By the (breaking) sea wave: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Mr. FFF: Παρα θιν αλος. By the breaking sea wave.

MM: I see Priest Chryses praying. For his daughter Chryseis has been kidnapped by Agamemnon who does not want to release her.

βή δ’ ακέων παρά θίνα πολυφλοίσβοιο θαλάσσης…

πήρε βουβός του πολυτάραχου γιαλού τον άμμον

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α34

Without a word, he went by the shore of the noisy sea (or ‘sounding sea’)

Homer, Iliad, A34

Mr. FFF: The priest Chryses prayed to Apollo to punish the Greek army, so that Agamemnon is forced to return to him his daughter, Chryseis.

Mrs. T: The deep sound of the sea is in stark contrast with the priest’s silent suffering.

Είπε, και την ευκή του επάκουσεν ο Απόλλωνας ο Φοίβος,
κι απ᾿ την κορφή του Ολύμπου εχύθηκε θυμό γεμάτος

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α43-44

He spoke, and Apollo Phoebus listened to his wish

and from the top pf Olympus he rushed away full of wrath

Homer, Iliad, A43-44

MM: Apollo shot the plague to the Greek Army, and Agamemnon had to return Chryseis to her father.

Mrs. T: As a compensation for his loss, Agamemnon took Bryseis from Achilles.

Mr. FFF: Achilles is furious at the loss of Briseis.

Briseis returns, sculpture by Michael Talbot

Δακρυσμένος τότε ο Αχιλλέας απ᾿ τους συντρόφους του μακραίνει και καθίζει

μπρος στον ψαρή γιαλό, το απέραντο το πέλαγο θωρώντας,

κι απλώνοντας τα χέρια ευκήθηκε στην ακριβή του μάνα

Ομηρου Ιλιας, Ραψωδια Α348-352

Achilles in tears strays away from his comrades and seats

on the beach, and looking at the vast sea,

unfolded his arms and prayed to his mother

Homer, Iliad, AHomer, Iliad, A348-352

Mr. FFF: Greeks of any age, starting with Homer, have a special relationship with the sea.

Mrs. T: The sea was considered to be the home of many deities.

MM: The sea was also a place of catharsis, a cleansing place for mortals.

Wie Meerekuesten, wenn zu baun

Anfangen die Himmliwschen und herein

Schifft unaufhaltsam, eine Pracht, das Werk

Der Woogen, eins uns andere, und die Erde

Sich ruester aus, darauf vom Freudigsten eines…

Wie Merekuesten…

Friedrich Hoelderlin

As upon seacoasts, when the gods
Begin to build and the work of the waves
Ships in unstoppably wave
After wave, in splendour, and the earth
Attires itself and then comes joy
A supreme, tuneful joy, setting …

(translation by David Constantine)

Wie Merekuesten…

Friedrich Hoelderlin

MM: I see the beach walking and…

Stephen Daedalus: Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount strand? Crush, crack, crick, crick.

MM: Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells.

Leopold Bloom: I am wandering around, avoiding to go home. I am on Sandymount strand. Following Stephen’s steps.

(young) Gerty: It is almost dusk. Roman candles are fizzing through the air.

Leopold Bloom: I cannot get my eyes off her!

(young) Gerty: I pulled my skirt up and revealed my garters.

Leopold Bloom: I surrender, I am too weak to resist.

(young) Gerty: I behaved as an exhibitionist. Will I ever be as important as Molly is?

Leopold Bloom:  I behaved as a true voyeur. I am aging.

Mr. FFF: I like garters.

Mrs. T: The description of the episode with Bloom and (young) Gerty made the US Courts to ban the book as indecent.

 

The beach shines like a mirror, swallowing the confusion of forms, creating whatever it likes.

Here by the beach, I will be covered, in whole, by a layer of sugar, like snow.

It is a sin to be absent from the present.

Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Mrs. Ersis’ Novel

Ο γιαλος στιλβει σαν καθρεφτης, καταπινοντας τη συγχυση των μορφων, σχηματιζοντας ο,τι θελει αυτος.

Εδω στην ακρογιαλια, ολοκληρον, θα με καλυψει σαν χιονι ενα στρωμα απο ζαχαρη.

Αμαρτια η απουσια απο το παρον.

Νικος Γαβριηλ Πεντζικης, Το Μυθιστορημα της κυριας Ερσης

Πῶς δύναται τὶς νὰ γίνει ἀνὴρ χωρὶς ν᾿ ἀγαπήσει δεκάκις τουλάχιστον, καὶ δεκάκις ν᾿ ἀπατηθεῖ ;

How could anyone become a man without falling in love at least ten times, and betrayed ten times?

Alexandros Papadiamantis

MM: I see the kissing-on-the-beach sequence where Lancaster and Kerr roll around in the Pacific Ocean’s frothy waves, lips locked as the surf washes over them.

Mrs. T: Lancaster’s sergeant (Milton Warden) with Deborah Kerr playing Karen Holms, another officer’s wife

Mr. FFF: The American censors deleted four seconds from that provocative love-making scene.

Mrs. T: From Here to Eternity was nominated for 13 Oscars and won eight, including best film and best director. It won rave reviews and became one of the highest-grossing films of the Fifties.

Du musst das Leben nicht verstehen,

dann wird es werden wie ein Fest.

You should not understand Life,

then it will be like a celebration.

Rainer Maria Rilke

MM: I see the beach swimming after sunset

Mrs. T: I have never done this.

Mr. FFF: I had a friend who rejoiced every time she had a chance to swim during the night. She could stay up all night swimming.

Τα πρωτα μου χρονια τ’ αξεχαστα τα’ ζησα κοντα στ’ ακρογιαλι,

Στη θαλασσα εκει τη ρηχη και την ημερη,

στη θαλασσα εκει την πλατιεα, τη μεγαλη…

Στη θαλασσα εκει…

Κωστης Παλαμας

I have lived my first unforgetable years by the beach,

There by the shallow and quite sea,

the wide, the great sea, there…

There by the sea

Kostis Palamas

MM: I see the Hotel des Roses in Rhodes.

Mrs. T: I like roses.

Mr. FFF: This is where I was going to swim when I was a kid. For hours on and on. 10am to 7pm. Full time job.

MM: I see the bay of Ladiko, near Kolymbia in Rhodes.

Mrs. T: Looks great!

Mr. FFF: It was even better when there was nobody there! Years ago, access to the bay was blocked and the man who had the keys was a good family friend.

MM: I see food and drinks by the beach.

Mrs. T: Allow me. First stop is Damianos Fishtavern, Ambelas, Paros island, Greece.

Mr. FFF: Wonderful setting, and dedication to serving good seafood all year round.

Mrs. T: It is amazing how different food tastes when you smell the sea breeze!

MM: I see food and drinks on the cliff.

Mrs. T: Second stop. Akelare Restaurante, San Sebastian, Basque Country.

Mr. FFF: Up on a cliff, overlooking the Atlantic, stands one of the shrines of gastronomy in the wonderful land of the Basque people.

Mrs. T: The place is full of the joy of life.

Η θέα

MM: I see seafood by the beach at night.

Mrs. T: Third stop. Ristorante Uliassi, Senigallia, Marche, Italia.

Mr. FFF: Now we are in the Riviera Romagnola, where the ITalians have invented the “beach without the sea”. Nevertheless, in this riviera, where everything happens, where the high and the low co-exist peacefully, Uliassi does his magic. It is worth the trip. Even if you do not make it to the sea.

MM: I see seafood on a balcony overlooking the beach.

Mrs. T: Aristodimos Fishtavern, Pachi, Megara, Greece.

Mr. FFF: Back to the homeland. An unassuming small seaside town 40 km from Athens presents the goods of the sea in a way that honors centuries of eating seafood.

Κουκλι σκετο, με το κλωναρι συκιας να βγαινει μεσα απο την προβλητα!

MM: I see Death encounters by the beach.

Mrs. T: Disillusioned knight Antonius Block and his squire Jöns return after fighting in the Crusades and find Sweden being ravaged by the plague. On the beach immediately after their arrival, Block encounters Death.

Mr. FFF: Black and White. The agony of Man in front of the inevitable. But the sea makes everything look natural. This is why the sea gives another meaning to life.

Mrs. T: (reading from a book): “The whole beach, once so full of colour and life, looked now autumnal, out of season; it was nearly deserted and not even very clean. A camera on a tripod stood at the edge of the water, apparently abandoned; its black cloth snapped in the freshening wind.”

Mr. FFF: (reading from the same book): “Some minutes passed before anyone hastened to the aid of the elderly man sitting there collapsed in his chair. They bore him to his room. And before nightfall a shocked and respectful world received the news of his decease.”

“Prayer does not change God, but it does change the one who prays.”
Soren Kirkegaard

“The essence of truth is freedom”

Martin Heidegger

Participants

Achilles

Ingmar Bergman, Swedish Film Director

Leopold Bloom

Briseis

Priest Chryses

Chryseis

Stephen Daedalus

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Caspar David Friedrich, German Painter

Martin Heidegger, German Philosopher

Friedrich Hoeldrlin, German Poet

(young) Gerty

Homer, Greek Poet

Soren Kirkegaard, Dane Philosopher

MM, partner

Kostis Palamas, Greek Poet

Alexandros Papadiamantis, Greek Writer

Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis, Greek Writer and Painter,

Otto Preminger, American Film Director

Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian Poet

Mrs. T, gourmant

References

Akelare Restaurant, San Sebastian, Basque Country

Aristodimos Fishtavern, Pachi, Megara, Greece

Damianos Fishtavern, Ambelas, Paros Island, Greece

From Here to Eternity, A Film by: Otto Preminger

A Hole in the Head. A Film by: Frank Capra

Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite), A Film by Fatih Akin

Restaurante Uliassi, Senigallia, Marche, Italia

When eros makes life impossible: A “Fluxus Eleatis” discourse

In the surging swell,
In the ringing sound,
In the world-breath
In the waves of the All
To drown,
To sink, to drown –
Unconscious –
Supreme bliss –

Tristan and Isolde: Act III, Scene III

MM: Mathilde A jumps in the torrent created by the rain. Her body is recovered a few hours later.

