11/01/2010
10/31/2010
harry mulisch
harry mulisch died last night.
it seems to be the year of the passing of some of my personal heroes.
it started with j.d. salinger whom i obsessively - i know, it's so cliché - read in my youth. some months later theatre director and social critic christoph schlingensief died way to young. last night it was mulisch's term. he was not too young, he was 83. but like schlingensief he died of cancer.
harry mulisch's novel de ontdekking van de hemel / the discovery of heaven was the first book i read in dutch. a few times i doubted if i would have the strength to finish it. but i did and i actually enjoyed the struggle. harry mulisch was an elitist. he expected his readers to be able to read latin, french, english, german and obviously dutch. but his use of the dutch language made it totally worth to overlook this - in my opinion - character flaw. i don't think i would have been able to learn to appreciate and love the dutch language had it not been for him.
it seems to be the year of the passing of some of my personal heroes.
it started with j.d. salinger whom i obsessively - i know, it's so cliché - read in my youth. some months later theatre director and social critic christoph schlingensief died way to young. last night it was mulisch's term. he was not too young, he was 83. but like schlingensief he died of cancer.
harry mulisch's novel de ontdekking van de hemel / the discovery of heaven was the first book i read in dutch. a few times i doubted if i would have the strength to finish it. but i did and i actually enjoyed the struggle. harry mulisch was an elitist. he expected his readers to be able to read latin, french, english, german and obviously dutch. but his use of the dutch language made it totally worth to overlook this - in my opinion - character flaw. i don't think i would have been able to learn to appreciate and love the dutch language had it not been for him.
confession
i sometimes detest modern art. maybe i just don't get it, but some of it is just pretentious crap.
today i went to künstlerhaus bethanien. after watching a video called 'komm stirb mit mir' by via lewandowsky i most certainly had the urge to buy a gun and shoot myself.
a little girl sings 'komm stirb mit mir' ('come die with me') for about eternity...at least it felt like it went on forever. it also seems kind of sick to me to have a small child sing these lyrics. but who am i to judge, right? the video itself did not really impress me. it was kind of strange i guess. lewandowsky used lots of filters to intensify the colours and there was also a lot of movement in the video. somehow it made me feel a little sea sick. i couldn't convince myself to watch the whole thing, but sitting in the gallery, i was still able hear the girl's voice and it was quite nerve wrecking. maybe a little creepy even. it made me think of all those horror movies i have never watched.
so the question that keeps popping up is...why? what is your point, via? do you want to disturb us, shock us? there isn't that much that can shock this society these days. we've been polluted by shocking images since we were born! so please, please, please help me understand!
luckily i also had the chance to watch a video i actually did enjoy! daniel beerstecher's work "50°60'59,50"N / 8°40'35,30"O" can be found here.
today i went to künstlerhaus bethanien. after watching a video called 'komm stirb mit mir' by via lewandowsky i most certainly had the urge to buy a gun and shoot myself.
a little girl sings 'komm stirb mit mir' ('come die with me') for about eternity...at least it felt like it went on forever. it also seems kind of sick to me to have a small child sing these lyrics. but who am i to judge, right? the video itself did not really impress me. it was kind of strange i guess. lewandowsky used lots of filters to intensify the colours and there was also a lot of movement in the video. somehow it made me feel a little sea sick. i couldn't convince myself to watch the whole thing, but sitting in the gallery, i was still able hear the girl's voice and it was quite nerve wrecking. maybe a little creepy even. it made me think of all those horror movies i have never watched.
so the question that keeps popping up is...why? what is your point, via? do you want to disturb us, shock us? there isn't that much that can shock this society these days. we've been polluted by shocking images since we were born! so please, please, please help me understand!
luckily i also had the chance to watch a video i actually did enjoy! daniel beerstecher's work "50°60'59,50"N / 8°40'35,30"O" can be found here.
10/29/2010
my friend
just recently i read a blog entry by one of my dearest friends. my friend was wondering about the purpose of her existence. she took some test she found online. but, of course she didn't really get an answer to her question.
but what is the purpose of life? is it changing the world? i guess not. besides it's super naive. is it influencing the people you love or the people who are around you? i guess that's much more it. it made me really sad to read my friend's words, cause she is one of the most knowledgeable people i have ever met and she has opened my eyes on so many occasions. she is so very gifted when it comes to explaining the world, it is very unpretentious and that is what i like. people who are smart and don't feel like they constantly have to brag about it are just the best.
but this friend is way more than being intelligent. she's an excellent and caring person and has the most amazing hair ;)
in yiddish you would call her a mensch.
i guess at some point or another we will all ask ourselves what the purpose of our existence is and we will probably be unsatisfied with the answers we might find. of course there are always these few exceptions. people who always seem to know what they want to do in life. god, i envy and hate them. they are not my friends.
but what is the purpose of life? is it changing the world? i guess not. besides it's super naive. is it influencing the people you love or the people who are around you? i guess that's much more it. it made me really sad to read my friend's words, cause she is one of the most knowledgeable people i have ever met and she has opened my eyes on so many occasions. she is so very gifted when it comes to explaining the world, it is very unpretentious and that is what i like. people who are smart and don't feel like they constantly have to brag about it are just the best.
but this friend is way more than being intelligent. she's an excellent and caring person and has the most amazing hair ;)
in yiddish you would call her a mensch.
i guess at some point or another we will all ask ourselves what the purpose of our existence is and we will probably be unsatisfied with the answers we might find. of course there are always these few exceptions. people who always seem to know what they want to do in life. god, i envy and hate them. they are not my friends.
10/28/2010
10/18/2010
10/17/2010
despair
"The word 'despair' is overused and banalized now, but it's a serious word, and I'm using it seriously. It's close to what people call dread or angst, but it's not these things, quite. It's more like wanting to die in order to escape the unbearable sadness of knowing I'm small and weak and selfish and going, without doubt, to die. It's wanting to jump overboard."
David Foster Wallace
10/14/2010
10/10/2010
10/09/2010
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