Paul Attinello

Category: Books

  • Brodkey

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    paulattinello
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    In an odd reflection of my blog entry a week or so ago, about Stefan Brecht… last night I was reading through John Sutherland's Lives of the Novelists, an enjoyable collection of sharply drawn capsule careers of writers; and I tripped over Harold Brodkey. Who, of course, whatever else he had been, eventually became a…

  • Brecht (no, I mean the other one)

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    Today I went to York for the second time, to my new analyst, S. I like her a great deal – and this might be a very good change for me: it feels as though my two major analysts, John and Mitch, have both been people who were fairly similar to me – which seemed…

  • In-the-midst-of

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    A day that had one-thing-after-another in it: some are familiar, even long-repeated actions, some are new; there are pleasures, there are boring bits: and that quailty that has appeared in several (no: in a number) of my posts lately, of being transitional, of being sort of in-between. Liminal, perhaps. With students, cheerful or as though…

  • Flash

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    Reading in bed, electronic on an iPad, Tove Jansson's story collection Traveling Light. I was very happy when it, with the other recent ones – especially Fair Play – were translated by a small London publisher; my intense attachment to the Moomin books, especially the eerie late ones, and to my old, beaten-up copy of…

  • Trove

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    paulattinello
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    A quiet holiday: if the theory was that I shouldn't go anywhere because I had three articles to finish and a collection to edit, what really happened was more typical – although I didn't travel I also didn't work much. Today I got back to it, though… But among all the holiday quiet (there's a…

  • South

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    … a conference in New Orleans. On an airplane, headed from northern England, via Amsterdam and Atlanta, to the real heart of the very South. Unfortunately, I keep being surprised at the sloppy, smelly American passengers in my last couple of air trips to the States – and they always seem to be so loud,…

  • Hard

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    Sunday afternoon in Newcastle. Sunny and clear, shops and restaurants open, people walking along. A young guy, shaved head, talks on his phone, walking up and down. He goes to the corner of a granite building near the bus stop, leans over, retches – vomits, not much, some chunks of food in what is probably…

  • Magic, Inc.

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    paulattinello
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    Words from a favorite passage of a favorite novel came to mind today. In the midst of a modern, slangy conversation about a dangerous situation and what to do, the tone changes: "Jedson said suddenly, 'White prevails over black.' She answered, 'Certainly.' 'Everywhere?' 'Everywhere, since darkness is the absence of light.' He went on, 'It is…

  • Cross-communication

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    paulattinello
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    My last night in summery Zürich: the men are sunburnt and muscly, cafés are busy. There are no doubt some women around here also. The other Jung-Institut students and teachers have left – as usual I stay one or two days later, this time to see Patricia up in Thun on Sunday, then just to…

  • Changes and recoveries

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    A remarkable analysis session today… after feeling stuck for some weeks, rapid inner change and reflection. I walked away thinking of fun house mirrors – how one inevitably looks at oneself and the world through all kinds of distortions; and the power of analysis is the increasing ability to sense the distortions, to become easily…