Mrs. T: Mathilde B shoots Bernard first, and then she shoots herself. Both are dead instantly.

Mr. FFF: Diane runs screaming to her bed and she shoots herself.

von Grimmelshausen: Werther new that one of the three of them, Albert, Lotte and Werther himself, would have to die. He could not kill anyone but himself.

Mathilde A: (reads her suicide note) I am going before your desire dies. Then we’d be left with affection alone, and I know that won’t be enough. I’m going before I grow unhappy. I go bearing the taste of our embraces, your smell, your look, your kisses. I go with the memory of my loveliest years, the ones you gave me. I kiss you now so tenderly, I die of it.

Mathilde B: I needed to talk to him (Bernard). This is all I was thinking about when I was in the hospital (recovering from a nervous breakdown). But when the time came for me to go, and I put on my raincoat, without plan, withour hesitation, I got the handgun that Philippe (my husband) ket in his study and put it in my pocket. I kissed hm passionately. We rolled on the floor. And when he was on top of me, and when the last intercourse was over, I pulled the gun and I shot him. He did not even realize what was happening. I then turned the gun to my left temple and pulled the trigger. It was over in less than thirty seconds.

Diane: When I saw the blue key on my coffee table I knew that the deed was done. Camilla was no longer in this world. It had to be this way. She betrayed me. She was going to marry Adam. She was also fucking about. She was no good. She had to go. But I had to go as well.

Werther: And so it is the last time, the last time that I open these eyes…Lotte, it is a feeling unlike any other, and still it seems like an undetermined dream for one to say to himself: this is the last morning. … Lotte, I have no idea about the meaning of the word: the last! To die! what does it mean? I have seen many people dying; but humanity is so limited that it has no felling for the beginning and the end of its existence. .. All these are perishable, but there is no eternity that can erase the warmth of life that I tasted yesterday in your lips and I now feel inside me! She loves me! These arms have held her, these lips have touched hers trembling, this mouth has whispered something to hers. She is mine! You are mine! Yes, Lotte, for ever.

Mrs. T: Who is this von Grimmelshausen?

Mr. FFF:He is a German scholar from the Black Forest.

MM: How come he is here with us?

Mr. FFF: He is traveller. He goes to places. He meets people. That’s how.

Mrs. T: Have you seen what is inside the brown leather bag he is carrying with im like a treasure?

Mr. FFF: I recall you back to order!

Mrs. T: Ok, I was just curious.

Madame Guyon: The noonday of glory; a day no longer followed by night; a life that no longer fears death, even in death itself, because death has overcome death, and because whoever has suffered the first death will no longer feel the second.

Matthias Claudius: Man’s way of thinking can pass over from a point of the periphery to the opposite point, and back again to the previous point, if circumstances trace out for him the curved path to it. And these changes are not really anything great and interesting in man. But that remarkable, catholic, transcendental change, when the whole circle is irreparably torn up and all the laws of psychology become vain and empty, where the coat of skins is taken off, or at any rate turned inside out, and man’s eyes are opened, is such that everyone who is conscious to some extent of the breath in his nostrils, forsakes mother and father, if he can hear and experience something certain about it.

Horace: How is it that no one is satisfied with his own condition?

Filippo Ottonieri: The reason is that no condition is happy. The servvants, as well as the princes, the poor as well as the rich, the weak as well as the powerful would all be extremely well satisfied with their lot and would feel no envy for the others were they happy; for men are no more impossible to satisfy than any other species; but they can be content with happiness only. Now, as they are always unhappy, should we wonder if they are never satisfied?

Julia Kristeva: To be sure, analytic discourse does not, or at any rate does not always suffer from the apparent excesses of amorous language, which range from hypnotic fascination with the presumed ideal qualities of the partner to hysterical sentimental effusion to phobias of abandonment. Nevertheless, it is want of love that sends the subject into analysis, which proceeds by first restoring confidence in, and capacity for, love through the transference and then enabling the subject to distance himself or herself from the analyst. From being the subject of an amorous discourse during the years of my analysis (and, in the best of circumstances, beyond them), I discover  my potential for psychic renewal, intellectual innovation, and even physical change. This kind of experience seems to be the specific contribution of our modern civilization to the history of amorous discourse. The analytic situation is the only place explicitly provided for in the social contract in which we are allowed to talk about the wounds we have suffered and to search for possible new identities and new ways of talking about ourselves.

Arthur Schopenhauer: Selfishness is “eros” (in Greek ερως), sympathy or compassion is “love”  (in Greek αγαπη).

Friedrich Nietzsche: The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.

Christiane Olivier: Is love, then, an impossibility? The couple is the fantasy of finding again, at last, a mother whom one has never yet met: for the woman, desiring; for the man, not stifling. It is the dream so well imagined by Verlaine: “I often have this strange, affecting dream of an unknown woman, who loves me and whom I love, and who each time is neither quite the same, nor quite other.” 

MM: Eros and Thanatos.

Mrs. T: Libido and Mortido.

Mr. FFF: Life instinct and death instinct.

MM: We are back in the field of the philosophy of the opposites!

Mrs. T: But are we? It appears to me that somehow Eros leads the actor to Thanatos! I see no opposites here, I see two complementary instincts.

Mr. FFF: I wish it were as simple as that. In my view Eros not only leads to Thanatos in the cases under consideration, it seems to me that Eros appeals to Thanatos to seal its eternal meaning. As if Eros does not attain its ultimate state unless it reaches Thanatos.

Jacinta: I was sixteen when, one night while I was sleeping, I had a dream. (Woe is me! And even when I was awake I relieved that dream.) I was going through a lovely forest and in the very depths of the forest, I met the most handsome man I had ever in my life seen. His face was shadowed by the edge of a fawn cape with silver hooks and catches. Attracted by his appearance, I stopped to gaze at him. Eager to see if his face looked as I imagined, I approached and boldly pulled aside his cape. The moment I did, he drew a dagger and plunged it into my heart so violently that the pain made me cry out, and all my maids came running in. As soon as I awoke from this dark dream, I lost sight of the fact that he had done me such injury, and I felt more deeply affected than you can imagine. His image remained etched in my memory. It did not fade away or disappear for ever so long. Noble Fabio, I yearned to find a man with exactly his appearance and bearing to be my husband. These thoughts so obsessed me that I kept imagining and reimagining that scene, and I would have conversations with him. Before you knew it, I was madly in love with a mystery man whom I didn’t know, but you must believe that if the god Narcissus was dark, then surely he was Narcissus.

Arthur Schopenhauer: They tell us that suicide is the greatest act of cowardice… that suicide is wrong; when it is quite obvious that there is nothing in the world to which every man has a more unassailable title than to his own life and person.

Herodotus: When life is so burdensome, death has become for man a sought-after refuge.

ΜΜ: Freud claimed the death instinct drives people to death so that they can have real peace, and only death can get rid of tension and struggles. This is the case of Werther.

Mrs. T: When people feel extreme joy, they want to die and hope time will stop at that moment, which is also the evidence of death instinct, the transformation of life instinct into death instinct. This is the case of Mathilde A.

Mr. FFF: The death instinct exists in almost everyone’s subconscious. It is an irresistible instinctive power in human beings’ consciousness. Many people may deny that there is a death instinct in their consciousness. Indeed, people’s life instinct is very strong. However, if they examine their flashes of idea in their consciousness, they can find that just like death instinct, their desire for death is sometimes also very strong.

Jacinta: Because of this obsession I could neither eat nor sleep. My face lost its color and I experienced the most profound melancholy of my life. Everyone noticed the changes in me. Who, Fabio, ever heard of anyone loving a mere shadow? They may tell tales about people who’ve loved monsters and other incredible things, but at least what they loved had form! I sympathized with Pygmalion who loved the statue that ultimately Jupiter brought to life for him, and with the youth from Athens, and with the lovers who loved a tree or a dolphin. But what I loved was a mere fantasy, a shadow. What would people think of that? Nobody would believe me and, if they did, they’d think I’d lost my mind. But I give you my word of honor as a noblewoman, that not in this or in anything else I’ll tell you, do I add a single word that isn’t the truth. You can imagine that I talked to myself. I reproved myself, and, to free myself from my obsessive passion, I looked very carefully at all the elegant young men who lived in my city and tried to grow fond of one of them. Everything I did simply made me love my phantom more, and nowhere could I find his equal. My love grew and grew so great that I even composed poetry to my beloved ghost.

Julia Kristeva: Loss of the erotic object (unfaithfulness or desertion by the lover or husband, divorce, etc) is felt by the woman as an assault on her genitality and, from that point of view, amounts to castration. At once, such a castration starts resonating with the threat of destruction of the body’s integrity, the body image, and the entire psychic system as well. As a result, feminine castration, rather than being diseroticized, is concealed by narcissistic anguish, which masters and protects eroticism as a shameful secret.

MM: I love you so much I want to kill myself.

Mrs. T: I love you so much I want to kill you.

Mr. FFF: I love you so much I want to kill myself, but I will kill you first, before you kill me.

Albert Camus: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.  Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.  All the rest – whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories – comes afterwards.  These are games; one must first answer [the questions of suicide].”

Arthur Schopenhauer: To those in whom the will has turned and denied itself, this very real world of ours, with its suns and galaxies, is – nothing.

MM: Driven to suicide by eros is one thing, killing your lover and then killing yourself is another.

Mrs. T: It may not be premedidated, but evolutionary. You start by wanting to exterminate the cause of your living hell, your lover, and you do. And then, after you have done it, you figure out that the road has now opened for your own departure from this world as well.

Mr. FFF: This theory may apply to both Diane and Mathilde B. I would like to note though, that Time could be the differentiator. In Mathilde B’s case, she kills herself imeediately after she has killed Bernard. Whereas Diane kills herself after she realizes that the “contract” on Camille’s life has been successfully executed.

