"Only one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. Yes, language. In spite of everything, it remained secure against loss."
~~Paul Celan
Organic Sins: Clemens Meyer’s While We Were Dreaming
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Have we made contact with the Leipzig of the late '80s and early '90s? Have
we made contact with THAT German?
The post Organic Sins: Clemens Meyer’s ...
5 months ago
3 comments:
:-) That's still bothering you, isn't it, Alison? That despite his deeply satisfying insights and his ability and facility with language and his effect on the world around him, he still killed himself.
I am not sure that it was an act of despair, though. Suicide is often a way to end pain, but maybe, for him, it was something else. Maybe he was not sad in that way. Maybe he was just done.
And he was living in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Paris. That part bothers me as much as anything.
I know what you mean. I think we somehow still assume that our inner condition is determined by our outer circumstance, even as much as we know it is not true. I suppose that just as much as happiness is something we must choose, so is life itself. His apparently unhappy end is mournful-making, that's for sure. (But maybe that's assuming too? Maybe he was not unhappy?)
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