ancestry changes

 

England

• Southeastern England & Northwestern EuropeNew28%
• West MidlandsNew13%
• North East EnglandNew8%

Western Europe

• Southern Germanic EuropeNew39%
• The Netherlands3%

Celtic & Gaelic

• Munster, IrelandNew7%
• Central Scotland & Northern Ireland2%

rainy Tuesday evening 14 October

The post-Columbus Day rain that drops all the leaves off the trees, except for the oak.  Week or so later.

Finished David Szalay's Flesh.  Two days after finishing Lentz's Schattenfroh.  Quite a contrast.  

Woolf and Beckett

 Found most interesting his high praise for Beckett and Woolf in his list of most influential writers upon his work.   

"Virginia Woolf’s language is incredibly elegant. She practises admirable wave aesthetics and employs a language that glides through consciousness without marked breaks. Her handling of characters is truly unique. The narratological questions that underpin any act of reading — “Who speaks?” “Who sees?” — become highly relevant for my own writing when she addresses them. Is it perception that is being described, or consciousness? Where lies the difference between the two? Or is there none? These are the questions that, prompted by my reading of Virginia Woolf, accompanied me when I was writing Schattenfroh."

Beckett, Woolf, Peter Weiss, Gertrude Stein, Claude Simon, Peter Handke, Kafka, and Rilke

What fascinates me about Rainer Maria Rilke is his paradoxical thinking and rhythmic gestures, and the fact that the form of his poems often has a homologous effect on their semantic levels. Rilke wrote the most incredible line I know: “Die Vögel fliegen still durch uns hindurch.” (“The birds fly silently through us.”)

The Untranslated.  

incomprehension phases

 Lentz "On the other hand, the so-called naive reader is the ideal one: he reads without preconceptions, untroubled, and is not disturbed by occasional incomprehension — in life one does not always understand everything, and reading is part of life. Taking things literally reveals wondrous networks of meaning that appeal to all the senses; it sparks the imagination directly. It allows for a kind of reading that feels almost tactile."

interview with Lentz today

 today The Untranslated posts this fabulous Interview with Lentz. 

passage 

Schattenfroh is not a realist novel, but it does contain realistic elements that can make it all the more threatening. The uncertainty of the question of where Schattenfroh, the novel, is set — in the interior world or the exterior world, or in both — which has always accompanied my writing, spawned from the outset the phantasmagorical deliria that I considered more fitting than a straightforward realism of representation. On the contrary, for me these deliria were realistic in the sense of representing fear. Literature can pass through walls. It can also enter consciousness. It can move between levels effortlessly.

first pass through

 Finished the book at 3:11 today, 10.11.2025. have two copies, just in case 

enjoyed it all the way through, in awe of it too, two days after the Nobel to the Hungarian can't help but think it should go next year to Lentz.  Everything I had hoped it might be and more.  Many good reviews of it up at various places.  My favorite is still the one by Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado on pghrev.com Totality Without Signification

Maps, buildings, cells, devices, printing, golems, crucifixions and tortures, Bavarian Catholicism, Luther and Lutheranism, God and self, Self and gods, obsessions, raptures, divinations, divigations, definitions, uncertainties, unknowings, clouds, chambers, Mother, brother and Father. Death. Wondering about death, when will it come, how will it happen, who will know.

