In the meantime continuing in X: x.com/JohnWynberg

not a possibility. The world will take your life. But above all and lastly the world does not know that you are here. You think that you understand this. But you dont. Not in your heart you dont. If you did you would be terrified. And you’re not. Not yet.”

Cormac McCarthy, The Passenger, 2022.

“You will never know what the world is made of. The only thing that’s certain is that it’s not made of the world. As you close upon some mathematical description of reality you cant help but lose what is being described. Every inquiry displaces what is addressed. A moment in time is a fact, [+]

📷 Ben Nicholson, Feb 2-54, 1954. [Tate Modern]

He even took his theory further and thought in fact that it was possible to describe human action and emotion by geometrical figures.”

Jan Potocki, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, 1804/1810. [Tr. Ian MacLean]

“[…] my father, who applied mathematical formulae to all reasoning, as I have told you, thought that geometry could be applied to history in order to determine the relationship between events which really occurred and those which might have occurred. [+]

Il allait même plus loin, car il croyait pouvoir représenter les actions et les passions humaines par des figures de géométrie. »

Jan Potocki, Le Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse, version de 1804.

« [...] mon père qui appliquait le calcul à tout croyait aussi en faire usage dans l'étude de l'histoire et déterminer dans quelle proportion, dans quel rapport de probabilité, ce qui est arrivé était avec ce qui eût pu arriver. [+]

📷 Yves Tanguy, The Chance-comers II, 1942.

Según ellos el Antiser (o Dios del Mal) operaba sobre los hombres a través de las distorsiones idiomáticas.”

Alberto Laiseca, Los Sorias, 1998.

“Consideraban que el inconsciente colectivo estaba contaminado por múltiples «manijas» aberrantes. («Manija», en el léxico tecnócrata, significaba aproximadamente: error vigoroso, alucinación, influencia fuerte y nefasta.) [+]

Óscar Domínguez. La conquista del mundo por la imagen:
teatenerife.es/panorama-osc...

📷 Óscar Domínguez, Untitled, 1935. [Oil on canvas]

“In my day, the distrans was implanted only in the lower animals.”
But revenue information must be kept secret, Scytale thought. More than one government has fallen because people discovered the real extent of official wealth. [3/3]

Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah, 1969.

One could never tell what obstacle might be placed between sender and addressee. The distrans defied political cryptology because it relied on subtle distortions of natural sound patterns which could be scrambled with enormous intricacy.
“Even his tax officials use this method,” Farok complained.

“He uses men to carry his distrans messages,” Farok said. “It demeans men to implant wave translators in them. A man’s voice should be his own to command. It should not carry another man’s message hidden within its sounds.”
Scytale shrugged. All great powers used the distrans in this age. [1/3]

📷 Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Customs and Fashions of the 'Turks', 1553.

„Ein Irrtum zu meinen, mit Kindern wäre man weniger allein in der Welt. Man hat nur noch mehr Alleinsein in die Welt gebracht.“

Albrecht Selge, Silence, 2024.

🖼️ Gottfried Helnwein, The Father with the Nose, 1972. [Watercolour and coloured pencil on cardboard, 21 x 19 cm]

loving, growing up, struggling, feeling happy, feeling sad. […] I struggle not against people who buy and sell apartments and cars and try to get married and have children but I struggle with extreme anxiety for a novelty of spirit.”

Clarice Lispector, A Breath of Life, 1978. [Tr. Johnny Lorenz]

“I try to keep myself isolated from the agony of depending on others, and that agony that seems to them a game of life and death masks another reality, a truth so extraordinary that they would keel over in fright were they to face it, as in a scandal. Meanwhile, they’re studying, working, [+]

🖼️ Valerio Adami, Intérieur de l'Hôtel Durrantes avec douche et fauteuil, 1968. [243 x 180 cm]

versunken erst in einem Menschen selbst, dann mit diesem Menschen versenkt ins Grab oder Feuer und in der Vergangenheit.“ [4/4]

Albrecht Selge, Silence, 2024.

Auch im Leben eines gestorbenen Menschen — meiner Mutter, meines Vaters, jedes anderen — muss es diese Momente des Mit-sich-selbst-Seins gegeben haben, und auch sie kommen mir wie große Geheimnisse vor, vielleicht die allergrößten, niemals zu lüftenden: [3/4]

Unsagbares Weltempfinden vielleicht, wie es Robert Walser auf seinem Spaziergang empfand oder empfing. Oder jene plötzlichen Zustände der (trügerischen, illusorischen, dennoch seelig-gemütig machenden) Gnade, die sich in Schuberts Musik so abrupt ereignen. [2/4]

„Wenn ich an Momente meines Lebens zurückdenke, die ich als «bedeutend» empfinde, dann sind das meistens keine äußerlich einschneidenden Ereignisse, sondern eher mysteriöse, schwer zu fassende Momente des Mit-mir-selbst-Seins. [1/4]

🖼️ Horst Janssen, Selbst mit Nachtmütze, 1979.

but he settles for an obstinate pendulum swing, depending on the time of day."

Hervé Le Tellier, The Intervention of a Good Man, 2007. [Tr. Adriana Hunter]

"There are not fifty different ways to tackle fifty. There are two: in the first instance, you persuade yourself you are still young; in the second, you complain you are already old. Our hero ought to reject both, one out of realism, the other out of a concerted effort of will, [+]