Participants

Albert Camus, French philosopher

Matthias Claudius, German poet

Diane Selwyn, protagonist in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive”

von Grimmelshausen, a German nobleman and writer

Madame Guyon, French mystic

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Herodotus, Greek historian

Horace, Roman poet

Jacinta, character in Maria de Zayas’ “The enchantements of love”

Julia Kristeva, French-Bulgarian psychoanalyst

Mathilde A, the hairdresser in Patrice Leconte’s “The Hairdresser’s Husband”

Mathilde B, the woman next door, in Francois Truffaut’s “The Woman next Door”

MM, partner

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Christiane Olivier, French psychoanalyst

Filippo Ottonieri, a very thin disguise for Giacomo Leopardi himself

Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher

Mrs. T, unknown ethinicity, gourmant

Werther, a fictional character created by Goethe

On the Dark Side: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Ludwig Wittgenstein: “In a conversation: one person throws a ball; the other does not know whether he is supposed to throw it back, or throw it to a third person, or leave it on the ground, or pick it up and put it in his pocket,…Any interpretation still hangs in the air along with what it interprets, and cannot give it any support. Interpretations by themselves do not determine meaning.”

Socrates: So it is that the good man too could sometimes become bad, either through age or toil or disease or some misfortune – for doing badly is nothing other than being deprived of knowledge – but the bad man could never become bad – for he is bad all the time – but if he is to become bad he must first become good.

MM: Are you a good man?

Mr. FFF: I am good and bad at the same time. And not because of lack of knowledge.

Mrs. T: Are you then disagreeing with Socrates?

Mr. FFF: Good and bad is only one of the “dialectical” dichotomies of man. Others being: reason / faith,  bright / dark, rational / irrational, sacred / profane, Apollonian / Dionysian, nature / culture. Dialectics dictate that both sides are taken together, and dealt with as a whole.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Every human embodies a compound of nature and culture, chaos and order, instinct and reason… symbolised by Dionysus and Apollo.

Mrs. T: What are the origins of bad, of the dark side? Was man in the past a unitary entity? How did this dichotomy of bright and dark come about?

Mr. FFF (Reads from Genesis): “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’  And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said you shall not eat from it or touch it lest you die.’  And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die for God knows in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.  She gave also to her husband with her and he ate.  Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

St. Augustine: We took away an enormous quantity of pears, not to eat them ourselves, but simply to throw them to the pigs. Perhaps we ate some of them, but our real pleasure consisted in doing something that was forbidden. .. the evil in me was foul, but I loved it. I loved my own perdition and my own faults, not the things for which I committed wrong, but the wrong itself. My soul was vicious and broke away from your (God’s) safe keeping to seek its own destruction, looking for no profit in disgrace but only for disgrace itself.

Mrs. T: Surely the Judeo-Christian view is not the only one.

Mr. FFF: Of course not. To take an example, daemons were benevolent spirits in the time of Hesiod. It was Plato and his pupil Xenocrates, who first characterized daemons as dangerous spirits. This was later absorbed by the Christians.

Mrs. T: Is the dark side a moral construct?

Mr. FFF: The dark side is a multifaceted construct. It has moral and religious connotations to say the least.

MM: The seductress of Juliette claimed immediately after the act that morality and religion are meaningless.

Mr. FFF: Lets put two of the prominent “dark side” attributes on the table: sin and evil.

MM: Juliette’s aim in life is to to enjoy oneself at no matter whose expense. What is the meaning of sin and evil for Juliette?

Clairwil: I expect Juliette to do evil – not to quicken her lust, as I believe is her habit at present, but solely for the pleasure of doing it…one must proceed calmly, deliberately, lucidly. Crime is the torch that should fire the passions.

Mephistopheles: Das beste, das du wissen kannst, / Darfst du den Buben doch nichts sagen.

(Mephistopheles: The best of what you know may not, after all, be told to boys.)

Georges Battaile: Sexual reproductive activity is common to sexual animals and men, but only men appear to have turned their sexual activity into erotic activity. Eroticism, unlike simple sexual activity, is a psychological quest independent of the natural goal: reproduction and the desire for children…Eroticism always entails a breaking down of established patterns, the patterns, I repeat, of the regulated social order basic to our discontinuous mode of existence.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pigs”): “Την κοιτουσε απο κοντα. Καρφωνε το βλεμμα του στα χειλη, στις λεπτομερειες της επιδερμιδας, στο λαιμο, στα χερια που του φαινοντουσαν εκφραστικα και μυστηριωδη. Ξαφνικα καταλαβε πως αν δεν τη φιλουσε, η στερηση θα ηταν ανυποφορη. Ειπε μεσα του: “Ειμαι τρελος”. Κι επανελαβε πως αν την φιλουσε, θα κατεστρεφε ολη αυτη την τρυφεροτητα, που τοσο αυθορμητα του προσφερε εκεινη. Θα εκανε ισως τη λαθος κινηση, που θα την απογοητευε και θα τον εμφανιζε σαν ενα ατομο χωρις ευαισθησια, ανικανο να ερμηνευσει σωστα μαι πραξη γενναιοδωριας, σαν ενα υποκριτη που παριστανε τον καλο, ενω μεσα του κοχλαζουν οι χυδαιες ορεξεις, σαν εναν ανοητο που τολμα να τις εκφρασει. Σκεφτηκε: “Αυτο δε μου συνεβαινε αλλοτε” (και ειπε μεσα του πως αυτο το σχολιο του ειχε γινει πια εμμονη ιδεα). “Σε μια παρομοια κατασταση εγω θα ημουν ενας αντρας μπροστα σε μια γυναικα, ενω τωρα…” Κι αν τωρα εκανε λαθος; Αν εχανε εξαιτιας μιας αγιατρευτης ντροπαλοσυνης την καλυτερη ευκαιρια; Γατι να μη δει τα πραγματα απλα, να μην αφησει τον εαυτο του να καταλαβει πως η Ν κι εκεινος…”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pigs”): He was watching her from a close distance. His stare was penetrating her lips, the details of her skin, the neck, the hands, mysterious and ever so expressive. He told himself: ” I am mad”. And repeated that if he were to kiss her, he would destroy all the tenderness that she was so spontaneously offering to him. He might make the wrong move, that would disappoint her and present him in her eyes as a person without sensitivity, unable to interpret correctly an act of generosity, like an hypocrite who was pretending to be good, while inside him burn all sorts of vile desires, like a fool who dares express them. He thought: “this was not happening to me in the past” (and told himself that this was becoming now a persistent thought). “In a similar situation in the past, I would be a man in front of a woman, while now…” And if he were wrong? If  because of this incurable shyness he was to miss the best chance? Why not see things in the simple way, not let himself understand that N and himself…”

Michel Foucault: …transgression is not related to the limit as black is to white […] the outside to the inside […] their relationship takes the form of a spiral which no simple infraction can exhaust…sexuality is a fissure – not one which surrounds us as the basis of our isolation or individuality, but one which marks the limit within us and designates us as a limit…transgression and the limit has replaced the older dichotomy of the sacred and the profane.

Marlow: And perhaps in this is the whole difference; perhaps all the wisdom and all the truth, all the sincerity, are just compresses into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible.

Brother Medardus: One morning when I was going to the choirmaster for my music lesson, I caught his sister by surprise in a light negligee, her breast almost completely bare. She swiftly covered it up, but my prying eyes had already seen too much. Words failed me. New, unknownfeelings welled up within me and drove the red-hot blood through my veins so that my pulse beat out loud for all to hear. My heart was held in a convulsive grip and nearly bursting, until I eased my torment with a gentle sigh.
Georges Bataille:  …eroticism fell within the bounds of the profane and was at the same time condemned out of hand. The development of eroticism is parallel with that of uncleaness. Sacredness misunderstood is readily identified with evil.
Michel Foucault: If it is extremely dangerous to say that reason is the enemy that should be eliminated, it is just as dangerous to say that any critical questioning of this rationality risks sending us into irrationality… if critical thought itself has a function…it is precisely to accept this sort of spiral, this sort of revolving door of rationality that refers us to its necessity… and at the same time to its intrinsic dangers.

Mr. FFF: The spiral negates the dichotomy. A new paradigm is born. I am a descendant of Gerard de Nerval.
Friedrich Nietzsche:…morality takes good and evil for realities that contradict one another (not as complementary value concepts,which would be true), it advises taking the side of the good, it desires that the good should renounce and oppose the evil down to its ultimate roots – it therefore denies life which has in all its instincts both Yes and No.
Alexander Nehamas: The essential unity of what we commonly distinguish as good and evil is one of the most central themes in Nietzsche’s writing.
Georges Bataille:  If they want to elevate sexuality above its organic matrix and turn it into a spiritual activity, human beings cannot but conceive erotism as a gateway to death and the diabolical. The taking over of evil is an extreme and sovereign value. This process would not require the excision of morality, rather it would bring forth a higher level morality, an a-theological “hypermorality”.


Marlow: We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.
Mr. Kurtz: The Horror, the Horror!
Marlow: I saw the inconceivable mystery of a soul that knew no restraint, no faith, and no fear, yet struggling blindly with itself.
Friedrich Nietzsche: It is with people as it is with the trees. The more they aspire to the height and light, the more strongly do their roots strive earthward, downward, into the dark, the deep – into evil.
Marlow: The mind of man is capable of anything – because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future… Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of unextinguishable regrets.
Friedrich Nietzsche: Human beings need what is most evil in them for what is best in them… whatever is most evil is their best power and the hardest stone for the highest creator… human beings must become better and more evil.

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): “Πιστεψε πως δεν ειχε πια ουτε δυναμεις ουτε ψευδαισθησεις για ν’αντεξει τη ζωη. Η φιλια ηταν αδιαφορη, ο ερωτας ποταπος και απιστος και το μονο που περισσευε ηταν το μισος. … του περασε απο το μυαλο μια λυση που αξιζε τον κοπο να την μελετησει κανεις¨το ιδιο του το χερι, οπλισμενο μ’ ενα φανταστικο ρεβολβερ να τον σημαδευει στον κροταφο.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): Adolfo Bioy Casares (Reads from “The Diary of the War of the Pig”): “He felt that he no longer had any powers or illusions to stay alive. Friendship was indifferent and love unworthy and vile and the only thing in abundance was hatred… a solution emerged in his mind to be further explored “his own hand, armed with a imagined revolver, aiming his temple”.

