Thursday, January 5, 2012

Herakleitos 14 (Robert Desnos Exception)







14.


One ought not to talk or act as if he were asleep.








     Top:    An automatic writing session. Simone Collinet-Breton, Robert Desnos and Jacques Baron are in the foreground. Max Morise, Roger Vitrac, Jacques Boiffard, Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, Pierre Naville, Giorgio de Chirico and Phillipe Soupault are left to right. Photograph by Man Ray, c. 1923.

   
    Bottom:   Robert Desnos at work.


4 comments:

  1. Curtis,

    Great post. Wise words from a wise man. Have you read of the incident when Robert Desnos saved himself and the others from an imminent execution at the hands of the Nazis? I don't remember it much I guess but of what I do, R.D. was if-not-better, then at least as good as Daniel Craig in any of his movies.

    Aditya

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  2. Aditya: Hello and thanks. I do know this story and have been trying to locate its source. As I recall it, while at Auschwitz, Desnos and a group of other prisoners were selected for execution and transported from the camp for this purpose. While preparations were being made, Desnos made a great and cheerful show of palm-reading, telling his fellow inmates of their promising futures in this life. This apparently shocked the Nazi soldiers into returning them to the camp. There are other memorable stories of Desnos' bravery and compassion. He was quite a man and artist. Back to bed now for a few minutes at least. Greetings from Philadelphia? Where do you live? And happy New Year! Curtis

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  3. Oh I'll be looking up for all of them now. Many thanks.

    I am from India. Moved to New Delhi a year ago (from the mountain state of Himachal Pradesh)

    Happy New Year Curtis! Traveling back to New Delhi tonight.

    I occasionally post poems etc on here

    And I suppose you are (also) a lawyer (only a hunch!)

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  4. Hi again. Oh yes -- definitely a lawyer (since the early 1980s). I've been to India once and look forward to going again asap. I already have a visa because I have a client, an old school friend, who settled in Bangalore several years ago. Bangalore is the place I visited about 8 years ago, but on other business. The company I worked for then was a manufacturer of DVDs and we purchased a company in Bangalore (other branches were in the US and Europe) that provided subtitling for DVDs, movies, etc. I had a splendid time, but didn't stay long enough. I look forward to visiting dipping butterflies. Curtis

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