Archives for October 2023

"Kafka’s idiosyncrasy is present in each of these writings [by Zeno,Han Yu, Robert Browning, and Søren Kierkegaard], to a greater or a lesser degree, but if Kafka had not written, we would not perceive it; that is to say, it would not exist. The fact is that each writer creates his precursors. His work modifies our conception of the past, as it will modify the future." Jorge Luis Borges (Kafka and His Precursors) "The discontent in our culture has assumed a new quality: It appears as a universal, diffuse cynicism. " Peter Sloterdijk (Critique of Cynical Reason) “I decide who is a Jew.” Karl Lueger (Mayor of Vienna, 1897) "Fiction is history, human history, or it is nothing. But … [Read more...]

"It is quite unimportant what we play with as long as we play, and people who cannot play, who long for unobtainable playthings instead of making a living doll from a handkerchief, are rather stupid.” Georg Groddeck (Letter to Sandor Ferenczi) "In the moment of trauma, children instinctively submit and comply with what abusers want—not just in behavior but in their perceptions, thoughts, and emotions—in order to survive the assault; afterwards they often continue to comply, out of fear that the family will turn its back on them. Notably, a persistent tendency to identify with the aggressor is also typical in children who have been emotionally abandoned by narcissistically … [Read more...]