6 Oct Stannah Kaput again

Monday. Stair climber not working again.  Chris due to show after noon.  Same as three days ago.  Shows number 2 on the window but switches to 3 as soon as we try to go down.  Reading day.  Willow up in the blue chair.  Towels washing.  Rachel is able to do Wednesday.  Maybe I will finish Schattenfroh today or tomorrow.  What would Robert Lax do?  What would Dennis Brock do?  Wait.  Appointment reminder for George Culler showed up on the watch this morning.  October 13, same day a year ago that Annie Dessertenne died (if info correct).  Not noted on the family photo calendar.  Just pre-registered for the Telehealth visit with Culler.  Acorns dropping have been making a racket past few weeks.  Dry. Drought. Hot today, will reach high 70s even 80.  Kim and Owen should be in Albq from last night.  Every morning the same questions about the headaches.  Is it the caffeine, lower or higher, is it the adaptogens in the mushroom dusts,  is it too much water or too little?  Is it butterfat or peanut butter fat?  Is it something in the granola or the fruits, either the dried fruits in the granola or the fresh fruits layered on top or within the granolas?  Today it was a few slices of pink lady apple.  Is it the chocolate itself in the adaptogenic cacao powder added into the water?  Is it the yogurt?  The yogurt mixed with a bit of milk?  The zero yogurt or the yogurt with 1% fat or the other one with the 2% fat? Am I sounded yet just a little like the narrative voice of Schattenfroh?  By page 828 surely I should be able to mimic it just a bit.  How much longer is it than Infinite Jest?  could one even compare them.  Deep Vellum has not published exactly what Font it is using in the printed edition.  The name of the book designer is given, I could look it up once again if I wanted to put that here.  But if I google Infinite Jest, how many pages will it say?  Should I go onward and backward and commit myself to reading Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy at last?  1079 the number google gives for IJ.  1300 pages as an average for modern, full editions.  The mark of odd beauty pulls all glyphs from the printed page. 829 So much fun he has with the antique details of the old printing process, including the making of the lead type.  Makes me realize that of course because of Martin Luther the printing of books is essential to the national characters and histories of the Germanic peoples because Luther printing his books and translations liberated all of Central Europe and before it Germany from the imperial crowns of Rome.  The Reformation and its wars and slaughters created modern Germany and Europe as surely as Rome before it created post-Athens Europe.  The delegator, the deletion mark in proofreading. Just as I pulled the micro-ed mushroom and spinach pasta from the oven, Chris from National Mobility phoned and walked to the front door.  He is wrangling with the lift as we type.  Will he have a solution to keep this from happening in the future?  Will be buy a new lift?  This one is five years old.  

3 Oct Teensy Bits of H

sent this note to Ed and then realized what a great post it would be 

repair guy still not finished yet---satisfying that it has taken him a while, three or four up an down the stairs so far . . . .  his name is Jordan, luckily when I called back he was close by in Ashland.  10:12 am

Hi Ed   

Thought you might get a chuckle from seeing how I 

dip a finger into the brew for a few seconds at a time 

thanks to posts others throw out like this one this

morning on the evil X site.  

“Philosophy is the opposite of all calm and assurance. It is the whirlwind into which man is hurled, so that alone — without fantasy — he may grasp Dasein.”

Martin Heidegger, The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics

Balloons ballooning now there.    Our friends from CO will use our house starting Monday for a few days.   

Really glad Betsy will use it to see you over Thanksgiving.  

Virginia stuck upstairs this morning, luckily repairman here now to get the stair climber to work again.  

In my flash of anger earlier I couldn't stop myself from saying in Abq this would not be a problem!!

What can you do?  I'm on page 728 out of 1001 in Schattenfroh (German novel--translator says it helps to know both H and H so no doubt I'm missing hundreds of nuances and hilarious hidden jokes! 

Hope all goes well there.  

Bob 

Jordan left around 10:30. We made it to the appointment with Dr Philips at Mid-State.

Yesterday Dr Scott did the magic restoration cleaning with his laser and my left eyesight is as clear and bright as it was after the first cataract procedure.  Miraculous.  

1 October

Rilke needs only a few lines to make one forget all about novels.  You need a novel so as to forget yourself.   682. 

Dox walk at noon,  Gorgeous day.  Topped that off with lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches at George's. 

 

Something in this house

 "Something in this house makes it so that I see myself thinking."  Schattenfroh 553

Lots of chunks on writing and reading, this book and books, that I love.  Could go to the text on Kobo and cut and paste some.

Brief coffee with Dennis yesterday morning at Chase.  Glimpses into the wondrous world of his generation, two below me.  He's 32? ish.  Ten years or so younger than David, who turns 37 later this week!  

Dennis keep doing the Ayahuasca retreats at the place on the Hudson valley, Kingston area?  Has been a number of times.  Credits it with great insight about himself and his journey and healing process.  With ChapGPT he has created a few personas with which to talk things over.  Told him about Pessoa's heteronyms.  Could also have brought in Barbara's mother's cast of characters in her late life.  And now Dennis de Brock is writing a faux Rechy novel of his own in weekly or daily installments, sending them.  

Willow is back on her Entwell Tales.  Maybe Fall is the time to take up one's authorial pen persona.

Chase was hopping.  Years since I was there with someone on a Monday morning.  Dennis does also write a journal.  And in his advertising writing days they create persons who are the intended target buyers, give them names, personalities.  

Nodded hello to Wendy Palmquist as she walked by our table.  I had a wee espresso, they used a cute little ceramic cup.  Dennis said hi to a very tall, fit guy in a t-shirt who he later said was a hero who saved a few guys in Iraq warfare, former green beret, now at the Campton fire and rescue crew and in the yoga classes Dennis attends.  

