Dornach 19-07-1920 (GA337b, p.28)

I dag har jag haft en klump i halsen under stora delar av dagen, och först på kvällen kändes det okej. Varför vet jag inte. Kanske sömnbrist över lång tid? Skulle vilja sova ett dygn känns det som.Eller har det med denna kost att göra - någon detox-process som hämtar upp undanträngda känslosvall? Svårt att avgöra. Kontrollfreaksdelen av mig har svårare för faktumet att jag inte vet varför mitt humör ibland dippar, än att det dippar. Ta-det-lugnt- och -bara-var-delen av mig iakttar processen, och bedömer den inte.

Det som hjälpt att häva ett lite dystert mod har varit EFT-knackningar. Att knacka på lite energipunkter är ett förvånansvärt effektivt sätt att må bra eller bättre. Här finns en bra EFT-manual. Jag ska gå på en EFT-kurts den 22-24/11 i Stockholm, och är det någon underbar nyfiken människa som läser detta (ja, just DU) som vill haka på kursen så skulle det vara jättekul. EFT är magi. Och funkar dessutom klockrent tillsammans med NLP.

Ätit rätt bra idag. Mycket grönt. Kanske lite tradigt, men jäkligt mättande.

Igår blev det något undantag i form av hummus. Just kombon surkål, hummus och tabasco är bland det bästa jag vet faktiskt.

Har väldigt svårt att bli av med mitt sockersug. Just nu är det den största utmaningen jag har i relation till råkosten.  Någon som vet hur man bryter sådant?

Sköt om er! Livet är ett mirakel, och hade det inte varit för lite ups and downs hade vi inte mognat och lärt oss ett jota.

Och 'Id Mubârak i efterskott, för den som har den kartan och horisonten.

Må Ljuset alltid lysa på Er stig!

Vilja och kraft,

Pierre

PS. Jag läser Steiners bok "Hur uppnår man kunskap om de högre världarna?" och tycker den är väldigt intressant. Steiner växer inför mig för varje bok jag läser av honom. Just denna bok kan man nog jobba med i 30 år utan att den blir utömd känns det som. Rekommenderas för den som vill se lite djupare in i verklighetens strukturer.

Corso per Performer
Progetto Parnaso
Enaip Sassari

Michele Monetta (MM) ha introdotto il corso di Tecniche di movimento presentando il rapporto performer-pubblico.
I punti chiave della prima giornata:

• Discussione e relazione sulla figura del performer
• Esercizi sul baricentro e l'equilibrio
• Esercizi sul tempismo e la reattività
• Equilibrio e rapporto tra parola e gesto
• Composizione, analisi e presentazione di un'azione elementare: il lancio di una pietra
• Gioco del lancio di una pietra in gruppo, con coro e protagonista
• Corpo e corporeità: la riscoperta e la rinascita delle Olimpiadi, l'influenza del teatro
• Le otto azioni principali in Hebert e il suo metodo naturale di educazione alla corporeità (accenno al tema da sviluppare domani)
• Elementi di biomeccanica: OTCAZ (rifiuto)
• Visione e commento tecnico-artistico di un filmato sul clown "Grock"
• Riflessioni e appunti sull'idea di coordinazione e organicità del gesto
• mimico e acrobatico del grande clown Grock

l corso di Tecniche di movimento fa riferimento principalmente al lavoro dell'attore. I grandi maestri citati da MM sono Cechov, Stanislavskij, Decroux e tanti altri. Per quanto riguarda Grotowskij, quest'ultimo parla di performer e non propone schemi o metodi, perciò non esiste "il metodo Grotowskij".

Per il nostro corso sarà importantissimo lavorare sulla maschera.

L'uomo attraverso il teatro cerca di conoscersi.

MM considera il Novecento molto importante per il teatro perché l'attore lavora su sé stesso e è al centro del teatro stesso.

Ecco alcuni punti chiave che possono offrire una panoramica sugli insegnamenti di un grande maestro, Artaud. Antonin Artaud (Marsiglia, 4 settembre 1896 -Parigi, 4 marzo 1948) è stato un commediografo, attore teatrale, scrittore e regista teatrale francese:

Teatro della crudeltà (crudeltà intesa come rigore, come fa il funambolo, si deve allenare tanto e sempre);
L'attore è l'atleta del cuore;
Non basta scioccare il pubblico;
Bisogna mettere da parte l'Io;
Importantissimo è lo studio del baricentro;
Bisogna partire dal semplice;
L'artista va verso l'essenzialità man mano che trascorre la sua carriera artistica;
Il divertimento è scoperta: il bambino si diverte, non si annoia mai, perché scopre sempre!!
Per l'attore è indispensabile avere la disponibilità al vuoto;
- Il vuoto del percorso
- Un vuoto inteso come disponibilità
Importantissimo è lavorare sull'attenzione: spesso non si continua a leggere i dettagli ;
Sviluppare il senso dell'osservazione: ci si può allenare anche nella vita quotidiana, per esempio osservando attentamente "la donna che attraversa la strada con la busta della spesa";
Non dobbiamo separare mente e corpo come accade in palestra;
Ogni mestiere ci abitua ad assumere certi movimenti e atteggiamenti del corpo;
Anche la voce si imposta a seconda del mestiere: la maestra delle elementari si logora la voce e utilizza toni alti;
Nel teatro bisogna saper cambiare in funzione della maschera che si vuol creare;
Prima di Cartesio, mente e corpo erano unite, in simbiosi. Ora abbiamo il prete per l'anima e il chirurgo per i denti, lo psichiatra e il dentista;
Remota e misteriosa è la natura animale dell'uomo. Cane, gatto ecc.

MM cita William Shakespeare (Stratford-upon-Avon, battezzato il 26 aprile 1564 - Stratford-upon-Avon, 23 aprile 1616), il quale sosteneva che "tutto il mondo è palcoscenico". Autore e attore sono il pubblico reale: Shakespeare infatti osservava e raccontava la vita degli uomini e delle nostre società. Oggi vale ancora questo pensiero!

Diderot ha scritto un libro molto importante: Il paradosso sull'attore. Denis Diderot (Langres, 5 ottobre 1713 - Parigi, 31 luglio 1784) è stato un filosofo, enciclopedista e scrittore francese; fu uno dei massimi rappresentanti dell'Illuminismo e insieme a d'Alembert, il principale redattore della Encyclopédie.

Ecco alcuni punti chiave del Paradosso sull'attore:
L'attore non deve essere preso dal furore dell'arte;
L'attore deve essere una persona insensibile, che non cede all'emozione scenica;
Può giocare il ruolo della pazzia, della vergogna... : è il pubblico che è folle, è il pubblico che crea la gelosia, l'arroganza...;
L'attore è razionale (vs. attore romantico);
L'artista è lucido; è il pubblico che non è lucido 

Bertolt Brecht ci parla invece di recitazione straniata. Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht detto Bertolt (Augusta, 10 febbraio 1898 - Berlino, 14 agosto 1956) è considerato il più influente drammaturgo, poeta e regista teatrale tedesco del XX secolo. Gli attori fanno come i bambini: "facciamo che io ero il principe e tu il mio scudiero". Per recitazione straniata si intende interpretare un ruolo esplicitando il proprio intento: distanza tra persona/attore e personaggi/maschere

Per Stanislavsky, viceversa, l'attore deve immedesimarsi! Konstantin Sergeevič Stanislavskij (Mosca, 18 gennaio 1863 - Mosca, 7 agosto 1938) è stato un attore, regista  teorico teatrale russo, interprete eccellente di indimenticabili rappresentazioni oltre che scrittore. È anche noto per essere l'ideatore dell'omonimo celebre metodo Stanislavskij.

