4pQonT

214 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
or parliamentary representation have the professional classes had
in the United States or in England since the beginning of their
governmental system?"
April 26, 1942:
[Transcriber tuned in late; very poor reception, indicated by
asterisks.]
". . . the publication of an art magazine called * * * [Blast]
commonly explosion of dynamite, et cetera, but connected in the
* * * and source of life, and this magazine or manifesto was in
its way a harbinger. I am never quite sure about that word
'harbinger' but it does seem to be generally accepted as being a
sign of something about to come. Well, the other war came after
it had been planned as a periodical or annual publication. Got
out a special number in 1917 [1915] * * * the sculptor having
got himself killed in the interim. And that manifesto was the best
we could do * * * what has now become known to the world
or at least to the European continent as the crisis of the system.
Crisis of, of the system. System, not merely [in the System].
"Now the particulars about the art movement in so far as it
affects merely painting and sculpture may not much matter in
themselves, we say, but the point is that these things only occur—
changes like that in art and writing only occur when something
moves deeper down, something is doing, something is working
inside, and the live artist, as distinct from the exploiters and
deadheads, tries to do something about it. Institute something
likewise. Anyhow, it at last appeared and somewhere inside it or
in some contemporary explosion, there was the live state of matter.
Matter, when there is not a certain amount of intelligence inside it,
decays and rots. I repeat that. Matter, when there is not a certain
amount of intelligence inside it, decays and rots.
"It would have been a happier day for all England if all England
had looked at that sentence, which marks the end of an era—
marks the end of the nineteenth century, usurytocracy and mercantilism.
Matter in which there is not a certain amount of intelligence,
decays and rots.
"Profit motive, already known, two thousand five hundred years
before BLAST, 2400 years before Marx halfswallowed Hegel.