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Parnassus, v.1, issue 1, 1940s
Page 4
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[cursive] The Book End by Alva Rogers This column will be devoted to brief reviews of various books which I consider, for various reasons, to be exceptional, books which are far above the general run in social significance and in readability. There are so many fascinating fields of literature that confining one's interest to one type is plainly stupid. Science fiction and-or fantasy and weird literature is enjoyable and intriguing, to say the least, but when carried to extremes, it can also become very boring. One should learn to read fantasy as a gourmet eats fine rich foods, in small but exquisite portions. This is something too few fans learn in their contacts with fantasy fandom; altogether too many fans refuse absolutely to even consider reading a book or story that can't reasonably be classed as fantasy. Little do the poor suckers know what they are missing. I don't expect everyone to agree with my reasons for choosing the books I have, or to even like the ones listed, but they are books I've taken at random from my personal library, and which I value, for reasons shown. LUST FOR LIFE by Irving Stone, is a must for anyone interested in art. It is a novel based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. It is a profoundly moving, turbulent account of this tragic figure of impressionist art. His fantastic, often ludicrous, love affairs; his bewildering mental peregrinations; his final madness and the inner fire that made him an artistic genius; his association with some of the greatest names of 19th Century arts and letters -- Gaugin, Cezanne, Rousseau, Manet, Degas and Zola; all are here in all their magnificence. To know Van Gogh and what was within him is to more fully understand the greatness of his art. An art dealer in his youth, be became disappointed in a love affair with an English girl and went into the ministry. Because of his radical views on the purposes of religion, because of his "unnatural love" for the very poor and humble people and his contempt for the so-called respectable citizenry, he soon found himself out of the clergy. However, at about this time, he discovered his latent talent as an artist, and decided to devote his life to painting. Although at first showing little or no promise of developing much beyond elementary and juvenile limits, he had an abiding faith in his ability to become an artist. He was at this time well into his middle thirties. Going to Paris at the insistence of his brother, Theo, he discovered the group of new, young, revolutionary artists who were laying staid dignified old Paris on its ear. Scorned by the recognized galeries, and ridiculed by the critics, the young artists had no way of exhibiting their art. Van Gogh, with the help of his brother, decided to organize what he chose to call "The Communist Art Colony" which was to be a co-operative venture on the part of the impressionists to exhibit their paintings jointly to the common people in cafes, cabarets, brothels or anywhere else that would accept them. However, this came to an abortive end when Van Gogh felt that he was becoming stagnant in Paris, and in other to progress further in his art, he would have to go where the sun was so bright and the atmosphere so clear that it would challenge all his prowess as an artist to match the brilliancy of their colors with meme pigments. That he met the challenge and bested it is shown by the canvasses he executed while on his brief sojourn at Arles, a southern privince of France. It was here also that the tragi-comic occurence of the severred ear
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[cursive] The Book End by Alva Rogers This column will be devoted to brief reviews of various books which I consider, for various reasons, to be exceptional, books which are far above the general run in social significance and in readability. There are so many fascinating fields of literature that confining one's interest to one type is plainly stupid. Science fiction and-or fantasy and weird literature is enjoyable and intriguing, to say the least, but when carried to extremes, it can also become very boring. One should learn to read fantasy as a gourmet eats fine rich foods, in small but exquisite portions. This is something too few fans learn in their contacts with fantasy fandom; altogether too many fans refuse absolutely to even consider reading a book or story that can't reasonably be classed as fantasy. Little do the poor suckers know what they are missing. I don't expect everyone to agree with my reasons for choosing the books I have, or to even like the ones listed, but they are books I've taken at random from my personal library, and which I value, for reasons shown. LUST FOR LIFE by Irving Stone, is a must for anyone interested in art. It is a novel based on the life of Vincent Van Gogh. It is a profoundly moving, turbulent account of this tragic figure of impressionist art. His fantastic, often ludicrous, love affairs; his bewildering mental peregrinations; his final madness and the inner fire that made him an artistic genius; his association with some of the greatest names of 19th Century arts and letters -- Gaugin, Cezanne, Rousseau, Manet, Degas and Zola; all are here in all their magnificence. To know Van Gogh and what was within him is to more fully understand the greatness of his art. An art dealer in his youth, be became disappointed in a love affair with an English girl and went into the ministry. Because of his radical views on the purposes of religion, because of his "unnatural love" for the very poor and humble people and his contempt for the so-called respectable citizenry, he soon found himself out of the clergy. However, at about this time, he discovered his latent talent as an artist, and decided to devote his life to painting. Although at first showing little or no promise of developing much beyond elementary and juvenile limits, he had an abiding faith in his ability to become an artist. He was at this time well into his middle thirties. Going to Paris at the insistence of his brother, Theo, he discovered the group of new, young, revolutionary artists who were laying staid dignified old Paris on its ear. Scorned by the recognized galeries, and ridiculed by the critics, the young artists had no way of exhibiting their art. Van Gogh, with the help of his brother, decided to organize what he chose to call "The Communist Art Colony" which was to be a co-operative venture on the part of the impressionists to exhibit their paintings jointly to the common people in cafes, cabarets, brothels or anywhere else that would accept them. However, this came to an abortive end when Van Gogh felt that he was becoming stagnant in Paris, and in other to progress further in his art, he would have to go where the sun was so bright and the atmosphere so clear that it would challenge all his prowess as an artist to match the brilliancy of their colors with meme pigments. That he met the challenge and bested it is shown by the canvasses he executed while on his brief sojourn at Arles, a southern privince of France. It was here also that the tragi-comic occurence of the severred ear
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