JO - HA - KYU (inizio - svolgimento - conclusione):
Esprimere il verbo, non le decorazioni
Bisogna saper chiudere il periodo (non come accade nei talk show)
Il gesto è strettamente legato alla parola

Bergonzoni riorganizza stilisticamente il JO - HA - KYU! Alessandro Bergonzoni (Bologna, 1958) è un comico italiano, nonché scrittore, autore e attore di teatro. Tale riproposizione è però funzionale alla sua comicità assurda e surreale. Lui non cazzeggia come nei talk show! Già dai suoi primi lavori teatrali, Bergonzoni sviluppa i temi comici che lo caratterizzeranno nella sua figura di artista: l'assurdo comico, il rifiuto del reale come riferimento artistico e la capacità di "giocare" col linguaggio per creare situazioni surreali paradossali. Il suo debutto avviene a soli 24 anni con lo spettacolo teatrale Scemeggiata (1982).

Guarda il video!

MM ci insegna che è sempre importante chiedersi il Perché? e il Come? del nostro agire teatrale. Gli animali ci insegnano tanto. Il leone ha un passo felpato. Le scimmie insegnano ai trapezisti. Lo sguardo deve sempre tagliare lo spazio. Dobbiamo saperci muovere come animali sul palco.

Alla fine dell'Ottocento rinascono le Olimpiadi: in questo periodo si rivolge una grande attenzione al corpo dell'uomo. Proprio in quegli anni si riscopre molta statuaria greca e si riafferma la Korperkultur ovvero la cultura del corpo. In una località della Svizzera (Monte Verità) si ritrovano studiosi e artisti che creano un centro che riguarda la vita naturale.

Émile Jaques Dalcroze (Vienna, 6 luglio 1865 - Ginevra, 1 luglio 1950) è stato un pedagogo svizzero la cui importanza risiede in particolare nello sviluppo dell'euritmica. L'euritmica (o euritmia o danza ritmica) è un metodo per insegnare e percepire la musica attraverso il movimento.

In Austria Steiner sviluppa l'antroposofia, la filosofica che vede il corpo al centro del sistema. Rudolf Steiner (Donji Kraljevec, 27 febbraio 1861 - Dornach, 30 marzo 1925) è stato un filosofo, esoterista e pedagogista austriaco. Oltre a essere il fondatore dell'antroposofia e di un personale stile pedagogico, è l'ispiratore dell'agricoltura biodinamica.

Russia: Mejerchol'd (allievo di Stanislavsky) creò la biomeccanica (combattimento, scherma, yoga, giocoleria ecc.). Andò contro il maestro! Vsevolod Ėmil'evič Mejerchol'd (1874 - 1940) è stato un importante regista russo.

Dall'America arriva Isadora Dunkan che inventa la danza libera. Lei si rifaceva al corpo greco. Isadora Duncan (San Francisco, 26 maggio 1878 - Nizza, 14 settembre 1927) è stata un'importante danzatrice statunitense.

Francia: Copeau fa apprendere ai suoi allievi la scherma, il mimo, il clown, l'equilibrismo. Jacques Copeau (Parigi 1879, Beaune 1949), è stato un importante attore, regista teatrale, critico e drammaturgo francese. Fondò nel 1909 la Nouvelle Revue Française insieme ad André Gide, Jacques Rivière, Paul Claudel e Jean Schlumberger, e la diresse tra il 1912 e il 1914.

Hèbert crea Il metodo naturale: un militare che insegnava il movimento agli attori. Georges Hebert (Parigi, 27 aprile 1875 - Tourgéville, Calvados, 2 agosto 1957) è stato un insegnante francese, specializzato in educazione fisica sia teorica che applicata. Ufficiale nella Marina Francese prima della Grande Guerra, Hébert fu di stanza nella città di Saint-Pierre, nella Martinica. Nel 1902 la città fu vittima di una catastrofica eruzione vulcanica e Hébert coordinò eroicamente l'evacuazione e il soccorso di centinaia di persone. Questa esperienza ebbe profondi effetti su di lui e rafforzò la sua convinzione che le capacità fisiche e atletiche andassero combinate con le qualità del coraggio e dell'altruismo. Egli sintetizzò la propria etica nel motto: Essere forti per essere utili.

Stanislavsky rivede la sua teoria e pensa che le azioni fisiche (non psicologiche) siano essenziali... quest'opera verrà approfondita da Grotowski. Jerzy Grotowski (Rzeszów, 11 agosto 1933 - Pontedera, 14 gennaio 1999) è stato un regista teatrale polacco, una delle figure di spicco dell'avanguardia teatrale del Novecento. È ricordato per aver ideato una straordinaria e rivoluzionaria tecnica di "allenamento" per gli attori, innovazione, questa, di importanza tale da aver creato un precedente ancora oggi considerato "necessario", che ha modificato profondamente la figura dell'attore nell'ambito dell'arte teatrale.

MM ci ha introdotto al corso di Tecniche di movimento presentandoci gli autori di riferimento. Da questo primo incontro si deduce che tutto quello che faremo durante il corso farà parte principalmente della tradizione del Novecento (futurismo e dadaismo). Cosa fa il corpo nel 900? Le arti marziali servono per conoscere il baricentro.
Il vuoto è importante: è pronto a essere riempito

TRAINING

Correre lungo tutto lo spazio e incontrare il partner
Correre lungo tutto lo spazio e rispondere ai comandi Via/Stop
Ricerca degli sguardi
Incontro di sguardi e arresto
Incontro di sguardi, arresto e pronuncia del nome (non contemporaneamente)
Incontro di sguardi, stretta di mano, uno dei due partner si getta per terra e pronuncia il suo nome, l'altro sta in piedi e pronuncia il suo nome

Disporsi come in un coro in un lato dello spazio
Spontaneamente e uno alla volta : effettuare un percorso a S immaginando di trovarsi in un bosco (ostacoli, accelerazioni e rallentamenti...) e raggiungere il punto indicato
Gli altri allievi osservano dal lato opposto dello spazio
Pronunciare il proprio nome
Ripercorrere il tragitto al contrario

Correre lungo tutto lo spazio e conquistare la ribalta
Correre lungo tutto lo spazio
Spontaneamente e uno alla volta : prendere postazione nel punto indicato
Gli altri allievi si dispongono nel lato opposto dello spazio, e creano il coro
Rappresentare l'azione richiesta: Il lancio della pietra

La prima giornata con Michele Monetta si è conclusa con la visione di un filmato su Grock. Eccolo!

diegodeidda

Today is September 29th. This year, it bears two holidays: 1) Rosh Hashana and 2) Michaelmas. I want to say something towards both and I will: but I will begin with St. Michael & the Dragon.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this holiday, (wikipedia tells us:) that "Michaelmas (also the Feast of Ss. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael or the Feast of Michael and All Angels) is a day in the Christian calendar, but because it falls near the equinox, it is also associated with the beginning of autumn and the shortening of days. The Archangel Michael is one of the principal angelic warriors, seen as a protector against the dark of night, and the administrator of cosmic intelligence. Michaelmas has also delineated time and seasons for secular purposes as well, particularly in the United Kingdom and Ireland."

