Damn it All. Damn Everything But the Circus . . .

This isn't how the thought-process, google-process, wikipedia-process actually went, but it makes for better panel this way, so . . .

A stream of thinking:

Damn it all . . . everything but the circus

Wonder who said that?

Somebody told us what we wanted to be
It was candy for the mind
Look behind them — you'll see
It was circusy

It was hi diddle diddle
It was cat and the fiddle
It was safe as can be
It was right down the middle
It was fantasy . . . fantasy galore
It was everything we ever wanted
It was that and so much more

Who was it that said . . .
Damn it all . . .
Damn everything . . .

but the circus.

-- Ken Nordine

from the Stay Awake album of Disney song covers

And I wondered . . . who was it that said that . . ? Assuming Nordine was quoting someone. Oh, right, the last time I thought of that, there wasn't a Google to make it easy to look up . . .

Damn everything but the circus!
. . . damn everything that is grim, dull,
motionless, unrisking, inward turning,
damn everything that won't get into the
circle, that won't enjoy, that won't throw
its heart into the tension, surprise, fear
and delight of the circus, the round
world, the full existence . . .

-- e.e. cummings

And this had started when I found that a book called Damn Everything but the Circus was created by Corita Kent in 1970.

Corita Kent was born Frances Elizabeth Kent in 1918. At eighteen, she entered the order of Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Los Angeles, and became Sister Corita. She earned an MA in Art History from USC, and for years headed the art department at Immaculate Heart College. She left the order in 1968 and moved to Boston, continuing her own work with silkscreen and serigraphy until her death in 1986.

In the 60s, while at Immaculate Heart, she posted these "rules" for the art students, which is how this all started, when I encountered them through various sources and decided they were a pretty good, common-sensical approach to the work to always keep in mind (for "Teacher" I read "Director," for "Students," "Actors"). Apparently, judging from comments, they've wound up on the walls of many, many art school studios since. Several people are sure they are all by John Cage, not just the one indicated. Apparently, they were created by Sister Corita in collaboration with her students (according to the website for the Corita Art Center). In any case, they are common sense, and should be obvious, but good to look at (and I find them most appealing in irregularly-set Presstype):

A moment to think (funny typing Freudian slip - I first typed "A Monet to think," and didn't catch it for several edits). I'm pretty good with most of these rules - I need to work on #8 and #9 and some of the "Helpful Hints."

Now back to getting these damned lines down for tonight (I have one of those parts with a lot of interspersed "Right," "Sure," and "Of course"-type lines, which are always a pain to keep straight).