'a dream from which all violence was absent' (atlantis itself)

horsemouth has been wondering what this sounds like...

more kilvert (on holiday with his father in north wales) tomorrow.

in the meantime horsemouth has started again on anais nin (he has volumes 2 and 3 of her journals here).

for some reason he has started with volume three (1939-1944). 

war is coming. anais leaves paris, takes the train to irun (basque,  irún spanish) and then on to the hydroplane (a pan am flying boat) from lisbon to the azores to bermuda to port washington (long island). 

'we all knew we were parting from a pattern of life we would never see again.' 

the azores the supposed last fragment of atlantis left standing. 'black coral rocks, black sand from volcanic eruptions.'

in bermuda they visit stalactite caves,

'a dream from which all violence was absent.

here lay a dream entombed, reflected in pools of water....' 

anais struggles to carry on living a life devoted to art. she has been in new york before (in 1934 in volume two) but she misses paris and worries about her friends. 

it is worthwhile contrasting with her arrival in new york in 1934 to meet with otto rank. the going out in harlem etc. when she experiences the city as joy and energy. 

in 1939 in gotham book mart she meets the mystic and architect claude bragdon.  he wants her to become his delphic woman (she declines). like the germans on the west coast in LA (adorno, mann etc.) she struggles to make sense of america and americans. she struggles to make sense of kenneth patchen. she finds him soulless and inert. 

'close the covers of this book and I will still go on talking'. 

she visits varese. she hangs out with dali. 

horsemouth is up late. he woke up at 6am and went back to bed. he has fed the chickens (and talked to them) and watered the plants in the greenhouse (and talked to them). the soil is still damp from the rains. last night a friend's birthday party (and his friends were out partying) but horsemouth was out in the wilds (sorry).