It never caught on in 18th century America, unfortunately.

During the Middle Ages, Michaelmas was celebrated as a Holy Day of Obligation, but this tradition was abolished in the 18th century. Lutheran Christians consider it a principal feast of Christ and the Lutheran Confessor, Philip Melanchthon wrote a hymn for the day that is still sung in Lutheran Churches: "Lord God to Thee We Give." It was also one of the English and Welsh and Irish quarter days when accounts had to be settled. On manors, it was the day when a reeve was elected from the peasants. Traditional meal for the day include goose (a "stubble-goose", i.e. one prepared around harvest time) and a special cake called a St Michael's bannock. On the Isle of Skye, Scotland, a procession was held.

But that's pretty much it, for the outer coat understanding. Feast day. Go to Church if you can spare the time. Cook a Goose. Done.

Rudolf Steiner, founder of the Waldorf Schools, has made it an integral part of the school calendar, and is the first Psycho-Somatic-Spiritual-Seasonal occurrence once the academic year has begun. And there is meant to be much more in this Holiday than religious history may have you believe. Matthew Barton, in his book titled Michaelmas, gathers excerpts of Steiner's lectures that focus specifically on the nature of this day. He writes that this is meant to be more than a day to "settle quarter rents" or just a day to "choose a magistrate" -- but then he does quantify this word for his own uses. It comes from the Latin magister, (he says) or master: "it is clearly connected with authority -- something, however, which we cannot properly exercise with out a degree of self-mastery. A magistrate enforces the law but must also weigh up the merits of each case by using his or her own power of judgment and intuition; and the Michaelic qualities Steiner returns to on several occassions include a conscious quality of inner judgment, resolve and decisive action by the forces of the heart." Just an aside -- to me, this also speaks in huge concurrence with Rosh Hashana, as it is the day that the Book of Life opens, and you are invited and commanded to step before G-d so that he may judge you, on the resolve of your heart.

The picture of St. Michael vanquishing the dragon (from the scene in the Book of Revelations) is one which Steiner instills in us to conjure up again and again in order that our awareness be brought to our innerspaces: to be witness to this battle waged continually between the different forces with us: "those which harness us to a spellbound enchantment in the material world" and "those which we ourselves must activate to penetrate {this} veil of illusion, to truly meet nature, ourselves, each other and greater realities." Steiner emphasizes that this takes courage. Which, according to Barton, is a quality readily aligns with the beginning of Autumn-time.

"As trees grow bare of leaves, revealing, as it were, the skeleton of things, it is easy to sense layers of physical protection falling away from us as greater, lonelier spaces open up."

Driving home from lunch on Saturday, heading back towards the mountains nearing six in the evening and I was amazed at the beautiful transformation the earth was making before my eyes. I am always enthralled with the change of seasons, and I never grow tired of their exchange. There is something about Autumn though; when the colors shift slowly at first. A splash of gold from a tree that grew cold too soon, a winding single vine of brilliant scarlet-hued ivy flashing from an oaken trunk... the fact that the mountains lose their green glamor, the fields become tawny and golden, shrunken and heather colored. And the sun beams through clouds in rays, illumination upon hidden row after row of purple-gray rock far in the distance. It makes you quiet somehow, when you really allow yourselves to be aware of it, it somehow draws you in...

"This season, at the fine transition between natural life and {seasonal} death, but equally between a sleepier nature consciousness and waking consciousness of self, feels like that sword blade in fairy tales..." Here we have Michael's sword to do the job for us. In another lecture of Steiner's, which I am forgetting the name of at the moment, he explains how with the Spring & Summer are attitude is at one with Nature: we are out! We are warm and sunny and we move our energy and intentions out into the word of form, we vacation and take holidays. It is meant to be time of relaxed work, of abundance. It's hot, lazy, out-out-out, go-go-go. Steiner acknowledges that it is right for our soul and attentions be aligned with Nature's exuberance, intertwined with her affection and cycle at this time... but as Autumn approaches and the light of the summer that surrounded us, wanes: we must not follow that light on its way out into darkness, but instead, turn our thoughts, to our own light within. Michael banishes the sulfurous dragon who will lay waste and rot to leaf and grass, and swallow the sun... he overcomes him with an iron sword; strangely or on purpose (wink) our blood becomes thicker during the winter. We are shielded from cold and the death of winter, the barrenness of season by Michael's sword and a return to the inner light. Is this not what school creates for us, to some degree: a return to innerspaces, to learn and expand oneself form the inside out?

And Steiner goes on to qualify this in his book Michaelmas & the Soul Forces of Man: "Only a science that is spiritual can offer the human soul anything that can seem like a cosmic experience. Nowadays we really think only of earthly experiences. Cosmic experience leads us out to participation in the cosmos; and only by co-experiencing the cosmos in this way will we once more achieve a spiritualized instinct for the meaning of the seasons with which our organic life as well as our social life is interwoven — an instinct for the very different relation in which the earth stands to the cosmos while on its way from spring to summer, and again from summer through autumn into winter. We will learn to sense how differently life on earth flows along in the burgeoning spring than when the autumn brings the death of nature; we will feel the contrast between the awakening life in nature during spring and its sleeping state in the fall. In this way man will again be able to conform with the course of nature, celebrating festivals that have social significance, in the same way that the forces of nature, through his physical organization, make him one with his breathing and circulation. If we consider what is inside our skin we find that we live there in our breathing and in our circulation. What we are there we are as physical men; in respect of what goes on in use we belong to cosmic life. Outwardly we live as closely interwoven with outer nature as we do inwardly with our breathing and circulation.

And what is man really in respect of his consciousness? Well, he is really an earthworm — and worse: an earthworm for whom it never rains! In certain localities where there is a great deal of rain, it is so pleasant to see the worms coming out of the ground — we must careful not to tread on them, as will everyone be who loves animals. And then we reflect: Those poor little chaps are down there underground all the time and only come out when it rains; but it is does not rain, they have to stay below. Now, the materialist of today is just such an earthworm — but one for whom it never rains; for if we continue with the simile, the rain would consist of the radiant shining into him of spiritual enlightenment, otherwise he would always be crawling about down there where there is no light. Today humanity must overcome this earthworm nature; it must emerge, must get into the light, into the spiritual light of day."

Happy Michaelmas everyone, and Happy Rosh Hashana!

