Watched Aki Kaurismäki's 'I Hired a Contract Killer' last night. Wonderful as all his films are. I love how he makes London look like one big desolate factory/demolition site (or maybe it looked like that in 1990...?)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN80...
As black as a Malevich square, natürlich.
Nice cover! Who is the artist?
Maybe this will help me get over the disappointment of never seeing her version of Dead Ringers...
A beautiful translation by @ottiliemulzet.bsky.social I am forever in your debt for making this accessible to me...
This is something I have thought about, the sense of enchantment that can come from the minute detail of the world; it somehow undercuts the unsophisticated empiricism that seems to dominate the world today. Even here there is something infinite, something abyssal, perhaps even something divine.
not just a monumental, expansive infinite perceived by this gaze, as, for example, in the case of the already mentioned Torre de las Infantas, but also, there are its completely tiny elements, a miniature infinity as well’
‘every single square millimeter is ornamented, it fixes our gaze in the face of the infinite; our gaze is not used to this coercion into the infinite, not used to looking into this infinity; and it is not just that this gaze looks into the infinite but it looks into two infinities simultaneously:
There is a section in the chapter on the Alhambra – ‘89 Distant Mandate’ – about the duality of infinity that really captured me:
It has prompted me to listen to the Mattäus Passion, find photos from a visit to The Alhambra 18 years ago, read about the Ise Shrine, and to spend money I don’t really have on an 19th-century icon. But the vital thing here is the sense of attention that comes with creation, that deepens the moment
I enjoyed this immensely. It has been on my shelf for a long time (years?) and is unexpectedly wonderful. I thought it would be different from his other work, but didn’t realise it was such a meditation on a diverse range of art and artists, and on the intangible sense of the nebulous within them.
The speed reminded me that it is not actually that far from Berlin to the south of Sweden... I was even looking at the night train timetable the other day, tempted by the upcoming Brancusi at the Neue Nationalgalerie...
Of course. Thank you for sharing the work. And it goes without saying that people should also buy the book.
And that is actually a perfect description of the feeling in Glantz, that a crime is about to be committed, or perhaps already has, or is somehow both at the same time...
I'm choosing the word 'inchoate' I double checked the dictionary and found this secondary definition: '2. Law : of or relating to a crime (as conspiracy) which consists of acts that are preliminary to another crime and that are in themselves criminal.'
People should take advantage of this generous offer from Toby. Glantz is a disconcerting book, right down to the level of sentence structure, that thrusts you right into the contingency of the world, where the only certainty feels like a monolithic yet somehow inchoate sense of oppression.
The more non-fiction end of Iain Sinclair's ouvre would fit... London Orbital, the Hackney book, etc. although even the literature end had its share of history.
A beautiful publication, gratefully received in the mail today. Many thanks Alexander @wordkunst.bsky.social
I will return with more thoughts once I have made the time to read with the consideration it requires.
There is a Marina Abramović exhibition opening at Cisternerne on the 14th of March. Just the venue alone is worth seeing, regardless of what you think of Abramović...
frederiksbergmuseerne.dk/en/udstillin...
I will look it up, thanks! (But my book budget has taken a hit due to the unexpected rise in my icon budget...)
I confess that I did not finish Baron Wenckheim either, despite loving everything else of his I've read... This one is short stories – or vignettes I guess, not really narratives – so you could easily dip in and out. And yes, a perfect balm for the current times, a much-needed glimpse of infinity
It is not without an acknowledgement of the Schmerz, but it is good to be reminded of the beauty that is also there in the world... or that even somehow leads us beyond it...
It had prompted me to List to Bach’s Mattäus Passion, dig up my photos from a visit to The Alhambra 18 years ago, and to spend money I probably don’t really have to spare on an 19th-century icon. But I also was touched by the stories of the Noh actor and the restoration of the buddha statue.
A paperback copy of László Kransznahorkai's Seiobo There Below sits on white-painted floorboards.
Hoping to finish this today. It’s been on my shelf for a long time (years?) and is unexpectedly wonderful. I thought it would be different from his other work, but didn’t realise it was such a meditation on a diverse range of art and artists, and on the intangible sense of the nebulous within them.
The sun is definitely getting higher in the sky...
The snow is on its way out now, but I'm still lost in its textures...
In Danish (trans. Sara Koch) the Swedish and the English are left in the original. But looking at this I noticed that while both the Swedish and the Danish have the girl first reply 'Vad säger du?' (what did you say?), the English has her reply 'Ursäkta?' (excuse me?). What does the Norwegian say?
I should add: English translation by Don Bartlett. Swedish Translation by Rebecca Alsberg.
I got curious and looked in the German translation as well, there the Swedish is translated but not the English, and the clarification of the confusion (skjerfene/halsduk) is left out.
The is a section in Knausgård's My Struggle book two where there is a misunderstanding between Norwegian and Swedish. In English it is only the Swedish that is left in Swedish (and labelled) while in Swedish both Norwegian and English are left in the original. I don't have the original Norwegian...
