#knut hamsen

[sewerhawk]

[mavirtute]

“I love three things," I then say. "I love a dream of love I once had, I love you, and I love this patch of earth."

"And which do you love best?"

"The dream.”

― Knut Hamsun, Pan: From Lieutenant Thomas Glahn's Papers

[thebeesnietzsche-blog]

Why should I be troubled for what I would eat, or for what I would drink, or for what I would put on this vile bag of worms which is called my earthly body? Had not the Heavenly Farther cared for me as for those creatures who had no place to lay their heads, and had not His hand in His graciousness pointed at His insignificant servant? God had poked His finger down into my nerves and gently, almost without thinking, brought a little confusion among those threads. And God had pulled His finger back, and behold- there were filaments and fine rootlike threads on His finger from the threads of my nerves. And there remained an open hole behind His finger which was the finger of God, and a wound in my brain behind the path of His finger. But after God had touched me with the finger of His hand, He let me be and touched me no more and let nothing evil come upon me. He let me depart in peace and He let me depart with the open hole, And nothing evil will come upon me from God who is the Lord through all eternity....

Knut Hamsen, “Hunger”

Otherwise known as the one book passage that never fails to make tears well up in my eyes as I read it, and I always have to read it aloud.

[grimbeau]

Self, self, self...

Self, self, self…

I’m

Waiting for my lunch

I’m

Waiting for my lunch

Went in the kitchen

At twelve of five

Marinade the fish

Chopped up the chives

Like Lilian Gish

I’m

Waiting for my lunch

Move it on!

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[hahitstaylor]

Knut Hamsen Center by Steven Holl

Hamarøy, Norway

Summer 2011

[foonyroo]

story of the eye

since i'm completely fed up to the point of almost no return with my literature degree, something which was causing me to read less and less for pleasure, i've decided to start buying books that i am interested in, intrigued by, or that i have been recommended. 

i guess i needed a pretty extreme starting point to get me away from the rigidity and mustiness of what university has so far tried to corner me into reading. so georges bataille's story of the eye seemed to fit the bill very well.

i first came across its existence via a few lines of reference in an old (but epic) of Montreal song, the past is a grotesque animal (youtube 10min cutoff :<) quite a few years back now in college, but really didn't know much more about it than that. on a spontaneous amazon / web bookhunt, it quickly transpired that this was no fainthearted, mylittlepony novella. you can read a wiki article with more depth, but it effectively revolves around the increasingly bizarre and explicit sexual fantasies of three lovers including, but not limited to (!) sadism, torture, orgies, madness and defilement. obviously such a work came with a bit of a reputation. as if i could provide you with any more understatement than that.

i read it at a frenetic pace, that if anything simply mirrored the lustful exuberance of the protagonists simone, marcelle and the male narrator. i found myself quickly desensitised to the progressively intense developments, instead enjoying the lucidity and rightfully transgressive anti-conformist argument of living a life so much more immediately connected with the senses, of fear, extremes of excitement, and of death. perhaps i'm just too acceptive, but i never felt that batailles set out with the objective to shock. for me, story of the eye is a wholly honest work that uses the connectivity of sex and death to explore philosophical issues in the only way that sex and death could.

it made me realise i should probably read some de sade to get a better and wider perspective, but for now i've just opted to go with charles bukowski's women, of which i'm tearing through at a hare's pace. it's not so much that story of the eye was too full on, it's just that 'women' was widely touted as being the basis for the tv show californication which i adore so. from that point there was no going back. 

it (the latter) also inspired me to do a bout of late-night book shopping this morning, so i can look forward to both knut hamsen's 'hunger' and carson mccullers's 'the heart is a lonely hunter' arriving soon. 

yay for me.