Tuesday 13 August 2019

09:00 Lois and I decide to miss out on our normal shower when we see that our neighbour Bob has gone off somewhere. We opt to leave the shower for later in the day.

We rush out into the backyard, me to prune the hedge that marks off our backyard from our Bob's, and Lois to pick blackberries from the end of the hedge, also raspberries from our remaining raspberry canes.

It is easier and less embarrassing to work on the hedge when Bob is away somewhere, otherwise there is always a risk of Bob getting into a chat with us and either criticising our approach or suggesting approaches we are not particularly keen on.

I get going with cutting back the hedge

that marks off our backyard from our neighbour Bob’s

11:00 Afterwards I pop into the front garden to "get down and dirty" ha ha - Bob has not returned yet, which is nice. I start digging up the roots of all the yellow mouse-ear hawkweed (pilosella officinarum) I can see on our lawn. I find that they have incredibly long roots – my god, what a sick world we live in !!!

I dig up the roots of all the yellow hairy mouse-ear hawkweed I can see -

they have incredibly long roots: good grief, what madness !!!

Bob, our neighbour, has recently been complaining about all the hairy mouse-ear hawkweed on his own lawns - he's very proud of his lawns and always keeps them cut very very short. He doesn't say it, but we know he suspects that all of his hawkweed originally came from our side of the property line, which is a bit tiresome of him, although he's probably right.

Flashback to 2015: our neighbour Bob in happier times -

his grandson Graham's wedding day

It's a good opportunity, while he’s away from the house, to remove all our hawkweed if I can - so he'll have a pleasant surprise when he comes back. I like to please him, that’s for sure ha ha ha!

Of course, more of them will spring up in the future, so I must be vigilant.

Flashback to August 3 -

I spot a lot of hawthorns on our lawns - yikes scary!

12:30 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a short afternoon nap. Meanwhile, Lois does some ironing - she sits down at the small kitchen table and irons on the table, which is less tiring for her back, she says.

16:00 I get up and we relax with a cup of tea on the couch. Then we pop in the shower. We tumble out at about 5 pm.

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio, an interesting programme in the series "Great Lives". Each week, a celebrity nominates another celebrity whom they consider to be a great person, and the person's biographer comments and adds additional information.

Today we hear 29-year-old folk singer-songwriter Laura Marling nominate the word’s first ever female psychoanalyst, the Russian-born Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937) as "great person of the week". And Solomé's biographer, the American Julia Vickers, takes part in the discussion live from the BBC's Washington-DC studio.

Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937)

Laura Marling, the 29-year-old folk singer-songwriter,

who nominates Salome as the "great person of the week"

Lois and I enjoy the programme, although it has some serious weaknesses, to put it mildly.

The participants start the discussion by lamenting the fact that Salomé is always described and discussed from the point of view of her many relationships with brilliant men: first and foremost Freud, also Rilke, Nietzsche and other writers, philosophers and psychoanalysts. She is rarely discussed from the point of view of her own research and work.

Unfortunately, the participants then go on to make the very same mistake: we hear far too much about Salome's relationships with men and not very much about her own philosophies and opinions, which is a bit of a shame.

However, it is true that it was men, men, men, all the way in her life - no doubt about that.

As a child in Russia in a Lutheran family, she was initially surrounded by the constant presence of her father and many brothers, and she was from the start very comfortable in male company.

As a teenager, she began a close platonic relationship with the family's Lutheran priest, discussing religion and philosophy etc: but when he tried to have sex with her, she gave up religion, and also gave up Russia - she travelled to Zurich to go to university over there: incredibly unusual for a woman at that time, in the mid-1800's, although her mother insisted on travelling with her and staying over there too – my god, how crazy !!!

With her beauty and dazzling intellect, Salomé fascinated the brilliant men whose company she sought: for the most part they also all wanted to go to bed with her and / or marry her, but for the most part she kept them at bay. What she wanted was the freedom to be herself and not just an instrument for men, or a "vessel" for their ideas.

