When I first started writing, I became fascinated by German Romanticism, the art and literature. I discovered the brilliantly strange writer ETA Hofman, but also the warm, down to earth writings of Johan Peter Hebel (1760-1826), a teacher and pastor from Baden. Among his fans were Tolstoy and Kafka. One of my all time favourite … Continue reading
One of the most amazing of the TED Talks was that of neurologist Jill Bolte Taylor who described having a stroke, of how different parts of her brain coming in and out of focus, of how she struggled to get help: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html I knew of the two sides of the brain working differently, but I … Continue reading
I did a post a while back on Kafka’s belief that romance cannot survive distance, but he was not the happiest of chaps, and he was writing in the run up to the First world War, a citizen of the crumbling Hapsburg Empire. So, his take on romance is understandably rather negative. Or maybe he … Continue reading
Kafka was famous enough to have an adjective named after him in English, so that should make him pretty good at this writing stuff. But that doesn’t mean he can get his thoughts across to a loved one, or cope with that horror of modern life – a long distance romance. This is him tearing … Continue reading
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