Participants

Georges Battaile, French writer and philosopher

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentine writer

Clairwil, character in de Sade’s “Juliette”

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Michel Foucault, French philosopher

Mr. Kurtz, half-English, half-French, ivory merchant and commander of a trading post

Marlow, main character in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Brother Medardus, a Capuchin Friar

Mephistopheles

MM, partner

Alexander Nehamas, professor of philosophy

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Socrates, Greek philosopher

Mrs. T, unknown ethinicity, gourmant

Venice: A “Fluxus Eleatis” Discourse

Michel Foucault:  Discourse operates in four major ways. Discourse creates a world; discourse generates knowledge and “truth”; discourse says something about the people who speak it; discourse always incorporates elements of power.

Socrates und Alcibiades

 A poem by Friedrich Hoelderlin

“Warum huldigest du, heiliger Socrates,

“Diesem Juenglinge stets? kennest du Groessers nicht?

“Warum siehet mit Liebe,

“Wie auf Goetter, dein Aug’ auf ihn?

Wer das Tiefste gedacht, liebt das Lebendigste,

Hohe Jugend versteht, wer in die Welt geblikt

Und es neigen die Weisen

Oft am Ende zu Schoenem sich.

 

Gustav von Aschenbach: ‘What lies in wait for me here, Ambiguous Venice, Where water is married to stone, And passion confuses the senses?’

 

Farfarello: And so, if you’d like to give me your soul before its time, I’m here, ready to take it.

 

Luchino Visconti: The sky has to be orange, even if Fassbinder copies me in Querelle.

 

Mr. FFF:  I started my trip from the Northern Cemetery in Munich. I arrived in Venice by train. The Marathon run finished a few minutes ago. There are many visitors. The water of the lagoon has a dull grey color. It is chilly. It is cloudy but there is no rain. Mrs. T misses you already.

MM:  Do not get lost in the art farm that is Venice! I googled and saw that you have bad weather and it’s raining. Hope you got your wellies.

 

Apollo: Reason, control, and clarity

 

Gustav von Aschenbach: I am furious because I am forced to return, but secretly I rejoice.

 

Dionysus: Wander lust

 

Gustav von Aschenbach:  Vacillating, irresolute, absurd.

 

Thomas Mann: A life spiraling out of control.

 

Friedrich Hoelderlin:

Und immer,

Ins Ungebundene gehet eine Sehnsucht.

(And always,

there is a longing to dissolve)

 

Mr. FFF:   In Palazzo Grassi I met Mr. Dob, the Manga character that has been adopted by Takashi Murakami. He has three eyes and an energizing stare.  Mr. Dob inhabits Murakami’s masterpiece 727-272 (The Emergence of God at the Reversal of Fate). Mrs. T is in love with him but he ignores her.  For her, it was love at first sight. For him, she does not even exist.

 

MM:  Luckily today I will be on scrub watch so that should keep me busy enough not to think about not having the both of you around.

 

Don Giovanni:

 Deh vieni alla finestra, o mio tesoro,

Deh vieni a consolar il pianto mio.

Se neghi a me di dar qualche ristoro,

Davanti agli occhi tuoi morir vogl’ io.

Tu ch’ ai la bocca dolce piu che il miele,

Tu che il zucchero porti in mezzo il core!

Non esser, gioia mia, con me crudele!

Lascati almen veder, mio bell’ amore!

Friedrich Nietzsche: To experience a thing as beautiful means: to experience it necessarily wrongly – (which, incidentally, is why marriage for love is, from the point of view of society, the most unreasonable king of marriage). The demand for art and beauty is an indirect demand for the ecstasies of sexuality communicated to the brain.

 

Farfarello: Well, then, since of necessity you love yourself with the greatest love of which you’re capable, of necessity you desire your happiness as strongly as you can. And since this supreme desire of yours can never be satisfied even in the smallest degree, it follows that in no way can you escape being unhappy.

 

Gustav von Aschenbach: Time presses, time does not press

Constantine Cavafy: Πλαϊ στο παραθυρο ηταν το κρεββατι που αγαπηθηκαμε τοσες φορες. (By the window was the bed where we made love so many times).

 

Mr. FFF:  A Cretan Madonna in Santa Maria della Salute. It was taken from the Church of Saint Titus in the last minute before fleeing Candia and Crete, by the Commander of the Venetians Morozini. The Ottomans captured Candia immediately after. Crete and Venice, share a co-existence that brought El Greco to Venice before he continued his journey to go to Spain.

MM:  I can’t say I am doing such exciting stuff as you. I waited in line for an hour to change the tires on my car and now it’s being done. Nothing fun to report.  Of course I miss the both of you terribly. It seems like I cannot have meaningful conversation with anybody else, but you.  Not to mention the fact that we took our jokes and puns to a whole other level and now whatever jokes anybody tries to do is pointless.

 

Filippo Ottonieri: Except for the times of suffering, as well as of fear, I would think that the worst moments are those of pleasure because the hope for them and the memory of them, which occupy the rest of our lives, are better and much more pleasant than the pleasures themselves.

 

Thomas Schutte: Efficiency Men, Punta della Dogana, Venice

Jean Baudrillard: Everyday experience falls like snow. Immaterial, crystalline and microscopic, it enshrouds all the features of the landscape. It absorbs sounds, the resonance of thoughts and events; the wind sweeps across it sometimes with unexpected violence and it gives off an inner light, a malign fluorescence which bathes all forms in crepuscular indistinctness.  Watching time snow down, ideas snow down, watching the silence of some aurora borealis light up, giving in to the vertigo of enshrouding and whiteness.

 

Friedrich Hoelderlin:

 Wo aber gefahr ist, waechst,

Das Rettende auch.

(Where there is danger,

some Salvation grows there too.)

 

Gustav von Aschenbach : What if all were dead, and only we two left alive

Luigi Pirandello: The torment of imagining you far away – among other people who can have the joy of seeing you, talking to you, being near you while I am here without life because I can neither see you nor talk with you, nor be near you – can be mitigated only by the thought that you feel my presence within you and that even from far away you give me life, and that even in your silence you see me and talk to me; in one word, that I am alive and close to you, more than those who see you, talk to you, and are around you.

 


Mr. FFF:  Thomas Schuette’s “Efficiency Men” were waiting for me at the Punta della Dogana.  Their steel bodies were covered down to their knees by felt blankets. It was like a call to Joseph Beuys. His felt self is all over German Art.

 MM:  You realize I’m not having nearly as much fun as you are, but I expect to be entertained upon your return! So prepare lots of stories from Venice. You know the kind: money, blood and sex.

Giuseppe Ungaretti:

ECO

Scalza varcando da sabbie lunari,

Aurora, amore festoso, d’ un’ eco

Popoli l’ esule universe e lasci

Nella carne dei giorni,

Perenne scia, una piaga velata.

 

Luigi Pirandello: What life is there left for me? I don’t care anymore about anything. Only about you do I care, and all that concerns you, my Marta; if you suffer, suffering with you and for you; if you get angry, getting angry with you; if you hope, hoping with you and for you. And remaining – for as long as I stay alive, for as long as my eyes stay open, for as long as my heart keeps beating, for as long as the soul burns in me – with my eyes, my heart, my soul, enchanted by your beauty, by the charms of your person, by the divine nobility of your feelings and of your spirit.

Adele:

Whenever I’m alone with you

You make me feel like I am home again

Whenever I’m alone with you

You make me feel like I am whole again

Whenever I’m alone with you

You make me feel like I am young again

Whenever I’m alone with you

You make me feel like I am fun again

However far away I will always love you

However long I stay I will always love you

Whatever words I say I will always love you

I will always love you

Mr. FFF:  Fog everywhere. I boarded a U-boat where a rabbi was reading the Kaballah. Later, in Hotel Metropol during lunch I met an Indian Maharadja and his German maiden.

MM:  All these cultural encounters! We redid the kitchen; the hard part is over now. You may be interested to know that nothing works without me!

Gustav Mahler: I should not have cried on the train departing Venice. I should not have dismissed Alma’s music compositions. It is too late now.  I gave my name to von Aschenbach.

Discource Participants

Adele, English singer

Apollo, Greek God of light

Gustav von Aschenbach, German writer (through the pen of Thomas Mann, through the interpretation of Myfawny Piper, through the camera of Luchino Visconti, through the interpretation of Fluxus Eleatis)

Jean Baudrillard, French philosopher

Constantine Cavafy, Greek poet

Dionysus, Greek God of pleasure

Farfarello, character created by Giacomo Leopardi

Michel Foucault, French philosopher

Mr. FFF, wanderer

Don Giovanni, a young, extremely licentious nobleman (created by Lorenzo da Ponte)

Friedrich Hoelderlin, German poet

Gustav Mahler, Austrian composer

Thomas Mann, German writer

MM, partner

Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Filippo Ottonieri, philosopher created by Giacomo Leopardi

Luigi Pirandello, Italian writer and Nobel Laureate

Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian poet

Luchino Visconti, Italian director

The enemies of Hellas – Greece: Part II

Every human being has his own particular web of associations for identifying and interpreting reality, which, most often, instinctively and unthinkingly, he superimposes on every set of circumstances. Frequently, however, those external circumstances do not conform with, or fit, the structure of our webs, and then we can misread the unfamiliar reality, and interpret its elements incorrectly…
— Ryszard Kapuscinski, “Travels with Herodotus” (2007)

This is the second part of an attempt to identify the enemies of Greece. I hope it is the last, because if there are too many enemies, it will take ages to hunt them down and destroy them. On the other hand, life is boring without enemies. How are we going to spend our time? Especially now that we have no money to spend, and shopping is out of the question, travelling is out of the question, and so on, we might have a cost free entertaining and uplifting activity chasing and obliterating our enemies. Time will tell.

