On Jul 12, 2012, at 2:27 PM, Brian wrote: The tantalizing lacuna: "...That human life is but a first installment of the serial soul and that one’s individual secret is not lost in the process of earthly dissolution ..."
Dear Mr Tomba,
Odd that you should send this in just at this time, as I have recently been wondering if VN's antagonism to Freud hasn't been mis-interpreted. In other words I wonder if it isn't Freud's belief in what he called Todestrieb, that is the death drive, that VN actually objected to. Jansy kindly published two essays on music that I had written back in the '90s on her web site aetern.us. One of them is entitled "Purcell - death and the music." In this essay I quote my great mentor Vladimir Markov's belief that at the heart of Mozart's music lay death, and also Mozart's own words, "Death is the true goal of our existence, and mankind’s best friend. The thought of it does not frighten me, but comforts me and brings me peace."
Personally I find this a very sane and healthy attitude, and if I may be allowed my own prejudices, I find it rather 'Jewish,' although we too have our seekers after immortality. This inability to allow nature to take her age-old course I find very distasteful in VN. It is in an odd way a life defeating attitude. Our works should live on after us, not our selves.
In this case, I think Freud got it right.
Carolyn Kunin
p.s. But all seriousness aside, did you hear that when Beethoven's grave was dug up, they found the great composer going through scores of his music erasing, erasing, erasing. When asked what he thought he was doing, with a straight face the old man explained that he was de-composing.