a lazy morning spent lounging in bed, reading short texts on artistic rivalries in renaissance venice and the mind boggling body counts of 20th century europe's dueling dictatorships. this last inspired me to crack open alan clark's narration of the greatest land war in history, barbarossa, the russian-german conflict 1941-45, and begin my long march across pages thick with political prophesying, military maneuvering, and human suffering. after the opening vollies and firsts offensives, i consolidated my position and, sliding a bookmark between the pages, hunkered down with powers of horror, julia kristeva's examination of the abject. while her essay is an almost impenetrable bog of psychoanalytic terminology, theoretical weavings and wry observation, my strenuous efforts at sifting through the muck are occasionally rewarded with precious nuggets:
"the writer is a phobic who succeeds in metaphorizing in order to keep from being frightened to death; instead he comes to life again in signs."and further on,
"voyeurism accompanies the writing of abjection. when the writing stops, voyeurism becomes a perversion"well we can only hope so, julia, we can only hope so...
a couple years back i read a book called THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER, a first-person account of fighting on the Russian Front. It was great, but then i found out that its authenticity is in question... so i may have squandered sincere emotions! (maybe i told you this already)
Barbarossa sounds good, but i haven't yet begun the memoirs of Heinz Guderian, which i purchased three years ago.
Posted by: Otto Maton | 12 July 2009 at 17:36