Seductive Vienna

This essay, a version of the opening chapter of my forthcoming memoir The Vienna Paradox, begins with a consideration of my dual--and conflicted-- status as Viennese "Gabriele Mintz" (my given name) and American Marjorie Perloff. Three institutions are then discussed as emblems of the 'Vienna Paradox": the Schoenberg Center's demise in Los Angeles and rebirth in the "new" Vienna, the Neue Galerie in New York, a beautiful and nostalgic replica of fin de siecle Vienna, and the ultra-modern, streamlined Austrian Cultural Forum, which features the contemporary aspect of Vienna. The chapter concludes with an analysis of a Charles Bernstein poem "Ludwig and Gertrude's Marvelous Adventure," dedicated to Gabriele Mintz, as a poetic analogue to the Vienna Paradox.