5cense

409 Fleeing the land of doomsday hoarders to Kafka's placeless take on Amerika


NY, NY—Jan 26, 2015

Dear Inurnet ..

Our last day in NYC for a while + we bunker .. not cuz this «Juno» storm brutal but cuz them pre-emptively shut down the whole city in a fatalistic panic .. roads + rails all shut down + flights all canceled .. police-state travel ban .. for what? .. to monger fear + trap people in the storm so they can't get home? .... u'd think NYC had never seen snow before .. good thing our plane not today or tomorrow ..

.. not the 1st time they cry wolf .. that this 1 = the «perfect storm» or «storm of the century» .. they calling this 1 «crippling + potentially historic» .. potentially the operative word .. crippling only cuz the mayor self-imploded the crippling .. all just an excuse for media circus .. to trigger a massive marketing campaign .. every1 freaking out like end of the world .. went shopping this morn like normally we do (buying all we need for the day) .. aisles chocked full of x-large people in a frenzy grabbing everything in sight .. filling carts full like they might not eat for months .... what drives this American stockpiling instinct? .. food + guns + energy .. it all amounts to paranoia + fear .. fear that tomorrow ≠ today .. fear of change .. god forbid the unexpected ..

.. not that Rome didn't freak out + become paralizzato in Feb 2012 when it snowed a few inches .. ma questa era la 1° volta in 26 anni che ha nevicato .. + Romans just looking for an excuse to not work .. uno sciopero della natura .. Rome = our destination for a good part of the rest of the year .. starting to pack + prepare .. all the paypal buttons we took down today .. no longer will Cal A. Mari fulfill orders w/ his own hands .. thru U.S. mail .. let Amazon do the dirty work .. roll back to 2010-2012 .. tho then we fulfilled P.O.D. .. at least at 1st ..

Jan 27

.. sure enough .. 5 a.m. + the sun about to rise + hardly more than a flurry of snow .. roads empty + unplowed .. fuck DiBlasio .. fuck NYC .. fuck the racist gun-lovin police state of Amerikkka .. fuck the fascist surveillance + Obama's elite smugness .. fuck the NFL + its cheaters + wife-beaters .. fuck the media .. Amerika self-imploding into a parody of itself .. what a joke ..

«crippling» snow on 112th street

.. even the P.O. closed .. cuz of a few inches of snow .. can't even get organized enough to plow the streets .. never would've happened on Bloomberg's watch .. we already experienced worst (or best depending how u look at) snowstorm in NYC history in 2006 + dont remember such over-hyped buildup .. just happened .. also here for a few others in the top 10 .. in 2003 + both 20-inchers in 2010 ..

.. setting our minds to packing now .. strange to pack for 6 months .. makes u realize it dont matter whether 1 week or 2 .. or 1 month or 6 .. or 3 years .. if u dont use sumthing 1x a week u dont need it .. a few changes of clothes .. a brush for teeth or hair .. tho longer than a month might actually need a razor .... + of course this machine we write on .. unfortunately we still not weaned of book objects so ½ our baggage composed of books .. + also recent Calamari books released since we lived there to give to Roman friends .... + the packing a bit more complicated cuz before we even settle in Rome we off to India + Nepal + France .. but can stash sum stuff 1st in Roma + try to find a place to live ..

what we need for the next 6 months ..

.. been reading Kafka's Amerika .. not w/o conflicted reservation since this = 1 of his books he didn't want published but his buddy Max Brod published it anyway .. 1st book he wrote in fact + it shows .. doesn't every 1 have a 1st book they don't want published? .. Amerika takes place in America even tho Kafka had never set foot here .. he gets it all wrong (like the statue of liberty carries a sword not a torch) but it matters not .. intresting to see Kafka's warped imagined version as the protagonist adapts to this strange new world .. hardly time for observation as he gets sucked into various dramas (the 1st of which—essentially the short story «The Stoker»—before he even disembarks the ship) capturing well that certain attitude foreigners have not wanting to be noticed as foreign ..

«The solitary indulgence of idly gazing at the busy life of New York was permissible in anyone travelling for pleasure, perhaps even advisable within limits; but for one who intended to remain in the States it was sheer ruination ...»

.. he spends 2 months in NYC but only sees 1 street .. Karl .. a rather neurotic hen-pecked beta creature .. not only does he essentially get scandalously raped (the reason why he gets sent packing from Germany w/ tail between legs) but he gets beat up by an American girl .. + taken advantage of by every1 he encounters .. all the gestures rather animalistic like wolves establishing dominance or submission ..

Kafka's Amerika in America

NYC > Rome—Jan 29

.. Amerika picks up after a while .. almost like Kafka learned to write writing Amerika .. develops his obsessive paranoid style .. Karl getting himself embroiled in all sorts of predicaments .. in some strange place + time .. + ends unfinished ..

at terminal (NYC skyline in distance)

.. now on plane .. almost to Rome now .. our pineal scarcely adjusted to time differences before continuing us further east .. arriving to the river ..

 

alms poor dead that they kill in the countryside

Rome—Jan 29

.. + now back in Rome .. feels right «at home» .. feels 2nd nature .. più comodo .. come il palmo della nostra mano .... looking for a place to live (ideas any 1?) .. a home away from home .... drinking espresso + eating pasta .. walking around in the rain .. for now staying on the river (of course) near Ponte Sisto ..

back on the river of rivers

 

 > 410 > Inner Experience in India intuiting inroads in nonknowledge in vain (cant see it if u try)


5cense

[  (ɔ)om.Posted 2015  derek white  |  calamari press   ]