John James O'Loughlin

Following on from his title So There, this work also takes the form of a mixture of aphorisms and maxims, or brief discursive observations on a variety of subjects of interest or concern to the author, coupled to numbered sequences of systematically-structured conclusions about salient aspects of the overall philosophy which, in this book, succeed those parts (1 and 3) specifically given to the aphoristic material, as though to sum-up or clarify, on a more philosophically intensive basis, what had already been more discursively observed. Of course, there is more to it than that, and John O'Loughlin would be lying if he didn't also add that this title both refines upon and extends beyond some of the observations and conclusions of the previous one, thereby in a sense bringing this phase of his philosophy to what he holds to be a 'summational peak', beyond which he has no intention of going, since he believes little or no progress could be made short of one's adopting the philosophical equivalent of wings and flying off into space. Therefore it would seem that Mr O'Loughlin has reached the end of his intellectual journey, summing up what it has taken him the best part of four decades to arrive at, experience coupled to observation leading to conclusive results, the logical credibility of which attains to a kind of philosophical apotheosis in the numbered maxims of parts 2 and 4.

This substantial literary project, originally dating from 1982 but extensively revised in 2019, is comprised of some sixteen short-prose pieces with subjects ranging from musical evolution to Christmas trees, Black Holes to Esperanto, and space travel to modern art. Of this number, the author's most outstanding work is undoubtedly the title piece, a fantasy projection into a millennial future in which we enter the mind of a 'superman' who is preparing to undergo an 'acid trip', view life in what is called the 'post-human millennium' from a spiritual leader's standpoint as he grapples with his counselling responsibilities vis- -vis the superhuman flock, and sample a controller's perspective on post-human life from the administrative sidelines. One could argue that this is John O'Loughlin's equivalent to 'Brave New World', but it was with a view to rejecting Huxleyite cynicism that he set out to fashion so positive a futuristic projection. - A Centretruths editorial

This collection of short prose, originally dating from the autumn of 1981, includes what is arguably the most literary piece John O'Loughlin has ever written - namely 'A Canine Crime', which deals with the problems of dog ownership in an age and society which has turned against such a thing, making it illegal. Also featured here is 'Nolan's Investigations', which opens the collection on a playfully erotic note, and the partly autobiographical title-piece 'Dream Compromise', which has a trick in its tail, so to speak.... As, incidentally, does the volume as a whole, in that it ends with a series of aphorisms, in keeping with the broadly philosophical bias of the author's mature literary works, in which literature, whether poetic or (as here) prosodic, is used primarily as a vehicle for philosophizing, and not simply to tell a story. - A Centretruths Editorial.

John O'Loughlin's first real collection of poems, written on and off during 1973-75, reflects the lyricism and formal simplicity of youth, showing the influence of poets like Rimbaud, Ezra Pound, Adrian Henri, and The Doors lead singer Jim Morrison on his formative years as a writer of, at least initially, poetic tendency, which began pleasantly enough in Merstham, Surrey, before progressing first to Finsbury Park and then to Crouch End in north London, where he got the inspiration for the poem 'Dosshouse Blues', which should intrigue those who have personal experience of solitary life in cheap lodgings. Appended to the poetry proper are a group of prose poems, a series of aphoristic observations of a light-hearted nature, four one-act plays, or playlets (two of which are straightforward dialogues), together with a couple of short stories which he wrote at about the same time as the dialogues (1976), and which have a loosely poetic quality and deserve, for stylistic reasons, to be included, along with the playlets, in this little collection of disparate literary creations, which were among the very first things the author ever wrote and are certainly the only writings to have survived from the early 1970s, when he first began to regard himself as a writer. - A Centretruths editorial

Written on and off during the winter of 1980-81, this collection of short prose starts in a relatively literary fashion, with the account of a clandestine visit of a masseuse to a priest who can no longer cope with his celibacy, and ends in a profoundly futuristic manner with an account of evolutionary progress towards a definitive Beyond, as envisaged by a radical philosopher. In between, there comes a fairly balanced alternation between prosodic and philosophic subjects ... as we follow the voyeuristic pleasures of a man covertly watching his wife getting dressed from the comfort of his early-morning bed; explore the evolutionary revelations of a de Chardinesque gnostic in the face of atheistic unbelief; witness the horror of a Mondrianesque ascetic, whose rural day-trip out of London with some friends proves to be more unsettling than he had bargained for; and go beyond conventional concepts of the Millennium, as of Millennialism, with a revolutionary thinker who believes that only when human brains are artificially supported and sustained will there be any prospect of heavenly salvation of a definitive order. - A Centretruths Editorial.

