"The Ouzo Prophecy"
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:50 am
"The Ouzo Prophecy"
A Writer's Digest critique editor once said, "I read your paper, re-read it, and then read it again. The average person wouldn't know what you're talking about, what the point is, what you're trying to say." He thought I had virtually achieved Gustave Flaubert's dream of writing a book about nothing outside itself. He said, "Your paper is something, but it's only something, and I reluctantly confess I'm not at all certain what that something is."
Only one person has ever admitted to understanding the paper. I submitted it to The Spiritual Counterfeits Project (http://www.scp-inc.org) to receive a scathing attack rather than the usual "I don't understand it," and their response was http://church-of-ouzo.com/pdf/spiritual ... rfeits.pdf.
I would appreciate any comments on "The Ouzo Prophecy" (http://church-of-ouzo.com/pdf/ouzo-prophecy.pdf).
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"What seems to me ideal, that which I would like to achieve, is a book about nothing, a book having no ties to that which lies outside it, but which holds itself together through the internal force of its style, like the Earth floating in space of its own accord, a book almost entirely without a subject, or at least the subject of which would be nearly invisible, if that were possible. The most beautiful works are those that make use of the least material. It is for this reason that there are neither worthy subjects nor unworthy ones, and one might establish, as a kind of axiom—seeing the matter from the point of view of pure Art—that there is in fact no subject, style being in itself the absolute manner of seeing things."
- From a letter from Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet, January 16, 1852
A Writer's Digest critique editor once said, "I read your paper, re-read it, and then read it again. The average person wouldn't know what you're talking about, what the point is, what you're trying to say." He thought I had virtually achieved Gustave Flaubert's dream of writing a book about nothing outside itself. He said, "Your paper is something, but it's only something, and I reluctantly confess I'm not at all certain what that something is."
Only one person has ever admitted to understanding the paper. I submitted it to The Spiritual Counterfeits Project (http://www.scp-inc.org) to receive a scathing attack rather than the usual "I don't understand it," and their response was http://church-of-ouzo.com/pdf/spiritual ... rfeits.pdf.
I would appreciate any comments on "The Ouzo Prophecy" (http://church-of-ouzo.com/pdf/ouzo-prophecy.pdf).
___________________________________________________________________________
"What seems to me ideal, that which I would like to achieve, is a book about nothing, a book having no ties to that which lies outside it, but which holds itself together through the internal force of its style, like the Earth floating in space of its own accord, a book almost entirely without a subject, or at least the subject of which would be nearly invisible, if that were possible. The most beautiful works are those that make use of the least material. It is for this reason that there are neither worthy subjects nor unworthy ones, and one might establish, as a kind of axiom—seeing the matter from the point of view of pure Art—that there is in fact no subject, style being in itself the absolute manner of seeing things."
- From a letter from Gustave Flaubert to Louise Colet, January 16, 1852