Some time ago I wrote about a dish that is highly satisfying: peppers stuffed with rice.

Tomatoes and Peppers ready to be stuffed

Today I write about a variation of the dish: I added tomatoes to the peppers, and the filling is minced beef and diced pig’s skin.

Pig’s Skin

The magic ingredient of the filling is pig’s skin. It gives flavour and texture to the filling.

I fry it before I mix it with the meat.

Filling with minced beef, pig’s skin and bulgur wheat

I add to the mix some bulgur wheat to absorb the moisture, dill weed, dry and fresh onions and parsely.

Ready to bake

After stuffing the peppers and tomatoes, I bake in 220 C for 50 minutes.

Baked and ready to serve

This dish is never served hot. It needs to rest for at least one hour before serving.

Served

Delicious homemade bread is a flavour and pleasure booster, so here it is.

Homemade bread

And a nice improvised pudding to complete a good meal, and seal a good English-Greek get together.

Improvised Pudding

Asta la vista Compañeros!

Lodz, Poland, view across the street from Poznanski Palace

I arrived in Lodz at around 10 in the night.

The first major building that I saw from the taxi’s windshield was Poznanski Palace.

Next to it was “Andel’s” Hotel where I stayed.

Lodz, Poland, Poznanski Palace

Andel’s is a converted factory and part of a huge building complex called “Manufactura”.

The owner of the complex when it was a factory was Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznanski, the textile industrialist that made a fortune in the 19th century. Poznanski Palace was his residence. His status as a leading textile industrialist made the use of the term “Palace” almost natural.

Lodz, Poland, Andel’s Hotel

Lodz is the third largest city in Poland, the first being Warsaw and the second Krakow. Years ago it was the second largest city in Poland, with almost 900.000 inhabitants. Today it has approximately 750,000 inhabitants. Warsaw is attracting a lot of people with its spectacular growth and still reasonable prices. Still, this is not bad for Lodz, a city that back in the 1790′s was a small town with fewer than 200 inhabitants!

Coat of Arms of the City of Lodz

The spectacular change of a small town to a major urban center was due to textile manufacturing.

The development of the textile industry in Lodz started at the beginning of the 19th century.

Once called the Manchester of Poland because of its thriving textile industry, Lodz today has only few small SMEs in textiles. Times have changed and so has Lodz, but it retains its industrial aura.

Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański

In the 1815 Congress of Vienna treaty, Lodz became part of Congress Poland, a client state of the Russian Empire.  Lodz had been part of Prussia before and the Czar encouraged Germans to move into town and build houses and cotton mills. The first cotton mill opened in 1825, and 14 years later the first steam-powered factory in Russia and Poland commenced operations.

Adam Osser’s old cotton mill, Lodz, Poland. Photo by bauhausgirl

Thanks to bauhausgirl I can sharetwo photos of Adam Osser’s old cotton mill.

In her introduction to the photos, we read:

“The Factory complex was built in 1903 for one of Jewish cotton industrialists Adam (Abe) Osser. The Cotton Mill is a typical example of a mixture of Neo-Gothic (gothic revival) and Art Nouveau architectural style which dominated industrial buildings in Lodz.”

Adam Osser’s old cotton mill, Lodz, Poland.  Photo by bauhausgirl.

During the boom days of textile manufacturing, Lodz had a mixture of inhabitants: Polish, German and Jewish.

But things for the workers of the factories were not exactly perfect.

One might even speak of ruthless exploitation.

Lodz 1905 Insurrection Monument

It therefore comes as no surprise to see the workers rising against their oppressors. The Łódź insurrection, also known as the June Days, happened in 1905.

“For months, workers in Łódź had been in a state of unrest, with several major strikes having taken place, which were forcibly suppressed by the Russian police and military. The insurrection began spontaneously, without backing from any organized group. Polish revolutionary groups were taken by surprise and did not play a major role in the subsequent events. Around 21–22 June, following clashes with the authorities in the previous days, angry workers began building barricades and assaulting police and military patrols. Additional troops were called by the authorities, who also declared martial law. On 23 June, no businesses operated in the city, as the police and military stormed dozens of workers’ barricades. Eventually, by 25 June, the uprising was crushed, with estimates of several hundred dead and wounded. The uprising was reported in the international press and widely discussed by socialist and communist activists worldwide. Unrest in Łódź would continue for many months, although without protests on such a large-scale as before.” (Wikipedia).

Cast of Arthur Rubinstein’s hands; Lodz Museum

In arts the city of Lodz has a famous pianist and a famous film school.

Arthur Rubinstein the pianist, was born in Lodz in 1887. He lived in Piotrkowska Street, the son of a Jewish textile industrialist.

Adrzej Wajda, The Promised Land

The National Film School was founded in Lodz in 1948. Andrzei Vajda and Roman Polanski are two of the school’s students.

Wajda shot his movie “Promised Land” in the city of Lodz.

Piotrkowska Street, Lodz, Poland

I did not have time to explore the urban landscape, just got a glimpse of the city.

Piotrkowska Street is the Main Street of the city of Lodz.

But my heart belongs ot Gdanska Street, which gave me a different view of the city.

Gdanska Street, Lodz, Poland

There is no sign of the “new” development that one can see in Warsaw in Lodz’s Gdanska Street.

The old buildings from the early 20th century are still there, and they dominate the terrain.

Gdanska Street, Lodz, Poland

The buildings on Gdanska Street have personality. They speak to you.

Lodz, Poland

The peanut green is popular.

Lodz, Poland

The entrances to the buildings are panels of visual splendor.

Lodz, Poland

The advertising boards seem to be out of place.

On the gastronomy front, one day I asked to eat kielbasa, which is Polish sausage. It was as if I had asked for Beluga, at a lower price. This may be due to the tendency to modernize, i.e. abandon the traditional cuisine in favour of the staple of international “artifices” like plastic pizza, plastic burgers and plastic pasta. Even the hearty peasant soups have been neutralized, and became boring and tasteless.

Assortiment of Polish sausage – kielbasa

In any case, I got to taste some kielbasa, and then some kashanka, Polish blood sausage.

Polish blood sausage, kashanka or kaszanka

My intuition tells me that the farther away you get from the big cities, the better the sausages you taste.

But such an expedition has to wait until my next visit to the land of Adam Mickiewicz.

And what better time to pay tribute to Mickiewicz and his praise of bigos, the traditional Polish meat and cabbage stew, which the nineteenth century national poet, philosopher, publicist and political writer even describes bigos in his epic poem, Pan Tadeusz (many thanks to foodcentric).

Bigos

“In the pots warmed the bigos; mere words cannot tell
Of its wondrous taste, colour and marvellous smell.
One can hear the words buzz, and the rhymes ebb and flow,
But its content no city digestion can know.
To appreciate the Lithuanian folksong and folk food,
You need health, live on land, and be back from the wood.

