Archive for the ‘Writers’ Category
Small feasts
Denton Welch, according to his diaries, was an inveterate picnic-er (if that is a word). This is a typical repast: “When we got to the opening which led into the wood, we pushed our bicycles up over the brambles and leaves; we came out at the charming clearing that I knew, and we laid my [...]
Filed under: Books, Food, World War II, Writers | Closed
Tags: Denton Welch, Eric Oliver, food, picnic, Ryvita
It is with profound joy
While we’re on Klemperer, I’d like to add a digression on the birth announcement of my mother, which appeared in January 1943. It read something like “With the most profound joy we would like to announce the birth of our daughter Brünnhilde. May she give birth to many courageous warriors. Munich, The Brown House.” The [...]
Filed under: Books, Germany, History, Linguistics, Mother, Third Reich, Victor Klemperer, World War II, Writers | Closed
Tags: 1943, birth announcements, Das Braune Haus, death announcements, family announcements, Lingua Tertii Imperii, LTI, Martin Bormann, my grandfather, my mother, The Brown House, Victor Klemperer
The pursuit of happiness
A few years ago I read all of Victor Klemperer’s Diaries – from 1933 to 1959. I read them in the subway on the way to work, at a time when I felt overwhelmed and miserable. I figured it would be therapeutic to read about the daily life of someone who had it so much [...]
Filed under: Books, Germany, History, Third Reich, Victor Klemperer, World War II, Writers | Closed
Tags: bombing of Dresden, Dölzschen, diaries, Eva Klemperer, Hadwig Klemperer, happiness, miserableness, Muschel, persecution of Jews, Q train, stoicism, Third Reich, Victor Klemperer
The final loosening
Walter Serner’s Letzte Lockerung (hard to translate: last loosening? final loosening?) was one of the guidebooks of my teenage years. It billed itself as a guide to conmanship, and contains several hundred themed aphorisms and directives on how to live life with a certain kind of haute grifter style. It is imbued with a 1920s [...]
Filed under: 1980s, Books, Childhood, Germany, History, Third Reich, Walter Serner, World War II, Writers | Closed
Tags: aphorisms, cool, detachment, Dorothea Herz, Dorothea Serner, guide to living, Letzte Lockerung, mortality, murder, Walter Serner, World War I
When I ran away
I ran away from home as a teenager, to London, via the North of France. And London is where I then lived for the next twelve years. I had packed a little suitcase, and instead of taking the train to work I took the train to Charleville-Mézières. In that little suitcase wasn’t a whole lot. [...]
Filed under: 1980s, Books, Jacques Rigaut, Writers, Youth | Closed
Tags: 1984, adolescence, Agence Générale du Suicide, anhedonia, despair, indifference, Jaques Rigaut, Le livre de Monelle, Marcel Schwob, running away, survival tools
What is style?
Jean Genet There are many definitions of what style is. I’d like to add mine. Style is a response to injury – it’s a way of dealing with pain. Those that are truly stylish, and not merely fashionable or well turned out, are often those who grew up deprived of love or attention, who had [...]
Filed under: 1980s, Books, Childhood, Fashion designers, Germany, Mother, Writers, Youth | Closed
Tags: 1970s, adolescence, childhood, clothes, Jean Genet, my mother, Pain, style, Vivienne Westwood
When I first started this blog I had decided that this would be a documentation of my journey into patternmaking. The kinds of patterns you need to make clothes. Because I like clothes, design and sewing. I had arrived at some kind of crossroads in my life where I decided to work less and make [...]
Filed under: Books, Childhood, Music, photography, Writers, Youth | Closed
Tags: connecting dots, patternmaking, seeing patterns
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