Eagle Minds: Selected Correspondence of Istvan Anhalt and George Rochberg (1961-2005)

1994

1994 162 20 january 1994 George, dear friend, This is the promised sign of ‘life in progress’ I envisaged when we talked on the ‘blower’ about a week ago. My head and ‘emotion-tank’ is so full, so beware (I should beware) as I am going to try to contain the danger of overflowing, spilling out, messing up the carpet, imposing your wonderfully patient and willing mind to listen to my ‘other’ in relation to yourself. Now this ‘other,’ all the ‘others’ in relation to each ‘other’ (I’m just starting to glean the vastness of this literature, encompassing Buber, Bakhtin, Heidegger—the scoundrel/genius, yet another—Sartre, Husserl, etc. etc.) was on the top of my conscious mind during the past 4–5 months, as I was probing Tikkun (now called Traces (Tikkun)) towards the last double-bar (which it reached as no. 654, if I recall it correctly, a few days ago) … In fact: the whole piece’s one (there are several) core theme is the dialogical relationship between people, as distinct from, &/or complementary to, the monological one. Our adversarial political & economic philosophies, now so much in ascendancy, bespeak our loss of control over these dialogical relationships. The ‘other’ might be an adversary in a global ‘Cold War’ (winner takes all …), or in a giant take-over battle among giant car manufacturers, none of whom questions the consequences of the isolation of social atoms, each sitting in his/her living room extension, in a make-believe privacy, as they hurtle at 60–70 m/per hr. on a highway towards the office, etc. until a traffic jam stops them all. [ … ]| 277 I feel, and this pushed ‘up’ the idea of Traces together with other ideas, that technology is conducive to isolation, of separating people from other people. We find more and more electronic gadgets interposed between pairs of humans. Speed, the absence of the need to have to deal with (enjoy, endure, cope with, challenged by, surprised by, learning from etc.) ‘others’ is avoided in an increasing measure. And we are also removed, increasingly, from direct contact with nature … [ … ] Produce is in heaps in the supermarkets, the seasons count only as variables in the prices, not in availability, etc. etc. I am no slouch in enjoying the amenities of technology (vide our jet trips abroad, fax messages, etc.) and have come to take them for granted. But there is a ‘price’ to pay. Authenticity suffers: CD is here, and concerts recede, is but one example for this gain/loss situation. And who are the sanctioners, the ones who tell/decide what appears in my TV window during the news, who write the manipulative editorials, the strong ones ‘up there,’ who demand and get millions per annum as salary & bonuses … Question: why does one need millions of $ income per annum? I must say, I would not want my life to be different: we are relatively independent, can travel a little, pamper the little ones a bit, etc. etc.… It’s remarkable how far a pension + a little savings can be stretched … After all: it costs no money at all to gorge oneself in the treasures of the university library … We live a charmed life, so it seems, & I should be & yes I am immensely grateful to whomever or to whatever I am able to partake, share in … It is a good life and the least one could do is to think & write, which I’m trying to do. [ … ] The reading which I needed (as usual) in the breaks while working [on Traces (Tikkun)], included the discovery of bridge literature joining Plotinus (+ followers) and several Kabbalist authors indebted to them. (It is another question how much Plotinus was indebted to Philo, and other early Jewish ‘spirituals.’) I just touched on Philo; and he and his place/times are fascinating, but of course his Greek/Jewish outlook, and metaphorical biblical reading is of great interest to me … I also read some moral philosophy, Bernard Williams, the semi-philosopher, justice expert, John Rawls (A Theory of Justice) and that down-to-earth Scotsman John MacMurray1 … [ … ] Istvan Part IV: Politics, Religion, and Society (1986–2000) 278 | 163 14 february 1994 My dear Isty, [ … ] Strange how our preoccupations always coincide: I have been reading Kathleen Raine’s first-rate 2 vol. study of Blake’s sources2 & because of it plan to try to make my way through Thomas Taylor’s (called “The English Pagan” because of...