Today, as a free day before the final class day, I decided to hop out to the Wachau valley one more time with a few people heading out that way. However, this time Matt and I would go on the opposite side of the river, so find some places we had not seen.
The last bike trip, our purpose was the ruins where Richard the Lionheart was held captive. This time, it was to get to the ruins on top one of the mountains that we saw as we rode the first time.
The day was a bit hotter, and my bike was nowhere near as nice, but it was still a stellar trip. Getting off in Melk, we went up to actually explore the Abbey. I was unimpressed with the first few rooms, which are trying to do some fancy new exhibit style, with odd lighting from room to room. However, once we got outside of that half, we were treated to a view of the town & river from the top of the Abbey, before heading through the library. It infuriated a few of us that the coolest part of the Abbey, the library, we could not take photos of. There was an old-world globe, and a globe of the constellations (I've never seen a globe of the constellations) at the two ends of the hallway, which struck me as almost a secular versus sacred opposition (the constellations were painted on like gods).
Past the library were the beautiful stairwells, with a mirror at the bottom to keep the illusion that they are much longer than they were, as well as to see the underside of the stairwell. And coming out at the bottom of the abbey, we encountered....Organs!
Not the Habsburg organs spread through Vienna, but musical organs of the chapel, which I have been waiting to hear this entire damned trip. Oh man, the vibrations that echoed through the room, especially in the bass notes as I stood right below the organ seat. Playing that thing must be orgasmic. I knew that this would be a good day.
After the performance stopped, everybody applauded, and we wandered through the chapel, looking at the skeletons of different people embalmed within. The Abbey was built in the 11th century, and some bones, which we could not see, were of a murdered priest, and had been sent to the Abbey in 1050-something, to be buried. What a wonderful find! To have been kept there, through war and all, for over a thousand years. Even longer than the Habsburgs themselves had been in Austria. I wonder if he will still be buried there in another thousand years.
The Abbey store sold, instead of wine as with Klosterneuburg, herbed liquor akin to Jägermeister. I purchased a small flute of Abbot Georg's Magensonne. It tastes delicious, but I will keep it instead as a souvenir.
I don't understand this place, however, as the entrance has paintings that look like graffiti of ninjas, and then the adjoining garden is filled with cardboard cutouts of odd, magical creatures. Was Melk once rumored to have such beings? Regardless, we left, and, after a brief stint souvenir shopping, began our ride.
I showed the way for AJ and his gang to cross the bridge and head down the Donauradweg on the trail I know and love, while Matt and I carried on straight. Almost immediately, we found some wild blackberries (or berries of some sort) growing along the path, so decided to risk it and eat some. I am still alive today, so it was a safe call.
Our first goal was this gorgeous castle we could see from the bridge the last time around. Coming up on it, however we were stopped by a sign stating 'Privat'. I did not know castles could still be privately owned! I was so pissed. Why don't I own a castle? It's straight unfair I tell you, even if somebody owns a castle, it should be open for the public to see. That castle was gorgeous, built on a cliff overlooking the river. We had no choice but to ride on another couple hours to the castle ruins of Aggstein
(to be continued...)
Sunday, September 16, 2012
the politics of memory
The essay I chose to write was on the Habsburgs and how they achieved legitimacy. There was a different prompt, however, on the Holocaust and the politics of memory. Class sounded pretty evenly split between the two prompts, which I'm surprised by.
I avoided this as an essay because I do not know if I have ten pages' worth to say on it at this point, although I should, as in poetry a "politics of ___" speech seems to be the trending idea at the moment. Politics of language, politics of the page, politics of education, politics of the body, etcetera.
The politics of memory, as I understand it, stems from several items.
1) Memory changes over time
-The insistence by Austrians and Germans that they 'had no idea' when it was impossible to not know.
2) People prefer to forget
-How easily the government can use this to their advantage as well, and how fast horrible events become normal, and commonplace.
3) Each memory is from a specific lens, and it is impossible to see the full picture
4) A memorial controls how a person remembers and perceives an event.
-as in Mauthausen, the smaller, singular concentration camp was chosen to be preserved as that maintains the political image that Austria was not at fault.
-In Auschwitz, the choice at first to highlight political prisoners instead of Jewish murders.
-In Auschwitz now, the almost negation of political prisoners for everything to be focused onJews.
-The lack of coverage on certain groups that are still 'undesirable' today: gypsies, criminals, etc.
