The Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages remain structures of astonishment to the modern eye: their genesis and structure is an overwhelming story of theological geography and sacred geometry whose metaphysical splendor remains unmatched. In his F for Fake, Orson Welles notes that Chartres Cathedral may well serve as the single greatest testament to the spirit of humanity's creative potential in existence. Working from several years' worth of research into the cathedral builders, their lives, visions, and architectural genius, Joseph Nicolello creates a cycle of one hundred poems, predominantly sonnets, with interludes, songs, and variations on the rondel. Here, the spirit of the cathedral builders is fused with contemporary spiritual and secular issues in a volume of poetry heavily infused with Greek and Latin themes as well as early modern verse. The methodology of the cathedral builders is infused into poetic cognition, resulting in a poetic testament that is meant to last within our age of the intuition of the instant. The sonnets may well prove a permanent companion for persons seeking a contemporary poetical interior cathedral, in the spirit of Virgil, Petrarch, Ficino, Milton, Blake, and others.
Written when the author was in his early and mid-twenties, Until the Sun Breaks Down is a contemporary American Künstlerroman modeled on Dante’s Divine Comedy. In three parts and one hundred chapters that mirror Dante’s classic poem, Nicolello takes the reader through present-day American towns and cities: infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal aspects with nothing left off the table. At once a book that can be read without any prior knowledge of Dante as the chronicle of William Fellows, child of a poverty-stricken single mother and precocious student dreaming of something better than what society offers, the book will serve as a guide to untold disconsolate Westerners who are wondering what has happened to American literature; where Catholic voices might emerge from, and how; and a bulwark against militant atheism by immersing the subject head-on and elucidating how to remove one’s self from technological desolation and recapture the essence of the Logos Incarnate, or the love that moves the sun and other stars.
Written when the author was in his early and mid-twenties, Until the Sun Breaks Down is a contemporary American Kunstlerroman modeled on Dante's Divine Comedy. In three parts and one hundred chapters that mirror Dante's classic poem, Nicolello takes the reader through present-day American towns and cities: infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal aspects with nothing left off the table. In this, the second volume, or Purgatorio, William is delivered from disquieting Jerusalem into the kaleidoscopic world of San Francisco. Here the text's cast of characters extends considerably, taking on issues of the visible and invisible, chemical indulgence in an empire in decline, the fall of irony and the limits of nihilism, and modern concepts of liberation and bondage. Here the surface of things is immeasurably more satisfying than the small town of the preceding volume--but the hollow nature of the visible in time leads the pilgrim to perpetually consider and reconsider issues raised and expand issues introduced in the first volume. At the same time, The Recluse Finds a Way is a celebration of the Bay Area, and a way of life that, for all its purgatorial excesses, leads young William closer to developing a sense of aesthetic mysticism with which to constructively reject the modern world.
Written when the author was in his early and mid-twenties, Until the Sun Breaks Down is a contemporary American Kunstlerroman modeled on Dante's Divine Comedy. In three parts and one hundred chapters that mirror Dante's classic poem, Nicolello takes the reader through present-day American towns and cities: infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal aspects with nothing left off the table. In the third and final volume, structurally modeled on Dante's Paradiso, the national themes of interior and exterior decline reach a head before anything like peace is found for anyone. For that matter, the text takes on an Augustinian turn: the City of Man vs. the City of God, with William Fellows coming to the end of the line of temporal pleasures and escapes, and even disillusionment with San Francisco, or the furthest end of western civilization. It is here that the character Octavia begins to take on the role of Beatrice, guiding William to safe passage--but not before hallucinatory episodes in both the city and the town, or San Francisco and Jerusalem.
