Jair Bolsonaro

Jair Bolsonaro

Strong men only get power by virtue of those they rule. One can admire charisma but it’s nothing more than satanic public relations. The push back by the MAGA base over Jeffrey Epstein flies in the face of the notion of the invulnerability, a truly "unified executive." Is a leader really so powerful they could walk down Fifth Avenue shooting willy-nilly at whoever gets in their way. The horrifying  shootings at 345 Park are a night mare of executive privilege. Ezra Klein recently pointed out how the notion of the deep state can easily be used by either side. If you deny a coverup, you become the problem. BTW is it possible that Q is an invention of the Trumpocracy? The current situation bears comparison to the Middle or Dark Ages where the fires of inquisition are fueled by a plague. Those who criticize a tyrant are under the same delusion as the support base. Those who worship idols ultimately remove them from their pedestals.

read "Luggage Tags" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Free Fall

apple tree under which Newton sat in 1666

Have you ever had one of those dreams where you are free falling. It’s not the one where you are caught with your pants down. No secret is being revealed. Rather you have taken a chance, leaping from the high dive, now out of control. However, from a Newtonian point of view, you are only accelerating at 32.2 feet per second squared. Of course the terror lies in the unknown, in what happens between the diving board and the water. The Cyclone at Coney Island peaks slowly but its descent which is obviously faster always seems as if it were taking forever. When will this stop? When you wake up, is the answer. But is it the dream that breaks the fall or the fall that cuts short the dream?

read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Apres Coup

Do you often find your self lost in thought. You may even be facing someone who gives you a queer or bemused look. “Have you been listening to me!” If you say you have been listening when you’re not, then you run the risk of being caught in lie.You hope you’re with one if those people who are so self-centered they will assume that you hang on their every word. The nod in your direction is just their way of pretending to be interested in what you think. Human beings produce kinetic energy. Particles react without fracturing their integrity. In most cases the collisions are fly-by-night affairs which don’t create either anything of substance or any new substance. Entropy is  the second law thermodynamics. Then there is the psychoanalytic concept of "apres coup," which is a delayed reaction to a traumatic event. Don’t try to justify anything. It’s a waste of time--and energy.

read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Zen and the Art of Archery

Words actually don’t fly up, as Claudius avers. See Eugen Herrigal’s Zen and the Art of Archery (1948). Words and arrows both have minds of their own. It’s not the object but the act. So picture yourself at a tony social interaction in East Hampton. You place great store in what people say and think but it is not the goal of impressing, ignoring or having one’s being bathed in validation that ultimately describes what goes on in any particular moment. People are outcome oriented and suffer from what are called "limited objectives" in certain spiritual quarters. Whether you’re about to attack, praise or simply find yourself in the line of fire, the significance resides in the fact that you're perfecting the art of oratory or self-defense.

read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

Truth and Reconciliation

"The Creation of Adam" by Michelangelo

Without being dismissive of a great human project, don’t all human beings merit their own Truth and Reconciliation Commissions? You have harmed others as well as yourself. Then there's the ICC. Your case won’t even come "Before the Law." "Before the law sits a gatekeeper..." begins the famed Kafka story. In fact, rather than setting a precedent, you will be forgotten with the rest of suffering humanity. Michelangelo canonized Adam's hand reaching up to God. Still day after day you pace back and forth waiting for a verdict. Are you good or bad? How will you be remembered? Your legacy, your message to posterity. The paradox is that history which is created in the present, leaves no clue as to either its final disposition or the fate of its adherents.

read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn

The Wide Sargasso Sea

Life both for the earliest superheroes and your average Joe or Josepha is a set of obstacles. Homer puts Odysseus up against the sirens and Polyphemus. Then when he returns home, he’s only recognized by his dog, Argos. This last, facing the cosmic indifference of his universe, is the most difficult. What is the deal with Penelope anyway? Jean Rhys Wide Saragasso Sea is usually thought of as a prequel to Jane Eyre but the title is bewitching. Imagine living in a changeless liquid suspension with an absence of circumstance. Such timelessness is usually not the province of the storyteller or even a civilian. What to day or do in the absence of pain and suffering. How to negotiate utopia amidst dysphoria?

read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

Naked Came the Stranger

You may be familiar with the genre of Autofiction, which navigates the channel between reality and imagination. Sex With Strangers may be the title of the work you're contemplating. One of the virtues of not leading the promiscuous existence of the libertine is to contemplate the wonders and possibilities of finding yourself totally undressed with a stranger. However, nudity and nakedness also have other levels. In the heat of passion, it's easy to forget that one is revealing as well as staring into the face of lust--which is a mirror. The realization that one is naked with a stranger is one of the most sublime experiences of human life and one whose savor is directly proportionate to its exceptionality.

read "The El" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and read "The Waste Land" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star

and also read "Punk" by Francis Levy, Vol.1 Brooklyn