Without these, still a dish of no mediocre worth
Is bigos, made from legumes, best grown in the earth;
Pickled cabbage comes foremost, and properly chopped,
Which itself, is the saying, will in ones mouth hop;
In the boiler enclosed, with its moist bosom shields
Choicest morsels of meat raised on greenest of fields;
Then it simmers, till fire has extracted each drop
Of live juice, and the liquid boils over the top,
And the heady aroma wafts gently afar.”

Gdanska Street, Lodz, Poland

Nikolaos Gyzis The Spider

Introduction

Greece is a country with a very rich history in civil strife and conflict, escalating to war.

Today’s post is embedded in my attempt to dig deeper in the History of modern Greece (after 1821) in order to better understand the perils and challenges of today, and act accordingly.

I am not a historian or a social scientist. My approach is therefore realistic, trying to focus on facts and reality. Interpretation by necessity takes the passenger seat.

The burning of frigate Hellas in 1831 by Admiral Miaoulis is an act with multiple repercussions. But most of all it is the first serious internal conflict in the country that emerged from the War of Independence of 1821 and the formation of the Greek State.

Ioannis Kapodistrias – National Historical Museum, Athens

Ioannis Kapodistrias – Ιωαννης Καποδιστριας

Only ten years after the beginning of the War of Greek Independence in 1821, the newly formed Greek State faced its first major challenge: Governor Kapodistrias was murdered.  This event marked the formation of the Greek State. There is no doubt that had Kapodistrias completed his program, the Greek State would have become something totally different from what it is today.

On the 30th March 1827, the National Assempby of Troizina elected Ioannis Kapodistrias as Governor of the Greek State.

Kapodistrias arrived in Nafplion on the 7th January 1828. On the 18th January 1828 the Parliament approves the suspension of the Constitution and Kapodistrias becomes the Absolute Ruler, assisted by the Panhellenion, an advisory body with 27 members.

The Greek State in 1830 and 1832

In 1828, the territory of Greece was limited to the Peloponnese, a few islands and a small part of the mainland.

The main features of the situation in Greece in 1828 were the following:

• disorganized state
• destroyed economy
• contraband
• lack of discipline in military units
• non existent tax mechanism
• many orphans and homeless people
• bandits
• piracy in the Aegean

Powerful groups of interests were fighting each other for the domination of the political and economic scene.

Governor Kapodistrias set as his major goal the creation of a State, starting from nothing.

Hellenic Navy Seal

Frigate “Hellas”

Frigate “Hellas” was built in the United States of America, and financed by the second loan to the Greek State, raised by the London Greek Committee. The shipbuilding order was issued in 1825. At the time, the Greek Navy consisted of ships owned mainly by the islanders of Hydra, Psara and Spetses. The small ships had no operational capability against the navy of the Ottoman Empire.

“London Greek Committee  (act. 1823–1826) was created in March 1823 to support the cause of Greek independence from Ottoman rule by raising funds by subscription for a military expedition to Greece and by raising a major loan to stabilize the fledgling Greek government. The plan to raise the first Greek loan, which began in earnest when Ioannis Orlandos (c.1800–1852) and Louriottis arrived in London in January 1824 to begin negotiations, was more successful. The speculative bubble surrounding the South American loans was at its height, but was not to burst for another year. Nevertheless the terms of the loan were favourable to the lenders, with £800,000 to be borrowed at 5 per cent interest, and £100 of stock could be purchased for £59 payable in six monthly instalments from early March. Thus only £472,000 could be raised, but the return to lenders was enhanced considerably by the discounted price. Leading figures in the committee believed that they would make handsome profits. The first loan was followed by a second, negotiated directly by the Greek deputies with J. and S. Ricardo, the bankers, without the authorization of the committee but with the involvement of some of its key members, including Hobhouse, Burdett, and Edward Ellice  (1783–1863). It was thought that the funds from the second loan might be used to stabilize the first, but the funds were again squandered, this time in fitting out an expedition of steamboats (with machinery supplied by the London engineer Alexander Galloway), to have been led by the celebrated Lord Cochrane, which came to nothing, and the building and purchase of two expensive frigates in America when plenty of cheaper versions were available in Britain or on the continent.” (1)

Frigate Hellas and Steamship Karteria

But how did the purchase of the two frigates come to nothing? It is a long story. In summary, the ship builders raised their price while in the process of building the ships, and as a result the Greek State could not pay. Only one of the two ships, “Hope”, that was renamed to “Hellas”, was eventually purchsed. The other, the Liberator, had to be sold.

“Binding arbitration was to solve this problem and the arbitrators were authorized to sell one frigate on a public action for the necessary funds. Their decision was 3 August 1826 that the financiers owned $ 894,908.62 for the building excluded another $ 34,246.55 for rigging, cables, extra spurs and shot which allowed a 3 years service. The arbitrators sold the Liberator to the American government. She was taken as the 44 guns frigate Hudson into the American Navy. Laid down at Smith&Dimon, New York 1825 and launched 1826. Due to this selling the Greek were able to pay for the second frigate they ordered. Her sister ship, originally named Hope, departed New York October 1826 and was taken into Greek service as the Hellas.” (2)

On the 25th November 1826, the Greek frigate Hellas arrived in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy.

Andreas Miaoulis

Andreas Miaoulis

Andreas Miaoulis was a wealthy ship owner, ship master and merchant from the island of Hydra.

He is reputed to have met Lord Admiral Nelson when in 1802 his ship was captured near Cadiz by the English fleet. Miaoulis was taken to Lord Nelson, who asked him why he was breaking the naval blockage of the English against the French. Miaoulis responded that it was in his interest to do so. ”What would you do if you were in my position?” asked Nelson, and Miaoulis replied: “I would hang you!”. After this exchange Lord Nelson freed Miaoulis. (3)

Miaoulis got involed in the Greek War of Independence in the Summer of 1821 and his contribution was huge.

In 1822 he was elected Admiral of the Fleet of Hydra. By 1825 he became the  Admiral of the Greek Fleet.

Miaoulis belonged ot the “English” camp of Greece, while Kapodistrias allegedly belonged to the Russian camp. I must comment on this, as I think that the importance of the “camps” has been overstated at times. I believe that no matter how strong the interests of England, France and Russia were, the Greek interest groups were on the driving seat.

As far as Kapodistrias’ allegiance to Russia goes, I do not think that there is any evidence that he compromised his performance as Governor of Greece in order to favor Russia.

In spite of being in the English camp, in 1827 the National Assempby of Troizina nominated Admiral Cochrane as vice Admiral of the Greek Fleet.

Miaoulis was displeased and withdrew from the admiralty, maintaining the command of frigate “Hellas”.

In any case, Cochrane stayed in Greece until early 1828.

After Kapodistrias arrived in Nafplion, he placed Miaoulis in the Admiralty. The relationship of the two men became problematic in late 1830, when Miaoulis started opposing Kapodistrias’ policies regarding the remuneration of the shipowners of Hydra.

Hatzikiriakos-Ghikas “Big Scenery of Hydra” Oil in canvas,1938

The rebellion of 1831  

In 1831, Greece descended into anarchy with numerous areas, including Mani and Hydra, in revolt.

