Tag Archives: ‘the book’

Reading Rumi

Posted on October 5, 2020 by johnbrucecairns

It’s continually irritating: the presumption of a transcendent god, the imprecise spirituality, the false paradoxes of any self-promoting religious literature to make out its lies are truth. There are glitterings of poetry. The hashishins are the assassins ‘who come in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', Betty Clark, consciousness, CORRESPONDENCE, Doris Lessing, Iris Murdoch, Johnny, spirit, unconscious | 2 Comments

Shelley, a Reading

Posted on August 4, 2020 by johnbrucecairns

With Ode to the West Wind, Shelley characteristically weds style to content – like Berlioz in music – or form, as in Ozymandias, Ramesses II, an irregularly rhymed Petrarchan sonnet, with the turn in the last six lines. England in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', Betty Clark, Christo, consciousness, CORRESPONDENCE, Elegy for Andrew Taylor Elder, Joan Ure, Johnny, Kipublishingbooks, man, Maria Minor, Robert Downie, soul, spirit, unconscious will | Leave a comment

Loosening Lockdown

Posted on July 9, 2020 by johnbrucecairns

I put out stool, table and red chair, napkins and forks, opened all windows and doors fully, placed flipflops and slippers by the door out and made enough pasta misti for three, using yesterday’s mince for sauce and grating … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', Adrian, Alasdair Gray, Barbara, Gary, Jacyntha, John Anscomb, John Murch, Joyce Hendry, Kate, Kevin, lockdown, Richmond, shielding, Shoreham, swift, Virginia Woolf's garden, Worthing | Leave a comment

Party Precis

Posted on May 20, 2019 by johnbrucecairns

I couldn’t find Hibernia Point. Quentin’s no wasn’t on my contacts list. I had to write it down on a piece of paper from his text before phoning. He sent Dominika down to fetch me. A woman waved. “I see … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', anosmia, Belle, Betty, Bob Trotter, Brexit, Dan, David Rix, Dominika, Ellie, hair, Jackson, John, man, Maria, mime, painting, phone, Quentin, Rhys, Ruth, spirit, suicide, unconscious, writing group | Leave a comment

Soul in Chaucer

Posted on April 24, 2019 by johnbrucecairns

We may assume the definition of soul given by the parson is Chaucer’s own since the tale becomes Chaucer’s treatise. What makes for goodness of the soul is a good wit, sharp understanding, subtle intelligence, a natural virtue and good … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', body, Boethius, Chaucer, Denise, determinism, divinity, fate, Ian, Ivor, Joan, Mum, Norman Tebbit, prescience, soul, spirit, Stephen, The Man Who Stopped Time, will | Leave a comment

A Third Mars Trilogy

Posted on February 16, 2019 by johnbrucecairns

A Fighting Man of Mars is Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Hamlet. ‘There are occasions in the life of every man when he becomes impressed by the evidence of the existence of an extraneous power which guides his acts, which is sometimes … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', A Fighting Man of Mars, consciousness, CORRESPONDENCE, Edgar Rice Burroughs, god, Hamlet, Shakespeare, Swords of Mars, The Synthetic Men of Mars, the unconscious, will | Leave a comment

Review of Murdoch’s Existentialists and Mystics

Posted on April 4, 2018 by johnbrucecairns

Murdoch says, in a revised conversation with Magee, ‘any artist must be at least half in love with his unconscious mind which after all provides his motive force and does a great deal of his work.’ Mine was behind Sketch … Continue reading →

Posted in Review, Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', An instance from which telepathy can be proved... etc, anamnesis, Betty Clark, consciousness, CORRESPONDENCE, Dark Side of the Moon, goodness, Iris Murdoch, love, man, Phoenixflower, poems, Sketch of a Just Man, Snowhite and the Psychopathic Dwarf, telepathy, truth, unconscious, will | Leave a comment

Short Exegesis (of An instance from which telepathy can be proved,…)

Posted on October 6, 2015 by johnbrucecairns

Short Exegesis: a story in Dadaoism (An Anthology) starts without a title. In the contents it’s called Instance. The first sentence implies: a first person past narrative; that this is one of annual visits from far-off to another character called … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', Alan, alter ego, betrayal of trust, Betty, Chomu, consciousness, CORRESPONDENCE, Dadaoism: An Anthology, DNB, embezzlement, evil, Exegesis, Glasgow, Instance...., John Cairns, Kenneth Roy, Koestler Chair, man, peripatetic will, prescience, realisation, Richmond, Robert Trotter, Scottish Theatre, shock, spirit, telepathy, timestop, unconscious memory, unconscious will | Leave a comment

Meet the Girlfriend

Posted on May 2, 2015 by johnbrucecairns

After Quentin buzzed me in I was climbing the stairs in front when his head appeared round a corner at the back of the ground floor to redirect me. I’d forgotten to bring his address but remembered it sufficiently though … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', Adrian, Beehive, Bexleyheath, Carl, Chomu, Dadaoism: An Anthology, Daniel, David Rix, Joe, Jonathan, Liz, Meiling, Oscar, party, PF Geoffrey, Quentin, telepathy, Victoria, will, Yasmin | 1 Comment

Kevin’s Writing Group and Me

Posted on November 14, 2012 by johnbrucecairns

I waited twenty minutes before anybody turned up, recognising it must be Graham from his greeting me. Linda came next and finally Kevin. We took to a quieter area where I read out prison John’s four poems. The first two, … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 'the book', death, John, Johnny, Kevin, man, Mum, prison | Leave a comment

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