About

Welcome.

This blog is my means of putting out into the ether prose pieces and fiction that I have in development.

Originally, I incorporated several concerns in this blog. However, this past winter I tore down Blue Smoke in an act of controlled destruction. With destruction comes creation, and I’ve decided to dedicate Blue Smoke of Paradise solely to my memoir and fiction, sans politics and other issues.

I’ve created another blog that is more active and concerned with current events, fledgling punditry, and random concerns which strike my fancy. If you’re interested in reading such musings, please visit Word Bandit by clicking the preceding link.

As far as moi, I am currently working on a thesis proposal in literature at Harvard University. I am researching and writing on José Lezama Lima’s masterpiece, Paradiso. Never heard of it? No surprise. Few English readers have, which is one reason I have chosen to devote a good portion of time and energy to it. Lezama’s novel is an extraordinary work, praised by the likes of Borges, Paz, Julio Cortazar, and considered one of the twentieth century’s greatest Latin American novels. But it remains inaccessible to most readers, its problematic prose structure and excesses render it virtually impenetrable. I hope to shed a modest light on Lezama Lima’s magnum opus, its poetic voluptuousness and philosophical inisghts are deserving of a greater audience, both in the academy and among the general public.

I am a reader, a writer, a painter, an athlete, and a singer, with a keen interest in mysticism.

I view these categories as variations on a theme, modes of expression which converge, diverge, separate, articulate, only to meander back to their original source, the sea of imagination.

Thanks for visiting. I welcome your comments.