La Sylphide and Les Filets de Vulcan

"Thinking his sylph has returned, he rushes over, only to find the witch"

from the plot of ballett "La Sylphide"

Théophile Gautier said

"After La Sylphide, Les Filetes de Vulcan and Flore et Zéphire were no longer possible, the Opéra was given over to gnomes, undines, salamandres, elves, nixes, wilis, peris - to all that strange and mysterious folk who lend themselves so marvelously to the fantasies of the maitres de ballet"

(Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850)

Gertruda Stein and kōans

Suppose no one asked a question, what would be the answer

Gertruda Stein

Two hands clap and there is a sound. What is the sound of one hand?

Hakuin Ekaku

Sylvia Plath, Nicaragua and People Who Don't Read

In my diary on my fieldwork in Nicaragua in 2007 I wrote:

In my project I asked if people expressed their thoughts on the volcano "through music, dance, rituals, literatur". The question seems ridiculous to me now. About 50% of them cannot read and the rest is not intersted in reading. They say themselves that after going down to the town eller to the water reservoir and back home, they just want to rest. In most cases it means getting into bed and sleep to be able to to get up at dawn, at the latest.

In July 1950 Sylvia Plath wrote in her diary:

I may never be happy, but tonight I am content. Nothing more than an empty house, the warm hazy weariness from a day spent setting strawberry runners in the sun, a glass of cool sweet milk, and a shallow dish of blueberries bathed in cream. Now I know how people can live without books, without college. When one is so tired at the end of a day one must sleep, and at the next dawn there are more strawberry runners to set, and so one goes on living, near the earth. At times like this I’d call myself a fool to ask for more …