Hydrians and other dissatisfied islanders from the Aegean sea, people of Poros, Mykenos, Syros, Naxos, Andros and Paros fought hard against Kapodistrias which led to rebellion against him.

The big problem for the leaders of the island of Hydra was allegedly that Governor Kapodistrias was not accepting their demands for benefits and remuneration for their contribution to the War of Independence.

But an equally important item on the agenda of all who rebelled was that Kapodistrias was sticking to his guns and was not letting the powermongers of Mani, Hydra, and other areas play their game unhindered.

It was a power struggle, and it was going to cost Kapodistrias his life and destroy for good any chance of building a proper State in Greece.

Kapodistrias was not going to yield to the demands of the rebels. He asked Konstantinos Kanaris, the commander of the Greek Fleet Base on the island of Poros to be prepared for operations.

The overall plan was to impose a blockade on the port of Hydra, apply the law everywhere, and not allow the rebels to engage in any activity against the State.

But the plans leaked and the rebels’ leader Mavrokordatos asked Andreas Miaoulis to take control of the Greek Fleet’s Base in Poros.

Andrea Miaoulis acted promptly and on the 14th July 1831 he took control over frigate “Hellas” and other ships.

Kapodistrias tried to mobilize the three powers, England, France, and Russia, to mediate in the conflict.

England and France started dragging their feet, while declaring the need to find a solution.

The Russians were more forthcoming, and this is what broke the camel’s back.

Andreas Miaoulis’ Escape Boat

On the pretence that the Russians were going to take over the Greek Navy, on the 1st of August 1831, at the port of Poros, Andreas Miaoulis destroyed the corvettes, “Hydra” and “Spetses” and the frigate “Hellas”.

Miaoulis escaped from the scene on one of the lifeboats of “Hellas”, which you can see on the photo above.

Konstantinos Kanaris, in his letter to Kapodistrias wrote: ‘On the 1st August, at 1030 hours approaching noon, near the island of Poros, Miaoulis burned “Hellas” and “Hydra”. May the name of the doer of this barbaric act be given to eternal damnation!” (3)

The English Journal “Spectator” on 10th September 1831 published an article on the event.

“The Government of Capo D’Istrias (sic) is drawing to a close. The secret probably is, that he has come to the end of his money ; while, at the same time, he is accused of keeping a full chest on board a Russian frigate, where he has a kind of head- quarters. The country seems to be breaking up into separate little independencies, as of old. Hydra takes the lead with the Islands ; Maina has already formed a local and independent government ; Roumelia is in insurrection ; and the want of money to pay volun- teers is the only circumstance which now, as well as at all pre- vious times, restrains the inhabitants of the remaining, districts from doing the same.” (Source: The Spectator Archive).

The Aftermath

Governor Kapodistrias, was murdered by George and Constantinos Mavromihalis on the 27th September 1831 at Nafplio.

In 1832 Miaoulis was chosen by the Bavarian Court to be one of the Greeks that delivered the Crown to the first King of Greece, Otto of Bavaria.

Sources

1. London Greek Committee  (act. 1823–1826) by F. Rosen. Oxford University Press.

2. The Greek frigate Liberator never served in the Greek navy but became instead USS frigate Hudson. Warshipresearch.

3. Wikipedia. Andreas Miaoulis (in Greek)

Introduction

It was 1995 and I was living in Kingston upon Thames, a stone’s throw from the river.

My job was in Central London and so every day I was taking the train to Waterloo Station, crossing the bridge on foot, and straight to the office.

Little I knew at the time how celebrated Waterloo bridge was in paintings of English and French Masters.

The Waterloo Bridge was designed by John Rennie and opened in 1817, two years after the battle of Waterloo, where The English Army under the command of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian Army under the command of the General Gebhard von Bluecher defeated Napoleon and ended his rule as the Emperor of the French. Waterloo Bridge was demolished in the 1930s and replaced by the present one.

In  this post I present works by Constable, Turner, and Monet. There are other painters of Waterloo Bridge, of course, like Derain. But I decided to focus on the two English Romantics and the French Impressionist, because in my view they have produced the most interesting pictures.

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (‘Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817′)

Constable

I start with the English master John Constable, the supreme landscape painter of England.

“Constable is famous for his landscapes, which are mostly of the Suffolk countryside, where he was born and lived. He made many open-air sketches, using these as a basis for his large exhibition paintings, which were worked up in the studio.” (3)

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge – detail

Constable’s painting is titled “The Opening of Waterloo Bridge (‘Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817′)” and was exhibited in 1832

“Over seven feet in length, this is the largest of Constable’s exhibition canvases and the result of thirteen years of planning. It commemorates the opening of Waterloo Bridge – and the second anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo – on 18 June 1817, an occasion celebrated with tremendous pomp and ceremony which Constable attempted to recapture in a whole series of drawings and oil sketches, dating from 1819 onwards…The picture shows the Prince Regent about to board the Royal barge at Whitehall stairs. The Lord Mayor’s barge is situated prominently in the right foreground, its billowing red standard leading the eye back to the pale horizontal line of the bridge and the distant dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. Beyond the left-hand end of the bridge is Somerset House, the home of the Royal Academy, where the picture was exhibited in 1832.” (6)

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge – detail

“Technically, the picture is distinguished by its animated surface and variety of handling. The thin brown underpainting is visible in places; elsewhere Constable has used the palette knife to build up a thick impasto. The vigorous application of paint is particularly obvious in the foreground of the picture, where bold touches of red, green and white bring the picture to life. On witnessing the brilliant colour of Constable’s painting, hanging beside his cool-toned seapiece, Helvoetsluys (private collection, London), at the Royal Academy exhibition, Turner is said to have added a bright red buoy to his own work, in order to redress the balance.” (6).

Constable is painting the pomp and circumstance of the opening, and uses it in order to exhibit his skills in landscape painting. The bridge itself is just an object in the background that divides the canvas in two horizontal strips of roughly the same height.

The Opening of Waterloo Bridge – detail

The industrial landscape creeps into Constable’s painting. The smokestacks are on the right side of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Thames above Waterloo Bridge c.1830-5 by Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851

Turner

I continue with Joseph Mallord William Turner.

“Turner is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist. He became known as ‘the painter of light’, because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include water colours, oils and engravings.” (4)

He painted “The Thames above Waterloo Bridge”  in the period 1830-5, but left it unfinished.

The Thames above Waterloo Bridge – detail

A few days ago I wrote about Claude Lorrain and Turner as the painters of Light. Turner was not only a master of landscape and seascape painting, but also a painter who approached abstraction. This is more than evident in his Waterloo picture. Contrast Constable’s clear and sharp drawing to Turner’s smudges and the  fusion of colours without any boundaries.

