Journalism
A black angel, from a manuscript of the Medieval alchemical treatise Aurora Consurgens that I wrote about for Weekendavisen.
Search Results for: weekendavisen
Closure in times of crisis
Danish. In my ninth entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I discuss the Danish word afklaring, roughly translatable as “closure.” Like it’s English counterpart, afklaring denotes a sense of calm and acceptance in relation to a pain either experienced or (more strongly so in Danish) expected. After unpacking some of the forms and ways of achieving such… Continue reading Closure in times of crisis
Thoughtfully thoughtless
Danish. In my ninth entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I draw on Peter Adamson’s Don’t Think for Yourself to explore the concept of taqlid from Arabic philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence. Taqlid refers to a thoughtless reliance on the words of others, as opposed to ijtihad, thinking and examining for oneself. Medieval Arabic thinkers recognized that taqlid… Continue reading Thoughtfully thoughtless
Labyrinths and lexicons
Danish. In my eighth entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I discuss Salmonsens Konversationsleksikon, a legendary Danish encyclopedia that has passed through my family for generations. During World War I, the encyclopedia was printed with a blank page under the heading “Europe”; readers were sent a map of the continent when its borders were settled at the… Continue reading Labyrinths and lexicons
A theory of the dogear
Danish. In my seventh entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I discuss the surprisingly vitriolic debate about dogears and annotations. As a messy reader myself, I tend to leave my books tattered and bescribbled, and I argued that the fierce resistance I encounter is rooted in the double status of books: they are treated as both auratic… Continue reading A theory of the dogear
Winners and losers
Danish. In my sixth entry for Weekendavisen‘s lexicon, I discuss the word “winning” and the strangely central role it played during four years of American politics. The extent to which an exclusive focus on winning is politically counterproductive is underscored by the fact that Trump was replaced by a president, Biden, whose political narrative centered… Continue reading Winners and losers
Before the Flood
Danish. Are Danish museums prepared for the coming climate catastrophe? In this article, I survey the plans that Danish cultural institutions have made to protect their cultural heritage against extreme weather phenomena and social unrest over the coming decades, drawing a parallel between the situation we face today and the story of the Flood as… Continue reading Before the Flood
Forgetting to forget
Danish. In my fifth entry for Weekendavisen’s lexicon, I discuss the vexing problem of forgetting: any attempt to forget tends to call the unwanted memory all the more readily to mind. Kant, for example, dismissed his long-standing manservant Lampe, and then wrote a self-defeating memorandum to himself: “Lampe must be forgotten!” Through the examples of… Continue reading Forgetting to forget
The samurai’s shadow
Danish. I review the samurai-museum that recently opened in downtown Berlin, an inter- and hyper-active installation dedicated to presenting the technical and aesthetic refinement of the samurai tradition. But what the museum does not address, on its many enthusiastically buzzing displays, is the problematic history of the samurai figure in postwar Japan. “Besvær med sværd”… Continue reading The samurai’s shadow
Modes of flow
Danish. For a review of Anders Søgaard’s poetical and postmodern retelling of the Iliad, I argue that Homer’s epic can be read as a flurry of interconnections. The epic pursues a wealth of different associations to push the plot restlessly on: the movement of weapons, words, people, objects, eyes, memories, and myths are just some… Continue reading Modes of flow
