The subject of Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden, which is available here, is the contract life imposes on a human being as the fundamental condition of its existence. It is explored as the unstated, never negotiated covenant between existence and life; that is, the conditional situation that existence provides to those that live within it, and the […]
Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden
The Ferryman's Obolus – Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden II:III
[First published two years ago, 14 April 2021.] “The Ferryman’s Obolus,” the third and concluding sequence of Part 2 of Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden, “The Covenant of the Lost Arias.” The obolus, an ancient coin, in additional to everyday mercantile use (one obol purchased a bowl of a double magnum of wine, and three secured […]
The Displaced Anxiety of Discontent – Dmitri Shostakovich – String Quartet 1
The Moscow Show Trial of the Twenty-One occurred in March, 1938. It was one of the culminating events of Stalin’s Great Purge of 1936 through 1938. All of the defendants were prominent, and were accused as Trotskyites guilty of murder, assassination, and treason. Particularly prominent amongst them was Nikolai Bukharin, former ally of Lenin and Stalin […]
Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden I:II:1 – Nearing the Apex of Midnight
Mahler and Freud Meet in Leiden, Part One, II:1 . I am wakened to stumble Into the Maritime thunderstorm Of my aging, Lightning flashing through the blinds, Falling water smashing at the house. I picture Dürer in self-portrait With paper almost too wet To sketch on. Cantata strains Of Liebster Jesu, mein Verlangen Play very […]