L'âne de Schubert
"Entendre le braiment primal, suivre les mouvements de son allure maladroite, baisser sa garde, se débarrasser de ce que Janov appelle "le système irréel", c'est un gros risque à courir: de nos jours, être sans défense veut dire être idiot, être un perdant, une créature risible - un âne, un Gribouille. Peut-être pouvons-nous essayer d'y parer par nos éclats de rire tous les deux ensemble, braire à coeur joie, bien fort, être tous bien gentils, comme le prince Mychkine. Je brais en ce moment, à ma façon curieuse, sachant ce qui m'arrive, sachant ce que savait le prince et qu'Anne Sexton a presque su: si nous étreignons un âne, si nous pénétrons au fond de son être, nous pouvons nous dispenser d'être intelligents, oublier tout ce qui nous concerne, oublier ce moi que le monde veut nous voir incarner. Nous pouvons assouvir notre faim, sentir la chaleur d'un âne, tendre la main vers son innocence, regarder nos défenses s'écrouler, redevenir plus purs. Mais fuir sur un âne, c'est davantage que de prendre des vacances et de partir marcher. Fuir sur un âne, c'est braire pour la vie, braire à tout jamais. C'est "tout rapporter à la maison", braire dans la vai quotidienne, là où braire a le plus d'importance."
Andy Merrifield, L'âne de Schubert
Libellés : Photos
posted by
katch
@
7:49 AM
3 Comments:
A meaningful , poetic passage of A. Merrifield . Is it from his ‘WISDOM WITH DONKEYS ‘ -
Finding Tranquillity in a Chaotic World - a book I have been trying to find unsuccessfully so far , intrigued by the author and his work )
With the risk of spoiling the beauty of this text some of the
reflections it has lead me into , especially regarding the fascinating personage of Dostoievski ‘s Prince Myshkin ( The original title for The Idiot )
It is so much
actual , so well present in our modern society , the one of the unacceptable
way of judging people not according to their qualities as human beings ,
but to the falsity of their “ achievements , the obscene labelling them as “winners versus ‘losers.”
In Prince Myshkin , Dostoievski , whom a lot of critics consider being influenced by Cervantes’s Don Quichote , introduces the eternal concept of Dualism good –evil , the tragic consequences occurring when
the kindness , humility , innocence , impersonated by the Prince confront the eternal corruption of society.
What the latter considers his naiveté , even ‘ idiocy ‘ is in fact his moving , sincere search for truth in human relations , which he pursues to the bitter end
The enormous influence of this masterpiece on philosophy and literature is well
known.
Nietzsche : “ The only psychologist from whom I have something to learn is
Dostoievski “
The impact of this work on people approaching it with a slight apprehension :
My personal opinion ( for what it is worth ) I have always thought that the reader remains full of
empathy , love and benevolence for this gigantic failure of a man , he often becomes even emulated , converted to Mychkin’s values , which probably confirms the idea that in every human being there is always a little child , and in every heart there is a
tiny sparkle of innocence and purity !
We definitely don’t want to see IT infringed and totally annihilated , we strive to defend it !
The absolutely sublime message of Dostoievski !
Wasn’t it Romain Gary who wrote in Les Enchanters 'That killing the child in each OF us would be the end of the art itself ' ? ( quoted by memory )
And something from Christian Bobin who in his book “ La Lumière du monde “ -Paroles réveillées et recueillies par Lydie Dattas –
parle plusieurs fois du livre ‘Idiot ‘ ,qu’ il avait lu à l age de 17 ans , surtout la parallèle avec
M.Proust ‘Recherche du temps perdu ‘
« Proust est un esthète et Dstoievski un vivant . C’est un éclat pur de vie
comme une étincelle qui saute du feu «
( Christian Bobin - La Lumière du Monde . p 62 )
A message started without intention to go on a such large scale , neither to transform it into didactics on ethics , even if it seems …
As far as I know the English title is "Schubert's Donkey", too.
