/lit/ - Literature

I HAVE BEEN FIGHTING FOR TWO MONTHS and I can now gauge
HUMAN MASSES teem and move, are destroyed and crop up again.
HORSES are worn out in three weeks, die by the roadside.
DOGS wander, are destroyed, and others come along.
WITH ALL THE DESTRUCTION that works around us NOTHING IS
CHANGED, EVEN SUPERFICIALLY. LIFE IS THE SAME STRENGTH.
THE MOVING AGENT THAT PERMITS THE SMALL INDIVIDUAL TO
ASSERT HIMSELF.
THE BURSTING SHELLS, the volleys, wire entanglements, projectors,
motors, the chaos of battle DO NOT ALTER IN THE LEAST, the outlines of
the hill we are besieging. A company of PARTRIDGES scuttle along before our
very trench.
IT WOULD BE FOLLY TO SEEK ARTISTIC EMOTIONS AMID THESE
LITTLE WORKS OF OURS.
the intensity of Life.
THIS PALTRY MECHANISM, WHICH SERVES AS A PURGE TO OVERNUMEROUS HUMANITY.
THIS WAR IS A GREAT REMEDY.
IN THE INDIVIDUAL IT KILLS ARROGANCE, SELF-ESTEEM, PRIDE.
IT TAKES AWAY FROM THE MASSES NUMBERS UPON NUMBERS
OF UNIMPORTANT UNITS, WHOSE ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES BECOME
NOXIOUS AS THE RECENT TRADE CRISES HAVE SHOWN US.
MY VIEWS ON SCULPTURE REMAIN ABSOLUTELY THE SAME.
IT IS THE VORTEX OF WILL, OF DECISION, THAT BEGINS.
I SHALL DERIVE MY EMOTIONS SOLELY FROM THE ARRANGEMENT OF SURFACES, I shall present my emotions by the ARRANGEMENT
OF MY SURFACES, THE PLANES AND LINES BY WHICH THEY ARE
DEFINED.
Just as this hill where the Germans are solidly entrenched, gives me a nasty
feeling, solely because its gentle slopes are broken up by earth-works, which throw
long shadows at sunset. Just so shall I get feeling, of whatsoever definition, from
a statue ACCORDING TO ITS SLOPES, varied to infinity.
Two days ago I pinched from ran enemy a
mauser rifle. Its heavy unwieldy shape swamped me with a powerful IMAGE of
brutality.
I have made an experiment.
I was in doubt for a long time whether it pleased or displeased me.
I found that I did not like it.
I broke the butt off and with my knife I carved in it a design, through which
BUT I WILL EMPHASIZE that MY DESIGN got its effect (just as the gun
I tried to express a gentler order of feeling, which I preferred.
had) FROM A VERY SIMPLE COMPOSITION OF LINES AND PLANES