Uncategorized
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Simone de Beauvoir *I 9 1908 — The Life You Give
Simone de Beauvoir, born Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir on January 9, 1908, in Paris, France, is the writer and feminist, a member of the intellectual fellowship of philosopher-writers who have given a literary transcription to the themes of existentialism. She is known primarily for her treatise Le Deuxième Sexe, 2 vol. (1949;…
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Fritz Lang *XII 5 1890 — The Life You Give
Fritz Lang, born Friedrich Christian Anton Lang on December 5, 1890, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, is the motion-picture director whose films, dealing with fate and people’s inevitable working out of their destinies, are considered masterpieces of visual composition and expressionistic suspense. Lang had already created an impressive body of work in the German cinema before coming…
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Marcel Proust *VII 10 1871 — The Life You Give
Marcel Proust, born Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust on July 10, 1871, in Auteuil, near Paris, France, is the novelist, author of À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27; In Search of Lost Time), a seven-volume novel based on Proust’s life. The novel explores its subject matter from a psychological and allegorical standpoint and…
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Franz Kafka *VII 3 1883 — The Life You Give
Franz Kafka, born July 3, 1883, in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now in Czech Republic] is the writer of visionary fiction whose works — especially the novel Der Prozess (1925; The Trial) and the story Die Verwandlung (1915; The Metamorphosis) — express the anxieties and alienation felt by many in 20th-century Europe and North America. Life…
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George Theophilus Walker *VI 27 1922 — The Life You Give
George Walker was one of America’s most honored composers, having had his works performed by every major orchestra in the country, and was the first African-American composer to win a Pulitzer Prize for music. He composed nearly 100 pieces in forms ranging from solo piano pieces and songs to concerti and symphonies and was also…
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Samuel Beckett *IV 13 1906 — The Life You Give
Samuel Beckett, born Samuel Barclay Beckett, on April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland, was author, critic, and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot). Samuel Beckett was…
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“Persona” — Days with Ingmar Bergman *VII 14 1918 / The Life You Give
asdf adfp The Persistence of Persona (excerpts) Persona is instantly recognizable thanks to two shots that have become its emblems: a boy touching a woman’s face on a giant screen and two women looking at each other (and us) across an imaginary mirror. Defining images for the film, they also stand for an idea of the…
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Love is out of our control
It is for this reason that for years I have avoided defining it, or, at least have refused to see it within the commonly given personified contexts. I can no longer trust societal and human habits of conceptualizing surroundings, and existence, as we succumb to language and communication by the use of single words as…
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The Life You Give: Samuel Beckett *1906
Samuel Beckett, born Samuel Barclay Beckett, on April 13, 1906, in Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland, was author, critic, and playwright, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot). Samuel Beckett was…
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The Life You Give: André Previn *1929
Known as a successful classical conductor, jazz pianist, and composer of jazz, classical, and film music, André Previn frequently bridged the gap between popular and so-called “serious” music, and in doing so broadened the horizons of both. A German-American who fled Nazi Germany with his family in his youth, he went on to win four…
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The Life You Give: Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin *April 1 1755
Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, born Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, on April 1, 1755, in Belley, France, was lawyer, politician, [judge, violinist}, and author of a celebrated work on gastronomy, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste). Brillat-Savarin followed the family profession of law. A deputy of the Third Estate at the Estates-General of 1789, he was forced to flee…
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Personal Lexicon: Luxury
The mere human experience is a luxury. Breathing Smiling Tasting —- luxury And the soul, ingesting and releasing expressions which can never be physically encapsulated.
Sila Blume 