finished Wyndham Lewis's BLAST yesterday. still have no idea what Vorticism is. some of the things i do know about Vorticism don't really point me towards anything useful. i know that Vorticism eschews the romanticism of the past (Impressionism) as much as what Lewis saw as the romanticism of the future (Futurism) ("[Futurism] an accelerated form of Impressionism"-p. 158). you'd think this would point to "the present" as being primary to the Vorticists; e.g., "the new vortex plunges to the heart of the Present" and "with our Vortex the Present is the only active thing." ah yes now i'm starting to get it...but then almost immediately from the same page (p. 147) "there is no Present—there is Past and Future, and there is Art" and "this impure Present our Vortex despises and ignores"...okay...so what the EF? the Future is romantic and fetishized, the Past is romantic and fallacious and the Present is impure and negated. but the present is also "Art" and thus viola, Vorticism! and what the hell am i supposed to make of that? i guess i'm just not at all clear on how Lewis is defining the Present/Art. and BLAST is 160 pages. i feel like i should be a little closer to understanding what the hell Vorticism is all about after 160 pages. any comments would be appreciated. thanks.