5) the purpose of a memorial. Does visiting a memorial, when you already are familiar with the Holocaust, grant you more of a perception, does it illuminate anything extra to think about, and learn coming out of it, or does one get to simply say "I visited Mauthausen, or Auschwitz" and feel better about themselves?
Perhaps they are best to keep because some have the audacity to deny that the Holocaust existed, and perhaps as time goes on the amount of deniers would grow if left unchecked. It is easy to suppress a thing like that. And the memorials are good when somebody is there to adequately explain everything.
And no matter what, certain images give certain impressions. The idea of how many people were cramped into the small bunkers in Mauthausen is something impossible to perceive, especially as there are not as many bunkers crammed in at this time. Everything is perfectly kept up as well, in order to preserve the memorial, but that gets away from the original event.
This also brings up the idea of taxes and expenditure. It would give a better impression of the events if every extermination and concentration camp were kept up, but how much taxes would have to be spent on keeping an event like that around for all to forever see?
Is it ever alright to stop funding the upkeep of these? Should they be allowed to rot and fall, like the ruins of certain castles?
There are a lot of questions within this topic, but I have no answers.
I avoided this as an essay because I do not know if I have ten pages' worth to say on it at this point, although I should, as in poetry a "politics of ___" speech seems to be the trending idea at the moment. Politics of language, politics of the page, politics of education, politics of the body, etcetera.
The politics of memory, as I understand it, stems from several items.
1) Memory changes over time
-The insistence by Austrians and Germans that they 'had no idea' when it was impossible to not know.
2) People prefer to forget
-How easily the government can use this to their advantage as well, and how fast horrible events become normal, and commonplace.
3) Each memory is from a specific lens, and it is impossible to see the full picture
4) A memorial controls how a person remembers and perceives an event.
-as in Mauthausen, the smaller, singular concentration camp was chosen to be preserved as that maintains the political image that Austria was not at fault.
-In Auschwitz, the choice at first to highlight political prisoners instead of Jewish murders.
-In Auschwitz now, the almost negation of political prisoners for everything to be focused onJews.
-The lack of coverage on certain groups that are still 'undesirable' today: gypsies, criminals, etc.
5) the purpose of a memorial. Does visiting a memorial, when you already are familiar with the Holocaust, grant you more of a perception, does it illuminate anything extra to think about, and learn coming out of it, or does one get to simply say "I visited Mauthausen, or Auschwitz" and feel better about themselves?
Perhaps they are best to keep because some have the audacity to deny that the Holocaust existed, and perhaps as time goes on the amount of deniers would grow if left unchecked. It is easy to suppress a thing like that. And the memorials are good when somebody is there to adequately explain everything.
And no matter what, certain images give certain impressions. The idea of how many people were cramped into the small bunkers in Mauthausen is something impossible to perceive, especially as there are not as many bunkers crammed in at this time. Everything is perfectly kept up as well, in order to preserve the memorial, but that gets away from the original event.
This also brings up the idea of taxes and expenditure. It would give a better impression of the events if every extermination and concentration camp were kept up, but how much taxes would have to be spent on keeping an event like that around for all to forever see?
Is it ever alright to stop funding the upkeep of these? Should they be allowed to rot and fall, like the ruins of certain castles?
There are a lot of questions within this topic, but I have no answers.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
28.08.12 the UN!
28.
The UN! with their myriad of projects! My favorite is UNAIDS, which does a lot of good, but I love that if you have AIDS you want to get UNAIDS to help you. A silly question to get out of the way on here, that I did not want to ask as it is a sort of ‘is there a sales tax here?’ type of question, but if somebody happened to be born in the UN, what would the legalities be of that situation? Would the UN at Vienna lead to an Austrian citizenship? Or would it be the same situation as being born in international waters?
