Pieces of Jack Smith's writings and some little drawings, with occassional explanation or context from the editors. Smith's dazzling and unique creativity shines through, and his film work is illuminated from a deeper glimpse into his thought/creativity process. In this book, in his movies, and it seems that in his life, he created his own world, including his own vocabulary, set/apartment designs, and characters. Jack Smith made the movie "Flaming Creatures" in the early 60s. An "art" movie that was banned in New York.

In his writing, and his movies he shows his exuberance for films that had been cast off as trash, and even (as in the quote below) for trash itself. His affinity to cast off items and people is part of what draws me to him. I saw an interesting new documentary about him at the Harvard Film Archive. It was exuberant and heart-breaking. I also saw J. Hoberman, one of the editors speak to a class at Harvard about the current series of books he's working on.

"..in the middle of the city should be a repository of the objects that people don't want anymore, which they would take to this giant junkyard. That would form an organization, a way that the city would be organized...the city organized around that." page 115