The Thames above Waterloo Bridge – detail

Tate Britain’s website entry informs us that:

“Datable for stylistic reasons to the early 1830s, it is just possible that this was projected as Turner’s answer to Constable’s picture of Waterloo Bridge from Whitehall Stairs, June 18th, 1817, exhibited at the R.A. in 1832. The effect of smoke-belching industry contrasts with the sparkling clear atmosphere of the Constable, and a large twin-funnelled steam-boat replaces the royal yacht. The possibility of Turner setting out to rival this particular Constable is reinforced by the incident that took place during the 1832 Varnishing Days, when Turner’s Helvoetsluys, a relatively subdued picture, was hung next to Constable’s painting (see No. 345). This unfinished painting takes us to the heart of the smoky commercial capital which, though a Londoner by birth and resident for most of his life, Turner usually preferred to depict from a distance.”

The Thames above Waterloo Bridge – detail

Contrary to Constable’s almost idyllic depiction of the bridge and its surroundings, Turner produced a “smoky” picture.

It is not only the smoke from the chimneys.

Turner’s landscape is a tortured landscaped.

You cna hear the screams amidst the silence.

Claude Monet; Waterloo Bridge, 1901

Monet

With the fuzzy foggy smoky grey skies waters and landscapes of Turner ends the romantic period of Waterloo pictures. The next artist in line is an impressionist: Claude Monet.

“After completing his series devoted to the facade of the Rouen Cathedral and before beginning the monumental series inspired by his Japanese gardens at Giverny, Monet began work on a large group of paintings of the Thames River in London. In preparation for these, he made several trips to London in the winter months, during which he recorded and studied three motifs: the Waterloo and Charing Cross Bridges and the Houses of Parliament. “I love London,” Monet wrote. “It is a mass, an ensemble, and it is so simple. Then, in London, what I love, above all, is the fog.” So intent was he on capturing gradations of light as it is affected by fog that he undertook about one-hundred canvases. Of these, he finished thirty-seven, completed primarily in his Giverny studio.” (1)

When Claude Monet visited London, he stayed at Room 618 at The Savoy.

The Savoy Hotel, London

The room is now known as the Monet Suite.

In this roon, on the morning of 25 January 1901, Monet drew a pastel picture of Waterloo Bridge.

The Savoy of London – Monet Suite

The picture shows a hazy view of the famous bridge with a barge in the foreground. Towers that were used for the manufacturing of lead shot are depicted on the Thames’s south bank. What was a minor feature in Constable’s painting, became a major one in Turner and Monet. The industrialization of England changed the landscape as it changed society and the lifes of people leaving in London and other major industrial centers. 

Claude Monet
Le pont de Waterloo à Londres
vers 1899
pastel sur papier beige rosé
H. 0.313 ; L. 0.485
musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

“The impressionist stayed at the Savoy three times after the hotel was recommended to him by Whistler. He used pastels and tan-coloured paper, bought on Charing Cross Road, after his paints, brushes and canvasses were delayed on the way from France. Of the many sketches he made on the trip, 26 survive; five views of Waterloo Bridge and 21 looking in the other direction, towards Charing Cross.” (2)

This is not the earliest picture Monet painted of Waterloo Bridge. I found a pastel on paper dated 1899, which is today in Musee d’ Orsay in Paris.

Claude Monet;
Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect, 1903; Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago has two Waterloo Bridge paintings by Monet. I Was lucky to view them when I visited the Art Institute of Chicago in April 2013.

“In the museum’s two views of Waterloo Bridge, each with its sweep of smokestacks and buildings lining the riverbank, the artist reversed the lights and darks: in one, the bridge is a band of light; in the other, its dark shape is defined by the lighter water surrounding it. In both compositions, the city’s life is indicated by dabs of paint that suggest the vague shapes and lights of a carriage, a small boat, smoke. Running through the paintings like a constant current, the city’s energy becomes timeless in this series, which, more than any other up to this time, came from the depths of Monet’s memory and imagination.” (1)

Claude Monet;
Waterloo Bridge, Sunlight Effect, 1903 – Detail; Art Institute of Chicago

Detail of Waterloo bridge, sunlight effect.

Claude Monet; Waterloo Bridge – Gray Weather; 1900; Art Institute of Chicago

“If not for the fog, Claude Monet once remarked, “London wouldn’t be a beautiful city. It’s the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth.” While working on his London series, he rose early every day to paint Waterloo Bridge in the morning, moving on to Charing Cross Bridge at midday and in the afternoon. He observed both motifs from his fifth-floor window at the Savoy Hotel. The Art Institute’s two Waterloo Bridge paintings are dated 1900 and 1903, but both were likely begun in 1900 and dated only when Monet felt that they were finished. He worked on all of his London paintings in his studio in Giverny, refusing to send any of them to his dealer until he was satisfied with them as an ensemble.” (5)

Claude Monet; Waterloo Bridge at Dusk; 1904; National Gallery of Art; Washington DC

I will present two more Monet pictures, both at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Both pictures are dated 1904, a few years after the Chicago pictures were made.

Claude Monet; Waterloo Bridge at Sunset; 1904; National Gallery of Art; Washington DC

The hours Claude Monet spent viewing his water garden transformed his idea of a series and his approach to a single subject. Where before he recorded the salient changes caused by the seasons and the times of day, Monet now honed his observations to perceive the most subtle variation of light and surface activity, which he rendered through color harmonies and articulate brush strokes. Time became irrelevant; tone and atmosphere alone riveted his attention, as seen in the 1904 painting, Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset.

Claude Monet; Waterloo Bridge at Sunset – detail; 1904; National Gallery of Art; Washington DC

In closing

It is time to close and take stock.

From Constable’s exhuberance to Turner’s smoky turbulent image, to Monet’s stylistic perfectionism.

My heart goes to Turner, my mind to Monet and my respect to Constable. This is why they are all present in this post.

More to come on the painting of the industrial landscape. A huge topic, and a fascinating one.

Sources

(1) Introduction: Monet’s London Series

(2) Monet’s Waterloo Bridge drawing on show at Savoy hotel. The Guardian.

(3) John Constable. The National Gallery.

(4) JMW Turner. The National Gallery.

(5) Waterloo Bridge, Gray Weather, 1900

(6) Frances Fowle: The opening of Waterloo Bridge

(7) Tate Gallery: The opeining of Waterloo Bridge

H Mάτση Χατζηλαζάρου ποζάρει προκλητικά στο φακό του Ανδρέα Εμπειρίκου

“Η Γκρέτα, καταφανώς εν μεγάλη διεγέρσει διατελούσα, χωρίς την παραμικράν προφύλαξιν, ανέσυρε εν ριπή οφθαλμού το φόρεμά της, και, αποκαλύπτουσα, προς στιγμήν, ένα θαυμάσιον και προεξέχον πολύ, εν μέσω ολίγων αραιών τριχών μουνί (δεν έφερε σκελέαν), ήνοιξε τούς μηρούς της, έθεσε την κούκλαν μεταξύ αυτών, και καλύπτουσα πάλιν το ερωτικόν της όργανον, έσφιξε τούς μηρούς της, και ήρχισε να κινήται ζωηρώς, ζωηρότατα, επί του καθίσματός της, κατά τρόπον που εφανέρωνε ότι ηυνανίζετο με πάθος, τρίβουσα μανιωδώς το αιδοίον της, επί της κεφαλής και των μαλλιών του κομψού ανθρωπομόρφου ομοιώματος, επιδιώκουσα με αφάνταστον ζέσιν να επιφέρη τοιουτοτρόπως την έκχυσιν του ερωτικού χυμού της, αδιαφορούσα τελείως, και, ίσως, τερπομένη επιπροσθέτως, από το γεγονός ότι εξετέλει την τόσον άσεμνον, άλλα και τόσον χαριτωμένην αυτήν πράξιν δημοσία.”

Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος, Μεγαλος Ανατολικος

Georgia O’Keeffe, Series I White and Blue Flower Shapes, 1919, Oil on Board, 19 7/8 x 15 3/4 inches, Gift of the Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, ©Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

Προ της εισαγωγης

Αποτιω τιμη στην μεγαλη Αμερικανιδα ζωγραφο Τζωρτζια Ο’ Κηφ, που ζωγραφισε ανθη, και με καποιον τροπο πολλα απο τα ανθη της παραπεμπουν στο ανθος του αιδοιου.

Αυτο εξαλλου παρετηρησε και εις εκ των δυο πρωταγωνιστων τη σειρας Breaking Bad, ο νεαρος Τζεσσυ, οταν η νεαρα καλλιτεχνιζουσα φιλενας του τον επηγε να δουνε μαζι το μουσειο της Τζωρτζια Ο’ Κηφ στην πολιτεια του Νεου Μεξικου των ΗΠΑ.

Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keeffe

Εισαγωγικες παρατηρησεις

Η διερευνηση αυτης της πραγματειας ειναι εκ των πραγματων προσδιορισμενη αλλα και περιορισμενη απο το γλωσσικο ιδιωμα.

Αυτη η παρατηρηση ομως με κανενα τροπο δεν οδηγει σε πολιτισμικη μονοσημαντοτητα.

Το αντιθετο θα ελεγα. Ακριβως η αναγνωριση του περιοριστικου παραγοντα ειναι η απαρχη της αναιρεσης του.

Ο μεγας πρωταγωνιστης της πραγματειας αυτης ειναι το “αιδοιον”.

Χαιρε, ώ χαιρε τετιμημενον!

Η διερευνηση θα στηριχθει στην γλωσσα.

Πρεπει ομως να προειδοποιησω τον αναγνωστη (και την αναγνωστρια) οτι τα πολιτιστικα δικτυα δεν αναγονται αποκλειστικα εις την γλωσσαν, αρα θα υπεισελθουν και αλλα στοιχεια πολιτισμου σχετικα με το τετιμημενον.

Andreas Empeirikos

“Εις εν ακρότατον σημείον της ομηγύρεως, μία ομάς εκ δεκαπέντε περίπου ανδρών, παρετήρει, ουχί το αερόστατον, αλλά μίνα νεαράν ακροβάτιδα, ήτις, υπό τους ήχους ενός ντεφιού, που έσειε ένας νεώτερος αδελφός της, εξετέλει διάφορα γυμνάσματα με μεγάλην ευκαμψίαν και δεξιοτεχνίαν. Η νεάνις αυτή ήτο ευειδής και χαρίεσσα. Εις μίαν στιγμήν που περιεστρέφετο επί των χειρών, με τους πόδας της εις τον αέραν, εσχίσθη, εν αγνοία της, η περισκελίς της εις καίριο σημείον, εις τρόπον ώστε, εις ωρισμένην φάσιν της ακροβασίας, να φαίνεται το αιδοίον της ευκρινώς. Εντεύθεν η εξαίρεσις, εντεύθεν η γοητεία. Διότι, εις το γεγονός ότι διεκρίνετο το ερωτικόν της όργανον, ωφείλετο η απόσπασις της προσοχής των δεκαπέντε θεατών από το αερόστατον.”

Ανδρεας Εμπειρικος, Αργώ ή Πλους Αεροστάτου

Sarah Lucas, Chicken Knickers 2000, Saatchi Gallery.

Η προσεγγιση

Εν αρχη ην η γλωσσα.

Ο Λακάν στρέφεται στη γλωσσολογία μέσα από δύο βασικά σημεία (1):

1. Υιοθετώντας τη βασική ιδέα ότι η γλώσσα ως συμβολικό σύστημα μαζί με τα άλλα κοινωνικο-πολιτιστικά συστήματα και τις δομές τους προϋπάρχουν της γέννησης ενός ανθρώπου και υπέρ-κεινται αυτού. Κατά συνέπεια, το παιδί με την κατάκτηση της γλώσσας εγγράφεται σε αυτή τη συμβολική τάξη, η οποία επειδή ακριβώς υπέρ-κειται θα το πλάσει ανάλογα με τις δομές της. Με άλλα λόγια, το άτομο αναδύεται ως υποκείμενο μέσα από την εγγραφή του στη συμβολική τάξη της γλώσσας ή, όπως λέει ο Αλτουσέρ (1983), η κατάκτηση της γλώσσας είναι αυτή που με την εισαγωγή στη συμβολική τάξη θα σημαδέψει το πέρασμα από τον άνθρωπο-θηλαστικό στον άνθρωπο-παιδί -άνδρα ή γυναίκα.

2. Θεωρώντας ότι το “το ασυνείδητο είναι δομημένο σαν γλώσσα”, δηλαδή μια δομή που όπως και η γλώσσα αποτελείται από στοιχεία που βρίσκονται σε σχέση, και εξομοιώνοντας τους μηχανισμούς του ασυνειδήτου με τους γλωσσικούς μηχανισμούς της μεταφοράς και της μετωνυμίας.

Θα συναντησομε τον Λακαν και παρακατω, οχι ως μεγιστο ψυχαναλυτη, αλλα ως συλλεκτη εργων τεχνης.

Louise Bourgeois, “Untitled”, 2002

Η Κυρία Λέξις, Παραλλαγες και Παραγωγα της

Οι λεξεις που θα αναλυθουν ειναι κυριως ελληνικες. Για λογους ομως που σχετιζονται με την αυθαιρεσια του συγγραφονοτς να κανει του κεφαλιου του και να μην δινει αναφορα σε κανενα, θα εμπλουτισθουν αι λεξεις αυτες, και με καποιες ξενικες.

Μουνί
Θεωρειται απο καποιους χυδαια λεξις. Το ολον θεμα του πως οριζεται η χυδαιοτης ειναι τεραστιον και δεν θα το αναπτυξω εδω.

Θα εκφρασω ομως τη διαφωνια μου με τον χαρακτηρισμο λεξεων και γλωσσικων ιδιωματων ως χυδαια.

Για την ετυμολογία της λέξης, το Λεξικο Κοινης Νεοελληνικης  (3) μας διδει δυο εκδοχες.