STUTTGART / AUGUST 25,  1919 

STUTTGART / AUGUST 23,  1919 

However, because the current world view is incapable of accepting thoughts through which we can fully recognise the human being, people come along with this Law of Conservation of Energy. In a certain sense this law disturbs nothing if we look only at the other kingdoms of nature—the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms—but it immediately destroys all real understanding when we attempt to get close to human nature. (p.65)

This really puts the anthro in anthroposophy! Human beings are not constrained by the laws of thermodynamics.

The way we see things is, in fact, nothing other than a more refined process similar to grasping things with our hands. For example, picking up a piece of chalk is a physical process very similar to the spiritual process that occurs when you radiate etheric forces from your eyes to grasp an object through seeing. If modern people could observe anything, they would be able to derive such facts from observations of nature. (p.66)

Indeed! What is most unusual about this passage is that it appears that Steiner is not talking metaphorically, he literally means to say that we gave etheric forces emanating from our eyes. 

...earthly development would have long ago reached its final stage were the Earth not continuously fed with the forces of human corpses, the forces released by the human spirit-soul at death. The forces that earthly development continuously receives through the acceptance of human corpses, that is, the forces contained in those corpses supports the evolution of the Earth. Without the support of such forces today, minerals could no longer unfold the forces of crystallization. The minerals would otherwise have crumbled and dissolved long ago.  (p.70-71)

Again, are we meant to take this as literal truth?

What really happens in human beings? On the one hand we have the skeletal-nerve activity and on the other, the blood-muscle activity. The interaction of these two continuously creates matter and energy anew. The Earth is saved from death because human beings create matter and energy. (p.77)

Human beings *create* matter and energy. Is there any proof for this claim?

Thus, you can find, for example, in physics books, the Law of Impermeability: At a point in space where one body exists, another cannot exist at the same time. This is stated as a general characteristic of bodies. However, what we should say is that those bodies or beings are impermeable whose nature is such that where they are in space, no other being of the same nature can be at the same time. We should use concepts only to separate one area from another. We should only set up postulates and not give definitions that claim to be universal. (p.78)

Here Steiner cunningly saves the best until last. Really. In avoiding his characteristic self-contradiction he instead lapses into tautology, but saves the day by making a Korzybski-esque semantic distinction. I am sure that the audience would have left their seats much reassured.

STUTTGART / AUGUST 22,  1919 

"Blood is truly a “very special fluid.” Were we able to remove  it from the human body so that it would still remain blood and not be destroyed by other physical agents (which, of course, is  not possible in earthly conditions), it would whirl up as a vortex of spirit. Blood must be destroyed so that we can hold it within us as long as we are on the Earth, until death, so that it  does not spiral upward as spirit. We continuously create blood  and destroy blood—create blood and destroy blood—through inhaling and exhaling. " (p.57)

 The first blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled was performed on January 1, 1916. It is generally accepted that in vertebrates, the various cells of blood are made in the bone marrow. During childhood, almost every human bone produces red blood cells; as adults, red blood cell production is limited to the larger bones: the bodies of the vertebrae, the breastbone (sternum), the ribcage, the pelvic bones, and the bones of the upper arms and legs. (Source: wikipedia)

"Thus, the head is a continuum, only in the head it is particularly well-formed. It is the same with the chest. The chest is the actual chest, but only in the main since the whole human being is also chest. In the head, there is something like the chest and also something like the abdomen and limbs; the parts are intermingled. It is the same with the abdomen. Physiologists have also noticed that the head has qualities of the abdomen. The highly refined development of the head-nerve system is not found in the outer cortex we are so proud of, but under it. The beautiful structure of the outer cortex is, in a sense, a degeneration. It represents more of a digestive system in the outer portions of the brain. People need not be particularly proud of the mantle of the brain; it is more like a degeneration of the complicated brain into a more digestive brain.  We have the mantle of the brain so that the nerves having to  do with cognition can be properly nourished. The reason our  brain is better developed than an animal brain is that we can  feed the brain nerves better. Only in this way, namely, that we  can feed the brain nerves better than animals can, do we have  the possibility of more fully developing our higher cognition.  However, the brain and nerve system have nothing at all to do  with actual cognition; they are only the expression of cognition in the physical organism." (p.60)

This confused rambling of magical associations pretty much speaks for itself.

"...at a particular point in time the head was  “exhaled” by the cosmos. The human head was formed by cosmic antipathy. When the cosmos is so “repulsed” by what human beings have in them that the cosmos expels it, then  this form is created. Human beings carry a representation of  the cosmos in their head." (p.61)

Here we see the same magical association of form. If the head is 'round' and the cosmos is 'round' then surely the two must be connected. As above, so below.

"If you use a lot of abstractions with children, you will stimulate them to concentrate particularly intensively upon the formation of carbonic acid [H₂CO₃ ] in the blood and upon the crystallization process in the body, upon dying. If you bring children asmany living pictures as possible, if you educate them by speaking in pictures, then you sow the seed for a continuous retention of oxygen, for continuous development, because you  direct the children toward the future, toward life after death." (p.62)

For once we have an empirically verifiable statement. Unfortunately it is hard to see why anyone would waste their time as resources in trying to disprove something that is clearly not part of any coherent scientific theory.

STUTTGART / AUGUST 21,  1919 

"Before birth, the human being is still in the care of beings above the physical plane. We must leave the direct individual connection between the world and the individual to them. Thus, prenatal education is not a task for the child. Prenatal education can only be an unconscious result of what the parents, particularly the mother, do. If, until the child  is born, the mother acts in such a way that she expresses what is morally and intellectually correct, then what she accomplishes  in her own continuing education will transfer to the child. The less we think about teaching the child before it has seen the light of day, and the more we think about leading a correct life,  the better it will be for the child. Education can first begin  when the child is really integrated into the cosmic order of the  physical plane, and that is when the child begins to breathe physical air." (p.38)

Presumably by 'prenatal education' Steiner is making reference to the Vedic practice of  'samskaras'. One of the reasons that Steiner split with the theosophist movement was that he was not having anything (more) to do with that eastern mumbo-jumbo and wanted supplant it with his own amalgam of western mumbo-jumbo.

Even so, we can see evidence of his characteristic intellectual self-contradiction. Here we have a conscious argument against prenatal education, and yet prenatal education is the result of the parents' unconscious actions. The mother needs to act in a way that is morally and intellectually correct, and yet not be aware of so doing! The less we think about teaching, the more it happens. Just leave it to the angels...

"If you observe children with sufficient objectivity as they  grow into the world, then you will perceive that children’s temporal bodies are still not fully connected with the spirit-soul.  The task of education, understood in a spiritual sense, is to  bring the soul-spirit into harmony with the temporal body.  They must be brought into harmony and they must be tuned  to one another because when the child is born into the physical  world they do not yet properly fit each other. The task of the  teacher is to harmonize these two parts to one another." (p.39)

Now you might have children of your own, or you might be a teacher, or might just be any other person who hasn't yet noticed that children's temporal bodies are not fully connected with the spirit-soul. If you haven't noticed this, Steiner tells you why; simply put, your observations haven't been sufficiently objective. Now one has to wonder what kind of objectivity Herr Steiner is refering to here. It certainly doesn't mean what I would usually undertand by the term. Perhaps something has been lost in translation?

