a culvert

How to use your eyes is a great book written by James Elkins. In chapter two he writes about how to look at a culvert. As some of the readers of this blog will know, I use walking as a method in my quest for silence and solitude. One of the side-effects of walking is noticing - and even stopping up to look at - ordinary objects of everyday life, as e.g this culvert I discovered at Ogna last weekend. Beautiful, isn't it?

In cities, Mr. Elkins tell us, nearly 100% of the rainfall has to be carried off by gutters and storm drains, therefore there are more and bigger culverts in populated areas. In rural areas, like Ogna, water is left to flow freely. Only small streams which comes in conflict with the road system has to be led trough culverts.

source: How to use your eyes

Walking

I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits unless I spend four hours a day at least — and it is commonly more than that — sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields absoutely free from all wordly engagements. You may safely say a penny for your thoughts, or a thousand pounds. When sometimes I am reminded that the mechanics and shop-keepers stay in their shops not only all the forenoon, but all the afternoon too, sitting with crossed legs, so many of them — as if the legs were made to sit upon, and not to stand or walk upon — I think that they deserve some credit for not having all committed suicide long ago.

Henry David Thoreau - 1862

on reading

I'm reading slowly these days, reading Tinker Creek and Walden at the same time, page by page, word by word. Using all kinds of dictionaries and encyclopedias to widen my understanding.

Its like a dream.

"The writer studies literature, not the world. She lives in the world, she cannot miss it. She is careful of what she reads, for that is what she will write. She is careful of what she learns, because that is what she will know."

A.D

But you cant fail to see the close relationship these two both have to nature...

"… I am no scientist. I explore the neighborhood."

Today I will visit Peter Handke in der Niemandsbucht

When not writing I read (or knit: to give my spinning thoughts a rest). I read Mircea Cartarescu, Peter Handke, Natalia Ginzburg and Mette Moestrup.

Arbeitsmappe “Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht”

And I read the brilliant Norwegian author Tomas Espedal, who says:

Jeg skriver for andre som skriver. Det er ingenting forfattere liker bedre enn å få vite hva andre forfattere arbeider med og hvordan de gjør det. Vår pornografi er jo å se Marguerite Duras ved skrivebordet og konstatere at hun har to penner, at hun har papiret sånn, at hun skrev mellom to og fire, osv. Det er dette jeg leser mest av selv. Å lese om arbeidsprosessene til andre forfattere er noe av det beste en forfatter kan gjøre. (…) Jeg tror ikke lenger på fortellingen og fiksjonen. Jeg er glad for at det finnes noen som skriver gode fortellinger, men det interesserer meg ikke.

Blir du noen gang misunnelig når du leser? Jaja! Virkelig! Jeg blir faktisk ofte knust. Peter Handkes ”Mitt år i ingenmannsbukten” (1994) tok nesten livet av meg. Jeg forstår den dag i dag ikke hvordan han klarte å skrive den boken. Den gjorde meg så misunnelig at jeg holdt på å gi opp som forfatter –

fra Bokvennen 2.10

This is my world. Today I will visit Peter Handke in der Niemandsbucht

A Single Man

A rather different film experience from yesterdays Burnt by the Sun. But what the two films actually have in common, are some really extraordinary and exceptional well composed images.

This is first and foremost Colin Firth's film, but it has to be said: Julianne Moore never lets one down!

Утомлённые солнцем

I've never ever seen a child act in such a fantastic way as Nadezhda Mikhalkova in Burnt by the Sun (1994). It's a great film, the visual story is extremely well composed. The plot is complex and unbelievable for a woman who have spend all her life in open, democratic societies. On the narrative plan it reminds me both of Fellini and Bergman, but obviously, this film stands strong on its own.

I got this film recommended by my son, he has obviously developed a great taste for aesthetics, he will definitively be well worth listening to in the future -

pianolærerinnen

Jeg har tilbrakt kvelden sammen med Jelinek & Hanekes Pianolærerinnen.

Jelinek sier at filmens karakterer ikke skal tolkes som personlige individuelle skikkelser, men som symptomer i et grunnleggende fascistisk samfunn. Men er det mulig?

Filmen er rå, og den synes å ha en fin nærhet til Jelineks tekst. Isabelle Hupperts prestasjoner er på grensen til umenneskelige.

sokratisk hekling

I lørdagens Klassekampen forteller siviløkonomen Irene Nygårdsvik om noe hun kaller sokratisk strikking:

- det er en fri og utforskande måte å strikka på. Du tar den fargen du har lyst på, og tenkjer ikkje på sluttresultatet, da blir det bra, sier hun.

Mitt sommerprosjekt "A hint of colour" kan muligens kalles et sokratisk hekleprosjekt - selv om jeg har en vag idé om et endelig sluttresultat. Og i motsetning til Nygårdsvik benytter jeg meg av en allerede formulert oppskrift.

Likevel er alt styrt av et stort lystprinsipp: vakre farger og deilige kvaliteter bestemmer selv hvordan de vil leve sammen.

absolutt mandag

Frokostmøte; om Sara Stridsberg, Valerie Solanas, Cosmogirl og Baby Love....

quotidian

Henri Lefebvre, former taxi-driver, resistance fighter and professor of sociology at Strasbourg and Nanterre, was born in 1901 and died on 29 June 1991. He was the author of sixty books on philosophy, sociology, politics, architecture and urbanism

I’m reading Lefebvre, and on Lefebvre - it’s not without intent. Just have a look what Kristin Ross writes about his work:

For here was a serious thinker elevating to the status of a theoretical concept what in the minds of most other thinkers was nothing more than the drudgery of routine, or at the very least that which constituted the non-philosophical par excellence

quotidian definition:

1.   commonplace: of the most ordinary everyday kind ( formal ) 

2.   done daily: done or experienced on a daily basis ( formal ) 

more info here

& here

 

monday morning

perfect - as usual...

overeksponering

Being in Oslo Monday we had to postpone our traditional Monday breakfast till Friday. We drank coffee & tea - ate club-sandwich & chocolate – talked A LOT about art, about phd’s and about almost EVERYTHING else there is of importance …

i dag

monday morning

vold

Anmeldelsen av Voldtekt & romantikk er kommet på trykk, nå leser jeg Slavoj Žižek’s Violence (2008), ikke fordi jeg plent måtte fortsette i samme sporet - men fordi noen engang anbefalte den på det aller sterkeste, og fordi jeg raskt, etter et par sider, måtte innrømme at dette er bra & viktig!

Bare hør:

Our subjective outrage at the facts of violence – a suicide bombing, a terrorist attack, the assassination of a political figure – blinds us to the objective violence of the world, a violence where we are perpetrators and not just innocent bystanders. All we see are apparently inexplicable acts that disturb the supposed peace of everyday life. We consistently overlook the objective or "systemic" violence, endemic to our socio-economic order.

Slavoj Žižek’s store fordel, som kulturteoretiker, er at han kan skrive og formidle på en enormt engasjerende måte, og at han er vanvittig produktiv...