2 posts tagged “non-fiction”
The Solitary Man
No, what my heart will be is a tower,
and I will be right out on its rim:
nothing else will be there, only pain
and what can't be said, only the world.
Only one thing left in the enormous space
that will go dark and then light again,
only one final face full of longing,
exiled into what is always full of thirst,
only one farthest-out face made of stone,
at peace with its own inner weight,
which the distances, who go on ruining it,
force on to deeper holiness.
- rilke
I was wandering through borders yesterday when I picked up Love and Death by Patrick Suskind (yes, there's supposed to be an umlaut there but I can't be arsed putting it in). It's a sublime meditation on love and its deep connection with death. He provides examples from his own life but focuses heavily on what other writers through out time have had to say. He's the kind of guy that has this deep appreciation for everything that happens in front of him. I see him as insightful as Rilke about the human condition. There's a certain depth to him that lets him penetrate words and meanings and provide moments of clarity when you read what he has to say. It's a very quick read but something that has to be read slowly to truly appreciate the weight of his words. I was out reading in the sun so I had plenty of time to read and meditate. It prompted me to pick up perfume which I haven't started yet but if it contains the same kinds of insights I know I will love it.
The danger is that memories fade and give rise to opportunities to lessen or to politicise the events instead of seeing it for what it is, murder is murder. It was with disgust I watched International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust take place and hosted by Iran. It's good to debate history. It's good to try to get the facts right. What doesn't make sense is to have a pseudo-academic conference where only one way of thinking is espoused. In this case trying to revise the holocaust to try and lessen the tragedy. Changing numbers from 6 million to 1 million doesn't change what happened. It doesn't change the memories of a brother watching his younger sister walking into a crematorium and knowing her fate while she is unaware of her impending death. It doesn't change being dehumanized to the point where you would rather save yourself than your dying father who is screaming for you in his last minutes as a SS officer beats him to death. Individual memories of brutality don't leave so easily. It's a disgrace to our evolution that the collective memory of humanity is much more flippant.
