February 2010
35 posts
January 2010
86 posts
The Poet and the Novelist To whom shall we compare the novelist? To the lyric poet. The content of lyric poetry, Hegel says, is the poet himself; he gives voice to his inner world so as to stir in his audience the feelings, the states of mind he experiences. And even if the poet treats “objective” themes, external to his own life, “the great lyric poet will very quickly move away from them and end up drawing the portrait of himself” (“stellt soh selbar dar”). Milan Kundera “The Curtain”
” Art isn’t there to be some great mirror registering all of historys ups and downs, variations, endless repititions. Art is not a village band marching dutifully along at historys heels. It is there to create it’s own history.” Milan Kundera “The Curtain”
“Einstein finishes a lecture at the university in Prague ( yes, he did teach there for a while) and is getting ready to leave the hall. “Herr professor sir, take your umbrella, it’s raining out!” Einstein gazes thoughtfully at his umbrella where it stands in a corner of the room, and answers the student: “You know, my good friend, I often forget my umbrella, so I have two of them. One is at the house, the other I keep at the university. Of course I could take it now since, as you say quite correctly, it is raining. But then I would end up with two umbrellas at the house and none here.” And with those words Einstein goes out into the rain.. Not only have I fallen in love with this city, but a Czech journalist nonetheless. Milan Kundera “The Curtain”
A part of this experience abroad in Prague has made me aware of my surroundings and conscious of others. I feel like i have been living blind to to the world around me; mutely unable to express the stirrings of my widely shifting emotions. A part of this blindness comes a sense of urgency as I’m sitting on this bus ride to aushwitz. I am nervous and perhaps a bit scared to see reality in it’s purest form.
“We are such stuff as dreams areade on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep..” Shakespeare’s “The tempest” Shakespeare and I both share the same fascination for the word “little.”
I just went to Jakubovic and Randy Breckekrs jazz concert at the Prague Castle. As we were sitting there waiting for them to come on I noticed a security guard sitting in front of me. Before I realized, the president of Prague, along with the ambassador, ambassador of Israel & Vietnamese, the prime minister and the mayor all sat down two rows in front of us. I got the pleasure of meeting the President afterwards and he told me that he loves my country. I don’t know how Hartwick maneuvered this one but I must admit this jazz was not like any sort of jazz I have ever heard before.
“To be alive is the biggest fear humans have. Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are. Just being yourself is the biggest fear of humans. We have learned to live our life trying to satisfy other people’s demands. We have learned to live by other people’s points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else” Miguel Ruiz, “Four agreements”