It is true that she ended up marrying Carl Andreas, a professor of Orientalism (but only after he threatened to stab himself if she said no), and the couple remained married for 40 years, though without consummating the marriage.

The first man she is known to have gone to bed with was Rilke, the German poet. And 9 months  after they first hooked up (is "9 months" symbolic? ha ha ha), he came up with his masterpiece the "Duino Elegies".

Salomé believed that women's sexuality was key to their ability to win freedom and intellectual power - it's a bit of a shame that tonight we don't hear a little more detail about these opinions.

She wrote 12 novels that became best-sellers in Germany, also a few academic works: "The Erotic", which is about the eroticism of the female psyche, which in her vision was unrelated to the desire for men. And she also wrote a study on Ibsen's female characters, whom she saw as wild creatures, trapped in cages - yikes!

Lou Andreas-Salomés " The Erotic"

But by the end of the program, Lois and I still feel a little unclear about Salome's actual philosophy and ideas. The weakness of this programme is that the participants all know a lot about their topic and they sometimes forget to consider their poor audience, who may not be as knowledgeable.

We are nevertheless considering buying Julia Vickers's biography of Salomé, but haven’t come to a decision yet. The jury is still out on that one.

22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzz !!!

Danish translation: tirsdag den 13. august 2019

09:00 Lois og jeg beslutter at gå glip af vores normale brusebad, da vi ser, at vores nabo Bob er taget af sted et eller andet sted. Vi opterer for at overlade brusebadet til senere på dagen.

Vi skynder os ud i baghaven, mig for at beskære den hæk, der begrænser vores baghave fra vores nabo Bobs baghave, og Lois for at plukke brombær fra enden af hækken, også hindbær fra vores resterende hindbærrør.

Det er nemmere og mindre pinligt at arbejde på hækken, når Bob er væk derfra, ellers er der altid en risiko for, at Bob falder i snak med os og enten kritiserer vores tilgang eller foreslår tilgange vi ikke er særlig ivrig efter.

Jeg går i gang med at beskære den hæk,

der afgrænser vores baghave fra vores nabo Bobs

11:00 Bagefter går jeg lige et smut ind i forhaven for at ”komme ned og beskidt” ha ha – Bob er ikke kommet tilbage endnu, hvilket er rart. Jeg går i gang med at udgrave rødderne af alle de gule hårede høgeurter jeg kan se på vores græsplæne. Jeg opdager, at de har utroligt lange rødder – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!

Jeg udgraver rødderne af alle de gule hårede høgeurter, jeg kan se –

de har utroligt lange rødder: du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Bob, vores nabo, har for nylig brokket sig over alle de hårede høgeurter på sine egne græsplæner – han er meget stolt af sine græsplæner og holder dem altid klippede meget meget kort. Han siger det ikke, men vi ved, han mistænker, at alle de høgeurterne oprindeligt stammer fra vores side af grænsen, hvilket er lidt kedeligt af ham, selvom det har han sandsynligvis ret i.

tilbageblik til 2015: vores nabo Bob i lykkeligere tier –

sin barnebarn Grahams bryllupsdag

Det er en god lejlighed, mens han er væk fra huset, til at fjerne alle vores høgeurter, hvis jeg kan – så han vil få en behagelig overraskelse, når han kommer tilbage. Jeg kan lide at behage ham, det ved jeg med sikkerhed ha ha ha!

Selvfølgelig vil flere springer op fremover, så må jeg være årvågen.

Tilbageblik til den 3. august –

jeg ser en masse høgeurter på vores græsplæner  - yikes!

12:30 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng for at tage en kort eftermiddagslur. I mellemtiden går Lois i gang med at lave strygningen – hun sætter sig ved det lille køkkenbord og stryge tøjene på bordet, hvilket er mindre trættende for sin ryg, siger hun.

16:00 Jeg står op og vi slapper af med en kop te i sofaen. Så går vi lige et smut i bad. Vi vælter ud kl 17. 

