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Plate 43 from Los Caprichos: The sleep of reason produces monsters (El sueño de la razon produce monstruos) (1799) by Francisco Goya.
• At Senses of Cinema: An interview with Jacques Rivette from 2001 in which the director passes judgment on a variety of feature films, old and new. Having read a couple of Cocteau-related books recently, I was pleased to see his comments about the importance of Cocteau’s example for his own film-making. Via MetaFilter.
• “Why is sleep, which literally occurs daily on a planetary scale, so often taken for granted, and not only by most people but even by scientists? Perhaps because its essence, its key property, is to be elusive, out of sight?” A long read by Vladyslav Vyazovskiy on the nature of sleep.
• “Often one cannot be sure if an object in a Welch picture is drawn from life or from other depictions of it, in sculpture, porcelain, woodwork or embroidery.” Alan Hollinghurst on the paintings and drawings of Denton Welch. (Previously.)
• At Colossal: Sinister skies set the scene for derelict buildings in Lee Madgwick’s surreal paintings.
• New music: The Mosaic Of Starlight Slips Back Like The Lid Of An Opening Eye by Paul Schütze.
• At Public Domain Review: Charles le Brun’s Human-Animal Hybrids (1806).
• Mix of the week: DreamScenes – October 2025 at Ambientblog.
• At the BFI: Anton Bitel chooses 10 great French horror films.
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• Sleep (1981) by This Heat | Sleep (1995) by Paul Schütze | Sleep (2006) by DJ Olive
Wow! If they ever reprint JGB’s High-Rise then Madgwick’s “Fracture” could be the cover. Thanks John!
Goya’s etching could be also be understood as a warning against the DREAM of reason [-that is, the ideas of the enlightenment written on the papers on the table] which produces monsters. the awkward and uncomfortable position of the man is not of someone who is asleep but rather a gesture of despair.
Martin: Indeed it would although I think this would be unlikely today. Since Ballard gained literary respectability all his books have been marketed in a manner that avoids looking too generic.
Hagai: The etching is also a self-portrait, with the owl handing the artist his drawing materials. Any decent commentary on the series acknowledges the multiple readings that some of the plates suggest.