Aus dem "Steppenwolf"

Hermann Hesse. "Der Steppenwolf" (1927)

"Mein Junge, du nimmts den Goethe viel zu ernst. Alte Leute, die gestorben sind, muss man nicht ernst nehmen, man tut ihnen sonst unrecht. Wir Unsterblichen lieben das Ernstnehmen nicht, wir lieben den Spass. Der Ernst, mein Junge, ist eine Angelegenheit der Zeit; er entsteht, soviel will ich dir verraten, aus einer Ueberschaetzung der Zeit. Auch ich habe den Wert der Zeit einst ueberschaetzt, darum wollte ich hundert Jahre alte werden. In der Ewigkeit aber, siehst du, gibt es keine Zeit; die Ewigkeit ist fuer den Augenblick, gerade lange genug fuer den Spass." (Harry Haller in einem Traum ueber Goethe, zu einem alten Mann redend.)

Must have seen this picture in one's Life

all this temptation

 

Chinese supermarket in London

I was quite fascinated to walk into a Chinese supermarket in Alperton even though it was just a cheap place for traders and restaurant owners who buy large quantities. I had my native (from Hong Kong) boyfriend with me who pointed out when it was just cheap stuff. I could not distinguish between good or bad quality....on top of things, preparations for Chinese New Year were ongoing.

Cloud No 9

I am on Cloud No 9; was the fortune teller right 3 years ago when she said I would be happy with the next relationship :) have been for 2.5 years now!!!

Nicest way to ask for support.....

"My amiable neighbour, young man!
I have lerned your kindness towards me, that you have paid my rent six month ago. I bless you, young man. My eldest daughter will tell you that we have been without a morsel of bread for two days, four pesrons, and my spouse is sick. If I am not desseived by my thoughts, I think I may hope that your generous heart will soften at this exposure and that the desire will subjugate you of being propitious to me by deigning to lavish upon me some light gift.
I am with the distinguished consideration which is due to the benefactors of humanity, JONDRETTE.
P.S. My daughter will await your orders, dear Monsieur Marius.
(spelling mistakes intentionally....from Viktor Hugo's Les Miserables, 1862)



Pi speaking....

"Er ist ein so liebenswuerdiger Mann. Jedes Mal wenn ich ihn besuche, kocht er mir ein suedindisches Essen, ein vegetarisches Festmahl. Ich habe ihm einmal gesagt, ich aesse gern scharf. Ich weiss auch nicht , wie ich auf eine so dermassen dumme Idee gekommen bin. Das war gelogen. Loeffel um Loeffel Joghurt gebe ich hinzu. Aber es nuetzt nichts. Jedes Mal dasselbe. Meine Geschmacksknospen strecken alle viere von sich, ich werde puterrot, Traenen schiessen mir in die Augen, mein Kopf brennt lichterloh, und meine Eingeweide winden sich in Qualen wie eine Boa Constrictor, die ein Rasenmaeher verschluckt hat." (from Life of Pi, Yann Martel, 2001)

Volumes of "Les Miserables"

Who knew that there are more books than one of Les Miserables...haha. Bought Volume 2, part 3: Marius without realizing really....

Fridays

Every Frday I am frustrated and hurt because my so-called boyfried is going dancing with other women. he does not talk about it, keeps it quiet, and I always wonder why.....well, my idea is that he likes being so in dmand amongst women when he is out dancing Salsa....have lived with it for 2 years now...silly me.

Bruce Chatwin: Ueberlegenheit ueber die Tiere?

Bruce Chatwin sagt in seinem Buch Traumpfade (The Songlines, 1987): "Demokrit hat gesagt, es sei absurd, dass Menschen sich ihrer Ueberlegenheit ueber die Tiere ruehmten, die doch in den wichtigen Dingen unsere Lehrmeister seien: die Spinne im Weben und Ausbessern, die Schwalbe in der Architektur, der Schwan und die Nachtigall im Singen.
Man koennte diese Reihe endlos fortsetzen: die Fledermaus fuer den radar, der Delphin fuer das Sonar und, wie Ibn Chaldun sagte, die Hoerner fuer die Lanze." (p354, Fischer Taschenbuch, 1992)

(from Amazon, 2012)

Bruce Chatwin about Travelling

Bruce Chatwin sagt in seinem Buch Traumpfade (The Songlines, 1987): "Die Wuestenvoelker sind dem Gutsein naeher als sesshafte Voelker, weil sie dem Urzustand naeher sind und ferner von den ueblen Gewohnheiten, die die Herzen der Sesshaften verdorben haben."

Last Lines of Turgenev's "Father and Sons"

"Is their love, their hallowed selfless love, not omnipotent? Oh yes! However passionate, sinful and rebellious the heart hidden in the tomb, the flowers growing over it peep at us serenly with their innocent eyes; they speak to us not only of eternal peace, of the vast repose of 'indifferent' nature: they tell us, too, of everlasting reconsiliation and of life which has no end."

Mother Russia

Love from Rybinsk, Russia, upon Volga....

 ....beautifully Russian.....

Cake dream

"Fahrenheit 451"

Almost at the end of Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury writes:"There was a damn silly bird, called Phoenix back before Christ: every few hundered years he built a pyre and burned himself up. He must have been first cousin to Man. But every time he burnt himself up he sprang out of the ashes, he got himself born all over again. And it looks like we are doing the same thing, over and over, but we have one damn thing that Phoenix never had. We know the damn silly thing we just did. We know all the damn silly things we've done for a thousand years, and as long as we know that and always have it around where we can see it, some day we'll stop making the goddamn funeral pyres and jumping in the middle of them."

Together with a Man

Together with a man, do we see the world differently? Most of the time I am excited when I see him and when we do things and I am on alert and I don't stop expressing myself or saying what I think about what I see....that is all good.

What we should know about Ray Bradbury

Not only did he write more than 500 novels and stories, but also movie scripts, playes and poems.

I did not know that he wrote the actual screenplay of John Huston's Moby Dick (1956); he wrote scripts for Alfred Hitchcock ; he designed the interior of Spaceship Earth at Disney World. A crater on the moon is named Dandelion Crater in honour of his novel Dandelion Wine. Wow, what a legacy....

About Gorky

Simon Sebag comments in his book Young Stalin: " Gorky , later in life, would become the dictator's friend, shameful apologist, pathetic trophy and possibly victim." (p. 179)

Kurban Said

Kurban Said is another pseudonym of Lev Nussimbaum. He also wrote under the name of Essad Bey. He wrote "Ali and Nino" under the name of Kurban Said.

Young Stalin

Reading Young Stalin by Simon Sebag and what sticks to my head is that Koba or Soso (as he also was known as) was very enigmatic, charismatic, ambitious morose, malicious, self-conscious, "using any means if the ends justify them". (Young Stalin, 2007)