Monday, May 21, 2012

A way of seeing, a stance, an aesthetic

I'm reading in Mark Doty's memoir Heaven's Coast, and he talks of the lasting influence on him of his close friend, the poet Lynda Hull, who died in a car accident at the age of 39.
"We shared a sensibility, so much so that I can't help but think of Lynda now as almost a way of seeing, a stance, an aesthetic. (Is that one thing the dead do for us, become a set of codes, an approach to describing the world?)"

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Die Männer waren vollauf damit beschäftigt

"Die Männer waren vollauf damit beschäftigt, Geld zu verdienen, den sozialen Aufsteig der Familie zu betreiben und gegebenenfalls für einen aus der Art geschlagenen Sohn oder Neffen zu sorgen, der sich irgendeiner künstlerischen oder sonstwie brotlosen Laufbahn verschrieben hatte." — Friedrich Torberg, in Die Tante Jolesch.

The men were very busy trying to make money, improve on the family's social standing, and, where appropriate, support those stricken sons or nephews who were dedicated to artistic or otherwise unprofitable careers.