John O'Loughlin

The sixteen prose poems in this modest collection should ideally be suited to those who prefer their poetry prosy and mainly concerned with philosophical issues or, at any rate, with a philosophical treatment of issues and subjects which could be treated more frivolously if one lacked the intellectual machinery and moral insight with which to tackle them in this particular way. One suspects that John O'Loughlin's first attempt at prose poems, back in 'Dosshouse Blues' (1973-5), was more poetically frivolous than is to be found here; though that would be in keeping with his work of the period. Some ten years later and the results are arguably much more interesting, with perhaps a hint of Baudelairian influence in places, albeit apparently without conscious intention on the author's part. However that may be, these prose poems are not essays, whatever appearances might suggest to the contrary, but painstakingly contrived pieces which never part company with the context in which they were conceived.

As with his previous title, 'Keys to the Kingdom of Truth', this new work tends to utilize both aphorisms discursively and maxims sequentially in a kind of compromise between contrasting approaches to John O'Loughlin's writing, the one more literary and the other more technical, with some material of an autobiographical nature included for good measure, as also in an attempt to clarify his situation as a self-styled intellectual whose 'journey' to a well-nigh definitive realization of his thinking did not happen overnight. - A Centretruths editorial

This two-part literary project strives to appeal, one might say, to both lower- and upper-class taste to the extent that it combines, in the one book, two dissimilar approaches to textual structure without, however, unduly departing from its grammatical bias and the affirmation, in consequence, of a discriminatory upper-case approach (depending on class context) to terminology. Now while more people might be expected to prefer the 'prose' to the 'philosophy', irrespective of its grammatical predilections, the option on both approaches to textual presentation not only brings 'heaven' down to 'earth' but simultaneously ensures that what pertains to the former can be transmuted into the latter, transfigured, so to speak, with intent to providing the right kind of axial paradigm for any transcendence of 'the world' likely to culminate in a heavenly disposition. - A Centretruths editorial

After a brief flirtation with numerology and a kind of oblique debunking of the esoteric or occult significance of triple-digit figures, this book of aphoristic philosophy quickly sets about its main task, which is to explore in more detail than previously by this author the dialectics of Yang and Anti-Yin and thereby bring to a conclusion matters which, in respect of noumenal sensibility, had been pending a more definitive resolution such that, as often in John O'Loughlin's work, could not but spill over into a more general resolution of other factors that had still not reached the definitive comprehensiveness which has been his goal all along and which, once reached, would confirm and enhance the truth of what most specifically appertains to the Truth, as an exemplification of godly resolve in metaphysical perfectibility. - A Centretruths editorial

Originally dating from 1984, this collection of forty-four poems continues in the free-verse style of 'Spiritual Intimations' (1983), albeit the verse is at all times prevented from degenerating into prose through the application of a methodological consistency which continues to favour the definite/indefinite article at the expense of lesser words. More significant of this collection is its greater concern with a general approach to metaphysics, including subatomic theories, which, though far from definitive, enabled John O'Loughlin to dig beneath the surface of his themes to what he hoped would be their spiritual or emotional depths. In retrospect, one can see how much ground he still had to cover - or perhaps one should say unearth? - in order to arrive at the Truth, that is, at a well-nigh definitive grasp of metaphysics. But this was still a significant stage in his progress as a devotee of metaphysics, even if, paradoxically, it took a poetic turn.

This substantial collection of essays, dialogues, notational aphorisms and maxims, originally dating from 1983-4 but revised 2019, is largely the reverse, in formal terms, of The Will to Truth, its philosophical precursor, inasmuch as its first part is essayistic and its second part entirely comprised of dialogues, thereby again bringing these two forms into harmony or, at any rate, close juxtaposition. Here, as before, the essays constitute the main aspect of the work, and they are once again conceived within the protective umbrella of a uniform ideology - namely the Social Transcendentalism which John O'Loughlin had been building towards in his earlier works, but which here comes to something approaching ideological fruition.Thus, whatever the subject, it is treated from a uniform ideological standpoint, the standpoint of a socially transcendent outlook on life, and this even when he is not consciously aware of the fact. Such an outlook is beyond humanism and all other worldly ideologies, whether of the left or the right, having to do with evolutionary striving towards a 'divine kingdom' which is, in a special centre-orientated sense, centrist in character. Yet this 'divine kingdom' does not follow death, as we customarily understand it, but presupposes the ordering of society according to certain idealistic principles designed to free mankind from its atomic past and indeed from itself, since the final outcome can only be supra-human in character. - A Centretruths editorial

