About Me

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Adalbert is a forum for me, to post ephemera, photography, poetry, occasional travel notes, and various spontaneous motions. Cover photo: Parsonage where my great-grandfather spent his early years. Taken near Liegnitz, Silesia, ca. 1870. The "xothique" portion of the web address is a nod to Clark Ashton Smith's fictional continent of Zothique.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

No Such Agency


still more Oddities 7: A comic strip from the pen of Rasmus Dromstrom, who may have been seeing his own future.

I have been absorbing Howard Phillips Lovecraft's The Mound (one of his collaborations, with some minimal inspiration provided by Zealia Bishop), for the first time in many moons. One noteworthy item is the way in which HPL powerfully describes a state he had never been to -- Oklahoma, the feeling of dread mounting as the narrator crosses the plains. In fact, HPL excelled at vicarious travel descriptions, as seen in At the Mountains of Madness(Antarctica), The Shadow out of Time(Australia), Under the Pyramids(Egypt), and many of his other writings. The pitfalls of second- hand descriptions became known to me when I wrote something referring to Oslo years ago, before I had been there. I visualized a sort of sempiternally icebound city -- having been there twice in June now, I realize that is not the case.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Saskatchewan: August, 1974


The Secret of Pombo: page 14, Oddities 7. I appreciate this page in particular; the unusual Nordic preoccupations and dreamscapes, and the collaborative works.

I have been absorbing a blank verse translation of The Aeneid, by VERGIL; Stunned by the compact adventures, the descents into the earth and prophecies. Also been re-reading an out-of-print classic: Strange Life of Ivan Osokin, by the mystic and philosopher P.D. Ouspensky. Tremendously restrained and elegant take on living one's life over again, with foreknowledge. Putting the glasses on the bust of Caesar.