Author: paulattinello
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Lessons
On the plane from Amsterdam to Zurich, a large, angry-looking man is already sitting in the row in front of us. First one, then the other of the seats in his row are filled by men who have suitcases. But he has put some flowers in the overhead bin… Twice he explodes with rage at…
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It’s complicated
A complicated time. The Book, the one I had all those bizarre death dreams about, arrived in my office TODAY. And yet I breathe. Too much to do in the past weeks, some of it distinctly though not disastrously late… Merrie and I performed duets on my students' musicals night. We made blunders but it…
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In the realm of the sensate
This evening, the Late Shows in the Ouseburn – in an area of studios and galleries, a few small museums, the Ouseburn river running through it all – this is the point in the year when they open everything up, and keep it open, late. Basically a big open house by a whole community of…
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Nine years
Nine years ago today, this blog was begun… in 2006. And this the 708th post!… so, about one every 4.6 days. Not as often as I feel-that-I-should, but steady enough I guess. So, how's it going? There's egotism of course – I like my own writing – which, I think, has gotten better – though…
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Associations
In our studies at the Jung-Institut, there is one apparently archaic procedure we have to run through – the Association Experiment (or Association Test). It's basically the thing that got Freud interested in Jung in 1906 (as The Interpretation of Dreams is the thing that made Jung, along with everyone else, interested in Freud). Stopwatch, list…
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Gastronomic, hypothetic, erotic
Barcelona… So, history: frequently, between about 2003-4 and 2008-9, Susan and Rob and I spent some time each summer in Barcelona, or Sitges, which is nearby enough. Changing circumstances, the deaths of Chris and then Dennis, and my increasing preoccupations in Zürich broke that pattern… And: a few years ago, Susan gave a seminar at…
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Of Pratchett
Terry Pratchett has died… media are stating it quite carefully; it seems possible, given that he valued the right to die, that it could have been a voluntary act in the face of early-onset Alzheimer's, rather than any kind of medical inevitability. Which is absolutely his decision – I don't, myself, feel there is any…
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Third week
The last of three weeks in Zürich is ending – drained, tired. It was less dramatic than the middle week: but with some interesting class discussions about why this work would feel dramatic to many of the students – not merely the pragmatic pressures of full days and full-on work, but the psychology of constantly…
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Addressed to the passions
(If you don't know that phrase, it is from one of the funniest and most touching of essays by Max Beerbohm, 'A Clergyman.' I suggest you find it and read it.) An intense week… after another intense week, but this one was very different…. Well, for four days, at least: verve, intensity, demands on time…
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A week later
Really not an unsuccessful week: a good supervisory session, two colloquia, part of one good seminar – a trip to Lausanne to look into a new exchange partner for our department; a lot of complicated back and forth beforehand, because Switzerland no longer is part of the EU exchange system – did someone tell me…
Paul Attinello 