Mind Fields
LC Class | ND955.P63 Y472 1994 |
Mind Fields is a book featuring paintings by Polish painter
Contents
- The Creation of Water
- Twilight in the Cupboard
- Amok Harvest
- Theory of Tension
- Back to Nature
- Internal Inspection
- Metropolis II
- In the Oligocenskie Gardens
- Europe
- Fever
- Attack at Dawn
- Susan
- Between Heaven and Hell
- Shed of Rebellion
- To Each His Own
- Eruption
- The Inquisition
- Beneath the Dunes
- The Silence
- Darkness Falls on the River
- Paradise
- Express Delivery
- The Agitators
- Truancy at the Pond
- Ammonite
- Base
- Foraging in the Field
- Traffic Prohibited
- Afternoon with the Bros. Grimm
- The Cosmic Barnyard
- Under the Landscape (two paintings)
- Ellison Wonderland
- Please Don't Slam the Door
Paintings
The paintings in Mind Fields are typical of Yerka's style. According to Yerka, many of the paintings, including "Between Heaven and Hell" and "Attack at Dawn", draw on his childhood memories from the 1950s as their primary inspiration.[1] Other paintings, such as "Amok Harvest" and "Express Delivery", draw on his experiences traveling through the Polish countryside.[1]
Yerka was responsible for the title of all but two of the story-paintings, which were named by Ellison.
Stories
Ellison became involved with Yerka's paintings when he was asked to write an introduction to the Mind Fields collection. According to Ellison, he found the paintings so inspiring that he told his publishers that he wanted to write a story for each one.
Ellison also wrote many of the stories to reflect subjects and themes that commonly occur in his work. "Twilight in the Cupboard" and "The Silence" both prominently feature the themes of Jewish assimilation and the Holocaust. The former was inspired in part by Ather D. Morse's 1967 book While Six Million Died.[5] "Eruption" and "Ammonite" embody the lost city/Atlantis theme present in much of Ellison's work. "Metropolis II" also incorporates themes from many of Ellison's other stories. In particular, it mixes autobiographical details with fiction in a manner similar to "All the Lies that are My Life" and other stories.[4]
Although Ellison did not follow his usual custom of writing an introduction to the book, he did provide commentary on 17 of the stories in the form of
References
- Weil, Ellen; Wolfe, Gary K. (2002). Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press. pp. 238–241. ISBN 0-8142-0892-4.
Footnotes
- ^ a b Yerka, Jacek (2006). "Jacek Yerka by Himself..." agra-art. Archived from the original on 2007-12-03. Retrieved 2007-12-14.
- ^ Weil & Wolfe 2002, p. 239
- ^ Weil & Wolfe 2002, p. 238
- ^ a b Weil & Wolfe 2002, p. 240-241
- ^ Weil & Wolfe 2002, p. 196-197