Posted by Sigismund on February 6, 2010, at 15:33:38
In reply to Re: read any good books lately? » Sigismund, posted by floatingbridge on January 18, 2010, at 17:07:46
At the movie theatre there was a program from the Met of Tales of Hoffman and I assume the TA Hoffman you mention is ETA Hoffman, about whom I know nothing more than that he lived around what is now Germany during the revolutionary times in Europe.
I had a strong reaction to it, both positive and negative. My first thought was Nietzche's.....Europe is drunk on Christianity and alcohol (and in need of feminism and psychological minimalism....something like Taoism). I was wondering while I watched it about European history in the lead up to WWI and why no one bothered to stop it and the relationship of this to the psychological giganticism of the Hoffman character. Also (of course) in that opera there are no good tunes. Having said that, it was an incredibly good and interesting production.
I was listening to some wonderful sacred music last night and the thought came to me that the cultivation of the sacred does not in the west go along with the cultivation of a sense of humour. Dostoevsky managed it though.
poster:Sigismund
thread:929162
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20100119/msgs/936162.html