More Bondage

The protagonist in Of Human Bondage decides to ask one of the old masters in the painting school if he will ever be more than second-rate and the old master advises him to take up his courage and try a different trade, sharing the wish that someone had given him the same advice at a young age. This after a pathetic colleague had hung themselves in starvation poverty and dispair.

Our endeavors as artists do they need to transcend our personal pain? Great nana Aline Murray Kilmer the work is poignant and touched but is it transcendant?

We extract the fluid from our liver, kidney, gonad, heart and swirl it around for a while in the cauldron creating something curious and even engaging but does it rise out of the cauldron and take on life?

If it doesn’t do we keep going anyway despite futility?

We say we do it to survive. We do it therapeutically.

Sometime before 1915 William Somerset Maugham decided or perhaps received or recalled whether Philip would indeed continue to pursue art. In 1992 Tricia Warden inscribed this copy of the book with a poem.

Finally reading it even though it doesn’t seem to involve S&M and hoping Philip’s choice serves as an affirmation.

7/10/2024