An Introduction
I am creating this space to share my hitherto private artistic and literary efforts.
I'm a 30-something man from New Zealand with a lifelong interest in art, writing, and music. I dabble in all three, and they tend to reflect my equally persistent fascination with themes of cosmic horror, death, perversion, beauty vs. ugliness, and esoterica such as alchemy and 'black magic'. In the coming days and months, I shall be uploading some of my work. I expect this to be a fairly slow process, in the beginning at least, as I am on the verge of being technologically retarded and am still wrapping my head around the notion of blogging and all it entails. But needs must when the Devil drives.
I don't know that I am looking for anything in the act of sharing - praise, feedback, etc. The purpose is, perhaps, more in the notion that art of any kind is not useful or truly REALISED until it is received by an audience. The objective art is only half of the equation; it must be viewed in order to complete or conclude itself. It can only do this by being processed through the faculties of the audience.
With this in mind, I will be offering my work for casual perusal here. Those who feel compelled to remark, critique, or share are welcome to do so. In the unlikely event that someone wishes to purchase something from me, please contact me directly.
Regarding the name of the blog...
ALABANDICADABRA
is a combination of the words 'alabandical' and 'abracadabra'. The
former is an obscure and archaic word used to describe a person who has become "barbarous on drink",
while the latter is a well-known 'word of power' (or 'barbarous name'..) from apotropaic charms
of antiquity, used today by stage magicians to accompany their
prestidigitation. Though of dubious etymology, one of the more widely
accepted meanings of the word 'abracadabra'
(or the words from which it is derived) is "I will create as I speak".
In the context of this blog, "speak" can be better interpreted as
"emanate", and the neologism ALABANDICADABRA can be taken to refer to
compulsive creation (of art) under an intoxicating influence. This
intoxication should not be presumed to refer solely to alcohol and
narcotics - although these are most assuredly present - but also to the
intoxications of the heart and mind deriving from such inexhaustable founts as emotion, infatuation,
beauty, obsession, and, for lack of a better term, spiritual fervor. The intoxication spoken of by Charles Baudelaire in his famous poem 'Enivrez-Vous' is the conceptual inebriation of which I speak.
Beyond these concepts and their alchemical marriage, I personally find the word ALABANDICADABRA to be phonetically pleasing, and that alone is enough to warrant its use.
But now my coffee is gone, and there is such a thing as over-explaining. I am really more interested in the meanings being manifested through the audience than telling anyone what to make of my work. I shall close this introduction with a few quotes from admired sources, if only to perpetuate their distribution.
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability
of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid
island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was
not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its
own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing
together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas
of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either
go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and
safety of a new dark age.”
―
"As the catterpiller chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys."- William Blake, 'Proverbs of Hell' Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
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