It would be nice to think that much of the nonsense that one finds in Steiner's writings are the result of mistranscriptions and mistranslations, this would at least explain why some seem to hold him in high esteem. Indeed, Steiner never wrote a monograph on education. He gave copious, repetitive, meandering lectures and people wrote down and edited what he said (more or less accurately we must assume) and then these lectures were published in German and later translated into English (etc.). Perhaps in this process some things got a bit twisted? It's a good escape route, but sadly, this doesn't explain or excuse Steiner's approach to 'objectivity'. 

Rudolf Steiner honestly believed that he had  'objective', 'scientific' access to the fundamental reality of our cosmos. And what he discovered was that this fundamental reality is spiritual in nature (specifically not material). Unless one understands these two important points (i.e. spiritual primacy of the cosmos and Steiner's privileged access to this 'reality') it is impossible to make sense of the way he uses terms like 'objective' and 'science'. Of course, if you're not an anthroposophist (more accurately a 'Steinerite') you probably understand something completely different by these two terms, and that goes someway to explain the slightly vertiginous* feeling that you might experience when reading Steiner's works.

"However, we must be conscious down to the very foundation of what we do.We must be aware that  when we teach children about this or that subject, we are actually working toward bringing the spirit-soul more into the temporal body and, at the same time in another direction, to bring  temporality more into the spirit-soul." (p.42)

You might find if you send your child to a Waldorf school, that they're not much into 'testing and measurement'. If you're naive to the ways of Steinerites then you might think that this is because the school staff are sympathetic to writers such as Alfie Cohen or John Holt. However, the passage above demonstrates that Waldorf schools have little interest in academic outcomes except in so far as they keep the doors open and the government inspector at bay. What they are interested in is the integration of the sprit-soul with the temporal body. 

*Rittlemeyer wrote "if I read [Steiner] for any length of time, a feeling of nausea came over me."  cited in G Lachman, 'Rudolf Steiner", p.xvii

Of course, this is grossly unfair.

In the main, it applies to secondary schools.

Primary schools are a different kettle of fish altogether.

They come in five flavours: Private, Church, State (Good), State (Bad) and Other.

Private

Private schools are members' clubs with homework.

Their admissions claim to revolve around absurd lists, composed of double-barrelled names, scratched by mothers staggering out of chauffeured Rolls, clutching their c-section scars.

In reality, it's a 'yes' to 3 very simple questions:

1. Are you a banker? (Not the rhyming slang one, although come to think of it...)

2. Are you German, American or Aristocratic Indigenous?

3. Will you contribute something ostentatious for the school auction? If not, will you bid ostentatiously for something at the school auction?*

*There is a fourth option here, which is, Will you allow yourself to be the thing other people bid ostentatiously for at the school auction?, otherwise known as working at your child's private school, in order to reduce the fees. You can offer to cook a meal or do the ironing for a week or agree to be gracious when the other parents patronise you at the school play.

Once in possession of the golden entry ticket, these little mites tumble out of their 1000 thread-count sheets and pour themselves into uniforms so stiff with quality, they can barely stand straight enough to hold their leather briefcase off the ground.

Then onwards to the porch of their period-building school, where they must thrust a serious paw into that of the waiting Headteacher, inquiring politely how the FTSE is faring, before giving an update on the progress of their parents' property portfolio in Mauritius.

On Mondays they do rare Mongolian wood carving. On Tuesdays they study form at Ascot. On Wednesday they try to identify the most expensive wine, from a tasting menu. On Thursday they try to identify their parents, from photographs.

And on Fridays they have Third World Studies, where a child from a neighbouring estate is brought into the classroom and asked questions about how he copes with staying in London for the whole of August.

Church

Church schools are State schools with a God filter, to keep the riff-raff out.

They teach their charges to share and forgive and build an affection for the hymns they will have at their weddings 30 years later, leaving the messy gay bishop issues for a later date.

Muscling into the Believers nest are an ungainly breed of nervous middle-class cuckoos, squeezed between the private schools that were once their birthright and the abominable state schools they believe their cleaners' children attend.

Generally, they discover God when their child is 3, having been 'living abroad' beforehand or trapped under a heavy object. They drift piously into pews, professing a religious fervour Jesus would have given his right arm for, offering little Tobias to Sunday school, like a dutiful Amish man relinquishing his daughter to be wife number 9.

It would be un-Christian to say that this phenomenon had not gone un-noticed by the vicar. That he wields his power like Boris Johnson with an out-sized Olympic Games flag. That he secures coffee dates with desperate, fragrant mothers, assessing the number and nature of favours they are willing to undertake to save the souls of their off-spring.

So if I did say this, would that make my son eligible for one of the two 'World Faith' places you offer in reception? In theory? Just asking.

State (Good)

Good state schools are private schools you pay your mortgage broker for, instead of the school.

Steering an institution which educates children, with good results, and at no cost, makes the Headteacher a man certain of his position in the karmic system, prone to smiling at NHS consultants with a look that says, 'I too, will be coming back as a lottery winner.'

Any more driven and he'd have to skip assembly to go for a car-wash.

Grateful parents off-load trucks of the brand whose marketing departments they run, to raise funds at the school fair, which will help maintain the school's reputation and ensure their moral and financial smuggery over fee-paying friends.

Amongst their peers will be at least two celebrity parents, keeping it real.

One will be a high-profile politician insisting that they sincerely wanted to send their child to a rubbish school but they just happen to live in Kensington and Chelsea and there was no alternative.

The other- an actor, who gets steady work from the BBC- will be pushed to the front to do the local rounds, begging small businesses for sponsorship, convincingly playing the role of any ordinary parent who feels serious about state education.

Clever, yet streetwise, children who leave these schools are thought to be the best equipped to deal with contemporary society, learning skills that one day will enable them to trample on the underclasses of society, without seeming like insufferable out-of-touch snobs:

'Are you going to %$£ing shut up, innit?'

'Safe, man, but check those split infinitives.'

State (Bad)

Bad state schools are youth detention centres, given Government funding.

Their job is to contain and re-habilitate, where possible, seeking to prevent the building from arson attempts, and classroom visitors from sustaining any permanent injuries.

Children use yard time to skull bottles of Pepsi and lob stones over the school gates at passers-by, while class-time sees the planning of petty crimes for the rest of the week, which they plan to take as holiday.

Unless, that is, they can find a kid to refuse to remove his turban in P.E., in which case a teachers' union strike will save them the trouble.

By the end of term half the parents will be waving placards about unacceptable standards, at the entrance, while the other half will be sneaking back in with fresh supplies of stones.

Whether they rise to the top and gain a scholarship to a poncy school (flicking two fingers at at their privileged peers on arrival) or remain illiterate (save for the spelling of certain pharmaceuticals) these children will emerge tougher than their school dinners' meatloaf.

Other

Other schools are novelty joke shops which sort of try to follow a kind of national curriculum-like thingamejig.

Populated by the offspring of deeply individual, anti-establishment parents, who universally loathed their own school experiences, they revolve around a theme that has absolutely nothing to do with the traditional acquisition of knowledge, as defined in a dictionary.

