Though I’ve read this issue of BLAST once before, I’m by no means bored with it. If anything, I enjoyed it more this time, and look forward to hopefully reading it again in the future. There are so many layers of content and meaning in this magazine, some of which completely baffles me. The bafflement, though, is what makes reading BLAST so enjoyable. As much as I try to piece things together, I get the idea that certain parts of the magazine are not supposed to make sense or have depth of meaning. Rather, the reader simply can enjoy some delightfully creative pieces of diction, for instance, “BLESS the HAIRDRESSER…He attacks Mother Nature for a small fee…BLESS the HESSIAN (or SILESIAN) EXPERT correcting the gross anachronisms of our physique,” (25). Though I don’t know for sure, I’d hazard a guess that no other writer in the history of the English language has described the hairdresser’s profession in such an unconventionally creative way.

            Creative use of language stands out as one key part of BLAST, though maybe not the most important. Some of the articles, such as Wyndham Lewis’ “Exploitation of Vulgarity,” reveal so much about the mindset of the Vorticists. “Exploitation of Vulgarity” celebrates ugliness and stupidity as perfect conditions in which to create true art. The last line of this piece even warns against placing value in what is traditionally “good,” saying, “The ice is thin, and there is as well the perpetual peril of virtuosity,”  (145). The Vorticists do not want the neat, ordered virtues of the Victorian Era. BLAST makes perfectly clear that true value and art lies in the imperfect, messy parts of humanity and the world.