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio, et interessant program i serien ”Great Lives”. I hver uge nominerer en berømthed en anden berømthed, som han betragter som en stor person, og personens biograf kommenterer og tilfører yderliggere oplysninger.

I dag hører vi den 29-årige folkesanger-sangskriver, Laura Marling, nominere den første kvindelige psykoanalytiker, den russisk-fødte Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937) som ”ugens store menneske”. Og Salomés biograf, amerikanske Julia Vickers, deltager i diskussionen fra BBCs WashingtonDC-studie.

Lou Andreas-Salomé (1861-1937)

Laura Marling, den 29-årige folkesanger-sangskriver,

der nominerer Salomé som ugens ”store menneske”

Lois og jeg nyder programmet, selvom det har nogle alvorlige svagheder, for at sige mildt!

Deltagerne starter diskussionen ved at begræde det faktum, at Salomé altid bliver beskrivet og diskutteret fra synspunktet af sine mange forhold til brilliante mænd: først og fremmest Freud, også Rilke, Nietzshe og andre forfattere, filosofer og psykoanalytikere, snarere end, fra synspunktet af Salomés egne forskninger og arbejde.

Desværre går deltagerne hen til at tage den samme fejl: vi hører i dette program også alt for meget om Salomés forhold til mænd og ikke særlig meget om hendes egne filosofier og meninger, hvilket er lidt af en skam.

Det er imidlertid sandt, at det var mænd, mænd, mænd, hele vejen i hendes liv – ingen tvivl om det.

Som barn i Rusland i en lutheransk familie,  var hun fra starten omgivet af det konstante tilstedeværelse af sin far og sine mange brødre, og hun hvilede i mandligt selskab.

Som teenager, indledte hun et tæt forhold til familiens lutheranske præst: men da han forsøgte at have sex med hende, opgav hun religion, og opgav også Rusland – hun rejste til Zurich for at gå på universitetet derovre:  utrolig usædvanligt for en kvinde dengang, i midten af 1800-tallet, selvom hendes mor insisterede på at rejse med og bo derovre også - du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!

Med sin skønhed og sit blændende intellekt fascinerede hun de brilliante mænd, hvis selskab hun søgte,: for de meste havde de alle lyst til at gå i seng med hende og/eller gifte sig med hende, men for det meste holdt hun dem alle stang.

Dét, hun ønskede sig, var friheden til at være sig selv og ikke at være blot et instrument for mænd, eller et ”kar” til deres idéer.

Det er sandt, at hun endte med at gifte sig med Carl Andreas, en professor i orientalisme (bare efter han truede at stikke sig selv), og parret forblev gift i 40 år, selvom uden at fuldbyrde ægteskabet – du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i  !!!

Den første mand, hun er kendt for at gå i seng med var Rilke, den tyske digter. Og 9 måneder (symbolisk ha ha ha?) efter de fandt sammen, kom han med sit mesterværk ”Duino elegier”.

Hun troede, at kvinders seksualitet var nøglen til deres evne til at vinde frihed og intellektuel magt - det er lidt af en skam, at vi i aften ikke hører lidt flere detaljer om disse meninger.

Salomé skrev 12 romaner, der blev til best-sellers i Tyskland, også et par akademiske værker: ”Erotikken”, der handler om erotikken i den kvindelige psyke, der efter hendes vision var ubeslægtet med lysten til mænd. Og hun skrev også et studie om Ibsens kvindelige karakterer, som hun så som vilde skæbninge, sat i bur – yikes!

Lou Andreas-Salomés ”Erotikken”

Men ved slutningen af programmet, føler vi stadig lidt uklar om Salomés egentlige filosofi og idéer. Svagheden ved dette program er, at deltagerne alle kender en masse til deres emnet, og de glemmer nogle gange at tænke på deres stakkels publikum.

Vi overvejer at købe Julia Vickers’  biografi. Du godeste!

22:00 Vi går i seng – zzzzzzz!!!