Originally dating from 1981, this collection of essays is thematically more homogeneous than anything previously written by John O'Loughlin in the genre, and reflects a newly-acquired optimistic outlook on evolutionary progress as something that should culminate in a future paradise having nothing whatsoever to do with the cosmic inception of life. Art, literature, music, sex, gender, history, technology and religion are the principal themes under consideration here, and they are generally treated in relation to the author's philosophy of evolution, which owes not a little to the estimable likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and Teilhard de Chardin. As usual for Mr O'Loughlin's writings of this period, 'The Way of Evolution' ends with an appendix in the form of aphorisms, which both summarize and encapsulate its overall philosophy. - A Centretruths Editorial.

Divided into three parts, of which the first is by far the longest, this philosophical sequel to 'Between Truth and Illusion' (1977), expands on the dualistic theories therein outlined, abandoning the more literary approach of its predecessor for an essayistic and aphoristic bias in which the author began to develop an almost existentialist awareness of the extent to which many so-called truths are founded upon illusory concepts and, to that extent, are not really 'true' at all but convenient fictions masking the brute reality of natural facts. - A Centretruths editorial

This title signifies an attempt by John James O'Loughlin to return to basics in philosophy and understand the connections and indeed interrelations of antitheses, polarities, opposites, and other such neat philosophical categories in relation to the relativity of everyday life. It is not an express attempt to expound 'the Truth' but, rather, a modest undertaking on his part to comprehend the paradoxes of the world in which we happen to live, and seek to unveil some of the illusions and superstitions which make the pursuit of philosophical truth such a difficult not to say protracted task. Hopefully the result of this undertaking is a franker and maturer approach to those very paradoxes which were the inspiration for this work and which led to some of its most striking contentions. Therefore if 'Between Truth and Illusion' cannot, by dint of its paradoxical nature, lay claims to being the Truth, it can at least be seen as the basis for a more realistic appraisal of the terms by which the pursuit of philosophical truth is made possible. - A Centretruths editorial.

John O'Loughlin's first novel, written during the summer of 1976, is a largely autobiographical account of three days in the life of clerk-turning-writer Michael Savage, whose disillusionment with the drudgery of office work has led him to quit his clerical job in London's West End in order to dedicate himself to a literary career ... come what may. In this respect Savage is a sort of Henry Miller, who doesn't believe in doing things by half-measures and consequently to him there is no sense in remaining a clerk when one has an imperative desire to become a writer and thus effectively 'change worlds'. For him it is a make-or-break situation, all the more poignant for its unfolding against a background of indifference or hostility from colleagues and relatives alike Of all this author's novels, 'Changing Worlds' is by far the most subjective, with long passages of interior monologue which often overlap, to ironic effect, with conversational or observational settings; though he has taken extra care to differentiate reflection from conversation by utilizing single quotes in the one context and double quotes in the other - a stratagem which, though unorthodox, has probably done more than anything to condition his preference, contrary to contemporary norms, for double quotes in relation to conversational passages virtually right the way through his fictional oeuvre. However that may be, it was probably the degree of this novel's subjectivity, combined with its revolutionary technique, that alienated most publishers (apart from 'vanity press' ones) when he first attempted to have it published, back in the late 1970s, and to this day he is proud of the fact that he was able to subvert literary objectivity to such a radical extent that ... the result is more philosophic than fictional, thus heralding his true destiny in the more unequivocally philosophical works to come