Η πρώτη είναι από το ευνή:

(αρχαια) εὐνή `κρεβάτι, κρεβάτι του γάμου΄ – ελληνιστικο υποκοριστικο  *εὐνίον

> μεσαιωνικο *βνίον (αποβολη του αρχικού άτονου  φωνήεντος)

> *μνίον (για την τροπή [vn > mn] σύγκρινε ευνούχος > μουνούχος, ελαύνω > λάμνω)

> *μουνίον (ανάπτ. [u] ανάμεσα σε αρχικό [m] και ακόλουθο σύμφωνο, σύγκρινε *μνούχος > μουνούχος) > (μεσαιωνικο) μουνίν

POLIDORI Gian Carlo(1943-), Italy: Οδαλίσκη και Ευνούχος στο χαρέμι (5)

Και η δεύτερη από τη λέξη μνούς:

(αρχαια) μνοῦς `μαλακό πούπουλο, χνουδάκι΄ ελληνιστικο υποκοριστικο *μνίον

> (μεσαιωνικο) *μουνίον (όπως στην προηγ. υπόθεση) > (μεσαιωνικο) μουνίν

Sarah Lucas

Η παραλλαγμενη εννοια

Η λεξη μουνι χρησιμοποιειται και με απαξιωτικη διασταση, οτι καποιος δηλαδη αρσενικος ή θηλυκος, ειναι σκαρτος.

Παρομοιως, απαξιωτικη ειναι και η εκφραση “τα καναμε μουνι”, ή η παρεμφερης “τα καναμε μουνακι”.

Η χρηση του υποκοριστικου υποδηλωνει μια μικρου ή μεσαιου μεγεθους αστοχια, ενω η χρηση της πληρους λεξεως κατι σημαντικο.

Εδω παραβαλλω και την παραλληλη απαξιωτικη εκφραση “πουτσες μπλε”.

Αποδεικνυεται περιτρανως λοιπον οτι η γλωσσα δεν γνωριζει συνορα φυλλου.

Απαξιωση ενθεν και ενθεν.

L’Origine du Monde de Gustave Courbet

Παρενθεση: Η Αρχη του Κοσμου  του Γκουσταβ Κουρμπε (The Origin of the World by Gustave Courbet)

Δεν μπορω παρα να παραθεσω παραυτα το μεγαλειωδες εργο του Γκουσταβ Κουρμπε, την Απαρχη του Κοσμου.

Το εργο παρηγγειλε ο Τουρκος διπλωματης και συλλεκτης Χαλιλ Μπεη το 1866.

Αμεσως μετα την ολοκληρωση του, το εργο εξαφανιστηκε απο την δημοσια θεα.

Ο συλλεκτης το τοποθετησε στο λουτρο του, και εβαλε και μια κουρτινα μπροστα, ωστε να το κρυβει σε ορισμενες περιπτωσεις.

Μετα την χρεωκοπια του Χαλιλ Μπεη ο πινακας κατεληξε στη Βουδαπεστη, οπου και αλλαξε πολλα χερια.

Κατεληξε στη συλλογη του Ζακ Λακαν στη δεκαετια του 1950, που ηταν και ο τελευταιος ιδιωτης που το ειχε στη συλλογη του.

Σημερα το απολαμβανουν οι επισκεπτες του Μουσειου Ορσαι στο Παρισι.

Jacques Lacan

Αιδοιον

Προερχεται απο το ρημα αιδεομαι, που σημαινει σεβομαι, ευλαβουμαι.

Αποτελει το ουδετερον του “Αιδοιος”, που σημαινει Σεβαστος.

Αιδοιον λοιπον σημαινει “Σεβαστον”.

Renato Guttuso, untitled figure study, 1982. Lithograph, Gardiner Permanent Art Collection.

Con

Γαλλικη λεξις, που μπορει να μεταφρασθει και σαν “μουνακι” και σαν “μαλακας”.

Σε απταιστα Γαλλικα, στο παρον πονημα « con » désignant trivialement la vulve.

Achille Deveria, French Painter

Μουνακι

“Η Ειρηνη ειναι σνα μια αψιδα πανω απο την θαλασσα. .. Αχ, αχ. Η Ειρηνη καλει τον εραστη της. Τον εραστη της που καυλωνει απο μακρυα. Αχ, αχ, Η Ειρηνη αγωνια και σπαρταρα. Εκεινος ορθωνεται καυλωμενος σαν θεος πανω απο την αβυσσο. Αυτη κουνιεται, εκεινος την αποφευγει, αυτη κουνιεται και του δινεται. Αχ. Η οαση υποκλινεται με τις πανυψηλες τις χουρμαδιες της. Ταξιδιωτες, οι πανωφορες σας στροβιλιζονται μεσ’ τη λεπτη την αμμο. Απ’ το λαχανιασμα η Ειρηνη κοντευει να διαλυθει. Εκεινος την κοιταζει. Το μουνι εχει μουσκεψει καρτερωντας τ’ ολοζωντανο παλουκι. Στ’ απατηλα βουνα της αμμου, μια σκια ζαρκαδιου. Κολαση ας αρχισουν οι καταραμενοι σου να μαλακιζονται, η Ειρηνη εχυσε.”

Λουις Αραγκον, “Το μουνακι της Ειρηνης”.  Μεταφραση Ανδρεας Νεοφυτιδης. Εκδοσεις Γαβριηλιδη, Αθηνα 1989.

Απο τον Αθεοφοβο2

Μουνάρα

Λεξη επιτιμητικη. Χιλαδες, εκατονταδες χιλιαδες, εκατομμυρια Ελληνων και Ελληνοφωνων εχουν κραυγασει καποια στιγμη του βιου τους “Μουναρα μου!”.

Τι εννοουσαν αραγε;

Εντελως υποθετικα, θα ελεγα οτι η λεξη αρχικα αναφερεται στο υπερτατο θηλυκο.

Η φαινομενικη απλοηκοτης της λεξεως δεν αφαιρει την διασταση του υπερτατου, αντιθετως την κανει πιο εντονη.

Μιλαμε λοιπον για το υπερτατο θηλυκο, και τουτο με την διασταση την σεξουαλικη.

Δεν θα ακουσετε καποιον να λεει “αγαπω μια μουναρα”. Καποιο αλλο ρημα θα χρησιμοποιησει.

Εδω λοιπον, η λεξη μας διδει το εδαφος δια να  θυμηθουμε αυτο που εγραψε ο μεγας Λακαν: ” Η αγαπη ερχεται να αναπληρωσει την ανυπαρξια ερωτικης σχεσης.”

Η “μουναρα” ειναι βαθεια βυθισμενη και σφραγισμενη απο το ερωτικο και μονο το ερωτικο στοιχειο.

Οι αγαπες και οι μαργαριτες ειναι αλλου.