Il est aussi beaucoup question de Don Quichotte dans les rêveries de Merrifield, ainsi que de "Au hasard Balthazar", le film de Robert Bresson (la référence à Schubert en est tirée).
C'est le moment où Mychkine raconte son arrivée à Bâle, l'importance que la voix d'un âne a eue pour lui, qui fait que Dostoievski a une grande place dans les rêveuses digressions Merrifield.
Merci pour la citation de Nietsche, mise en parallèle avec les propos de Bobin, cela me fait penser à ce qu'à dit Pontalis lorsqu'il a commencé à diriger la collection "L'un L'autre" chez Gallimard (plusieurs livres de Bobin y sont parus, notamment le dernier, un des plus beaux, sur Emily Dickinson: "La dame blanche"), à savoir que c'était un hommage qu'il entendait ainsi rendre à ce que la psychanalyse doit au roman.
Et là il y aurait de nombreux passages du monumental "Pour Sganarelle" de Gary qui feraient écho à cette belle citation de "Les enchanteurs".
Merci pour ce beau développement, pour cet arc-en-ciel dessiné jusqu'au fondamental de l'enfance.
So nice that you have enlightened some points , Sganarelle is tempting me to plunge in its rather strenuous material…
Speaking about common elements Cervantes- Dostoievski ( and about the ever present dilemma kindness = folly ? ) I remember to have
read time ago an appreciation of Dostoievski .stating “ The best ( or the only ) character in literature I recognize is that of Don Quichote .”
Apart from the already mentioned rapport Myshkin – Don Quichote. it is believed that the protagonist of
D. ‘s novel ‘The Double ‘ is also very much modelled on the La Mancha man
The writer who had endowed world literature so much and left in it his indelible mark
has also been object of severe criticism , mostly from European writers and
critics , rarely Russian .
They had attributed his works to insanity , illness unbalance , condemned the explosive atmosphere permeating his novels , the badly structured narration , the lack of style and linguistic skills.
A lot of these defects could be real and justified as it is for me the generally inexistent description of nature’s beauty .
But what moves this genius is only the man , his essence , his psyche !
He is in a state of the highest agitation , rushed to the maximum , has no use , no time or patience for any other embellishments.
I see him as a surgeon holding the scalpel over the human soul , impatient
to plunge it into it , to dig , every time deeper and deeper hoping to reach its sacra sacrorum , to expose its darkest sides to the light , to understand it once for ever… and
to reveal its full range of human experience , from the lowest to the most elevated spiritual one .
The action in his magnificent novels usually develops in a period of a few days, so it doesn’t allow us to see the evolving of the personages in a long
range of time as in the novels of the existent literary movement .
Very often his forever tortured , tormented characters are just symbols of his
ideas , search for truth , justice , for alleviating suffering , for protecting the weak , for redemption through suffering .
Aware that I have stretched too much this argument , allow me to say how
Virginia Wolf ended a paper on Dostoievsky :
“ Out of Shakespeare there is no more exciting reading !”
As far as the connection Dostoievski – Nietzsche there is an interesting coincidence of fiction and reality for them.
In his masterpiece Crime and Punishment , Razkolnikov seeing a coachman
whipping savagely an old tired horse and killing him , experiences a troubled
premonition of the crime he has been planning , feels it as a symbol of it and suffers a breakdown ( according to different interpretations the horse is an emblem of D.’s tormented life )
Nietzsche in 1889 while in Turin at the Piazza t Carlo Alberto , witnesses the cruel whipping of a horse , runs to protect him,
puts his hands around his neck , cries loud and collapses on the ground.
This was the beginning of his mental illness.
Coincidence ?
Who knows ?
Many thanks to Katch and the readers of his interesting Blog for the space
accorded me ,
but most of all for the continuous intellectual enrichment , the emotions
granted us from his own poetic texts , photos and music !
Merci , Karim ,
Jane.
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