Talked about his courses for Columbia. He described also how AI or Chat is used for papers for the course.  He had one due, wrote it, then asked Chat to grade it for him after he fed in the CV for the professor of the course.  At Columbia he got help from the writing center director, online.  There they can help you with everything from brainstorming your topic to grammar.  He's also got an appt with the Director of University Libraries to talk about how to do research for his courses using the plethora of databases Columbia accesses.  So a grad student now has support networks around him we never even imagined invoking fifty years ago when grad students at Chicago.  It was all cold-turkey, cold immersion, sink or swim.  Although grade inflation was in place and it was pretty hard to actually flunk out.  One guy in our cohort had been also an undergrad English major and carried with him after admission to grad work six or more Incompletes from his course work in the college.   Years later he got a tenured job at UMiss in English.  

Billings' list

 " Exacting as Lentz’s literalism can be, it is also fresh and suggestive. After all, there are plenty of novels that embrace writerly self-consciousness—there are even several that do so by showing a prisoner trying to talk his way out of a prison (Claudio Magris’s 2006 novel Blindly and Elias Khoury’s Yalo, from 2004, are two recent examples that feel like spiritual cousins to Schattenfroh). In each of these books, the unreliability of the narrator’s monologizing can feel unsettling, but it ultimately serves to reinforce a larger settledness about the world outside the book. It suggests that there is a difference between such hyper-articulate (and, in Magris and Khoury’s cases, traumatized) narrators and us, the readers, who have somehow, despite being creatures of language ourselves, managed to hover above its dangers like Romans in a gladiatorial arena. They, the characters, are trapped by language. We, on the other hand, know where the world ends and writing begins—which means that, at the end of the day, we are safe, or at least certain enough about the potential pitfalls of language to stay away from them. "

pre pub essay

by Deep Vellum used this line by Rilke. Beauty is nothing more than a terror that we are still able to withstand  

Josh Billings

 has a fabulous essay review of Schattenfroh on LA RB 

just want to copy and paste the whole thing  so fine and brilliant it makes you weep with hope and joy

Gazing into One’s Own Head

Josh Billings reviews German author Michael Lentz’s novel “Schattenfroh,” newly translated by Max Lawton.

September 9, 2025

September 5 Friday and Schattenfroh

 Call yesterday afternoon while we were watching GH.  Michael McDermand to tell us Nancy died the day before, Sept 3.  Undiagnosed aggressive leukemia.  Hospice moved into the house the same evening or the next after the diagnosis.  Nancy didn't want to try any chemo or other procedures.  That was Friday a week ago.  She died on Wednesday.  Was calm and peaceful and tired most of the time.  Made lots of lists for Mike, Cindy and Bob.  Said maybe in a few months have a gathering for people to tell the funniest anecdote about her they could remember.  Feels still like we are in shock.  Gray morning doesn't help.  Wayne coming at 1 and the Natalie had scheduled a visit at 2 to chat GH stuff and general visit.  Nice visit with Pat last week.  I emailed the group yesterday, shock responses.  

Earlier I had a boost surprise.  We went to Meredith for a dental cleaning for Va.  Sally noted her purple outfit, as I had said she would.  She is very proud that her eldest son has been named master chef at Grand View Hotel in Whitefield.  He and his wife have a free five room house along with other perks.  Driving into Holderness Va said let's see the Inn where Carole's birthday party will be.  Drove in, looked at the asphalt slope by the rear garage that I thought was to be our entrance path.  Young man down there noticed us and I motioned to have him come up to talk about details.  Entrance is really in the front, a brick walk.

I got out of the car to go with him to see the walk and the small places with edges where the transport chair will need to edge up and over.  He looked at me and said are you Bob Garlitz?  Yes.  I took you for Composition my first year at PSC and it was my best course.  You told me something I still remember.  You said just write your essay and when you'r through throw away the first paragraph.  That has stayed with me because I have a hard time just figuring what my thoughts are and what I want to say, so after the first paragraph I finally start finding out.  He was/is a snowboarder from a high school in MA.  Majored in Political Science then taught challenged kids at Sandwich school.  His wife worked for the previous owners of the Inn for some years, also went to Plymouth but maybe a few years younger.  They bought the Inn five years ago.  He loves the change of work.  He asked us if we were related to Jessica Shaw, took a moment to realize it is Jessica Wixson Shaw and Sky Shaw.  He also knows Dave's musician Brendan Dowd (?).  Brendon (or Brendan?) Matthews.  They have a six year old daughter and twin three year old boys.  Thanked him for remembering me and saying hi.  Looking forward to the dinner more now!!  Delightful surprise.  