After a quick tour of the history of the UN at Vienna, built because at the time it was a crossroads between the USSR and France, Britain, and the US. We had a quick glimpse around the general structure of the building, before we broke for lunch. This was somewhat of a mistake in my eyes. I would have preferred to have the lecture on the IAEA straightaway, followed by lunch, and then the lecture on UNGIFT. Instead we ate first, and with a full stomach we sat inside a dimly lit, warm room, and listened to a very quiet and subdued lecturer for both organizations. Both had extremely interesting information, but it was hard to keep up with it all. This was almost as hard as the video at Mauthausen. I do not function well in warm dark rooms. I tried to ask a question to the lecturer on UNGIFT, but I did not organize my thoughts on the question clearly enough, so I did not get the answer I was looking for. I had tried to ask about how accurately what we see in statistics about worldwide sex trafficking represents its true prevalence in each country. If, say, Japan were to show up exceptionally high in the trafficking report, is that proof then that Japan has a very high rate of sex trafficking, or that they are instead highly effective at capturing and reporting on sex traffickers. This would make them appear to have a much more prevalent case of sex trafficking compared to a country that was more lax on their pursuance, even if the more lax country has a higher rate of trafficking. I’m not sure how I asked it, but he simply restated that the statistics that exist are not all reported cases, more like the tip of the iceberg.
Here was my full list of questions
UN Questions
IAEA
I am mainly interested in the effects of Chernobyl that are still lingering and forgotten or not talked about.
Though I cannot find anything off of a more reputable source such as BBC, from what I can find it seems Ukraine needs around 900 million euros to fund the new sarcophagus project, and yet only 714 euros have been raised. Is anything being done about that remaining amount of money? How much sway does the IAEA have in getting Ukraine funding, and does the IAEA have any amount of funding to donate itself?
To follow up on the Chernobyl doomsday joy, I found this article about the danger of irradiated pine within the exclusion zone. Has there been any push within the IAEA to perhaps deforest this area? And what is the risk then to the natural climate if such a large area is in fact deforested?
Is there any effort being made to educate and better supply the firefighters of Chernobyl? the report states that they know they are fighting a radioactive fire when they experience a ‘tingling in their skin’. That can’t be good.
As a follow up, do you find yourself butting heads with other departments when the interests of radioactive safety comes against other departments’ concerns? Or is the IAEA pretty much top dog here as nobody wants to seem easy on nuclear fallout?
3) How well protected is the nuclear waste?
STUXNET is the very first virus of its kind, that can cause physical damage to turbines and any other actual machine beyond simply corrupting files. Though US and Israel were not intending to cause any nuclear fallout, the virus has since spread around the world, and any hacker with a brain for viruses but no mind for anything else could potentially be able to tweak the virus so that it will now actually damage turbines and generators.
That being said, what new protocols have been implemented in nuclear facilities since the emergence of STUXNET in order to prevent this from occurring?
Has STUXNET affected talks and coordinations with Iran?
UNGIFT
1)Obviously the statistics that are available on human trafficking worldwide are barely the tip of the iceberg, as the vast majority of cases go unreported. However, given that different countries might have different protocol for how they stop human trafficking, and even how they define it, as well as the effectiveness of each country’s efforts is also bound to defer, how accurate would you say the statistics that are available are as representations of human trafficking in its actuality? Are they close at all, or might it be more of a message to people to come out and say that we actually have no idea how serious of a problem this is, except that it is much bigger than what any statistics can show?
2)How does your organization relate to UNODC? Do you work together, do you operate separately, does one organization regulate protocols of the other?
3) It seems to me that the Swedish model seems to be the most effective current method at both catching human traffickers and giving aid to those who have been trafficked. Does your organization do any lobbying to any countries requesting that they change their system of laws surrounding prostitution and trafficking?
24.08.12 the Last Class
24.
Our last class! the course made a whirlwind accounting of the most recent two hundred years. Line of the day: “Napoleon! Um...Long story short: He lost”. I think we may have skimmed over some important details here and there. Class was held like the Beller book, just rapid fire information. But I’ve just had a course that spanned 1789 to 1914, so I was used to most of that information. I’m surprised in the Parsons book that it seems to be almost pro-Metternich. Things he tries are done because he has to follow the king’s wishes. From the little history I know, I find Metternich responsible for drastically holding back Austria, to catastrophic results. The 1800’s would have been far more stable had he, instead of being reactionary, been more open minded to policies of nationalism. Instead he created a police state, quashed intellectual debate, and suffocated a nation.
After class was held, Ben, Cole, Jackie and I headed to CNA to look at lederhosen. I was unsure of whether I would want to buy any until I tried the black lederhosen on. And once I realized the front flap opens up for men to relieve themselves...I was sold. It may be the most expensive purchase I have made out here in Europe, but I regret nothing.
As soon as I got home I changed into them, and surprised AJ and Sean. It was a look of pure beauty, and heading out into the town at night, out to the Danube’s clubs, was a complete success.
