Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Autobiographical
Stimulating You To Learn On Your Own
My friend Russ Williams works to promote ethics and a kind of non-denominational spirituality at his website, “Ethical Edge.” Lately he ran a small column on me, my history. So I thought I’d at least link to it here.
Surgical Instruments
One of the ironies of my life is that although I ended up in psychiatry, as a kid I wanted to be a surgeon. I had no idea what was involved. But since I needed surgery (as a kid—and in pretty much cured me), this lovely article in LIFE magazine on February 11, 1946 was […]
Surrealism’s Relevance
Creativity is our new meme—the theme that is relevant for our time. The surrealistic artists anticipated this by a century, but so much creativity has characterized the many “inventions” of the 20th and beginning 21st century that it’s time we became aware that, as the philosopher Nikolai Berdyayev said (in Rissian), “Be creative, and foster […]
The “Ethos of Effort”
This term refers to the un-thought-out valuing of effort, trying hard, doing your best. I was a little delayed in popping out of bed, enjoying the relaxation of sleeping, then enjoying a relaxed contemplation, but I was a little jolted by a guilt spasm at my lackadaisical behavior. I heard the line from and old […]
The Art of Blogging
So perhaps we consider blogging as an art form, as valid as sculpture or dance. How much attention should I put into it? Should every piece be rehearsed, re-worked, evaluated in terms of a variety of criteria? Is it elegant, well-written, understandable, persuasive, innovative? It is the extension of easy self-publishing, that’s all. Open to […]
The Becoming-Ness of God
I give thanks this Thanksgiving for life, life with Allee, family, etc. I realize very dimly that I am part of this whole God-Becoming-Everything. Lest that seem too proud, you are also, and everything and everyone else is, also. I like that phrase, “becoming-ness,” actually. It could perhaps make for a good sermon. My life […]
The Bunny Blatners
Tumpy Bumpkin and Bumpy Tumpkin are the Bunny-Blatners who live in a little tiny house under a tree next to a meadow by some trees bordering on a sweet little stream with froggies and such living in it. That’s their address. You ought to be able to find it. Sometimes, though, they forget who is […]
The Bunny-Blatners
Tumpy Bumkin and Bumpy Tumkin are the Bunny-Blatners who live in a little tiny house under a tree next to a meadow by some trees bordering on a sweet little stream with froggies and such living in it. That’s their address. You ought to be able to find it. Sometimes, though, they forget who is […]
The Crockensoon
When I was 14 (in 1951) Phil Harris sang a funny song on the radio titled “The "Thing,” which triggered my imagination. I cartooned and made up a back story about the discovery of this “Thing,” which was in fact a Fantasmous Crockensoon, a being of extraordinary something-ness. Intrepid Explorer Professoroid Norbert Q. Hackenthorpe (notice […]
The Higher “I”
I’ve become increasingly aware that I’m only part-way between me and not-me. There are parts of me that are spontaneous, and realistically speaking I should not take credit for these parts or their products. I’m tempted to say, like Jack Horner in the nursery rhyme, “Oh, what a good boy am I!” But a couple […]
The Human Potential Movement Revisited
I realized this morning that my life is to some degree a “product” of the Human Potential Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was a sub-cultural movement that blossomed in urban centers, more vividly in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and nearby regions (such as the Esalen Institute about 100 miles […]
The Humanities in Medicine
One of my roles is as an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the local branch of Texas A&M Medical School, where I give occasional lectures on psychotherapy. Allied to that, I have an interest in supporting those who would promote the “Humanities in Medicine.” There’s a sore need for this, because most medical students […]
The Impossible Dream
I was singing this song to myself, from the Broadway play of the 1960s, Man of La Mancha—, revealing my private dreams of grandiosity. These betray the mind’s capacity to think in terms of superlatives. Each is paradoxical, a way of dramatizing ambition, such as dreaming an impossible dream or fighting an unbeatable foe. They […]
The Inadequacy Complex
I wasn’t sure if I had an inferiority complex—it just wasn’t the right word. (The term was originated not by Freud but by Alfred Adler.) If you left me alone with my books or play I was fine. Finally at age 76 I found a better word: Inadequacy complex, which senses and feels bad about […]
The Influence of Abner Dean
I was strangely influenced as a young man by the surrealistic, semi-cartoon art of Abner Dean, who drew cartoons and pictures that intrigued me. I had been into comic books, but here was a fellow who, like Saul Steinberg, used cartooning to present serious themes. Recently, I remembered Dean and wondered why I was fascinated […]
The Low-Down on the Higher-Ups
They aren’t really “higher,” or at least not in all ways. Rather, there are other dimensions, more than 4 dimensions. For example, I have a memory of a past life when I was an elf in Santa’s workshop (level 9 row 4, choo-choo train assembly line. We elves were sooo excited to be part of […]
The Minions of Mild Villainy
I was reminded of this archetype also in this summer’s Computer-Graphic Cartoon movie, Minions. I liked the theme that simple minded folks (the cute lil’ Minions) happen to love the energy put out by someone who exhibits a strong sense of triumphant malevolence. A good villain is appealing in a weird way. In my childhood, […]
The Minions, Gib-reesh and Taboo
You don’t really need words. There was a movie in 2015 titled “The Minions,” a sort of cartoon movie about those cute, diminutive medicine-capsule shaped little guys. They were sidekicks to a villain in the popular movies around 2012 and got their own film in 2015. They speak in a kind of gibberish that, with […]
The Roots of My Interest in Scriptology
I’ve been making a series of presentations about scriptology, the very inter-disciplinary not-yet-officially formed field that deals with writing and associated technologies. It has been a sort of hobby of mine since the early 1970s, though I now realize that I’d been somewhat sensitized to the whole enterprise through a number of blessings (as I […]
The Seven Ages of Man
(Words by William Shakespeare; Cartoons by Adam Blatner) [Adam’s note: As a teenager, I read the works of William Shakespeare, took a class in school, enjoyed the shaping of words, declaiming, enunciating, the feel of his rhythms. (I was in a local high school contest once, where I recited and enacted the “tennis ball” speech in […]
The Twenty Basic Whatevers
I enjoy making lists, and part of that is an archetype. There’s a saying that there are two kinds of people: Those who divide things into two kinds, and those who don’t. Ha ha. But I realized that I tend to divide things into multiple sub-groups and often sub-groups of the sub-groups. I realized just […]
The Ultimate Truth (Not)
Alas, after decades of considering what’s what, it’s not so much that I don’t know—that’s true—but I am quite sure that the “everything” cannot be known. Now there’s an apophatic stance that invites dispute! I guess I agree with the postmodernist view that it’s all co-created. There are no objective standards that transcend our co-creation. […]
The Whizzard of Ahs
This is a bit of an autobiographical contemplation: Perhaps I too am a bit like the Wizard of Oz, not a great wizard, but really a good man. Maybe my name in another story would be “The Wise Art of Ah’s” or the “Whizzerd.” Anyway, the point of this post is: Who is to say. […]
The World of Almost-Real
This is a fictional alternative dimension where I “live,” as do many cartoonists, novelists, and others who make up alternative realities. I “become” various characters, and enjoy the fiction that “they” are real and have chosen to “channel” through me. It is thus not me who writes some of these more far-out posts, it is […]