Oh, and Schattenfroh is super.  As good as, better than, I had hoped and expected.  Tweets say it is already viewed as a masterpiece of German Lit, five or more years old there.  Big reviews coming out in NYRB etc.  I tweeted two lines about it.  It is a book that is in love with how books are in love with books.  And the suggestion that reading K Burke's Epilogue: Prologue in Heaven would be a great companion piece to the novel, as a closing satyr play in comic mode.  Debating about whether to suggest it to Ed on the basis that the translator's tweet says the book assumes you've read your Hegel and Heidegger.  Max Lawton, who I've been following on X for a year or so.  That's how I caught wind of the book and its importance.  He works in four or more languages, mostly in Russian first and took on German because he wanted to translate this book.  I heard some bits of an interview on YouTube with the author, Michael Lenz.  But I'm in that phase of wanting to postpone digging around for commentary until well after I've finished the first read.  Already assuming I will want to read it again.  Love the voices and the flow through the rich materials from German/world lit and history.  Theologies.  Meanderings of all sorts.  

Last week of August 2025

 Heading into Labor Day weekend.  As if that will bring anything.  Markers.  Liturgical tabs.  

Eye procedure in about an hour.  Clearing up or away the obfuscatory smudge on the left eye.  Dr Scott who went to University of Chicago Medical School.  Which years.  Seems about my age maybe a few years younger.  Sent more funds to the kids.  Grateful praying hands emoji from Cécile.  Hope it helps her worry a bit less, especially in this first anniversary of Annie's death.  Sure to be hard for her and her father. They say they will come for Christmas but I'm a wee skeptical.

Doc's laser gizmo would not work.  Postponed until early October.  He said he went to Bowdoin, happiest years of his life.  No reply about Chicago.  

Discovering the Secret Path to Unleashing Your True Potential

 The Yielding Warrior is about the concept of yielding and how it can be applied to almost any area of life. The book dives into the three main directions of yielding: physical, mental, and emotional. You will learn how to break down and dissect the concept of yielding while learning how to build a set of life skills that can be applied to business, sports, education, music, art and relationships. Yielding has three areas of practice ritual, active, and philosophical based training applications. "The Yielding Warrior" helps you to understand why we use these different areas and how you can use them to create a life practice for yourself. The art of yielding has been practiced for centuries and in reality, everyone does it to some degree. As one of my old instructors once told me "it is easy to get an athlete to 85% of his or her potential the last 15% is always exponentially harder". The true beauty in the arts is always in the last 3-5% of your potential. As you watch someone like Michael Jordan play basketball or listen to music created by Johann Sebastian Bach you can appreciate their magical abilities and feel the energetic emotion emanating when they perform. Yielding helps us to be more aware of, and to nurture these subtleties that allow our passion to shine.

Jeff Paterson's book 

Annie Ernaux's Look at the Lights, My Love about Auchan Hypermarché Cergy

Recording her visits to a store near Paris for over a year, she captures the world that exists within its massive walls. Through Ernaux’s eyes, the superstore emerges as “a great human meeting place, a spectacle”—a flashy, technologically advanced incarnation of the ancient marketplace where capitalism, cultural production, and class converge, dictating our rhythms of desire. With her relentless powers of observation, Ernaux takes the measure of a place we thought we knew, calling us to question the experiences we overlook and to gaze more deeply into ordinary life. 

 

The saying "secrets transform into diamonds" suggests that 

hidden truths or undisclosed information, when brought to light or revealed, can ultimately result in something valuable or powerful.

This metaphor draws parallels between the formation of diamonds under intense pressure and heat, and the process by which concealed information can, through various circumstances, become something precious or impactful.

The exact phrasing "secrets transform into diamonds" is not found in the search results for novel titles containing "diamond" and "secret."

 

However, the quote is likely a metaphorical statement about secrets having value, and being revealed as something precious. The themes of secrets and diamonds are prominent in several works:

• The Famous Five series by Enid Blyton includes the novel Five on a Secret Trail, where the children likely uncover a secret that leads to an adventure involving a treasure hunt. In Five Go Off in a Caravan, the children's mother's past is hinted at, suggesting the possibility of a concealed past and hidden wealth.
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas involves secrets, hidden treasure, and the theme of delayed gratification. A fellow prisoner, Abbé Faria, educates Edmond Dantès and informs him of a hidden treasure on Monte Cristo. This aligns with the theme of secrets eventually yielding valuable outcomes. After escaping, Dantès finds the treasure and uses his wealth to exact revenge, while also performing acts of generosity, hinting at the potential for secrets to be used for both positive and negative purposes.
• The Diamond of Darkhold by Jeanne DuPrau features a secret discovered by Lina and Doon that could change their lives. This secret, a forgotten technology to harness the power of the sun, highlights the idea that concealed knowledge can lead to breakthroughs and new opportunities.
• The Diamond Secret (Love Inspired Suspense) by Lenora Worth involves a search for a legendary chocolate diamond and a dangerous man. This could potentially connect secrets and diamonds in the context of the story's suspenseful plot. 