Γλυκομούνα

“Διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο Τα αδιάντροπα -Λεσβιακά Λαογραφικά του Βαγγέλη Καραγιάννη με πρόλογο του Μ.Γ.Μερακλή  (Φιλιππότης) Αθήνα 1983, είδα να αναφέρει στην φράση : Είνι γλυκουμούνα μια τοπική συνήθεια που δεν την είχα ξαναδιαβάσει. Γράφει ακριβώς :

Tracey Emin Ruined (2007) acrylic, oil pastel and pencil on canvas, 72 5/8 x 72 5/8 x 2 1/2, Photograph by Stephen White. Courtesy of White Cube.
© the artist

Παληόμουνο

Βλεπε σχετικα λεξεις οπως “παληοχαρακτηρας”, “παληοκοριτσο”.

Δια της λεξεως προβαλλει αυτος που την χρησιμοποιει την ιδιοτητα του κακου χαρακτηρα εις την γυναικα.

Μπορει να ειναι μια αστατη γυναικα, μπορει να ειναι μια γυναικα που δεν τιθασευεται, δεν ελεγχεται, δεν υποτασσεται.

Εδω δεν υπαρχει αντικειμενικη διασταση.

Ο χαρακτηριζων αυθαιρετει και χρησιμοποιει την λεξη ασυστολως.

Μπορει λοιπον η ουτως χαρακτηριζομένη γυνη απλα “να μην καθεται” στον χαρακτηριζοντα, να μην ανταποκρινεται θετικα εις τα ερωτικα του κελευσματα.

Καριολομουνο

Black Widow

Φαρμακομούνα

Εδω το “φαρμακο” εχει την ιδιοτητα του δηλητηριου, και οχι της θεραπευτικης δρασης.

(Βλεπε σχετικα την λεξη “ποντικοφαρμακο”. Δεν θεραπευει τους ποντικους, αλλα τους θανατωνει, ειναι δηλητηριον, και δη ισχυρωτατον.)

Και ειναι ενδιαφερον να παρατηρησομε ποσον κοντα αλλα και μακρυα ειναι οι λεξεις φαρμακο και φαρμακι στην ελληνικη γλωσσα.

Κατι που δεν συμβαινει σε αλλες γλωσσες, παραδειγμα στην αγγλικη, οπου εχομε medicine vs. poison. Παντελως διαφορετικη ριζα.

Η διαθετουσα το σχετικον οπλον (η πηγη του φαρμακου ειναι το αιδιοιον) “φαρμακωνει” τον ερωτικον της συντροφον, ή τον συζυγον της.

Κατι κακο θα του συμβει, ισως και ο θανατος.

Παραπεμπει λοιπον στην “μαυρη αραχνη”, που μετα την ερωτικη πραξη, και εκ της συνεπειας της, θανατωνει τον ερωτικον της συντροφον.

Εν προκειμενω η λεξις δεν αναφερεται υποχρεωτικα σε υπαρκτη ιδιοτητα.

Μπορει να εκφραζει και τον φοβο του ερωτικου συντροφου, οτι η ερωτικη συνανστροφη με την φερουσα το φαρμακοφορον αιδοιον θα τον θανατωσει, ή θα τον βλαψει.

Αρα η γλωσσα εκφραζει το ονειρο, τον εφιαλτη, τον φοβο, οποτε οπως θα ελεγε και ο Δοκτωρ Φροϋντ την υποβοσκουσα επιθυμια.

Ο φαρμακοφορος και απειλητικος ερως αντικειμενοποιειται εις τον φαρμακοφορον αιδιοιον.

Ιδου λοιπον και μια εισετι λειτουργια – και δη θεραπευτικη – της γλωσσας.

Δια της εκφρασεως την φοβων και των επιθυμιων εν τροπω αντικειμενοποιησεως, εκβαλλομεν το κακον, το βλαβερον, και του αποδιδομεν υλικη συγκεκριμενη υποσταση.

Παυει λοιπον ο φοβος του θανατου να ειναι μια αφαιρεση, και συγκεκριμενοποιειται ως το Αιδοιον της γυναικος Χ.

Απο το αλμπουμ “Φωτοφρακτης”του Ανδρεα Εμπειρικου

Οδοντωτον Αιδοιον (Μουνι με δοντια)

Αποδοσις του εις την λατινικην ορου Vagina Dentata – ενω εις την αγγλικην αναφερεται ως Toothed Vagina.

Αναφερεται εις την μυθικης προελευσεως γυναικα ητις φερει οδοντας εις το αιδοιον της, και ως εκ τουτου δυναται να ακρωτηριασει το πεος του ερωτικου της συντροφου εν τη εκτελεσει της γενετησιας πραξεως.

Βεβαιως υπαρχει και η επιστημονικη αποψη οτι το πεος ειναι αναλωσιμο, ως μια πρωτη υλη. Καθε φορα λοιπον που το πεος διεισδυει εις το αιδοιον, αναλωνεται.

Το οδοντωτον αιδοιον αποτελει και εφιαλτη δια τον ανδρα που ονειρευεται τον ακρωτηριασμο του εν τη τελεση της ερωτικης πραξεως.

Εν τη εννοια τουτη, το οδοντωτον αιδοιον αποτελει μεγαλυτεραν απειλην συγκρινομενη με την φαρμοκομουναν.

Καλυτερα ο ακαριαιος θανατος απο τον ατιμωτικον ακρωτηριασμον.

Κλαψομουνα

Λεξις ητις υπαρχει και εις το αρσενικον, ως “κλαψομούνης”.

Υποδηλωνει καποιαν η οποια το ριχνει στο κλαμα, ή την κλαψουρα με το παραμικρο, υπερβαλλει, τρεχουν τα δακρυα ποταμι, και ολα αυτα χωρις λογο. Οποτε και δεν την παιρνει κανεις στα σοβαρα, ενω αποτελει και ενοχλησιν μεγαλην, με αποτελεσμα να την αποφευγουσιν οι παντες.

Υπαρχει βεβαιως και η γνωστη ταση του ανδρικου φυλου να υποτιμα τον συναισθηματισμο της γυναικας και να επιχειρει να τον απορριπτει ως κλαμμα ανευ λογου. Προσοχη λοιπον, η γλωσσα εν προκειμενω επιβεβαιωνει δια μιαν εισετι φοραν την αμφισημιαν ητις ενεδρευει.

Achille Deveria: Small and innocent games

Γλειφομούνι

Η πλεον αξιοπρεπης λεξις ειναι η “Αιδοιολειχια”.

Αποτελει πραξιν ητις αποδιδει εις τον πραγματοποιουντα εμπειριαν μοναδικην, καθοσον ενεργοποιουντια οι γευστικοι αδενες και σχεδον ολοκληρη η στοματικη κοιλοτης. Ταυτοχζρονως πραγματοποιουνται και ποικιλοτροπες προσμιξεις υγρων πολλαπλων προελευσεων και πηγων, συνοδευομενες απο οσμες και μυρωδιες μονον δια τους πραγματικους ρεκτες.