A young religious writer named Timothy Byrne accepts an invitation from a certain Lord Handon, an aristocratic admirer of his work, to spend New Year's Eve in the company of a select gathering at Rothermore House, Handon's country retreat, and he winds-up first dancing and then falling in love with one of his fellow guests, who happens to be an opera singer. Much debate and festivity take place before Timothy discovers that, in conjunction with the other guests, the real motive for their presence there is to learn of and offer their services to the 'Voice Museum', an extraordinary project situated in London's Piccadilly which houses voice recordings of famous people in soundproofed booths where, for a small sum, the public can sample words of wisdom and/or folly at the touch of a button. Thus it is that Timothy agrees to allow his voice to be recorded for future use by the museum's principal director, Girish O'Donnell - as, of course, do each of the other guests, all of whom are either established or budding talents in the arts. Meanwhile Lord Handon has been attempting to conduct a low-key relationship with Sarah Field, the opera singer, though with little success, in view of her preference for Timothy and knowledge of the viscount's secret - a secret which has more than a little to do with the strange nature of his relations, necessarily sublimated, with women. Equally unsuccessful are Handon's attempts to subvert Timothy Byrne's spiritual standing as a self-styled guru through his daughter, Geraldine, though, unbeknownst to anyone else, the writer has already undermined it through Sarah and has no need of further seductions Another of John O'Loughlin's philosophic-turned-romantic novels, this one is nevertheless somewhat bolder and freer than the others. - A Centretruths Editorial.

An artist is invited by his girlfriend to visit her parents in the provinces and, failing to get on with her father, duly finds himself being inveigled into inviting her mother to his London studio where, to his shame, he allows himself to be seduced by her whilst apparently teaching her to meditate. Thereafter things go from bad to worse for Matthew Pearce, not to mention his girlfriend's mother, whose tetchy and ailing husband has discovered what he believes to be concrete evidence of her infidelity. Yet Deirdre Evans is determined to capitalize on Matthew's previous hospitality, just as the latter is having serious doubts not only about her but, thanks in part to their affair, about his relationship with her daughter, Gwendolyn, as well Then, one evening, a female acquaintance of Gwen's turns up at his place and, before long, she precipitates him into a new and more passionate affair - in fact, the kind of affair he had been hoping for all along So now it seems he can dispense with both Gwen and her mother and take up with Linda instead - provided, however, that she can secure a divorce from her husband on grounds of incompatibility. For Linda Daniels is also a married woman, and, like Mrs Evans, the man to whom she is married proves himself to be no friend of Matthew Pearce Could that be the main motive for Pearce's willingness, bordering on recklessness, to enter into affairs with both women? The reader is left to decide this and so much else for himself in what is, by any accounts, an ironic commentary on human relationships and their social and ideological interactions - A Centretruths editorial.

The first of three loosely-related novels written by John O'Loughlin in 1980 and dealing with art and artists, 'Thwarted Ambitions' is the tragic and, in a sense, pathetic account of a young artist by name of Robert Harding who is so obsessed with advancing his career ... that he becomes blind to the sexual machinations of Henry Grace, a wealthy and influential art critic, to seduce him whilst ostensibly posing as his admiring patron. For Henry Grace seems to be just the answer to Harding's professional ambitions, and the artist allows himself to be led from commission to commission by the older man without the slightest suspicion of what the latter is really up to. But it is Carol Jackson, Robert's modelling girlfriend, whose suspicions are first aroused and, together with both the writer Andrew Doyle, who is Harding's next-door neighbour, and an eccentric professional acquaintance of hers by name of Donald Prescott, she plots to thwart Grace's sexual ambitions - with tragic consequences for the art critic, as things turn out in this far from implausible narrative

This novel moves beyond the largely autobiographical concerns of the author's earlier experiments in the novel genre ('Changing Worlds' and 'Fixed Limits') towards a more fictional integrity which led him by the nose, so to speak, into contexts and situations largely outside the domain of his personal experience. To be sure, the subjectivity of his earlier works is in some degree still present (witness the opening chapter ... with its highly philosophical considerations), but it is now subordinated to the unfolding narrative ... as we follow the fortunes of James Kelly, a self-styled philosopher, through successive love-affairs which clash with his loyalties to friends and benefactors alike, culminating in deception and tragedy for all concerned.

A 'double-decker' novel comprised of 'Changing Worlds' and 'Fixed Limits', both of which, originally dating from 1976 and also published separately, feature Michael Savage as, in the first book, a disillusioned clerk eager to try his hand at writing and, in the second book, the author - la Sartre - of a literary journal which he hopes will serve as a springboard to greater things, even though it is not without literary merit in itself. This reissued version, however, is much more than the sum of its parts, since it is structurally very different - and we think technically better - than the earlier independent publications. - A Centretruths editorial