I remind you that according to my methodology, I identify the enemies of Greece indirectly, by focusing (not always) on the political parties, and making the inference that an enemy of our political parties is also an enemy of Greece.

New Democracy

New Democracy is the party of the traditional populist right.

They see “The Drachma Club” or “The Drachma Lobby” as enemies of Greece. These are people who are betting on Greece returning to the drachma, so that everything is devalued by at least 80% and they – the club members or lobbyists – buy everything for nothing, as they already have their huge fortunes in hard currency somewhere in the vaults of the world.

Another great enemy of Greece is [The “Little Match Stick Girl”}, also known as [The dangerous and irresponsible Mr Tsipras], the head of the SYRIZA party. The leader of New Democracy has created this powerful metaphor, of Mr Tsipras as the little match girl in a storage room full of dynamite. The question for us, ordinary citizens now is “how are we going to neutralize the little girl?”

Unfortunately I do not have an answer, but I am tempted to remember the proven strategy “nuke them till they glow, they shoot them in the dark”. Although I am not very keen on physical violence, as I definitely prefer psychological violence, I must confess that the “nuke them…” approach has an eternally alluring quality for me.

It might be a good idea for me to suggest to Mr Samaras to call Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, or even meet him (last time I saw him he was somewhere in the jungle of the Golden Traingle), to get some advice on how to best neutralize the little match stick girl.

Now that I have said that, I consider it absolutely brilliant, because a true political leader is nothing without a seasoned in battle military adviser.

Should Colonel Kurtz be unavailable, it might be best to contact Alexander Haig. I do not want to brag about it, but I have met the General at a conference in Paris in 2002. He delivered a speech on how executives should act. Not that I am an executive, but I was there anyway, so I got to hear him speak, and then I shook his hand. Oh my!!!!

Finally, the New Democracy has identified “The hooded men (and women?)” as a big enemy of Greece. These are people who wear a hood, and then run around trying to find a reason to exist. they are people in a huge existential crisis. New Democracy does not like them because they lower the morale of the population in the big urban centers, where the existential crisis is at its peak. And as you know, morale is everything, it is the decisive factor. And I understand the outrage of New Democracy.

These people are losers, and are dragging all of  us down with them!!!! No pasaran!!!!

PASOK

PASOK is suffering from Dissociative identity disorder (DID, also known as Multiple Personality Disorder.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) its essential feature “…is the presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states…that recurrently take control of behavior.” The diagnosis requires that at least two personalities (one may be the host) routinely take control of the individual’s behavior with an associated memory loss that goes beyond normal forgetfulness; in addition, symptoms cannot be the temporary effects of drug use or a general medical condition. Memory loss will occur in those with DID when an alternate part of the personality becomes dominant. DID is less common than other dissociative disorders, occurring in approximately 10% of dissociative disorder cases and .5-1% of the general population.Women tend to outnumber men in this disorder, resulting in about a 9:1 ratio. 

Diagnosis is often difficult as there is considerable co-morbidity with other conditions and many symptoms overlap with other types of mental illness. 

Individuals diagnosed with DID frequently report severe physical and sexual abuse as a child. The etiology of DID has been attributed to the experience of pathological levels of stress which disrupts normal functioning and forces some memories, thoughts and aspects of personality from consciousness, though an alternative explanation is that dissociated identities are the iatrogenic effect of certain psychotherapeutic practices or increased popular interest.

All of the above is an extensive scientific quotation that I will ow interpret in my simplistic way.

The best proof of the dissociation of identity is the loss of memory.

PASOK has done a lot of things during the last three years. But the dissociated PASOK does not remember any of them.

It is like they were done by somebody else. It is like they were out, and all of a sudden they are back and they do not recognize what has happened.

If this is not scary, what could be?

We have a body that has the capacity through the dissociated identity disorder to continuously create new identities, each of which knows not what the others are doing.

It is clear that this dissociation of identity is an enemy of Greece, as it takes away from the country one its best children.

I am talking of course abour George Papandreou. PASOK had to sacrifice this child of hers, as it were trapped inside this dissociated body of PASOK.

The historical implications are huge, as among other things the country may miss the gigantic opportunity that George Papandreou had afforded to her to legalize marijuana in order to boost the economy and the country’s exports. What a shame!

How can a country deal with a psychological disease? That is becoming such a huge problem? Do we know from the medical profession whether death is the cure of the disease? Or do the DID dead continue to leave and return as jombies forever living dead to torture the country?

I strongly suggest before people bath their hands in the blood of PASOK to consult with the doctors.

Democratic Left

The Democratic left is a relatively new (two years’ old) party. The party has been described as a combination of a SYRIZA spin off and a PASOK spin off. The spin offs occurred at distinct moments of time, and there appears to be no design of this merge of splinter groups. However, design or not, this appears to be the case today.

I must confess I quite like the Democratic Left’s leader. He is a nice chap, and his use of the Greek language is decent, a rarity these days. The rest is complicated, as he takes ages to arrive at a conclusion, and when he does it is not clear what the conclusion is.

This is definitely not the result of the leader’s inability to articulate. It is most likely the result of the party’s blurred identity.

PASOK suffers from the dissociated identity disorder, and the Democratic Left from the blurred identity disorder!

The good news for the country and the Democratic Left is that their blurred identity will not necessarily cause a major problem, unless they will become the critical factor in the formation of a coalition government after the 17th June election. But we have to wait for this.

KKE – The Greek Communist Party

No identity disorder here!!!!

There is only one enemy: Capitalism. And another, Capital, and another, Capitalists.

All of these bad guys are against the workers, and as Greece is a workers’ country, they are all enemies of Greece.

But the biggest enemy of KKE these days is not capitalism. It is Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA. No need to say more. And if you do not understand what I am saying, you are also an enemy!!!!

Health

Yet another violation of my methodology. Fully justified though.

The Health of the Greek people, is being viciously attacked.

They (our enemies) are spraying us with all sorts of things. Every day airplanes of all kinds fly our friendly blue skies and spray us with all types of chemicals.

According to my informers, and secret reports that I have received, the most common substance used is a personality change agent. Once you inhale it you become a servile and docile citizen.

The originators of this act are not known yet. Rumours abound. All I can say is that we will find them, drag them to Constitution Square, and offer them ouzo!!!

Another way they are attacking our health is by importing into Greece HIV positive women who have unprotected sex with innocent, unsuspecting Greeks.

These women attract the men by promising them that they will solve all their problems, as their body is blessed by the waters of a holy river in India, where they went on holiday some time ago.

Unfortunately they are lying. Most of them come from the secret service of a neighbouring small country that is trying to destabilize Greece. They will not succeed!!!

Conclusion

Concluding this two-part monumental article, that is going to be read by hundreds of thousands of citizens of the world, I would like to offer the distilled wisdom that I have plenty in my inner self. Here it comes.

We should not be concerned about the Turks, the Albanians, the “FYROM-Macedonians”, the sionists, the Bankers, the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese, the pawnbrokers, the freemasons, the hedge funds, the spies, the secret agents, the chemical spray, AIDS, and so on.

We should not be concerned about our own failings of character, and the centuries old fratricide.

Asteroid Hermes’ elliptical orbit (red) brings it to the inner solar system every 777 days

Our biggest enemy, who eventually is going to bring our downfall is asteroid Hermes. Let me quote extensively from NASA’s website, to build my argument and at the same time educate all of you who think that I am losing my marbles and talking nonsense.

“It is almost accepted today, that an asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. But in 1980 when scientists Walter and Luis Alvarez first suggested the idea to a gathering at the American Association for Advancement of Sciences, their listeners were skeptical. Asteroids hitting Earth? Wiping out species? It seemed incredible.

At that very moment, unknown to the audience, an asteroid named Hermes halfway between Mars and Jupiter was beginning a long plunge toward our planet. Six months later it would pass 300,000 miles from Earth’s orbit, only a little more than the distance to the Moon. Rhetorically speaking, this would have made a great point in favor of the Alvarezes. Curiously, though, no one noticed the flyby.

1980 wasn’t the first time Hermes had sailed by unremarked. Hermes is a good-sized asteroid, easy to see, and a frequent visitor to Earth’s neighborhood. Yet astronomers had gotten into the habit of missing it. How this came to be is a curious tale, which begins in Germany just before World War II:

On Oct. 28, 1937, astronomer Karl Reinmuth of Heidelberg noticed an odd streak of light in a picture he had just taken of the night sky. About as bright as a 9th magnitude star, it was an asteroid, close to Earth and moving fast–so fast that he named it Hermes, the herald of Olympian gods. On Oct. 30, 1937, Hermes glided past Earth only twice as far away as the Moon, racing across the sky at a rate of 5 degrees per hour. Nowadays only meteors and Earth-orbiting satellites move faster.

Plenty of asteroids were known in 1937, but most were plodding members of the asteroid belt far beyond Mars. Hermes was different. It visited the inner solar system. It crossed Earth’s orbit. It proved that asteroids could come perilously close to our planet. And when they came, they came fast.

Reinmuth observed Hermes for five days. Then, to make a long story short, he lost it.

Hermes approaches Earth’s orbit twice every 777 days. Usually our planet is far away when the orbit crossing happens, but in 1937, 1942, 1954, 1974 and 1986, Hermes came harrowingly close to Earth itself. We know about most of these encounters only because Lowell Observatory astronomer Brian Skiff re-discovered Hermes… on Oct. 15, 2003. Astronomers around the world have been tracking it carefully ever since. Orbit-specialists Steve Chesley and Paul Chodas of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have used the new observations to trace Hermes’ path backwards in time, and so they identified all the unnoticed flybys.

“It’s a little unnerving,” says Chodas. “Hermes has sailed by Earth so many times and we didn’t even know it.”

