Wyndham Lewis Quotes

Percy Wyndham Lewis was an English writer, painter, and critic . He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited the literary magazine of the Vorticists, BLAST. His novels include his pre-World War I-era novel Tarr , and The Human Age, a trilogy comprising The Childermass , Monstre Gai and Malign Fiesta , set in the afterworld. A fourth volume of The Human Age, The Trial of Man, was begun by Lewis but left in a fragmentary state at the time of his death. He also wrote two autobiographical volumes, Blasting and Bombardiering and Rude Assignment: A Narrative of my Career Up-to-Date . Wikipedia  

✵ 18. November 1882 – 7. March 1957
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Famous Wyndham Lewis Quotes

Wyndham Lewis Quotes

“Certainly Mr Eliot in the twenties was responsible for a great vogue for verse-satire.”

Notes to Kenneth Allott, as quoted in Contemporary Verse (1948) edited by Kenneth Allott<!-- Penguin, London -->
Context: Certainly Mr Eliot in the twenties was responsible for a great vogue for verse-satire. An ideal formula of ironic, gently "satiric", self-expression was provided by that master for the undergraduate underworld, tired and thirsty for poetic fame in a small way. The results of Mr Eliot are not Mr Eliot himself: but satire with him has been the painted smile of the clown. Habits of expression ensuing from mannerism are, as a fact, remote from the central function of satire. In its essence the purpose of satire — whether verse or prose — is aggression. (When whimsical, sentimental, or "poetic" it is a sort of bastard humour.) Satire has a great big glaring target. If successful, it blasts a great big hole in the center. Directness there must be and singleness of aim: it is all aim, all trajectory.

“Satire has a great big glaring target. If successful, it blasts a great big hole in the center. Directness there must be and singleness of aim: it is all aim, all trajectory.”

Notes to Kenneth Allott, as quoted in Contemporary Verse (1948) edited by Kenneth Allott<!-- Penguin, London -->
Context: Certainly Mr Eliot in the twenties was responsible for a great vogue for verse-satire. An ideal formula of ironic, gently "satiric", self-expression was provided by that master for the undergraduate underworld, tired and thirsty for poetic fame in a small way. The results of Mr Eliot are not Mr Eliot himself: but satire with him has been the painted smile of the clown. Habits of expression ensuing from mannerism are, as a fact, remote from the central function of satire. In its essence the purpose of satire — whether verse or prose — is aggression. (When whimsical, sentimental, or "poetic" it is a sort of bastard humour.) Satire has a great big glaring target. If successful, it blasts a great big hole in the center. Directness there must be and singleness of aim: it is all aim, all trajectory.

“The earth has become one big village, with telephones laid on from one end to the other, and air transport, both speedy and safe.”

America and Cosmic Man (New York: Doubleday, [1948] 1949) p. 21.

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