Simon Griffee
Department of graphic design, art direction, and photography.
February 2011
Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev
Konstantin Levin regarded his brother as a man of great intelligence and education, noble in the highest sense of the word, and endowed with the ability to act for the common good. But, in the depths of his soul, the older he became and the more closely he got to know his brother, the more often it occurred to him that this ability to act for the common good, of which he felt himself completely deprived, was perhaps not a virtue but, on the contrary, a lack of something — not a lack of good, honest and noble desires and tastes, but a lack of life force, of what is known as heart, of that yearning which makes a man choose one out of all the countless paths in life presented to him and desire that one alone. The more he knew his brother, the more he noticed that Sergei Ivanovich and many other workers for the common good had not been brought to this love of the common good by the heart, but had reasoned in their minds that it was good to be concerned with it and were concerned with it only because of that. And Levin was confirmed in this surmise by observing that his brother took questions about the common good and the immortality of the soul no closer to heart than those about a game of chess or the clever construction of a new machine.
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Part 3, I
Vronsky & Serpukhovskoy, Love & Marriage
‘And here is my opinion for you. Women are the main stumbling block in a man’s activity. It’s hard to love a woman and do anything. For this there exists one means of loving conveniently, without hidrance — that is marriage. How can I tell you, how can I tell you what I’m thinking,’ said Serpukhovskoy, who liked comparisons, ‘wait, wait! Yes, it’s as if you’re carrying a fardeau[1] and doing something with your hands is only possible if the fardeau is tied to your back — and that is marriage. And I felt it once I got married. I suddenly had my hands free. But dragging this fardeau around without marriage — that will make your hands so full that you won’t be able to do anything. Look at Mazankov, at Krupov. They ruined their careers on account of women.’
‘What sort of women!’ said Vronsky, recalling the Frenchwoman and the actress with whom the two men mentioned had had affairs.
‘So much the worse. The firmer a woman’s position in society, the worse it is. It’s the same as not only dragging the fardeau around in your arms, but tearing it away from someone else.’
‘You’ve never loved,’ Vronsky said softly, gazing before him and thinking of Anna.
‘Maybe not. But remember what I’ve told you. And also: women are all more material than men. We make something enourmous out of love, and they’re always terre-à-terre.’[2]
‘Right away, right away!’ he said to a footman who came in. But the footman had not come to call them again, as he thought. The footman brought a note for Vronsky.
‘A man brought it from Princess Tverskoy.’
Vronsky unsealed the letter and flushed.
‘I have a headache, I’m going home,’ he said to Serpukhovskoy.
‘Good-bye, then. Do you give me carte blanche?’
‘We’ll talk later, I’ll look you up in Petersburg.’
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Part 3, XXI
[1] Burden.
[2] Down to earth.
Turbine Hall, London, England, January 2008
\getcloser100 Day 14. Day 13 is here.
Micha Bar-Am: “Though I have adopted Robert Capa’s famous sentence, I have added my words: ‘But if you are too close to the grindstone, you lose perspective’”.
Dreamin’ of You
bq.. The light in this place is really bad Like being in the bottom of a stream Any minute now I’m expecting to wake up from a dream
Miss so much The softest touch Like the grave of some child Child who neither wept nor smiled I’m hiding my faith in the rain I’ve been dreamin’ of you That’s all I do And it’s driving me insane
Somewhere dawn is breaking Light is streaking across the floor Church bells are ringing I wonder who they’re ringing for Travel under any star You’ll see me wherever you are
The shadowy past is so vague and so vast I’m sleeping in the balance of pain I’ve been dreamin’ of you That’s all I do But it’s driving me insane
Maybe they’ll get me Maybe they won’t But whatever it’is it won’t be tonight I wish your hand was in mine right now We could go where the moon is white
For years they had me locked in a cage Then they threw me onto the stage Somethings just last longer then you thought they would And they never ever explain I’m dreamin’ of you That’s all I do And it’s driving me insane
Well I eat when I’m hungry Drink when I’m dry Live my life on the square Even if the flesh falls off my face It won’t matter as long as you’re there
Feel like a ghost in love Underneath the heavens above Feel further away yhen I ever did before Feel further than I can take Dreamin’ of you That’s all I do But it’s driving me insane
Everything in the way is so shiny today In queer and unusual form Spirals of golden haze here and there in a blaze Like beams of light in a star
Maybe you’re here or maybe you weren’t Maybe you touched somebody and got burned The silent sun has got me on the run Burning a hole in my brain I’m dreamin’ of you That’s all I do But it’s driving me Insane
