the silver bees are gonna get you yeah

the last two tracks on thembi (morning Prayer  and bailophone Dance) were recorded in NY on this day in 1971, so 50 years ago today.  the rest were recorded  at the record plant, los angeles, california, on november 25, 1970.  

horsemouth is up. he has his coffee. later he works. he has the window open because the room is becoming a but fusty. 

sad news about ernst junger (whose novel the silver bees republished by NYRB horsemouth enjoyed). it seems he is popular with those of the fascist persuasion, and interestingly enough at two levels too. 

junger survived the first world war with only minor wounding (despite being shot through the lung at one point) and wrote a somewhat enthusiastic account of his time on the front line, for this he gets hailed, by one young reader as 'the inventor of storm trooping'. now horsemouth thinks this is a bad thing. what you read in erich maria remarque (or indeed in hesse and mann, the british war poets) is a great youthful enthusiasm for the war breaking on the harsh rocks of its realities (vast amounts of death and suffering). 

between the wars junger is a critic of the weimar state from the right (sort of like the now oft-cited jurist and political theorist carl schmitt) but, unlike schmitt, he doesn't make the mistake of actually joining the nazi party, and thus he becomes a leading intellectual light to the I may be a fascist (but at least I am not a nazi) crowd - the kind of people who cite julius evola, alain de benoist. etc. 

this enables him to refuse denazification after the second world war. thereafter junger has a long and enjoyable life as a critic of west german prosperity and the economic miracle (again from the right).  

silver bees shows a distrust of technology (but also of corporate society) and as such it is actually perfectly readable as being a reflection on adorno/ benjaminian themes. junger corresponded with heidegger. benjamin wrote theories of german fascism in response to him. 

horsemouth had a productive day yesterday - he not only worked for three hours, he also  wrote reflecting on a project. today will spend some time chopping thing together and posting (emailing) it off.

he finished off watching solamente nero a venice set giallo. which despite an inauspicious beginning is really quite decent (horsemouth liked the soundtrack).