Word of the Day: die Nachrichten - the News
Jeder Morgen lese ich die Nachrichten. Meine Lieblingsnachricthenquelle ist BBC, aber ich sollte ein gutes Blog finden.
Word of the Day: die Nachrichten - the News
Jeder Morgen lese ich die Nachrichten. Meine Lieblingsnachricthenquelle ist BBC, aber ich sollte ein gutes Blog finden.
23.08.12
23. Today we left for the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. I learned much more in this visit than I did when Frankl came to speak with us. As soon as the tour began, our guide elevated the tour to a college level, and spoke about the fact that history is viewed through different lenses - yes! As soon as he mentioned that and the politics of memory, I knew we were in for a good tour. When I took a tour of Auschwitz, the guide spoke only of what was there. She mentioned nothing of the past versions of the exhibit, or of other memorials, or any existing gaps in coverage. My friend had asked, and she finally mentioned that the houses depicted which Jews and other prisoners slept in had all been torn down, and the existing ones were in fact reconstructed. I am guessing they don’t like giving out that information due to it ruining the experience of picturing how the Jews lived. No matter how it’s reconstructed, it will always be an artist’s representation of the real ordeal.
Our guide, Daniel, gave us everything. He talked about the existence of other, larger camps, but how Mauthausen works because it was a centralized location, which makes it easier to digest for the Austrians who are busy denying their role in WW2. He mentioned the swimming pool that was still used after the war, and how the concentration camp was even used for storage by the people in the surrounding town, that’s now normal the camp had become. That everybody knew there were people being burned inside the walls, a tower of the black smoke of corpses, but had a venue to ignore. Though America doesn’t have anything nearly as bad as the Holocaust happening, it shows just how easy it is to ignore the worst event imaginable, so any transgressions that America makes are even more easily shrugged off. That’s how hard it is to make progress, to stay permanently sensitive to the surrounding events. I know I am nowhere near that sensitive or aware of what is going on around me, and perhaps I should make more of a concerted effort to be so.
Daniel mentioned a book on how IBM supplied and designed the computers that Nazis used, and even sent workers from camp to camp to make sure the computers were working properly. And he led us through a deep discussion on the usefulness of memorials, what is truth in them and what is false. Whether they spread awareness and understanding, or whether people go to one simply to feel like now they’re a better person for having gone. The barracks shown where the Jews were housed, for instance, only contain half the racks, if that, and they do not show how many people slept per rack or what it was like to be completely crammed, 800 to one barrack meant for 60. Without a guide I would have never guessed that. Perhaps Ruth Kluger is right, that it is not necessary to have these memorials, they do not provide much. However, I would argue that with a properly educated guide, as Daniel was, who is willing to engage the visitors and open a discussion, it is a much more intense event that does stick with you. When it is just a place to go to, such as Auschwitz, there winds up being people who take pictures smiling in front of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign, as if that is a great spot for a family picture. And in the standing cellars below, where 4 people would stand in a 4 square foot space, a girl posed in front making “duck lips”, possibly for one great facebook picture. I hope her friends will call her out on it when she posts it.
22.08.12 Leopoldine Museum
22-The Leopold Museum was what was in store for today. Our final tour with Doctor O unfortunately, but she took us around the few floors showing the history of Klimt and Schiele more than anything. Leopold started his collection after inheriting a stamp collection worth more than I’ve ever thought a stamp collection could be. With this money he got a few paintings, including some Klimt, to get himself started. We went over countless postcards of Klimt’s, but I wish the one was shown of his lifelong, platonic partner, where it reveals she knew about his syphilis and would have nothing to do with that. I forgot to ask if he’s always so prominently displayed or if that is only because this is the 100th anniversary of his life. I wonder how big things will be for Schiele. Doctor O also pointed out his painting of the nun and priest to me, and her explanation of the painting definitely helped my efforts and gave me some material to research and incorporate into the poem I am working on, also about the Kiss. The mentioning of the feet, their dirt and humanity, has given me a new way of looking at the moss in my own poem:
A Statuette
Tension between their lips, almost touching
stopped in a moment of intrusion
Her arm curves around his neck
fingernails taste his skin
She guides him as much as he holds her
A convergence perfectly balanced
Moss blankets them, their bodies
tinged by years of dirt and rain
Though they did not move
I knew them to be my parents
I glide my hand over the definitions of his arms
and down the long curve of her back
My mother’s skin fragile despite the stone
as though the wind had carved her into existence
I place my hand against my father’s stomach
And wait there for a sign of breath
The wet moss is cool in morning sun
it cushions my touch as I smear the dirt
I place my face between their breasts,
breathe in the earth and stone, warmth impenetrable
I’ve still more work to do on this piece, but I know finally what direction I want to take it.
