because there could be no mistakes…
When almost four years ago I congratulated You-Know-Who to his inauguration, I used pictures from the spectacular Tulip Trestle near Solesbury as an illustration. These days I have revisited this place, and it is as imposing as four years ago.
In the last two years, I have found in László Krasznahorkai’s books consolation for the state of the world and the human soul, and with the imminent beginning of winter, I decided to read his latest (and maybe last) novel Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming.
I also decided to do this as an excruciatingly slow read, and I will occasionally accompany my postings here with quotes from this book.
It begins with a brief chapter titled Warning, where an orchestra conductor imposes himself on his orchestra:
… because there’s only one method of performance here which can be executed in only one way, and the harmonization of those two elements will be decided by me …
But there is not just pure control, there also is purpose…
… because in reality what awaited them now was suffering, bitter, exhausting, and torturous work, when shortly (as the one single accomplishment of their cooperation, albeit an involuntary one), they would insert into Creation that for which they had been summoned; …
This brief chapter sums up how a human being usurps what is not his to claim.
… because I am the one who, by the truth of God, is simply waiting for all of this to be over.
The Inner Frame 