After the horrific actions at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virgina yesterday and the president’s complicit equivocal response, today I turn to William Pope. L for words, images and objects of wisdom and resistance. I hope to write another time about his amazing Whispering Campaign, spread across Athens and Kassel (below is a shaky […]
Victor Klemperer published his LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (The Language of the Third Reich: A Philologist’s Notebook) in 1947, but he had been taking notes on how Nazi propaganda was changing the German language for at least ten years before then, documenting its daily shifts, like an undercover reporter building his […]
I just returned to Ohio after spending the last two and half months in Europe. While I felt that I was being rather restrained, I still managed to bring back a small red suitcase worth of books from my travels. I persuaded myself that these books were bought out of necessity, especially for my investigations […]
Come on let me out or I’ll explode…I am Noman…of Ithaca, son of Runawayhorse… – Philocleon in Aristophanes’ Wasps Our three Athenians living in Kassel have just finished their daily performance for documenta 14 and they are feeling especially happy and content with their day’s work. Since returning from their act of defiance and resistance, […]
If any lover runs up to him to complain because he is furious at seeing the object of his passion derided on the stage, he takes no heed of such reproaches, for he is inspired only with honest motives and his Muse is no pander. – the Chorus of wasps in Aristophanes’ Wasps Far from […]
I think we’ll win ourselves a name among the Greeks as those who brought an end to warfare. – Lysistrata in Aristophanes’ Lysistrata Previously on Three Athenians in Kassel: After Alexis was kidnapped and nearly eaten and Nina was attacked and had her head shaved, our three Athenians went in search of answers. They visited […]
Your drunken trick has proved a source of blessing for us. – Glycera in Menander’s Perikeiromene The events of yesterday hung over our three Athenians like a cloud. After the cannibals kidnapping Alexis and now some animal-masked, Bob Dylan-quoting gang shaving Nina’s head, they were all very much on edge. They needed some advice and […]
This man of ours that was but now so blustering and warlike, he who won’t permit that women wear their hair full length, lies sprawled out weeping. – Sosias in Menander’s Perikeiromene After their close encounter with cannibals, life was getting back to normal for our three Athenians in Kassel. Alexis was still recovering from […]
Vrekekekex koax koax, vrekekekex koax koax! We, the children of the lakes and the bubbly springs, in harmony, let’s sing! Vrekekekex koax koax, vrekekekex koax koax. – Chorus of Frogs in Aristophanes’ Frogs Last time on Three Athenians in Kassel: Alexis has been kidnapped by a group of Neo-Viennese Actionists who want to sacrifice him […]
What I weigh out tragedy, like butcher’s meat? – Xanthias in Aristophanes’ Frogs It started like any other night for our three Athenians in Kassel, but it would end in tragedy. Sitting in their cozy house, Nina and the documenta 14 official were doing some ’embodying’ research after finishing off their report, while Bia with […]