May 2012
1 post
Buying books in all kinds of second-hand or thrift stores brings not only a prickle of excitement connected with the possibility of coming across a rare title, first edition in hardback like new, or for the price of a mug of coffee from a popular chain, but also a deeper, subconscious expectation of a surprise of another kind. Every now and then it happens that in a newly purchased second-hand...
April 2012
1 post
Ophelia − the first (unsuccessful) attempt.
March 2012
1 post
Every angel is terrifying − the poet Rainer Maria Rilke used to declare, and this opinion was strongly supported by the fiction writer Ted Chiang who described the destructive power of the entities in a vivid, at times blunt, way in his novelette “Hell Is the Absence of God”.
Nevertheless, this female angel shot by an anonymous photographer turned out to be a harmless individual....
February 2012
3 posts
According to numerous theories it is primarily headgear that makes the man. In fact, this is quite right: perhaps you remember from your preschool years that it was enough to put on a miner’s hat or nurse’s cap and right away you were racing to grab a pickaxe and run to a coalface or reach for a sharp object, which for want of anything better could be taken for a syringe, and began to show an...
It has been known for a long time where babies come from, even though most of the time the truth about it remains hidden behind the facade of sophisticated physiological theories. Nevertheless, attentive reading of old papers and illustrated magazines provides conclusive evidence.
The countenaces of those leaving Eden are marked by discontent, and even anger. One can clearly see traces of recently experienced emotions, triggered by mutual resentment and accusation, a violent quarrel, still echoing in the midst of the paradisial luxuriance of trees, bushes, and grasses. Worse yet, the uncertain future looming ahead does not fill them with optimism; an awareness that the...
January 2012
6 posts
As a private person I have no particular obsessions, but as a writer I feel a strong urge to experience the situations I create more deeply. Hence my predilection to the deep diving equipment, seamen’s uniforms and hats; wearing them I’m able to enter the atmosphere of the described places, get deeper into the psyche of my characters. I have never sailed myself, but as a teenager I read...
An excessive fascination with poetry may lead to some imprudent attempts to empirically verify the truthfulness of information comprised in poems. Especially visionary works, those rich in sophisticated descriptions, stimulate imagination and generate tourism in the corners of the Earth where strangers with cameras haven’t been seen so far.
I met a traveller...
The translation of the text in the narrative box:
Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first...
The fatal effects of reading difficult novels, and the so-called difficult literature in general, have been known for long. Perhaps this implicit social knowledge of the perils that this kind of reading may bring along has been recently expressed in the increasing number of the EU citizens who, apparently concerned with their health, keep away from books and avoid reading. The fear of the tragic...
The fall of Icarus − an amateur reenactment of real events.
Of all that is written, I like only what a person hath written with his blood. Write with blood, and thou wilt find that blood is spirit.
NIETZSCHE Thus spake Zarathustra