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tomebro's review
3.0
Esoteric, bizarre, inspired, and insane. A wonderful glimpse into the minds of modernism and Vorticism, specifically from Lewis.
drlove2018's review
2.0
Didn't find much to enjoy here other than the segment from "Good Soldier", but the publication's history is more interesting than its literary content.
octavia_cade's review
3.0
This has pretty much scraped a 3 star rating from me, rounding up from 2.5. It's obviously a publication designed to be in-your-face and confronting, although that's a hard character to live up to when it's taken out of its contemporary context. From the perspective of me, reading today... I can admire the conviction and still think the execution is ridiculously over-the-top. (It really is hard to take seriously something that starts with a manifesto. I'm sorry, but it is. "We set Humour at Humour's throat. Stir up Civil War among peaceful apes." Can you really blame me?)
Now in fairness, that over-the-topness is actually entertaining in most of the art and articles herein, in an I-can't-believe-I'm-reading-this-weird-shit way. In others, however, it goes so far into some sort of floral, faux-academic theorising (about vortices, no less) that my bullshit button is well and truly banged on. Basically, it's a quirky, deadly earnest little explosion of thought on Art (the capitalisation is deliberate) that manages to make sense as much as half the time. I imagine it might improve if you read it while high.
Now in fairness, that over-the-topness is actually entertaining in most of the art and articles herein, in an I-can't-believe-I'm-reading-this-weird-shit way. In others, however, it goes so far into some sort of floral, faux-academic theorising (about vortices, no less) that my bullshit button is well and truly banged on. Basically, it's a quirky, deadly earnest little explosion of thought on Art (the capitalisation is deliberate) that manages to make sense as much as half the time. I imagine it might improve if you read it while high.
tashtonnes's review
3.0
An introduction to the short lived art movement of Vorticism, which is quite similar to Futurism, but is really defensive about the fact that it is definitely Not Futurism according to Lewis. They're not about the past OR the future, as those dirty Futurists are. So what are the Vorticists about? After reading their manifesto I still couldn't really tell you, contradiction maybe? Though maybe they'd bless and blast that as well
This volume is a compilation of drawings, plays, poetry and stories, which I am really rather glad about. I think that with something so '''''avant garde''''' and experimental it can be very hit or miss, or bless or blast I suppose for example: Enemy of the Stars, Blast (there is a difference between being minimalist and philosophical and being obtuse and opaque Lewis) and The Saddest Story, Bless, so having a number of different mediums and authors gives it a lot more room to either get it right or wrong
So I mean if you like being confused while being provided with a vague hint that there is something deeper going on check it out I guess
Although I really really would not recc spending prolonged periods of time with this volume, dipping in and out is the way to not get infuriated imo
The best part about this volume tho is thanks to both it and google I found out imberb means beardless, which is cool and goes on the list of words that will never come up irl
This volume is a compilation of drawings, plays, poetry and stories, which I am really rather glad about. I think that with something so '''''avant garde''''' and experimental it can be very hit or miss, or bless or blast I suppose for example: Enemy of the Stars, Blast (there is a difference between being minimalist and philosophical and being obtuse and opaque Lewis) and The Saddest Story, Bless, so having a number of different mediums and authors gives it a lot more room to either get it right or wrong
So I mean if you like being confused while being provided with a vague hint that there is something deeper going on check it out I guess
Although I really really would not recc spending prolonged periods of time with this volume, dipping in and out is the way to not get infuriated imo
The best part about this volume tho is thanks to both it and google I found out imberb means beardless, which is cool and goes on the list of words that will never come up irl
sweedie's review against another edition
4.0
Läste inte Blast som bok, utan en pdf av den faktiska tidningen från 1914. Otroligt speciell. Kan verkligen rekommendera, särskilt om en är intresserad av modernistiska idéströmningar.
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