A six-chapter novella with first-person narrative and a loosely autobiographical tendency, 'The Politics of Sexuality', originally dating from 1984, explores the concept of sexual politics, or the notion that every mode of politics has a sexual corollary. Although such an idea was by no means new to John O'Loughlin's work at the time, it hadn't been explored to anything like the same extent by him before, and it is a theme to which he has since returned quite frequently, always seeking to logically or structurally improve upon his initial theories, which he has learnt, through bitter experience, to regard as more of a springboard to better things than a definitive statement, even if such a springboard is not, as in this case, without considerable literary merit.

Another of those volumes of short prose in which a number of the author's principal philosophical themes are recycled in literary guise for the benefit of a wider understanding, 'A Selfish Man' begins with the title piece, a first-person narrative by an advocate of spiritual selfishness, and winds its way through fifteen other examples of John O'Loughlin's art in this field, culminating in a series of interior monologues which feature twelve different thinkers who successively elaborate on their likes and dislikes from a similar ideological standpoint, thereby establishing a unity of mind which transcends their phenomenal differences. In between these two extremes there are varying amounts of unity and disunity between the characters, but all are caught in the throes of a vigorous philosophical debate. For here, as in other kindred works, action is subordinate to thought, whether we are dealing with a drive to the cinema, a couple watching television, reflections on a soapbox orator, a clandestine affair, or the vicissitudes of a revolutionary politician. Sometimes the characters have names, sometimes not. Sometimes they are a fairly transparent projection of the author, at other times a degree of fictional objectivity has gone into their fashioning. Whatever the case, 'A Selfish Man', dating from 1983, bears ample witness to this philosopher-artist's search for literary perfection through thought. - A Centretruths editorial

John O'Loughlin's main philosophical project of 1983 combines dialogues and essays with aphorisms and maxims in a kind of multigenre project in which essays form by far the greater proportion. However, nine dialogues is no mean undertaking, and they range from subjects as diverse - albeit interrelated - as the freeing of art from mundane attachments as it evolves from pagan to transcendental times; the distinction between Jews and Israelis; the development of awareness at the expense of emotion in art; the moral implications of sexual sublimation; the evolutionary struggle from gravity to curved space; the development of religion from the personal to the universal; the nature of petty-bourgeois art; the possibility of denominational progress in Western religion; and the apotheosis of the 'universal man'. Such, then, is the scope of the dialogue section, while the ensuing essays, not altogether surprisingly, enlarge upon many of the subjects first broached in the dialogues, as well as introduce a number of fresh considerations, including the main distinction between Christianity and Transcendentalism; the psychology of swearers; the irrelevance of punishment to a transcendental society; architectural and sartorial relationships to gravity both upwards and downwards; understanding Jazz in relation to other types of modern music; the distinction between philosophy and pseudo-philosophy; and the nature of ultimate music. Originally intended as a sort of sequel to the above, concluding sections shift the text on and up from the phenomenal realm of dialogues and essays to what the author holds to be the noumenal realm of aphorisms and maxims, in which the will is at one with the truth it strives to convey through the most concise means and is, if not Truth itself, then at any rate certainly truthful Subjects treated here include the relation between sexuality and dress; the nature of the self; the significance of Israel; the role and nature of worship in popular religion; poetry verses philosophy; the evolution of the arts; the metaphysics of modern music; the psyche; God; ideology; and gender. - A Centretruths editorial

This project, combining essays and dialogues with aphorisms, goes way beyond the scope of John O'Loughlin's earlier philosophical works in outlining what he contends to be the logical stages of evolution beyond man which will have to be passed through before definitive salvation can be achieved in a transcendent goal of evolution ... analogous to Teilhard de Chardin's 'Omega Point' or even to Bunyan's 'Celestial City'. One could say that he has attempted to concretize Nietzschean notions concerning man's 'overcoming' ... in respect of specific post-human stages of ensuing life. Hitherto, when he wrote about more advanced stages of life, it was generally within the scope and definition of man. Here, by contrast, the attainment to a more artificial stage of evolution is, ipso facto, chronologically beyond man and thus implicitly superhuman if not supra-human. Such was the revolutionary break with his earlier Huxley-inspired way of thinking that occurred in the Spring of 1982, and it is, we believe, of momentous significance Henceforth John O'Loughlin's philosophical task was largely to be a refinement upon and modification of contentions outlined here. Obviously, in the many years that have passed since then, several changes, some of which were quite drastic, have occurred in his overall evolutionary perspective. But the beginnings of his mature philosophical oeuvre are to be found here, in 'Future Transformations', and it was from this time onwards that he began to grow in what he likes to think of as a sort of messianic self-awareness. - A Centretruths Editorial

Written in the late-Spring of 1982, this novel has something of a Spring-like ebullience about it which takes us to the Norfolk countryside in the East of England and to the stratagems of a radical writer-turned-artist by name of Jason Crilly (who for the most part remains veiled behind first-person narrations) to shake off a depression he contracted while living alone, for several years, in an insalubrious part of north London. His wife Susan, whom he married shortly after moving to Norfolk, is avowedly one of the stratagems in his arsenal in this respect. Also living in Norfolk are a number of eccentric or ironic personages who make a variety of claims on our protagonist's time, the most conspicuous of whom is Edmond Shead, the inventor of an artificial copulator, who requires of him that he uses his not inconsiderable artistic talents to depict this machine to graphic effect, thereby assisting Patrick Lyttleton, a businessman with designs on its production, to make a commercial success of it. Shortly afterwards Jason renews connections with an old flame of his and this takes him temporarily back to London where, in view of her good looks and the sexual dissatisfactions he has recently been feeling towards his wife, he allows himself to be seduced by her. Of even greater significance, however, is the fact that Philomena has just inherited a substantial property in the country and is anxious to move into it as soon as possible. But her husband, who works in London, has no desire to give up his job in order to move there with her, since he has good prospects of promotion and is temperamentally averse to the idea of living in the country. That leaves Philomena with the dilemma of whether to sell Blandon, her country house, or secure a divorce from her husband with intent to move there with someone else. And that puts the pressure on our protagonist to decide whether he should leave Susan for Philomena, and hence an even bigger and more peacefully-secluded house in which to conduct his campaign against depression. Fortunately for him this decision is made easier by his secret discovery of Susan's infidelity when he returns to Norfolk, since she is having an affair with their local doctor, and that puts him in an easier frame-of-mind with which to return, subsequently, to Philomena and move with her to Blandon. However, before their separation, his wife induces him to provide her with a child, but not exactly in the conventional manner The good doctor suspects nothing of the deception, however, and proceeds to marry Susan as a matter of course. Those who esteem writers like Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell will probably find this novel to their taste. - A Centretruths editorial