Whether Steiner, Woodland, Buddhist or Home-Schooling, their supporters see children as individuals with rights and freedoms, likely to despise scratchy uniforms, turgid times tables and evil teachers, as much as they did.

Classes are taught English literature by roaming through forests, calling to birds in visceral trance-like states, before heading back to the school tee-pee and sharing the organic squash they communally planted last full moon.

If a prospective parent asks where the school feeds into for secondary education, the teachers-who-are-friends smile patiently and lead them into the garden to lay a hand on a stone and try to understand that nothing is permanent and we are all one with each other.

*

That said, in view of the fact that wherever he beetles around in his uniform, on his 11th birthday your child will announce his intention to win Pop idol, academic questions are academic.

So a parent really only has one responsibility to their progeny: to ensure that these are not the best days of their lives.

¿Cómo puede hacerse esto? Yo lo intenté una vez cogiendo un trozo de tela circular y me puse a coser los puntos antipodales. La verdad es que este cosido no se puede conseguir físicamente en R³ y es necesario ir a R⁴ para lograrlo.

Es posible representar el plano proyectivo en R³, aunque eso sí, con auto intersecciones (idea de Jacob Steiner, 1853). Consideramos, tal como se muestra en la siguiente figura, una banda de Möbius en forma de "bonete cruzado", con su agujero por abajo.

La ventaja de esta representación es que el borde es una circunferencia sin cruces por donde podemos coser un disco. El resultado es una representación del plano proyectivo en R³ , conocida como el "bonete cruzado" (con el agujero de abajo ahora ya tapado). Observar que el camino "a" seguido de "b" en la figura es un camino cerrado.

En el siguiente vídeo titulado "Pivoted lines and the Möbius Band" vemos transformase el plano proyectivo RP ² = {rectas de R ³ que pasan por el origen de coordenadas}, en el plano proyectivo visto como una banda de Möbius y un disco cosidos por su borde.

Podéis encontrar explicaciones sobre el video en la página de Ronnie Brown The Möbius band and the projective plane (véase una traducción mía).

Enlaces relacionados:

La cinta de Möbius y el plano proyectivo en la página de Robert Ferréol. Y otras informaciones útiles sobre el toro y la botella de Klein (además trata otras superficies y curvas interesantes).

Möbius strip, Klein bottle de la página de Zbigniew Fiederorwicz.

Mathematics in Robinson's sculptures, esculturas basadas en la cinta de Möbius y otros figuras, realmente fantásticas.

Geometría proyectiva, una exposición: en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1999.

Durante los 8 meses de contrato con Steiner la comida y alojamiento a bordo del crucero son gratuitos, corriendo a cargo de Steiner Transocean. La jornada de trabajo es de 5 días y medio a la semana con un turno de 12 horas y un descanso de 2 horas al día. El tiempo libre para ver los países visitados es de 1 día y medio por semana.

Trabajamos con cruceros que viajan por: Canadá, Estados Unidos, el Caribe, Suramérica, Europa, Australia y Lejano Oriente.

Quién puede inscribirse y quién no a una entrevista:

Para trabajar en el ambiente internacional de los cruceros, necesitamos que nuestro personal hable, lea y escriba con un nivel medio de inglés o italiano.

Rogamos que por favor no te inscribas a una entrevista si no te sientes seguro en tu nivel de inglés o italiano. Si tu nivel no es suficiente, puedes comenzar a estudiar para mejorarlo; más tarde podrás solicitar una fecha para que te entrevistemos.

Informamos que daremos prioridad a los currículos que incluyen informaciones acerca del nivel de lenguas habladas, una foto de cuerpo entero recién hecha y también la indicación en el titulo del mensaje, del puesto de trabajo a que se dedica junto a Steiner (utilices uno de los códigos abajo*) y el país donde vive.

• FIT – Instructores de Gimnasio / Fitness
• MAS – Masajistas
• NAIL – Manicuristas
• HAIR – Peluqueros
• AC– Acupunturitas
• BTY – Esteticistas
• REC – Recepcionistas para los centros de Belleza (solo femeninas con italiano e/o inglés fluentes)

Requisitos:

Monitores de Fitness-Aeróbica:

Necesitan dos certificados básicos:

1.-Certificado de Educación Física o diploma de una Escuela deportiva.

2.-Certificado de ejercicio con música (por ejemplo Fisaf/AFA/ IFFA/ SAFE). Puede ser obtenido después de su entrevista.

Demás diplomas de cursos como Thai Bo, yoga, pilates, circuit training, body balancing, spinning, Les Mills son un extra, pero no son necesarios.

Masajistas/Fisioterapeutas/Terapeutas de Spa

El requerimiento básico es un diploma o certificado que cubra un total de 150 horas de conocimientos prácticos y teóricos sobre el masaje de todo el cuerpo.

Esteticistas:

Se aceptan diplomas de Cidesco, Itec, Inter clinitique, ROC o Universidad de IA.

También aceptamos diplomas nacionales, pero el tiempo de enseñanza debe ser al menos de dos años e incluir las siguientes materias:

Terapia de limpieza facial, tratamientos eléctricos faciales, tratamientos eléctricos corporales y masaje corporal completo.

Peluqueros y Barberos:

Aceptamos diplomas o certificados de escuelas nacionales. Para peluqueros, la educación debe ser de al menos un año.

Tanto los peluqueros como barberos necesitarán haber tenido un año de experiencia en peluquería/barbería.

Manicuristas:

Deberán poseer un certificado de la técnica de uñas acrílicas.

Puede ser la técnica Creative, técnica de easy flor o técnica OPI.

La técnica de gel es un extra.

Las manicuristas deben tener un año de experiencia y ser capaces de hacer un juego de uñas acrílicas en una hora y media.

Recepcionistas:

No necesitan ningún diploma pero deberán tener un nivel de inglés alto y saber trabajar con el ordenador.

Otros idiomas son un extra.

El trabajo consiste en estar en la recepción del centro de Spa, a cargo de las citas de la peluquería, salón de belleza y centro de fitness. Un extra será tener experiencia como recepcionista en un centro de fitness, salón de belleza o peluquería.

Para más informaciones, por favor consulta: http://www.str.co.uk  y http://www.steinerleisure.com

Para inscribirse a una entrevista, por favor envía tu CV y una foto a:

Contacta a Debora Trachtenberg
Gerente de Reclutamiento en Sudamérica
Caja Postal 11084
Cod. Postal. 05422-970
Sao Paulo, SP | Brasil
C. 55 11 91836356
F. 55 11 35424987
Email: deborat@str.co.uk

Beeindruckend, was man in der ersten Klasse schon an Sprachen machen kann!

Mne back again. Scrapbooking. Det er så utrolig kult, egentlig. For dere kan være liksom mange venner som enten lager ett eller flere felles album eller dere kan lage hvert deres. Det kan være fra felles/egen ferie eller bare samlealbum av bilder av venner? Det er mange muligheter. Jeg har allerede en ett år gammel scrapbooking-date med en venninne. Kanksje vi tar den i høst. Vi skal da lage en bok med bilder og minner fra en tur vi hadde sammen til England i fjor. Fun fun.