In conclusion, while the exact phrase might not be present, the concept it evokes is found within the themes of secrets and diamonds in various novels like The Famous Five, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Diamond of Darkhold. 

myth of coal into diamond

Coals are just the solidified form of carbon, while diamonds are the crystallized form. All the carbon trapped inside the deepest layers of earth is turned into either coal or diamond.

The quote "secrets transform into luminous stars" appears in the novel 

Black Star Requiem Epilogue: The Final Echo by Jeffery J. Davis. 

This novel is the concluding part of an epic saga exploring themes of survival, power, identity, and the fragility of civilization in a galaxy on the brink of collapse. The main character, Seren Vael, is the last remaining member of an ancient and powerful collective, the Choir, and embarks on a journey to uncover the hidden truths about her people and the fall of their empire. 

an AI way to blog anew?

 

The phrase "He became so good at keeping his life secret, he kept it secret from himself" is a thought-provoking idea exploring self-deception and the lengths to which individuals might go to compartmentalize or deny aspects of their own lives

While this exact wording isn't directly attributed to a specific novel in the search results, it aligns with concepts explored in works like George Orwell's 1984, particularly the quote: "If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself". This quote from 1984 captures the essence of the sentiment in the user's inquiry, highlighting the psychological process of internalizing and suppressing secrets even from one's conscious awareness. 

--------

August 2

 Was it yesterday's depression and last night's school anxiety dreams that have me thinking I will cave in and subscribe to The NY Times?  Fell into looking up stuff on Compton Wynyates, Ronale Manor and Anselm Hall.  Lots more no seems to pop up online.  Or my personal algorhythms are in tune.  

Finished reading, looking through (at the final few pages) Guyotat's Coma.  Two books by him are enough.  Now I will Google "how to enjoy reading Lobo Antunes" to see if AI can give a hand here.

Ramps.  We bought that fine ramp with handrails in Albuquerque last year.  Now in the garage we have a shiny new foldable ramp, 7 foot long, to use with the new stair climbing chair due to be installed this Wednesday.  The Era of Ramps thrust upon us.  

not bad actually ---  To enjoy reading António Lobo Antunes's books, it's helpful to embrace their unique style, which often features multiple, overlapping narratives, stream-of-consciousness, and a focus on memory and subjective experience.Antunes's writing can be challenging due to its dense prose and shifting perspectives, but understanding his techniques and the context of his work can enhance the reading experience. 

Here's a more detailed guide:

somehow the text would not copy and paste well.  Is that by design?  

Just noticed this blog goes all the way back to 2006 which had 115 entries.  Most for any year.  Three years after Virginia's catastrophic event, in 2003.  So at least the blog has some sort of presence as a chronicle.  When one does is the event automatically reported to Google and the blog removed?  Or can any forensic net nerd find anything forever?  

sent this to Phil earlier ---  wmhuo168 (@William Huo) posted: Milton Friedman didn’t just destroy public education. He rewired how Americans think about everything from housing to health to patriotism.  

to which he replied. 

I think that part of the attraction is the mathematics of a strictly economic view.   It's "econmaththink."  One uses calculus to arrive at the "ideal solution" of any and all economic questions.  I'm very familiar with it and, if not for Exeter and the Peace Corps, might be trapped in it.  Liberalism seems like sloppy thinking to people attracted by econmath's definite goals and answers, which Friedman definitely was.   So were all my fellow econ majors at Brown.   They are still that way.  Which is why I get along best with a Brown classmate who majored in history and later went to law school but whose Jewish decency and background in history enable him to avoid being trapped in the restrictive  lawthink.  Another think mode that I don't like is militarythink.  I find the best generals and admirals are not trapped in militarythink but most generals, colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants and nearly all sergeants are.   P 

Virginia is now going into her second Iris Murdoch novel!!  gasp. her first was The Sea, the Sea, finished a few days ago.  She finished watching Indian Summers yesterday.  

Traveling family returns late tomorrow night and starts Theater Camp bright and early Monday morning. 

Might be that this house demands, commands, writing in this blog as extension, continuation, of "work"---the work we did here for 40 plus years as teachers and scribes and clerks and copyists and scribblers.  Artists, actors, producers.  Content Influencers, content creators.  Whole host of new terms by which to measure lives beyond coffee spoons.  Or was it tea spoons?