“Hermes’ orbit is the most chaotic of all near-Earth asteroids,” he adds. This is because the asteroid is so often tugged by Earth’s gravity. Hermes has occasional close encounters with Venus, too. In 1954 the asteroid flew by both planets. “That was a real orbit scrambler,” Chodas says. Frequent encounters with Earth and Venus make it hard to forecast Hermes’ path much more than a century in advance. The good news is that “Hermes won’t approach Earth any closer than about 0.02 AU within the next hundred years.” We’re safe for now.

I do not think we are safe!!!!

Hermes will fall on Greece, more specifically on the island of Yaros, in the very near future. I cannot predict exactly when, but I may be able to do so, after I visit my personal (mis)fortune teller, Mrs. Regina.

In any case, I rest my case, and cry out loud: “you have been warned!!!!!”

Cosi fan tutte, ossia La Scuola degli Amanti – Thus Do They All, or The School For Lovers

Mozart’s opera buffa is a perplexing one, and in spite of appearances, a very dark one indeed.

It is this mix of comedy and tragedy that attracts me, and led me to write this post.

Così was written quickly, over the autumn and winter months 1789 and premiered on January 26, 1790, on the eve of the Mozart’s 34th birthday.

Dramatis Personae

Fiordiligi: Lady from Ferrara and sister to Dorabella, living in Naples

Dorabella: Lady from Ferrara and sister to Fiordiligi, living in Naples

Guglielmo: Lover of Fiordiligi, a Soldier

Ferrando: Lover of Dorabella, a Soldier

Don Alfonso: an old philosopher

Despina: a maid

Cosi fan tutte, 23 January 1995, ROH

Synopsis

In a coffeehouse, Guglielmo and Ferrando, two soldiers, discuss with Don Alfonso,an old philosopher, the faithfulness of their fiances, Fiordiligi and Dorabella. Don Alfonso dismisses all that, and bets that he can prove within a day that Fiordiligi and Dorabella like all women, are fickle.

Cosi fan tutte, Act 1, Scene 1: Coffeehouse. Source: Royal Opera House, London

The two men will pretend they have been called to active duty, and they will leave (only to return in disguise). They announce the “bad” news ot their fiances, and they sail off to “war”. As they do, Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi and Dorabella wish them a safe trip: Soave sia il vento—”May the wind be gentle”

When left alone, Alfonso predicts that he will prove that all women are unfaithful: Oh, poverini, per femmina giocar cento zecchini? (Poor ones, (how stupid can you be) to wager 100 sequins on a woman?)

The arrangement is that the two men will return disguised as mustochioed Albanians and will attempt to seduce the women, swaping one for another. Ferrando will (attempt to) seduce Fiordiligi and Guglielmo will seduce Dorabella.

Cosi fan tutte, Act 1, Scene 2: In the sisters' home. Source: Royal Opera House, London

In the sisters’ home, Don Alfonso meets alone with Despina, the maid of the sisters, and bribes her to cooperate, as he is afraid that she will recognize the two men in spite of their disguise. Despina is fully part of the plot as the two “Albanians” enter the scene and offer to the two sisters their unlimited and irresistible charm.

Cosi fan tutte: Act 1, Scene 2: In the sisters' house. Source: Royal Opera House, London

The charm of the “Albanians” is not working and Despina asks Alfonso to take over. Extreme actions have to be taken. The two “Albanians” fake severe illness and Despina arrives disguised as a doctor to treat them. Eventually the two sisters succumb to the charm of the “Albanians” and the swap is done.

Cosi fan tutte: Act 2. Source: Royal Opera House, London

The four are now ready to be wedded, but in the “swap” mode. Despina now disguised as a notary presides over the event. Don Alfonso has won the bet! Women are fickle!

In a sudden change of the scene, the “Albanians” disappear, and the two soldiers return to find their beloved ones and confront them with the “contract” of their marriage to the “Albanians”.

Cosi fan tutte: Act 2. Source: Royal Opera House, London

In the finale, the men receal their “mixed” identities, and they all accept that life must be accepted with the good and the unavoidable bad times.

But of course it is not “life” we are talking about, the story is about people, and trust, and betrayal. And the moral of the story is that you cannot trust anyone! Unfortunately it is not only women who are fickle, everyone is fickle!

A Philosopher

What is a philosopher? What is philosophy? Definitions vary. I will quote some passages from Bruce Alan Brown’s article  (included in ROH’s program of the 1995 performance).

Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso in MET's production of Cosi fan Tutte (2005)

…..Pierre Richelet’s dictionary of the French Lnaguage (1775) gives as its primary definition of philosophy “love of wisdom” or “clear and distinct knowledge of things natural and divine”; but other senses of the word are given as well, including “firmness and loftiness of mind by which one puts oneself above the accidents of life and the false opinions of the world”.

It is precisely this trait which so distinguishes Alfonso from his young friends and which moves him to explain to them that “[….] in ogni cosa /Ci vuol filosofia” (philosophy is necessary in all things) after both sisters have been proved to be unfaithful. A “philosophical” attitude implied a forgiving nature, as one sees at the end of COSI.

….. The entire opera is premised on Rousseau’s notion that experience precedes understanding. Alfonso cannot simply tell the soldiers that women are inconstant, or the sisters know precious little about love. If they are truly to learn his lessons, they must experience the pain that comes from being deceived of their initial notions. The cruelty for which Don Alfonso has so often been criticized is the same as that of the tutor in Rousseau’s Emile, ou De l’Education, whose pedagogy amounts to “a minutely organized and vigilantly executed conspiracy”.

Allen as Don Alfonso with Cecilia Bartoli’s Despina at the production premiere of the Met's Così Fan Tutte in 1996

….It is Despina, not Alfonso, who presents the most complete “philosophy” of love in Cosi fan tutte. The creed she recites just before the first finale is a mixture of proverbial folk wisdom and current “naturalist” philosophy, probably learnt second-hand. The taking of a second lover, she declares, is not merely prudence byt a “law of nature”.

Jonathan Miller

I was lucky to have seen Jonathan Miller’s 1995 production of Cosi fan tutte in the Royal Opera House, London. This was his debut in Covent Garden, and what a debut it was! It is a production that has already been staged seven times since. From the archives of the Royal Opera House I can see that the production has been now modified to adopt a modern set and costumes and devices: the singers are using iPhones!

On Wine and Love – Περι Οινου και Ερωτος

Εισαγωγη

Οινος και Ερως, διδυμο ανικητο.

Δυσκολη η ζωη.

Πιο δυσκολη αν σου λειπει το ενα απο τα δυο.

Ασηκωτη αν σου λειπουν και τα δυο.

Διαβαινω και περισυλλεγω, και ευχομαι Εορτας με Οινο και Ερωτα εις απασες και απαντες.

Ξεκινω με Ευριπιδη, απο την τραγωδια του “Ιφιγενεια εν Αυλιδι”. Συνεχιζω με τον Αθηναίο Αντιφάνη απο τον Δειπνοσοφιστη Β του Αθήναιου,  τον Παλλαδά της Αλεξάνδρειας, και κλεινω με τον Ανδρεα Εμπειρικο.

Ι. Ευριπιδη, Ιφιγενεια εν Αυλιδι (480-406 π.Χ.)

Χορος

Καλοτυχοι που χαιρονται τον ερωτα

με μετρο

και συνεση κρατουν

και τη γαληνια τους καρδια

δεν την χτυπουν παραφορες

οταν διπλες τις σαϊτιες ο χρυσομαλλης Ερωτας

επανω τους καρφωνει –

τη μια χαρα τετρακλωνη

την αλλη συμφορα!

Μη μου τη ριχνεις της συμφορας τη σαϊτια

γλυκια μου Αφροδιτη.

Ας μην ειναι πανεμορφο της κλινης μου το ταιρι

ας ειναι ο ποθος μου γλυκος,

μεραδι ας εχω στις χαρες

κι ας λειπει το περισσιο.

(Μεταφραση Κωστα Τοπουζη, Εκδοσεις Επικαιροτητα)

ΙΙ. Το Αφανερωτο Φανερο (Αντιφανης, Αθηναιος κωμωδιογραφος, 408-334 π.Χ.)

Ο Αντιφανης στον Β Δειπνοσοφιστη του Αθήναιου ακουγεται να λεει:

“Να κρυψει, Φειδια,

ολα τ’αλλα καποιος θα μπορουσε εκτος απο δυο,

το οτι πινει κρασι και τ’οτι μπλεχτηκε σε ερωτα.

Διοτι αυτα τα δυο τα φανερωνουν τα ματια

και τα λογια τους – ετσι οσους τ’αρνουνται

αυτους κυριως… τους κανουν φανερους”

(Μεταφραση Θεοδωρος Γ. Μαυροπουλος, Εκδοσεις Κακτος)


ΙΙΙ. Παλλαδάς (Αλεξανδρεια, 4ος αιωνας μ.Χ.)

Το θανατο χρωστουν ολοι οι θνητοι, και κανεις τους

αν αυριο θα ζει δεν το γνωριζει.

Καλα στο νου σου να το βαλεις, ανθρωπε μου,

και να ευφραινεσαι – δωρο του Διονυσου η ληθη του θανατου.

Τερπου, στο βιο τον εφημερο η Αφροδιτη ας σ’οδηγησει.

Και τ’άλλα όλα, ασε να τα ρυθμισει η Τυχη.

(Συμποτικα Επιγραμματα, Μεταφραση Παντελη Μπουκαλα, Εκδοσεις Αγρα)

ΙV. Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος, Η Μανταλενα (Αθηνα, 1970)

Εγω φιλουσα σαν τρελος την Μανταλενα. Την φιλουσα παντου, στα στηθη, στα μαλλια, στα ματια, που ησαν ολα νοτισμενα απο γλυκιαν αρμυρα, αλλα τη στιγμη που την φιλησα εν τελει, στο στομα, η ηδυτης του φιλιου ητανε τοση, που τα χερια μου γλυστρησαν απο το κορμι της, και επεσα με παφλασμο μεσα στο νερο.

