THE NAUTILUS New Orleans, May 2002. A shop in France, some years later. And then: a logo. I was in New Orleans for the Annual Congress of the American Psychiatric Association. Five thousand psychiatrists from around the world, gathered in convention halls to present papers, dispute diagnoses, debate medication protocols, and talk about the human […]
LOST I started out from Leh in a dilapidated truck with a group of other backpackers. Our destination was the Lamayuru monastery, 125kms to the west, where the ‘Yuru Kangya’ festival was to be held. The festival is a two days ritual meant to bring abundance and to avert natural and super natural disasters. Monks
REFLECTIONS ON ANIMALS AND HUMANS Donca Vianu Recently, a friend sent me the link to a fourteen-minute video in which Anna Breytenbach talks with a black panther in a South African wildlife reserve. Since its rescue and arrival in the reserve six months earlier, the panther had been unmanageably aggressive. Persuaded by a common
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FULL MOON NIGHT Donca Vianu I was chatting with Michelle, my British friend who had flown over from London to spend a couple of days with us. We were sitting on the balcony of our apartment in old Amsterdam, next to the Beatrixpark, famous for its ancient trees. The cool air of the late summer
AN OBJECT OF WONDER Donca Vianu My object of wonder, right across my bed, on the opposite wall, is the most quiet, serene object on the planet. It comes in many shapes and sizes, all equally unperturbed. Mine is flat and rectangular, measuring 180×70 cm. (I see myself in it, sitting in bed, propped by
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“THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING!” Excerpts from a Teenager Diary Donca Vianu 20.03.1964 Papa and me went for dinner at “Pescarus” and were mortified to see Dej (1) and Stoica (2) at one table (and security officers at the adjacent). Stoica invited us im-mediately to their table! First time that I saw
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CHAMICO (fire in Portuguese) I have to burn myself to ashes Before I set alight the Milky Way SUNFLOWER An immense sunflower, Stretching in all directions, Without beginning nor end, Not touched by time And being herself space Turns its head According to her own mysterious law. Her seeds are infinite in number, Each
I COME FROM SALTDonca Vianu I come from saltThe white, glistening salt in the Black Sea.I come from salt, , the youngest daughter of Lear. I come from bloodThe blood of treasonOf former allies and friendsTortured and murderedIn cellars made into prison. I come from bloodSeeping through words, and seeping through lines — all lies.