On a visit to his beloved Nonna's apartment in the Bronx Little Italy, Giuseppe sneaks out to explore the ongoing festival and all its sights and sounds. Giuseppe's father has an important job interview during the day which shall set the course of the future for the family, who is navigating the threshold of bankruptcy. It is Giuseppe's intention to return quickly, before Nonna awakens from her nap; but the boy quickly realizes he does not know the vicinity as well as he had thought. This takes him on a journey throughout Little Italy, guided by a wide cast of characters into various restaurants, shops, and eventually a church. Here he meets Father Moritz, SJ, who guides him home to safe passage. Meanwhile across the street, at Rodham University, academic politics reign, thus setting up a dichotomy of innocence and wonder beside pathology and ideology. Following up on the success of A Child's Christmas in Williamsburg, Which Way to Nonna's House? is a snapshot of Italian-American life, faith, and culture in the Bronx Little Italy which confronts the blights and evils of our time in order to have the wisdom of life in the spirit prevail.
On a visit to his beloved Nonna’s apartment in the Bronx Little Italy, Giuseppe sneaks out to explore the ongoing festival and all its sights and sounds. Giuseppe’s father has an important job interview during the day which shall set the course of the future for the family, who is navigating the threshold of bankruptcy. It is Giuseppe’s intention to return quickly, before Nonna awakens from her nap; but the boy quickly realizes he does not know the vicinity as well as he had thought. This takes him on a journey throughout Little Italy, guided by a wide cast of characters into various restaurants, shops, and eventually a church. Here he meets Father Moritz, SJ, who guides him home to safe passage. Meanwhile across the street, at Rodham University, academic politics reign, thus setting up a dichotomy of innocence and wonder beside pathology and ideology. Following up on the success of A Child’s Christmas in Williamsburg, Which Way to Nonna’s House? is a snapshot of Italian-American life, faith, and culture in the Bronx Little Italy which confronts the blights and evils of our time in order to have the wisdom of life in the spirit prevail.
Written when the author was in his early and mid-twenties, Until the Sun Breaks Down is a contemporary American Kunstlerroman modeled on Dante's Divine Comedy. In three parts and one hundred chapters that mirror Dante's classic poem, Nicolello takes the reader through present-day American towns and cities: infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal aspects with nothing left off the table. In the third and final volume, structurally modeled on Dante's Paradiso, the national themes of interior and exterior decline reach a head before anything like peace is found for anyone. For that matter, the text takes on an Augustinian turn: the City of Man vs. the City of God, with William Fellows coming to the end of the line of temporal pleasures and escapes, and even disillusionment with San Francisco, or the furthest end of western civilization. It is here that the character Octavia begins to take on the role of Beatrice, guiding William to safe passage--but not before hallucinatory episodes in both the city and the town, or San Francisco and Jerusalem.
The Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages remain structures of astonishment to the modern eye: their genesis and structure is an overwhelming story of theological geography and sacred geometry whose metaphysical splendor remains unmatched. In his F for Fake, Orson Welles notes that Chartres Cathedral may well serve as the single greatest testament to the spirit of humanity's creative potential in existence. Working from several years' worth of research into the cathedral builders, their lives, visions, and architectural genius, Joseph Nicolello creates a cycle of one hundred poems, predominantly sonnets, with interludes, songs, and variations on the rondel. Here, the spirit of the cathedral builders is fused with contemporary spiritual and secular issues in a volume of poetry heavily infused with Greek and Latin themes as well as early modern verse. The methodology of the cathedral builders is infused into poetic cognition, resulting in a poetic testament that is meant to last within our age of the intuition of the instant. The sonnets may well prove a permanent companion for persons seeking a contemporary poetical interior cathedral, in the spirit of Virgil, Petrarch, Ficino, Milton, Blake, and others.
Written when the author was in his early and mid-twenties, Until the Sun Breaks Down is a contemporary American Künstlerroman modeled on Dante’s Divine Comedy. In three parts and one hundred chapters that mirror Dante’s classic poem, Nicolello takes the reader through present-day American towns and cities: infernal, purgatorial, and paradisal aspects with nothing left off the table. At once a book that can be read without any prior knowledge of Dante as the chronicle of William Fellows, child of a poverty-stricken single mother and precocious student dreaming of something better than what society offers, the book will serve as a guide to untold disconsolate Westerners who are wondering what has happened to American literature; where Catholic voices might emerge from, and how; and a bulwark against militant atheism by immersing the subject head-on and elucidating how to remove one’s self from technological desolation and recapture the essence of the Logos Incarnate, or the love that moves the sun and other stars.
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