Bilde fra England <3

Du trenger:
- Album. Da en bok med masse store, tomme sider. Helst med hvite eller svarte ark.
- Masse vis av klistremerker. Enten sånne helt ordinary klistremerke som du har (eller lillesøsteren din har) eller du kan kjøpe noen skikkelig fancy klistremerker som er laget helt for scrapbooking. Disse blir überkule i boken din.
- Tape og lim. Tips: kjøp tykke dobbetlsidig tape-biter som du kan bruke under bilder og andre ting, sånn at de "løfter" seg fra siden. Awsome. Og husk en god lim. Kjipt hvis alle tingene din limer inn faller ut.
- Bakgrunns-ark. Kjøp enten vanlige fargede ark, eller spesial ark for scrapbooking. Det er disse du klipper ut ting til sidene eller rett og slett limer bildene dine på.
- Saks. Sier seg selv.
- Alt annet. Minner. Dsv: billetter, kart, postkort, paljetter, fjær, steiner, blader osv osv osv. Dette til å gi boken et ekstra personlig preg.

Gled deg til en veldig sosial, gøy og mimrende aktivitet. Det gjør i alle fall jeg.

La république des livres - Blog LeMonde.fr

Steiner:

"Il est facile de s’asseoir ici, dans cette maison, et de dire : “Le racisme, c’est horrible, non ? ” Mais posez -moi même la même question si je devais vivre dans une maison voisine d’une famille jamaïquaine de six enfants qui écoute du reggae et du rock and roll toute la journée ! Posez-moi la même question si un expert immobilier venait m’apprendre que la valeur de ma maison s’était effondrée depuis qu’une famille jamaïquaine avait emménagé à côté ! Demandez-moi la même chose à ce moment-là ! “"

Le hic c'est que ni Mr Assouline , je suppose, , ni moi, ni les habitants du 16ème chic et moins chic, ni ceux d e Neuilly, ni ceux du septième , ni même ceux des immeubles dont les loyers dépassent quelques centaines d'euros ne voisinent avec des familles bruyantes qui vivent bruyamment du haut en bas de leur immeuble.
Peut -être un peu d' honnêteté intellectuelle ferait du bien par où ça passe .Homme d'esprit ou pas , lâché au café du commerce ,dans les salons feutrés d'un british club ou d' un hôtel particulier " boiseries
dix-huitiéme ", le fait reste identique.
Comme Mr le professeur George Steiner,
Tout le monde aime le calme à la maison.
Ce qui fait la différence entre un homme essayiste, critique, théoricien de la traduction, expert en littérature comparée et un blogger,  c'est ce qu'il convient de dire hautement , la banale vérité ,sans avoir peur de se mordre la langue .Après tout ,est-ce  si difficile?
.l

La historia -alguien lo dijo- es espejo de la paradoja. Paradoja viene a ser, más que la desarmonía simpática de opuestos, la implacable comicidad de lo incomprensible, aquello que, aún siendo elucubrado, no deja de crear fisuras en las pocas ideas que no dejamos que nos arrebaten, en las muchas ideas que ya no parecen querer volver a nosotros. De paradojas se alimentan las vanguardias de la literatura contemporánea y de paradojas va forjándose su

Pero no nos hace falta recalar en el arte para apercibirlo: la vida misma parece moverse a caballo de parodias. Ya las publicidades aceptan el ojo que se atreve a sojuzgarlas con cierta desconfianza y fagocitan ese desconfianza, la trasvisten y hacen que el ojo fiel aprenda a reírse de las dudas del ojo desconfiado, las deje irremediablemente atrás, ya que no hay solución de compromiso, ya que, si ha de haber compromiso, tendrá que ser urgente y por sobre todo efímero.

En un mundo en el que la impostura hace las veces de lo impostado, Baudrillard -si es que no lo hizo- habría de castigar a Foucault: el poder también es parodiable. Acaso la parodia más brutal sea que la omnipresencia del poder foucaultiano venga a decirse simulada, venga a darse por supuesta y nada más. Sólo sistémica. Parafraseo a Gide: me digo, si de algo no me permito dudar, más que de la realidad de mi duda, es de que mi duda es sistémica -así andamos todos, irreconociéndonos en una duda que no parece sernos propia.

Las vanguardias, hoy más que nunca, se emplean en morir en una contracultura intramuros, muros de lo sistémico. Los puntos de ruptura no consisten ya en la forja de una nueva identidad a través de un quiebre con la tradición, sino en la recuperación y en el desglose paródico de actitudes e identidades pasadas.

Entiéndase la contradicción: esa ridiculización que parece ser estandarte estético de las nuevas vanguardias se encuentra en clara consonancia con aquello que ridiculizan, y todo amenaza con ser ridiculizado ya que paródicas son, desde sus primeros esbozos, buena parte de las actitudes artísticas de los últimos años. Aquello que aparentan, aquello que al fin y al cabo parece sustentarlas, porta ya en sus nervios su propia ridiculización y esa ridiculización no hace más que multiplicarse tantas y tan poderosas veces como sea necesario. Nothing is really sacred, escribió Bob Dylan en 1965.

Entiéndase por qué no es del todo una contradicción: no sentimos el peso de estas circunstancias. La postmodernidad adecúa el malestar y el agotamiento de una forma tan grata que no parece estorbarnos. La cultura deviene narcótica y el fármaco ha de renovarse para que no sea nuestro agotamiento el que decaiga. En consecuencia, la novedad deviene lo vanguardista y vanguardista es sino actitud de lo nuevo: producciones vanguardistas, como lo hubiese pensado Marcuse, que no se sustentan por hacer de búfalos, cocodrillos, sino de búfalos un poco más o menos búfalos, búfalos más o menos irascibles, pero siempre búfalos.

Soy ciudadano del mundo, se dicen los más fieles opositores a la globalización. En la forja de una tolerancia a cualquier precio, de una corrección política avasallante -y por demás impostada- los seres se anonimizan, se ningunean los unos a los otros, hacen que el mundo global se haga cargo de su destino, de su futuro y de sus veinte minutos antes de ir a la cama. El bailar todos la misma canción nos legitimiza, remedia nuestras diferencias. La patraña de la igualdad parece calar profundo.

No digo en todos. No cala, al menos, en Hugo Savino.

¿Cuál es el lugar de un gesto vanguardista por contrario, por intransigente, por revoltoso? ¿Cuál es el lugar de los pocos no empeñados en un mundo de empeños a mansalva? El lugar de los que eligen un lugar: uno, acaso uno cualquiera; el lugar de aquellos que pueden hacer de él su escándalo, su paraíso y a su vez, su propia condena. Más que un mundo personal, un mundo al que lo personal traspase, atraviese, inocule finalmente.

Hugo Savino nos concedió muy amigablemente una entrevista que no sufrió los contratiempos habituales. Lo encontramos en Madrid, a pocos días de su llegada a la capital española. La excusa fue Viento del Noroeste (2006), editada por Paradiso. Viento... viene un poco a desmitificar los devaneos id supra. A batallarlos. A exponer al desnudo la vanidad de algunas consignas que mueven hoy al terreno de lo literario. Yo reconozco dos: ser efectivo y ser consciente de una tradición.

