as h l mecken once said, any poet aged over 30 needs professional help. the analysis of burgess' enderby, a poet of forty, was one of arrested adolescence. enderby attempts suicide and is placed in a home where he is programmed to be 'normal'. the thing is the old enderby is likable and interesting, but his latter incarnation pitifully dull. i don't think it is valid to discard the idea of writing because it is in part based on a sense romanticism which seems to wither in most by the end of adolescence. in fact it is a harsh and rather predictable criticism. the childish romanticism of which some speak should be cherished, and can co-exist (indeed be an integral part) of a mature personality. look at romanticism as spirit whose attributes change with age. a loss of this spirit i see as a consequence of personal let downs and failings, not one of positive maturation. write as much as you can, i say. if nothing else writing is cathartic and i don't think analysing the notion of truth to it's logical conclusion devalues it. just being able to write your thoughts down systematically is helpful. and beware the path of logical analyses. it will see you barren and drive you utterly mad.

so, feenin' scene-in/ good wknd then la nuit d jus' cpl of cans and a few resin spluphphz, culminating in my retiring very early (before 2200) and sleeping till 1100 this morn./ i would not survive my punishing reigeme were it not for my remarkable ability to sleep when and f0or how long i wish/ take sun. ngt. e.g.: 1/2 g/chaz; 10 cans stella; 3 pints kronie; countless z-bluvz; lots of happy mondays and talking shit with my two best mates/ i then awoke to a sniffle and barged my way through the day till collapse became inevitable)/ so as you can see, without sleep (the most restorative thing in the world) i would either be extremely ill or dead (or both...)

Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own

Algren, thou fucking genius thou. And he adds: The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives