20th Century Thought

About the Book

20th Century Thought is a compilation of writings, spanning from the author's introduction to Poetry in a High School creative writing class in 1983, up through his young adult life, living and working in New York City until 1999. This time period, essentially the computer age, had little impact on the nature of his work personally, but rather the nature of society and the human animal, is what inspired him. In other words, what he wrote about then, still very much relates to now.

The book contains a variety of styles and forms including a section with 101 Haiku, 2 pages of 1 liners, and a very telling excerpt from 'Hero's Journey' - the chronicles of his trip to 'Burningman' in 1997.

The structure and language of classical poetry is evident in his style, however, his rhyme skills, coupled with wordplay, multi-layered subtext and street wise insight will give the reader plenty to consider. The chronological format plays an important part in the layout of this work as it allows the reader to view the artist in personal and spiritual evolution.

It is an unwitting look into the heart and mind of the man-child and for the most part, is a weight that has been lifted, off of his floor, and into a book.

The book may also lend credence to the age-old adage that "You can't judge a book by its cover" in that the overall purpose of his work is to 'uplift the race' - not destroy it.

About the Author

Neal Borowsky a.k.a. Steel Neal is probably most well known for his sculpture 'The Agony of Man', a 3x life size anatomically correct man of steel. Along with that, he's known for his one-man performance art show of which the aforementioned work is a part - which is called 'The Future Primitive'. After that, he's probably known more for his custom metal work, fabrication and design skills, than he is for his poetry - however, back before Spoken Word, Rap and Slam were common genres, Steel Neal, Wordsmith, was making the scene all across Manhattan's Lower East Side. In the mid nineties, he became obsessed with the idea of this performance sculpture show 'The Future Primitive' and put his poetry on hold. The sculpture took two years of work in three years of time to complete and has been seen (Madison Square Garden '96, Burningman '97, NYC Fringe Festivals and Halloween Parades '99,'00,'01) by thousands of people from all over the world. He even made the TBS Evening News in Japan (4/28/01 - See book's back cover!) Yet, despite any small momentum he might have been gaining in pursuit of greatness, the wind was taken out of his sails on one of the most beautiful mornings he would ever remember. After 9/11/01, Steel Neal: poet, sculptor, performance artist, small business owner and bohemian of the highest order, felt it was his patriotic duty to rebuild New York and became a Union Ironworker and proud member of Local 40. This book was put together over the past few years (during his apprenticeship) in lieu of any new and major art projects. However, his second 3x life size anatomically correct full standing figure is in the works and that piece is titled 'The Ecstasy of Man' and it's half woman.