(Γραπτα ή Προσωπικη Μυθολογια, Εκδοσεις Αγρα)

Υ.Γ.1 Η εικαστικη διασταση της σημερινης “Ελληνικης” αναρτησης προερχεται απο τους: Bronzino, Caravaggio, Velazquez, Cabanel, Cezanne.

Υ.Γ.2 Ισως σας ενδιαφερει και η “Συρραφη περι Διονυσου“, μια παλαιοτερα αναρτηση μου.

Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan: Heart's Time wrapped in Darkness

Paul Celan was born in 1920 in Bucovina, Romania. He became one of the most prominent 20th century poets. Celan committed suicide in Paris, in 1970, before turning 50.

Ingeborg Bachmann, was born in 1926 in Klagenfurt, Austria. She wrote poems, libretti, novels and is considered one of the most talented German – Austrian writers of the 20th century. Bachmann died in rather strange circumstances in a fire in Rome, in 1973.  She was 47 years old.

Heart’s Time (Herzzeit) is the title of a book published in Germany in 2008 (the English translation has been published in 2010) containing more than 200 items of correspondence between the two lovers, friends.

Dr. Klaus Hübner observes in his review of the book’s publication:

“Love is always a very private matter, and it is only by means of the extent to which the lovers are known that an element of public awareness and interest is added to it. This is surely true in the case of the relationship between Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973) and Paul Celan (1920–1970). The works of these two writers belong to the essential core of German-language literature after the end of the Second World War, and they also belong to it because, in their different ways, they are marked by the collapse of German civilisation during the Nazi era, above all by the industrialised murder of many millions of Jews and its unspeakable and unending consequences. What would German lyric poetry be without Bachmann’s Die gestundete Zeit from 1953 (title poem of this collection variously translated as Mortgaged Time, The Respite, and Time Borrowed) or Anrufung des Großen Bären from 1956 (i.e. invocation of the Great Bear)? Without Celan’s Mohn und Gedächtnisfrom 1952 (i.e. poppies and memory) or Sprachgitter from 1959 (i.e. language-grille)? What would the memory of the ‚Fifties and ‚Sixties be without the celebrated Gruppe 47? Our view of the post-war period would be incomplete without Bachmann’s and Celan’s verses, voices and photos.”

“Glorious news” the 21-year old Ingeborg Bachmann writes in a letter to her parents, the “surrealist poet” Paul Celan has fallen in love with her. It is May 1948, Vienna. Celan sends Bachmann his poem In Ägypten (in Egypt) with the dedication: “For Ingeborg. To one who is painfully precise (peinlich genau), 22 years after her birth, from one who is painfully imprecise.

Celan visits Bachmann in Vienna and stays there for a month or so. He then goes to Paris where he is going to stay until his death in 1970.

Visit “Once upon an Autumn” to read “Corona”,  the last poem that Celan wrote before leaving Vienna in 1948.

In 1950, Bachmann received her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna with her dissertation titled “The Critical Reception of the Existential Philosophy of Martin Heidegger,”

Bachmann writes to Celan in 1949:

“Sometimes I’d like nothing better than to get away and come to Paris, to feel you touch my hand, how you touch me completely with flowers and then not to know yet again where you come from and where you are going.  To me you come from India or from a more distant dark, brown land, to me you are the desert and the sea and everything secretive. I know nothing about about and that is why I am often so afraid for you, I cannot imagine that you are doing the same things the rest of us are doing here, I should have a castle for us and bring you to me, so that you can be my enchanted lord, we will have many tapestries in it and music and invent love. I have often thought that “Corona” is your most beautiful poem, it is the most perfect anticipation of a moment where everything becomes marble and exists forever. But here it is not my “time”.  I hunger for something that I will not get, everything is flat and vapid. tired and used-up even before it is used.   in mid-August I will be in Paris just for a few days. Don’t ask me why, but be there for me, for one evening, or two or three. Take me to the Seine, we want to look down into it for a long time until we’ve become small fish and recognize each other again. ”

Although they are no longer “lovers” in the exact sense of the word, the correspondence continues stronger than ever. Ina Hartwig in her Frankfurter Rundschau review (published in 2008) relates.

“In September 1950 she will mention her first “nervous breakdown” and tell Celan that she is “lost, desperate and embittered”. She writes: “I have such desire for a little comfort” and she entreats him: “Please try to be good to me and hold me tight!” He obviously senses a good portion of stylisation here, in any case he soon cautions his now most sought-after companion to be “a little more sparing with your demands”. Because, he continues, she has “had more from life” than most of her contemporaries. Jealousy? This is the astoundingly sober reply to a letter from June 1951, in which she admits: “I love you and I don’t want to love you, it is too much and too difficult…””

Bachmann and Celan

In his article “Expressing the Dark“, Hans-Gunnar Peterson observes:

“What impelled her was a wish to work with death as a motif and with reflections on the hidden forces of violence and oppression in society. She was appalled and yet fascinated by the fact that crimes against humans are being committed on such a large scale also outside of the boundaries of war. “Since long have I pondered the question of where fascism has its origin. It is not born with the first bombs, neither through the terror one can describe in every newspaper … its origin lies in the relations between a man and a woman, and I have tried to say … in this society there is permanently.””

Bachmann with Henze

In 1953 Bachmann goes to Rome, where she works with Hans Werner Henze, the German composer, and writes two libretti for his operas: the Prince of Homburg, and The Young Lord.

In 1957 the two “lovers” meet again and their relationship is revitalized. But it is only an interlude. They go back to their own separate lifes until 1961, when Ingeborg experiences a writer’s block wen it comes to her correspondence with Celan.

Psalm
Paul Celan
No one moulds us again out of earth and clay,
no one conjures our dust.
No one.
Praised be your name, no one.
For your sake
we shall flower
Towards
you.
A nothing
we were, are, shall
remain, flowering;
the nothing-, the
no one’s rose.
With our pistil soul-bright
with our stamen heaven-ravaged
our corolla red
with the crimson word which we sang
over, 0 over
the thorn.

Bachmann writes to Celan shortly before the “blockage” in her writing in 1961: “I really think that the greatest disaster is inside you. The wretched stuff that comes from outside – and you don’t need assure me of the truth of this, because I am well aware of much of it – is certainly poisonous, but it can be overcome, it must be possible to overcome. It is up to you now to confront it properly, after all you see that every explanation, every event, however right it might have been, has not diminished the unhappiness inside you, when I hear you speaking, it seems to me as if … it meant nothing to you that many people have made an effort, as if the only things that counted for you were dirt, maliciousness, folly. … You want to be the victim, but it is up to you to change this…” (Ina Hartwig ).

Bachmann with Henze in Rome

“Enigma” 1967

Ingeborg Bachmann

Nothing more will come.

Spring will no longer flourish.

Millennial calendars forecast it already.

And also summer and more, sweet words

such as “summer-like”–

nothing more will come.

You mustn’t cry,

says the music.

Otherwise

no one

says

anything.

After 1967 Bachmann almost sopped writting poetry and turned to prose. Marjorie Perloff explains:

“Why did Bachmann stop writing lyric poems?  In an interview, she remarked: “I have nothing against poems, but you must try to understand that there are moments when suddenly, one has everything against them, against every metaphor, every sound, every rule for putting words together, against the absolutely inspired arrival of words and images.”  What she means here, I think, is that, in the writing of lyric, she couldn’t seem to get around the male and patriarchal voice so powerful in German poetry.  “I had only known,” Bachmann admitted in 1971, “how to tell a story from a masculine position.  But I have often asked myself: why, really?  I have not understood it, not even in the case of the short stories.”  Then, too, Bachmann feared, as did her contemporary Paul Celan, that German lyric too easily falls into the trap of “harmony,” the harmony which, as Celan puts it, “no longer has anything in common with that ‘harmony’ which sounded more or less unchallenged, side by side with the most dreadful.”  The reference here is of course to the Holocaust: Bachmann was well aware of the difficulty Celan speaks of.”

‘For me it is not a question of a woman’s role, but the phenomenon of love – how you love. […] Love is a work of art, and I don’t believe many have the capacity for it.’ Ingeborg Bachmann said this in an interview in 1971. By then, her correspondence with Paul Celan was long over. In the early 1960s, Celan had been in the midst of an existential crisis that clouded his relationship with her. (Angelika Reitzer)

In late spring 1970, Gisèle Celan-Lestrange, estranged wife of the poet Paul Celan, wrote to the Austrian poet Ingeborg Bachmann, an early love and life-long friend of the poet’s: “In the night from Monday to Tuesday, 19 to 20 April, he left his apartment, never to return… ” (Bachmann-Celan Correspondence, p. 197). (Ina Hartwig).

“My life is over, for during the transport he has drowned in the river’, says the dream ‘self’ in Bachmann’s novel Malina; and ‘he was my life. I loved him more than my life.’ (Malina: A Novel. Translated by Philip Boehm. Holmes & Meier, 1990.)” (Angelika Reitzer)

The Monk of Cappadoccia – Part II

This is the second part of the story of Kostas T, a Monk in Cappadoccia.

Part I ended when Elektra, the Alsatian French psychoanalyst had just arrived in Cappadoccia for a week’s visit, to recharge her batteries and, maybe rethink her life.

After laying his eyes on Elektra, Kostas felt for the first time since Iphigenie left him the desire for a woman to reemerge from the depths of his wounded manhood. The cell where he spent most of his time all of a sudden became his prison.

He felt strong carnal desire for Elektra. He had to have her at any cost.

Kostas left the monastery climbing the steep rocks in order to meet his lover.

It was a hot embrace from the very beginning.

The week of Elektra’s holidays was almost over.

Day after day the two lovers would meet and enjoy endless love making.

But she was now due to return to her home and regular life.

Kostas could not believe that he would lose her.

Endless discussions were fruitless.

At the end, Elektra decided to return to her home, and come to Cappadoccia  again after three months, hoping she would convince Kostas to abandon the monastic life and go to Alsace with her.  She told this to Kostas openly and promised to write to him every day.

Kostas became restless after Elektra went back to Alsace.