With an opening chapter that highlights the duplicity of a husband towards his wife, this tragicomic novel builds on the marital dissatisfactions and grudges of its principal heroine, Julie Foster, and couples them to the literary and social dissatisfactions, grudges, etc., of a certain Peter Morrison, an unpublished and seemingly unpublishable writer, as the two bump into each other in a restaurant, after many years, and Julie agrees to accompany Morrison back to his squalid flat where, contrary to her expectations, he simply proceeds to expatiate on his political and philosophical views, and to disburden himself of a number of anti-social grudges. He does, however, invite her to visit him again and, to his surprise, she accepts the invitation and turns up a couple of days later. This time they get down to some serious sexual congress but, in the process, Julie impulsively reveals that she is married and Morrison, aghast at her deception, loses his temper and proceeds to strangle her. Overcome with remorse, he attempts to mollify Julie, now a corpse, by taking photographs of her in a variety of erotic poses, and is then faced with the unsavoury task of disposing of her body. However, an old friend of Julie's becomes suspicious by her failure to turn up at a pre-arranged rendezvous and, aware from a prior phone conversation that Julie was intending to visit Morrison, she begins to make inquiries about him from what little information she already has. Eventually she tracks him down to his latest address and, mindful of the fact that he once had amorous leanings towards her, duly falls into a frantic sexual coupling with him. Things are looking good for Peter at this point but, whilst he is out of the room, Deirdre accidentally discovers photographic evidence of Julie's murder and proceeds to accost him with it on his return. Unable to calm her down or explain away the evidence, he is obliged to kill her too, thus saddling himself with the problem of disposing of yet another corpse Subsequently he moves to Ireland and, under the alias of James Coughlin, becomes something of an intellectual and ideological hero, the 'coming man' and potential saviour of his country. However, there is someone in the audience at one of his lectures who was with Julie in the restaurant on the day she was approached by Morrison, and this woman, who had in the meantime returned to her native land, now begins to recognize who Coughlin really is. Horrified, she rushes out of the hall and heads for home, leaving a bemused husband struggling in her frantic wake. What happens next is indeed an ironic commentary on loyalties; for caught between her recognition of Coughlin and a realization of his political importance to the country, she in unable to reveal his true identity and winds-up committing suicide to save his reputation. Before she dies, however, she has second thoughts about her terrible secret. But her expiring mumblings of the truth to her husband are misinterpreted, in what is the final and most ironic 'deceptive motive' of them all - A Centretruths Editorial

With this anthology of his 'sequentially structured maxims', free thinker John O'Loughlin has finally arrived at the ne plus ultra of his philosophical oeuvre, which combines all the most logically consistent material from the last twelve original titles (2014 - 2019) in one definitive volume that, on account of the comprehensively exacting nature of his quadripartite structures and the way their theorizing evolves, must rank as the 'bible' of his philosophy, if not of all philosophy of a metaphysical persuasion, that yet allows for other categories, both atomic and pseudo-atomic, to be accounted for in such fashion that everything is, as it were, nailed into place the better to support the overall morphology of unrelenting logic. - A Centretruths editorial

With this title the author believes he has finally rached the end of his long philosophical journey, spanning some five decades, in what he regards as the 'apotheosis' of his metaphysically-orientated philosophy, the 'top rung' of the tall ladder he has climbed, 'rung by rung', in the process of overhauling one book after another with intent to nailing his ethical and logical and ontological and eschatological colours to the mast of what, as Metaphysical Truth, has guided him in his quest for the definitive realization and presentation of his philosophy. But be warned: this is not a prose text, so don't expect the going to be easy, because it won't be, even if an analogy with 'Finnegans Wake', as the arcane end-product of a long literary career, would not be altogether fanciful - A Centretruths editorial

This largely philosophical title represents not merely a summation of John O'Loughlin's philosophy to-date but a radical overhaul of some of the theories he had previously taken for granted as logically definitive, and to an extent that the exacting comprehensiveness of his logical structures here attains to something approaching an apotheosis in what must surely be the most advanced analysis of the atomic and pseudo-atomic components of his theorizing humanly possible. One reads this book at one's peril; for, quite apart from the structural complexities of its theorizing, there is no coming back from the conclusions it reaches on the most exactingly comprehensive logical terms and, for the author, it would seem there are few if any further philosophical revisions or thematic advances still to be made. - A Centretruths editorial

Probably no book has ever investigated and analysed class and gender relationships as comprehensively and categorically as this one, which not only distinguishes between a hegemonic class and a subordinate pseudo-class on both alpha and omega terms within both what the author describes as upper- and lower-order contexts, but logically demonstrates the disciplinary implications of the subversions of class and pseudo-class positions from either 'above' (upper-order control of society) or from 'below' (lower-order control of society), with contrasting approaches to civilization - and hence society - in each case, whether of the female-dominated alpha or of the male-dominated omega. - A Centretruths editorial