La primera hace que la literatura fiche al integrarse de manera absoluta al mundo del discurso organizado, devenga útil -paradoja de paradojas-, y en última instancia, forje al ciudadano. La segunda no es la aparente ingenuidad de mancomunarse con la cultura toda, sino el aceptar la verticalidad de sombras muy contemporáneas. El sueño de Melville lector de Kafka, aquel sueño borgeano, no es ya viable sino con fines de nota al pie en tesis de doctorado. Borges, muy afablemente, hubiese terciado cualquier superstición. La superstición del teórico, del consagrado, del credencialista. La superstición de las sombras, siempre sombras.

Viento del Noroeste, no obstante, no se sostiene mínimamente por un esfuerzo contracultural y contraparódico; importa además la intensidad de una sinfonía stravinskiana, el variopinto intermitente de la ciudad sin tiempo, el sinfín rizomático del convetillo, la carraspera aguda del mal amado apollinereano.

Envalentonada por el pulso írmico, la apuesta de Savino se afianza en la ejecución. Si el relato de Viento... es o no es el mismo todo el tiempo poco importa: lo que se relata, lo que se sostiene es la permanente recreación tonal de una mirada y de un accionar, la camaleónica huída del desperado, del frontera. Con una prosa zigzaguente, arremolinadora, sincopada, guía al ciego entre los tuertos y resuelve que al final de la noche -al final, acaso, de todas las noches-, la mejor manera de volver a casa es perdiéndose. Y se abre paso como una de las más fiables novelas argentinas de nuestro nuevo siglo.

M.A

En Viento del Noroeste, una recurrencia es teorizar entre líneas acerca del realismo. Hablanos de lo que significa el realismo para vos. ¿Cuál es tu relación con las vanguardias de los años setenta-ochenta (Saer, Piglia, Di Benedetto)? ¿Cómo te llevás con su idea del realismo?

El realismo para mí es la peste. Es la vía de las esencializaciones, todo va a origen, a profundidad, a sagrado, es la pérdida de la voz. A mí me interesan los funcionamientos. El realismo es uno de los temas predilectos de los profesores, que discuten con metro en mano los grados y tipos de realismo que habitan en un escritor. Pura demencia universitaria. Para mí es una discusión que pertenece al museo de la ciudad, una antigualla. Así que el realismo es uno de mis odios. Es uno de mis rechazos, si lo querés dicho de manera más civilizada. Con las vanguardias de los setenta y ochenta no me llevé nunca porque yo nunca fui joven, y además, no tuve los medios económicos para ser joven, ni el sistema nervioso lo suficientemente equilibrado, ni vocación a lo colectivo, ni la paciencia para tener maestros, todos requisitos indispensables para formar parte de las vanguardias. Y además todos iban por el lado de Boquitas pintadas, era el soporte de todos los vanguardistas literarios de esos años. Y los soportes son vía a colectivo. Estrangulación de la voz. Y los ochenta ya son de una efervescencia universitaria abrumadora, sobrecogedora, hasta hay una eminente crítica cultural que se felicita en los noventa ante la llegada, al fin, de una camada de escritores-profesores. Y ahí empieza una lucha entre universitarios y críticos para definir quién manda en el territorio de la aprobación. Todos muy solidarios unos de otros. La vieja comedia del reconocimiento. El realismo es una postura de granito, es como hablar con un vegetariano, no quiere escuchar nada. Es más: no tiene escucha. Se la pasa hablando de lengua. Cree que se trata de la lengua. A mí Boquitas me gustó pero no me tocó. Yo prefiero Las leyes de la noche (Héctor Murena), La obsesión del espacio (Ricardo Zelarrayán) o Cómico de la lengua (Nestor Sánchez). Otras lecturas. Mi relación con esas vanguardias es inexistente. Podemos coincidir en una presentación de libros o en una muestra de pintura, pero eso es lo social. En lo que escribo yo trato de que se oigan las voces, cada una y todas gritando en el patio del conventillo, no me preocupo por el género, por la ruptura -otro de los grandes mitos de la vanguardia, el famoso “punto de ruptura”: qué tedio- ni por la llegada al lector. Todo eso está en mi lista de rechazos. Cuando escribo no estoy en el tema, no me interesa el tema, ceñirlo, la eficacia y todas esas boludeces, estoy afuera del cuadro. O si querés sólo me interesa la voz. Tampoco me embarco en la patraña del estilo. El estilo, si es que eso existe, es lo que se ignora, se escribe a lo desconocido. Y el realismo -con esa furia teológica que a veces alcanza, porque quiere ocupar todo el terreno- siempre sabe. Antonio di Benedetto no es un escritor realista. No sabía. Y las teorizaciones de esas vanguardias están llenas de saber. Agarrá las revistas de esos años, Los libros, Literal, Punto de Vista o Sitio, te hago unos diez años de revistas. Nacen viejas. Están embarradas en los saberes de época. Llenas de saber. Cada tanto, como pasa en las revistas, aparece una perla. Que entra sin que el colectivo la pesque. En realidad las revistas literarias están hechas para que el colectivo de monos sabios que las dirigen publiquen cada tanto a un escritor que vale la pena. Y sin que ellos lo sepan. Por eso están lejos de mis intereses. De los dos, Saer y Piglia: Piglia me gusta en sus cuentos. Y además leí que le gusta Gaddis. Una de mis chifladuras. Como verás esas figuras que vos ponés como centrales a mi no me interesaron, nunca me hicieron leer. Ninguno. Néstor Sánchez, sí, me hizo leer. Murena me hizo leer. Todas esas clasificaciones que se hacen desde el punto de vista de la ruptura, ese clisé de las vanguardias, me aburrían: Arlt es del XX, Borges del XIX, Puig es el mayor novelista de la época. O los imperativos de lectura: hay que leer a Raymond Williams o jurar por Adorno. O llevarle una vela a Walter Benjamin. O leer a Trakl por la vía de Heidegger. No, ni ahí. Ni velas ni juramentos. No les bastaba con Lukacs que te traían a Heidegger, el pastorcillo del ser como dice un amigo. Ninguno de los patrones de los ochenta me hizo leer. Tenían veinte palancas de retardo. Descubrían a Joyce por la vía de Lacan o leían a Raymond Williams. O seguían citando a Luckacs. Yo estaba al margen. Algunos mucho Mansilla pero iban a Gilles Deleuze. Te hago un toque rápido. A mí me gusta estar lejos. Solo. Yo me armo mi paisaje. Los patroncitos de estancia -especie muy argentina- no me cautivan. Saben francés pero leen a Sartre. A propósito, acabo de leer que Solyenitzin lo dejó de araca, a él y a su mujer, en un café. Esperando, no los quiso ver. Ahí hay un gesto. Prefiero la voz de mis amigos o voy de un libro a otro libro. Para mí la teoría es un poema del pensamiento, como dice alguien. La Cuarta Prosa o el Dante de Mandelstam son teoría, son “poema del pensamiento”. No esos cursillos sobre género y vanguardia. En los que se termina teniendo la voz del amo. No hubo relación.

Algunos de los autores que nombrás en Viento del Noroeste, como Mastronardi o Cambaceres