tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post673948954569284808..comments2024-03-18T16:55:31.971+00:00Comments on This Space: "And no real fate" – reading in the intervalStephen Mitchelmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-14610625363794394782020-06-25T22:20:38.082+01:002020-06-25T22:20:38.082+01:00Thanks for the comment. I look forward to your nov...Thanks for the comment. I look forward to your novel – congratulations on that.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-7949695412792492242020-06-25T16:21:08.570+01:002020-06-25T16:21:08.570+01:00Great post, and fascinating comment on Rilke. Than...Great post, and fascinating comment on Rilke. Thanks.Notes from a Roomhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13358194675383284179noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-22198444689670150912020-06-24T23:32:58.546+01:002020-06-24T23:32:58.546+01:00That is extraordinary Scott – a blog's comment...That is extraordinary Scott – a blog's comment section has never felt so underdressed. I heard Marjorie Perloff say that non-native speakers of German can never truly *get* Rilke in the way natives do, and the translations do not convince me in the way, say, Hamburger's of Celan do (and Leishman's and Spender's translation, which I have here, includes question marks after Zuwenig and Zuviel). But you seem to be very close.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-54634285659721773712020-06-24T23:14:36.425+01:002020-06-24T23:14:36.425+01:00Thanks James. Polt has written two books on Heideg...Thanks James. Polt has written two books on Heidegger: I read the introduction. Actually, I didn't find any of the reading challenging, as I was reading what was essential to me (what the books helped me to recognise was essential to me). It's rare that this happens and makes one realise how much reading is wasted being dutiful.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-8788240741603560432020-06-24T18:51:53.155+01:002020-06-24T18:51:53.155+01:00the lockdown as nunc stans... love it.
a couple of...the lockdown as nunc stans... love it.<br />a couple of side notes: i follow sports and miss them while things are shut down. your thoughts here remind me that i've been reading even more than usual in the absence of games and am grateful for that. your mention of Stifter takes me to his massive novel Witiko that I'll mention in my book on the standing metaphor -- the most slow-moving novel ever written and written to evoke the slowness. the Rilkean nirgends ohne nicht, as you note, is a powerful thought, manifest at the exact center of the Duino Elegies. Here a couple of thoughts from an essay on the standing metaphor in Rilke: Near the center of the Fifth Elegy, the tenth stanza offers a most remarkable point of transition:<br />Und plötzlich in diesem mühsamen Nirgends, plötzlich <br />die unsägliche Stelle, wo sich das reine Zuwenig <br />unbegreiflich verwandelt-, umspringt<br />in jenes leere Zuviel.<br />Wo die vielstellige Rechnung<br /> zahlenlos aufgeht. (V: 81-86)<br /><br />This stanza describes the acrobats’ transition from a state of feeling and artistic imperfection to a state of perfect artistic ability that lacks feeling and has become mechanical. The Stelle (or standing place) between the two states serves as a locus of being, and the stanza has an interesting place in both a broad structure and a specific context.<br /><br />It is no accident that the still point of transition between “das reine Zuwenig” / the pure too little and “jenes leere Zuviel” / that empty too-much is “die unsägliche Stelle” / the unsayable figure or place, for related *sta- words act in precisely this transitional sense. The poet states that the Stelle is ineffable (“unsäglich”), and then does everything in his power to depict it, to create it, to say it. The word “Stelle” not only describes a place, but in describing, is that place. Being is achieved as the word is written. And once written, it must fade. For a moment however, a structural device intensifies the Stelle created in these six lines.<br /><br />423 lines precede the tenth stanza and 423 lines follow, leaving this six-line stanza which describes a moment and a place of sudden, unfathomable transformation as the exact center of the combined ten Elegies. The dash near the center of this central stanza is “die unsägliche Stelle,” the ineffable point of transition between “das reine Zuwenig” and “jenes leere Zuviel.” The dash is a balance point, and the tenth stanza is the point around which the other 846 lines balance.Scott Abbotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01782322856303315648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-57035362908047078642020-06-24T18:50:45.044+01:002020-06-24T18:50:45.044+01:00Your reading list sounds quite interesting and cha...Your reading list sounds quite interesting and challenging. I read and enjoyed <i>The Rings of Saturn</i> about a year ago. I've also dipped into Richard Polt's book on Heidegger as adjunct to my somewhat futile attempts to read sections of <i>Being and Time</i>. I was fortunate to participate in a class led by Richard Polt many years ago when he was an instructor in The Basic Program of Liberal Education at The University of Chicago. We had great summer reading Kiekegaard and Rilke.Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00561320676355168336noreply@blogger.com