He would read her letters and write back to her the same day he read them.

In his mind he was ready to return to the ordinary life of people, and he started feeling guilty for not taking this decision earlier, when Elektra was still in Cappadoccia.

He spent endless sleepless nights, dreaming with his eyes open, that he was in Colmar, with Elektra, and the Monastery in Cappadoccia was just a dream.

To his surprise, one day he received a photo showing Elektra in New York.

She had attached a note saying that everything was wonderful, she went to New York for a three day conference,  and that next day she would visit an old friend of hers in Long Island.

On the next day, Elektra joined the legions of Angels, when she was shot when exiting her friends car in the parking lot of a Long Island Restaurant.

The local newspaper reported on the murder:

“Elektra Meyer, 30, of Colmar, France, died shortly after being rushed to a hospital after she was shot in the parking lot at the back of the La Cantina restaurant on Main Street.

Investigators believe Meyer had just gotten out of the silver Mercedes of Joe Bray, who was driving, when at least one gunman ambushed her as she arrived with Joe Bray at the restaurant for the day.

According to the Long Island business registry, Bray was a shareholder in the eatery through a numbered company.

The restaurant has for years been a popular destination for diners looking for a traditional Italian meal in Long Island.

But La Cantina was described, during the 2002 trial of a Manhattan lawyer charged with drug smuggling for the Rizzi clan, as a known hangout for drug traffickers. The lawyer, who was eventually acquitted, was barred from going to the restaurant when he was released on bail.”

Long Island Police collecting evidence in the parking lot

The police found Kostas’ photo and address in Elektra’s purse and notified him immediately.

Kostas could not come to terms with Elektra’s death.

Who was her friend?

Why did the criminals shoot Elektra and not Bray?

He swore to take revenge, no matter what it took for him to do that, and left the monastery for good.

His life was never going to be the same.

Kostas found refuge in a nearby town., where he became known as “the Monk”.

In order to make a living he started working as a barman in a bar.

One night he met Frank R.

Frank was an American, a marine veteran of the Afghan war.

He was tough and reserved, but gradually developed a liking for Kostas.

The two men would often chat and arrived at the point where they considered themselves to be friends.

However, things were not what they appeared to be.

Frank presented himself as a businessman, working on behalf of an American Corporation trading goods between Asia and the US.

In reality, Frank was the person responsible for the movement of opiates from Afghanistan through Turkey to Europe.

Frank preparing for work

He belonged to a criminal organization that controlled more than half of the traffic.

For the reader who founds herself in totally unknown territory, I offer the following as supporting information.

“The general route for smuggling Afghan-produced opiates from Pakistan goes overland from Pakistan’s Balochistan province across the border into Iran, then passes through the northwestern region, which is inhabited by Kurds, and finally into laboratories in Turkey, where the opium is processed.

The shipments from Pakistan may be broken down into smaller shipments once in Iran. Iran is both a transit country and a destination for opium products. Iranian domestic production is believed to be quite low and unable to supply domestic demand. Opiates not intended for the Iranian market transit Iran to Turkey, where the morphine base is processed into heroin. Heroin and hashish are delivered to buyers located in Turkey, who then ship the drugs to the international market, primarily Europe.”

Frank one day was visited by his wife, Ulrike, who was a diplomat with the German Embassy in Ankara.

Frank and Ulrike were a harmonious couple.

They shared most of things in life, among them a double life.

Ulrike was in reality working for the Turkish Military Intelligence Agency, using her diplomatic job as a cover.

Ulrike and two of her toys

Frank had already spoken to Ulrike about his new friend, Kostas, and his tormented life.

Ulrike felt sorry for Kostas and in order to brighten his day, she invited her friend Evita to join her in her trip to Cappadoccia.

Evita was the daughter of the Argentinian Ambassador in Turkey and was spending a few months with her widowed father before going back to Buenos Aires in order to take over the family business.

Frank and Ulrike were wondering how Kostas would respond to the presence of the attractive Latin American.

Would she be able to help him get out of the deep depression and become alive again?

to be continued….

Primavera – Ανοιξη

This is a post for Spring, for flowers, for love, for life.

Αυτη η αναρτηση ειναι για την Ανοιξη,τα λουλουδια, τον ερωτα, την ζωη.

Ξεκιναμε απο την Ιταλια, με την υπεροχη ζωγραφια του Sandro Boticelli, και την μουσικη του Antonio Vivaldi, το Allegro απο την Ανοιξη στις Τεσσερις Εποχες. Διευθυνει ο Herbert von Karajan την Ορχηστρα Berlin Philharmoniker, και βιολι παιζει η Anne Sophie Mutter.

Πηγαινουμε στη Γερμανια για τα τραγουδια της Ανοιξης και αρχιζουμε με το υπεροχο τραγουδι της Ανοιξης του Franz Schubert, σε ποιηση Ernst Schulze, με τον Sviatoslav Richter στο πιανο και ερμηνευτη τον Dietrich Fischer Dieskau.

Quietly I sit on the hill’s slope.
The sky is so clear;
a breeze plays in the green valley.
Where I was at Spring’s first sunbeam
once – alas, I was so happy!

When I was walking at her side,
So intimate and so close,
and deep in the dark rocky spring
was the beautiful sky, blue and bright;
and I saw her in the sky.

Σειρα εχει ο αλλος μεγας συνθετης της Γερμανικης Παραδοσης, ο Richard Strauss, που συνεθεσε το τραγουδι της ανοιξης, το πρωτο αναμεσα στα τεσσερα τελευταια τραγουδια, σε ποιηση Hermann Hesse. Σημειωνω οτι ο συνθετης δεν εζησε για να ακουσει την πρωτη εκτελεση των τραγουδιων αυτων. Ερμηνευει η μεγαλη  σοπρανο Lucia Popp, ενω την ορχηστρα διευθυνει ο Sir Georg Solti .

In shadowy crypts
I dreamt long
of your trees and blue skies,
of your fragrance and birdsong.

Now you appear
in all your finery,
shining brilliantly
like a miracle before me.

You recognize me,
you entice me tenderly.
All my limbs tremble at
your blessed presence!

Ωρα για επιστροφη στην Ελλαδα. Ο Μανος Χατζηδακις μας χαρισε τοσα και τοσα αριστουργηματα, ενα απο αυτα ειναι “Οι Πασχαλιες μεσα απο τη Νεκρη Γη”, που την ακουμε ευθυς αμεσως.

Συνεχιζω με το υπεροχο τραγουδι του Τακη Μωρακη σε στιχους Κωστα Κοφινιωτη “Ηρθες σαν την Ανοιξη” ερμηνευμενο απο την μεγαλη Στελλα Γκρεκα.

Ηρθες σαν την Ανοιξη

και μου φερες αυτο που λαχταρουσα

ρόδα και γαρύφαλλα
του έρωτα που χρόνια λαχταρούσα

Ήρθες αγαπούλα μου
και ήσουνα εκείνο που ποθούσα
τ’ όνειρο που ζήταγα να βρώ τόσο καιρό

Κοντά σου η ζωή ομορφαίνει
και σβύνει κάθε πίκρα παλιά

Και για να μην ξεχνιομαστε καθε νομισμα εχει δυο οψεις.  Μας το θυμιζει η Ελενη Βιταλη, με το σχετικα αγνωστο ασμα του Σπυρου Σαμοιλη σε στιχους Μενελαου Λουντεμη “Οι κερασιες θα ανθισουνε”. Μια υπεροχη ζεμπεκια, που την πρωτοτραγουδισε η Ισιδωρα Σιδερη.

Οι κερασιες θ’ ανθισουνε και φετος στην αυλη

και θα γεμισουνε με ανθη το παρτερι

σκληρη που ειναι η ανοιξη σαν εισαι διχως ταιρι

σκληρη που ειναι η ζωη

Άνοιξε το παράθυρο στην πρωινή γιορτή,
για νάμπουν οι μοσκοβολιές από το περβόλι.
Αχ, κάθε του τριαντάφυλλο και μια πληγή από βόλι,
και μια πληγή από βόλι είναι για σε, ποιητή!

Αλλαζουμε πορεια και απο τη μελαγχολια του μεγαλου Ποιητη περναμε στην ανεμελη θεωρηση της ζωης της Συννεφουλας, που εχει τρελανει κοσμο.

Κι ερχεται ο Απριλης αχ καρδουλα μου

να κι ο Μαης, ο Μαης Συννεφουλα μου!

Διχως τραγουδι δακρυ και φιλι

δεν ειναι Ανοιξη φετος αυτη!

Ομως δεν ειναι ολες οι κοπελιες σαν τη Συννεφουλα, η Λενιω ας πουμε φαινεται να δινει χαρα και καθολου στενοχωρια στο νεο που την ποθει. Ισως να οφειλεται στο οτι ολη η κατασταση ειναι ενα μυστικο.

Απριλη μου ξανθε

και Μαη μυρωδατε

καρδια μου πως

καρδια μου πως αντεχεις

μεσα στην τοση αγαπη

και τις τοσες ομορφιες

Ο Κωστας Γιαννιδης δεν κραταει τιποτε μυστικο. Ζητα ανοιχτα και καθαρα “Λιγα Λουλουδια αν θελεις στειλε μου”.

Κι ας ελπισουμε οτι τα λουλουδια θα μεινουν φρεσκα για λιγες μερες και δεν θα καθομαστε να λεμε “Μαραμενα τα Γιουλια κι οι Βιολες” σε μουσικη Αττικ με τη φωνη της Κακιας Μενδρη.

Αλλαζουμε χωρα παλι, και παμε στη Γαλλια, μεσω Γερμανιας, οπου οι Rammstein τραγουδουν Fruhling in Paris,  και ευλαβικα αποτιουν τιμη στην ανεπαναληπτη Edith Piaf. Το ρεφραιν τα λεει ολα.

Oh non, rien de rien
Oh non, je ne regrette rien

The lips often redeem(ing) and tender
And they touch for ages/eternally
If I leave her mouth
Then I begin to shiver