Word of the Day: der Verstand: The mind.
Ich bin außerhalb des meinem Verstandes
Ich bin außerhalb des meinem Verstandes
21.08.12 Belvedere
21. -Today we came to the Belvedere once again, but this time to go inside for a tour. While waiting outside, I tried my first Hugo, which will be my goal to find on my return to the States. Prosecco, Elderflower Cordial, carbonated mineral water, and some mint leaves, and you’ve got the most delicious, classy drink you can ever experience. {LINK TO HUGO}. I will miss Austria.
In the first stairwell inside the Belvedere, there were three modern statue installations that people reacted to. The first was a hooded man, but not many noticed him. Front and center was an emaciated man with arms outstretched, vulnerable, and to counterbalance him to his right was a tall, muscular statue of a woman in a sort of Arnold Schwarzenegger shoulder flex. This was my favorite part of the museum, as you could instantly watch the psyche of each male without them realizing it. Every man’s instant reaction to the powerful woman was a desire to fight, or sleep with, or dominate her in at least some manner. The woman is not in any violent position, she’s if anything standing at a form of parade rest. What is it that drives men to an instant desire to fight? Some sort of basic instinct and excitement that the statue works against.
Inside the Belvedere Doctor O expressed to us the concept of ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, which dominated the upper Belvedere. The lighting, the art, music, the gilded walls, the marble flooring, the people in proper attire, everything works together in an entire setting, to give Eugene of Savoy’s Summer home a cathartic quality.
We looked at some examples of Biedermeier paintings, which were all much more focused on singular moments of families, sitting together reading a book or sharing dinner, or a landscape painting. Works which show no concern for anything happening in the world. There w
Arnold Schönberg led the Second Viennese school, and his entire early drive was to expand the theories of harmony, until he finally moved beyond harmony altogether in his atonal music. His early work I have always (always being since I first heard him a couple years ago) enjoyed more, as I feel more heart and creativity in the early efforts. As Schönberg developed his 12 tone music, it became far too systematic for my taste, and music students also began to hate him as people would no longer study what chord changes and melody he was focusing on but rather what part of the 12 tone system he was on, measure by measure. This is the point where “classical music” began to detach from popularity, as the composers stopped caring about what the listener wanted to hear and instead indulged deeply into their own desires. It is the same masturbatory approach that drove jazz away from popularity, or modern art, or poetry, or many high-art forms. They are only just now beginning to make a comeback as artists care again about an audience. This fits right in with the processes of Modernism, as they looked for alternative expressions to represent the new industrial world. But I understand Modernism best by looking at Post-Modernism. The Modernist was much more confident that their progress was the correct progress, it was far more Western/Anglo-centric, and pushed its opinions outward. Post-Modernism comes after the Great War, when the realities of Progress and Industry were shattered, and the Western world realized they can still be just as violent as any other culture, if not more so. Hence, to me, Modernism is about expressing the answers they knew they had in different manners, without asking questions, and Post-Modernism is about asking questions in new methods but never arriving at an answer. Klimt and Schiele were at that very edge of what would become Post-Modernist. The entire Secession was an early form of looking at the dominant culture around and pushing against that, but Schiele went much further, expressing the beauty in the underrepresented (such as prostitutes), even in a distraught and ‘ugly’ painting style. Klimt still painted the rich, and in so doing pandered to their tastes of higher fashion. I am not so fond of his gold-leafed paintings. However, I love the post-orgasmic expression of Judith, and the Kiss is a powerful work. Each person has their own opinion of it, but personally I feel that it is closer to a rape. The toes of the woman seem to be grasping at the grass beneath her, and the edge of the cliff seems to be something she would fall off if the man were to let go. It is entirely up to the man to keep her or release her, as he overpowers her and supports her. The girl seems to enjoy the kiss but can she truly enjoy it if she has no choice, and is she merely playing into the role so that she does not plummet? I much prefer Rodin’s ‘the Kiss’, as it is a perfect balance between to equal participants, or Schiele’s in which both are in the middle of prayer. Schiele’s Doctor O said I would see at the Leopold.
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