framework of
my ideological philosophy of Social Theocracy.
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i>RESERVATIONS
IN
ORANGE AND GREEN: The only reason there is an orange
notebook 3 and
not a green notebook 3 in this literary project having markedly
philosophical
overtones is that the first orange notebook was already over
two-thirds full
with previous literary material when I began to use it for this
project, and
that, since I wanted a balance, as far as possible, between the
green and
orange notebooks, both in terms of length and amount and quality of
material
contained within each of them, I opted to fill about two-thirds of a
third
orange notebook in my possession in order to compensate for the
comparative
brevity of the first notebook, thereby presenting the reader with
approximately
as much orange notebook material overall as green notebook material,
but
without any intention of suggesting a bias towards the orange at the
expense of
the green simply on account of the partially-filled additional
orange notebook.
The results, overall, are pretty interchangeable, in any case, since
I did not
consciously attempt to think or write, from an Irish standpoint, in
a more
'green' way with the green notebooks or in a more 'orange' way with
the orange
ones, even if sometimes a bias towards one or the other tendency
could be
inferred. What I wanted, and I believe achieved, was a framework
that allowed
me to think and write freely without undue concessions to either
colour (or
ethnicity), and somehow I succeeded, even at this late stage in my
literary
vocation, in both correcting a fairly long-standing philosophic
error of logic
(which need not be addressed here, since it will become fairly
self-evident
later on) and extending my philosophy to embrace an entirely new
perspective
which I believe to be of seminal importance in both understanding
and defining
contemporary civilization as an extension of Western civilization,
whether or
not one relates to it or has any ancestral connections with it. And
I have
achieved all this within a relatively short project, one which
transcends the
conventional printerly book bias
towards volume, not
to say mass, in the interests of aphoristic brevity and metaphysical
credibility within a literary framework more suited, I believe, to
eBook
publication on the Internet, not to say to philosophical truth, even
with other
considerations, often of a quite literary and even entertaining
nature, that
had to be considered along the largely time/pseudo-space way in
which the
subject of 'reservations', amounting to the thematic leitmotif of
this project,
was duly investigated from a number of angles in both the orange and
green
notebooks, with a view to enhancing my understanding of what it
means to be
'reserved'.
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i>CHRISTMAS
IN
THE DOGHOUSE: The title of this 142nd Opus in my
oeuvre
references both Christmas and, less obviously, the American informal
expression
of being in disfavour, so has nothing to do with kennels or dogs.
Then, too,
this title is more applicable to only one of the chapters or
numbered sections
in this project, namely the last one which, in contrast to all of
the others,
is a kind of excursion, rare for me these days, into short prose or,
if you
prefer, into the fictional realm of short stories, albeit on terms
that derive
from an actual situation that occurred several decades ago when I
was still a
boy in care and had not yet begun to make my own way in the world.
So, with
that said, I can honestly state that this project, like most of the
preceding
ones, is mostly aphoristic philosophy, albeit of a sort that I would
hope was
unique to me and to my approach to literature of a philosophical
nature. Those
looking for either an extension of or a modification to certain
logical or
thematic aspects of my overall philosophy (of Social
Transcendentalism) will
not be disappointed. Nor will anyone who, mindful of poetic
tendencies
characterizing a few of my earlier works, doesn't mind the
occasional departure
from philosophical logic into fantasy or something approximating
poetic
licence. And for those who like some autobiography, whether personal
or
circumstantial, well, there is that, too. So, all in all, this work
should not
disappoint but, rather, serve to enhance my reputation as a
philosophical
artist without parallel.
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i>THE FOURFOLD COMPOSITION OF ELEMENTS AND
PSEUDO-ELEMENTS IN
AXIAL PERSPECTIVE: Even by my own structurally
exacting standards
this is an exceptionally demanding work, the logical
comprehensiveness of which
matches if not surpasses the best of what I have done in the past,
with the
benefit of a number of theoretical modifications brought to bear on
the overall
Element-derived frameworks which, as suggested by the title,
encompass both
subatomic elements as hegemonic factors and pseudo-subatomic
pseudo-elements as
subordinate factors in any given pairing, or complementarity, that
may be
presumed to exist in axial polarity with either a noumenalor a
phenomenal, an
ethereal or a corporeal, counterpart within both church-hegemonic
and
state-hegemonic parameters. But the conclusions arrived at in this
work are
only the end-product, as it were, of much formative and speculative
material
which led to them, and it was during the earlier phases of its
construction
that, not altogether surprisingly, the writing was most discursive
and,
frankly, open to a variety of literary avenues, including material
of an
autobiographical and poetical nature that helped to give the text a
certain
literary openness which should prove as intriguing to the general
reader as to
those whose orientation is philosophical but who like their
philosophy to be
supplemented in such eclectic fashion, as much to preclude
pretentious
academicism or undue tedium as to refresh the mind and keep one
wondering what
is coming next. Therefore one shouldn’t be afraid of the title,
because there
is much here that would have absolutely nothing to do with it, and
what does is
logically credible enough to stand at the apex of my philosophical
adventure in
conclusion to a long 'inner journey', one that began back in the
early 1970s
with my first tentative forays into literature.
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i>ATOMS
AND PSEUDO-ATOMS: Even by my own
structurally-exacting standards as exemplified, not least, by the
previous title 'The Fourfold Composition of Elements and
Pseudo-Elements in Axial Perspective', this is an
exceptionally-demanding work, the logical comprehensiveness of which
actually surpasses, on a more radical basis, the best of what I have
done in the past, with the benefit of a
number of theoretical modifications brought to bear on the overall
Element-derived fourfold frameworks which, as suggested by the
title, encompass both
atoms as hegemonic factors and pseudo-atoms as subordinate factors
in any given pairing, or 'complementarity',
which may be presumed to exist in axial polarity with either a
noumenal or a phenomenal, an ethereal or a corporeal,
counterpart within both church-hegemonic and state-hegemonic
parameters. Frankly, the contents of this work would not have been
possible without the preceding one. For this is undoubtedly the more
evolved of the two, drawing conclusions which were only implicit
before, in the earlier title, but which here bring my metaphysical
thinking, as it were, into what must be a definitive presentation
such that really does signify the metaphysical apex of my long
philosophical journey that began way back in the early 1970s with my
first tentative forays into literary composition. – John O’Loughlin.
Copyright
© 1973–2023 John O'Loughlin