<nettime> Stockhausnen [2x]

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Table of Contents:

   Stockhausen/beauty/terror                                                       
     "Michael Benson" <michael.benson@pristop.si>                                    

   re: stockhausen                                                                 
     Pit Schultz <pit@klubradio.de>                                                  



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Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 21:36:07 +0200
From: "Michael Benson" <michael.benson@pristop.si>
Subject: Stockhausen/beauty/terror


Stockhausen's (mis)quote underlines that like courage, 'creativity' is a =
morally neutral (re Susan Sontag, who in this week's New Yorker states =
that whatever they were, the terrorists were not cowards). Ok, so it =
turns out that Stockhausen was speaking of Lucifer as an artist of =
terror -- Lucifer the fallen angel. But "Every angel is terrible" =
(Rilke). One thought after the events of last week was how incredibly, =
skillfully ingenious -- how creative in destruction -- the masterminds =
of what happened were. Also in the NYer is a line by Jonathan Franzen: =
"Somewhere -- you can be absolutely sure of this -- the death artists =
who planned this attack were rejoicing over the terrible beauty of the =
towers' collapse." Death artists. Benjamin states that there is no =
document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of =
barbarism. The technology propelling those civilian jet airplanes turned =
into terror weapons was first developed in its early form under the =
impetus of the need to protect the Third Reich from air-raids (the first =
production jet was the Messerschmitt 262). Leonardo spent a good part of =
his time designing weapons systems. One source of the fascination of =
fascism (described by Sontag among others), lay of course in its =
aestheticization of terrible power, its appropriation of the morally =
neutral means of artistic expression. In the 80's Ljubljana's NSK group =
went a long way in exploring this aestheticized fascination. Rilke spoke =
of beauty being "but the start of terror, which is beautiful because it =
serenely disdains to destroy us." (Another translation has it like this: =
"For the beautiful/ Is nothing but a terrible beginning that we continue =
to endure./And we cherish it, its calm refusal/ To destroy us. /A single =
beautiful idea fills us with terror.") In his book Inside The Third =
Reich, Albert Speer recalls writing a book called "A Theory of Ruin =
Value" (1938), which argued that Third Reich structures should be built =
in such a way as to look good when they lay in ruins (by which he meant =
to look like Roman ruins). Speer thought that modern materials and =
methods of construction wouldn't make aesthetically pleasing ruins. =
Instead of considering Speer's depictions of Third Reich monuments like =
the wrecked, ivy-covered reviewing stands at the Zeppelin Field to be =
blasphemous, Speer writes, Hitler "accepted my ideas as logical and =
illuminating. He gave orders that in the future the important buildings =
of his Reich were to be erected in keeping with the principles of this =
'law of ruins.'" (Speer, Inside the Third Reich, quoted by V. A. =
Podoroga in his essay Machines of Disorder).=20

Just haphazard and distracted thoughts collected from quotes forwarded =
in no particular order and in the cold chill of an unwanted dank =
premonition that this may only be the beginning. I would rather be =
contemplating the terror in beauty and vice versa under different =
circumstances. Wars typically get worse before they get better.

MB =20



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Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 18:40:51 +0200
From: Pit Schultz <pit@klubradio.de>
Subject: re: stockhausen

"Being asked by journalist, if MICHAEL, EVE and LUCIFER were historical 
figures of the past, he answered that they were existing now.
For example, LUCIFER in the attack of New York.
After more questions about this he said "that for a musician it seems like 
rehearsing ten years for one concert and then killing oneself and 5000 
people. The whole planning looked like the greatest piece of art of LUCIFER."

http://www.stockhausen.org/reply_to_bild.html


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