NOBEL LECTURES, GERMAN CULTURE AND A LITTLE BIT OF ORSON WELLS

It is the end of November. The Nobel Laureate for Literature has been chosen, and traditionally, it is during the first 10 days of December that the chosen writer delivers a lecture to the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Since the year 2000 the lectures have been video recorded and the laureate delivers the speech in her/his first language. A translation of the text is available in English.

This year, perhaps owing to the delicate state of Ms Munro’s health, the Nobel Lecture in Literature will be replaced by a pre-recorded video conversation with the Laureate: "Alice Munro: In her own words". The event will be held on Saturday 7 December 2013, at 5:30 p.m. (CET), at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm (tickets required). Alice Munro will not be attending. The lecture will be webcast live at Nobelprize.org.  

During his speech on the 10^th December 1929, Thomas Mann made the following comments:

“All writers belong to the class of non-orators. The writer and the orator are not only different, but they stand in opposition, for their work and the achievement of their effects proceed in different ways. In particular the convinced writer is instinctively repelled, from a literary standpoint, by the improvised and noncommittal character of all talk, as well as by that principle of economy which leaves many and indeed decisive gaps which must be filled by the effects of the speaker's personality. [….]

After many years the Stockholm international prize has once more been awarded to the German mind, and to German prose in particular, and you may find it difficult to appreciate the sensitivity with which such signs of world sympathy are received in my wounded and often misunderstood country.

May I presume to interpret the meaning of this sympathy more closely? German intellectual and artistic achievements during the last fifteen years have not been made under conditions favourable to body and soul. No work had the chance to grow and mature in comfortable security, but art and intellect have had to exist in conditions intensely and generally problematic, in conditions of misery, turmoil, and suffering, an almost Eastern and Russian chaos of passions, in which the German mind has preserved the Western and European principle of the dignity of form. For to the European, form is a point of honour, is it not? I am not a Catholic, ladies and gentlemen; my tradition is like that of all of you; I support the Protestant immediateness to God. Nevertheless, I have a favourite saint. I will tell you his name. It is Saint Sebastian, that youth at the stake, who, pierced by swords and arrows from all sides, smiles amidst his agony. Grace in suffering: that is the heroism symbolized by St. Sebastian. The image may be bold, but I am tempted to claim this heroism for the German mind and for German art, and to suppose that the international honour fallen to Germany's literary achievement was given with this sublime heroism in mind. Through her poetry Germany has exhibited grace in suffering. She has preserved her honour, politically by not yielding to the anarchy of sorrow, yet keeping her unity; spiritually by uniting the Eastern principle of suffering with the Western principle of form - by creating beauty out of suffering.
”

Hitler had been elected Nazi Party Chairman in 1921, eight years prior to this speech. and just under four years later in March of 1933, ‘Der Führer’ was in control. Thomas Mann had to leave Germany for Switzerland in 1933 and subsequently emigrated to the United States in 1939. What price beauty from suffering then?

Mann visited Germany after the War in 1949 at the 200th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, attending celebrations in Frankfurt am Main and Weimar, as a statement that German culture extended beyond the new political borders. I presume because all of German culture had left the country in 1933, and only came back to visit for the odd anniversary. It has taken some time for it to return, or am I being too harsh.
Comment from Orson Wells:

And here is something a bit more fun:

NOTHING SACRED

A little something to enjoy.

Non mittam digitum meum in eo

Re The PhD – Research Degree Program I have embarked upon. I have reluctantly applied to be suspended from studies - Suspending – means you are temporarily absent from your course. You have not left and are still classed as a student.  One is in limbo.

Currently, I am left hanging, waiting to find out if I can be left hanging. If allowed to be suspended, I shall still be attached. That is to keep me from falling; although, I will be allowed free movement. I will of course refrain from forming any conclusions, or concluding in any way. Indeed, being suspended I am kept from sinking to the floor to avoid forming a deposit. There may be some leakage and perhaps some staining may result, but nothing that could be quantified as a substance, not even of any kind.

My mind is baffled. It is perplexed about a number of things. It is not something I can put my finger on.

‘Non riesco a individuarlo con precision’ as the Italian might say. A very literal translation would be that one “cannot succeed in individualising with precision”. Or perhaps as Marcellus says to Horatio in the following dialogue:

Horatio: “…To what issue will this come?”

Marcellus “Something is rotten in the State of Denmark” 

Horatio  “Heaven will direct it”

Marcellus. “ Nay, let’s follow him”

Clearly heaven will not disclose ‘the thing’ I cannot put a finger on, nor is there any Hamlet to follow; although, following one of the most accomplished ditherers around is perhaps not the best plan. So I dither solo.

I am decidedly full of althoughs, perhapses and ifs.

I searched the word 'baffle' on You tube.  What is Fox News?

STUFF ON OFFER IN THE EAST

Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley - Worth a look

You don’t think of Shakespeare being a child, do you? Shakespeare being seven? He was seven at some point. He was in somebody’s English class, wasn’t he? How annoying would that be?

WHAT'S THE QUESTION?

The idea of doing research leading to a degree can be quite exciting.  All that reading and rummaging in libraries, meeting lots of different people, exchanging thoughts and fun discussions, picking though the labyrinth of works and other research to find a way to that clearing where no one or at least very few have been before. It’s rather like starting out on a cross country run with lots of other people, surrounded by lots of active spectators, and after a while, further along the run, you find yourself quite alone, able to run at a relaxed pace, fully enjoying the scenery, and breathing in invigorating fresh air and finally joyfully arriving at the finish line, to be greeted by admiring fans handing you a token of achievement and many congratulations.

The problem is finding the right run, especially if you design your own track and field. Sending out invitations to take part can be problematic, even assuming you’ve found the right country to set up in.

Sometimes you start out immersed in the pack, stumbling over others, never quite breaking free, circling round, falling through the finish line, with only a certificate to show that at least you took part.

Sometimes you turn up and find you are the only one on the starting line and no one else is remotely interested in taking part. Despite your entreaties and promises that it will be a great fun run, they all turn away and are not in the least engaged by your invitation. “Where’s it going?” they cry “The tracks too wide, where are the boundaries? There’s no real finish line. What kind of run is this anyway?”

You have to offer up something special at the finish to bring them on board. No matter how pretty, intriguing or challenging the cross country run, if you haven’t got the big finish, forget it. By finish, I mean the finish, not just a finish.

So it boils down to the finish. What or who is the finish? That is the question. If you haven’t got the question right, then all that running will not find you an answer.

I think I have a reasonable design for the track and field. I just need the right country park that will allow me to lay it out while I keep a look out for the who and what of the big finish. Trust me, I could do this.

However, all country parks want to know the big finish before you pick up a shovel.  You see my problem. I’ve got what I think is a great track and if I can start marking it out, see where it’s heading, I just might come up with the big finish.

It’s just a matter of who and what. That is the question. Simple, isn’t it?

PRESENTATION FOR RESEARCH DEGREE PROGRAM

It is November. So soon. I have been reading and gleaning and after last nights careening through the streets, am now feeling very hungover. I blame Sky MacAskill.  She has a way of keeping a glass of wine always full without one noticing.  I am an innocent victim.

Herewith a little something I've been doing.