Ψευτομούνι. Είδος γλειφομουνίου, με τη διαφορά ότι ο τύπος προσποιείται ότι χρησιμοποιεί γλώσσα, ενώ στην ουσία χρησιμοποιεί δάχτυλο (πιθανόν λόγω σιχαμάρας). Απαραίτητη προϋπόθεση για ένα επιτυχημένο ψευτομούνι είναι η μίμηση του ήχου του γλειψίματος, (6)

Μουνόσκυλο αποκαλειται ο εχων σχεδον εθισμον εις την αιδοιολειχιαν, προσομοιαζομενος ουτω με τους συμπαθεις κυνες οιτινες οπου βρεθουν και οπου σταθουν γλειφονται και γλειφουν.

Παρομοιες στην εννοια ειναι και οι λεξεις Μουνοδουλος και Μουνακιας, παρολον οτι αμφοτερες εχουσιν και μεταφορικην εννοιαν ήτις αφορα την εξιν των ανθρωπων αυτων προς το σεβαστον.

Sarah LucasGot a Salmon On #3 1997

Πλακομουνι

Πραξις ομοφυλοφιλικου ερωτος.

Το σχετικο ρημα αποδιδεται ως “πλακομουνιαζομαι”.

Το δε ουσιαστικον ειναι “πλακομουνού”.

“Οι στασεις ειχαν αλλαξει. Οι τριβαδες μου ειχαν εισχωρησει η μια στην αλλη, αγκαλιαζονταν ασφυκτικα ωστε να εφαπτεται το δριμυ και πυκνο τριχωμα τους, να τριβονται τα μελη τους. Εφορμουσαν, ενωνονταν και απωθουνταν, με το ρυθμο, την επιμονη και τη δυναμη που προμηνυει στις γυναικες το επερχομενο απογειο της ηδονης.”

Alfred de Musset  “Γκαμιανί, ή Δυο νυχτες παραφορας”. Μεταφραση Ανδρεα Στάϊκου. Εκδοσεις Άγρα, 2002.

Louise Bourgeois, “Janus Fleuri”, 1968

Παραπομπες

(1) Μαρια Θεοδωροπούλου, Μ. Saussure και Lacan: Απο τη γλωσσολογία στην ψυχανάλυση.

(2) slang.gr

(3) Λεξικο Κοινης Νεοελληνικης

(4) Αθεοφοβος2

(5) L’ Enfant de la Haute Mer

(6) Slang

Εισαγωγη

Ο Ελληνικος Εμφυλιος Πολεμος 1946-1949 αποτελει θεμελιωδες γεγονος για τη νεωτερη ελληνικη ιστορια.

Μαζι με την Μικρασιατικη Καταστροφη του 1922 και τις επιπτωσεις της, ο Εμφυλιος Πολεμος του 1946-1949 αποτελουν τα κλειδια για την κατανοηση της εξελιξης του κρατους, της διεθνους θεσης της Ελλαδας, και της νεοελληνικης κοινωνιας και οικονομιας στον εικοστο αιωνα και μετεπειτα.

Εχουν γραφτει πολλα και ισως γραφτουν περισσοτερα.

Η δε διαμαχη και αντιπαλοτητα αναμεσα στους “δεξιους” ή τους “εθνικοφρονες” και τους κομμουνιστες συνεχιζεται μεχρι σημερα.

Δεν ειναι ομως το φαινομενο αυτο μια απλη γραμμικη επεκταση στο χρονο.

Νομιζω οτι υποκρυπτει και επμπεριεχει μια αντιληψη και πρακτικη για τη διαχειριση των διαφορετικων αντιληψεων που ειναι καταστροφικη. Οτι δηλαδη η εξοντωση ειναι ο μοναδικος τροπος για να διευθετηθει η “αλλη” αποψη, και οι φεροντες αυτην.

Με την απελευθερωση της Ελλαδας απο τους Γερμανους, οι Αγγλοι εθεσαν ως στρατηγικο στοχο την καθυποταξη του ΕΑΜ/ΕΛΑΣ και την εγκατασταση μιας συντηρητικης κυβερνησης, σε συνδυασμο με την επιστροφη του Βασιλια. Η στρατηγικη αυτη επιλογη συνδυαστηκε με την ισοπεδωση της δημοκρατικης συγκροτησης τηε χωρας και των θεσμων της. Στο ονομα της εξουδετερωσης των αριστερων, των κομμουνιστων, των αντιφρονουντων, των μη εθνικοφρονων, η Ελλαδα περασε σε ενα καθεστως καταλυσης των δημοκρατικων θεσμων με αντιβαρο την οικονομικη βοηθεια και την εξαγορα.

Μετα την κατοχη απο τους Γερμανους, Ιταλους και Βουλγαρους, η Ελλαδα εγινε μια χωρα που χρειαζοσουν πιστοποιητικο πολιτικων φρονηματων για να βγαλεις διαβατηριο, ή να προσληφθεις στο δημοσιο, και αλλα πολλα.

Ετσι, αντι να επελθουν οι κομμουνισται και να καταλυσουν τη δημοκρατια, ηλθον οι Αγγλοι και την κατελυσαν αυτοι. Βεβαια, οι Αγγλοι ειχαν επιδειξει αναλογη συμπεριφορα και σε αλλες ιστορικες στιγμες και χωρες, οποτε αυτη τους η συμπεριφορα δεν επρεπε να εκπληξει κανενα.

Σε εμενα, τον ασχετο, προκαλει εκπληξη η σταση της Αριστερας εκεινης της εποχης, με αρχη την Συμφωνια της Βαρκιζας. Εν πασει περιπτωσει, αυτο ειναι ενα αλλο θεμα.

Θελω ομως να αναφερω αυτο που ειναι γνωστο σε ολους (σχεδον), οτι δηλαδη πολιτες που στη διαρκεια της κατοχης ήταν μελη του ΕΑΜ, κατεληξαν μετα την Βαρκιζα στο να πολεμησουν με τον Εθνικο Στρατο.

Ξεκιναμε απο το σημερα 

Χαρακτηριστικες ειναι οι δηλωσεις του Γραμματεα του Υπουργικου Συμβουλιου κ. Μπαλτακου (21/3/2014):

«Ασφαλώς και είμαι αντικομμουνιστής, έτσι γεννήθηκα και έτσι θα πεθάνω», τόνισε ο γενικός γραμματέας της κυβέρνησης Παναγιώτης Μπαλτάκος μιλώντας την Παρασκευή στον ραδιοφωνικό σταθμό Βήμα. Συμπλήρωσε ότι οι κομμουνιστικές ιδεοληψίες, που δεν έχουν επιτυχή εφαρμογή πουθενά, έχουν ταλαιπωρήσει την χώρα.

[Πηγή: http://www.skai.gr/news/politics/article/254406/baltakos-adikommounistis-gennithika-kai-etsi-tha-pethano/#ixzz2wlVGvuVJ ]

Στο ιδιο μηκος κυματος και ο Υπουργος Υγειας κ. Γεωργιαδης, μετα απο επισκεψη του στο Ιμπηριαλ Κολετζ στο Λονδινο (17/3/2014).

Συνέχεια στο έντονο επεισόδιο που είχε την Κυριακή 17/3 με Έλληνες φοιτητές στο Imperial College στο Λονδίνο έδωσε ο Άδωνις Γεωργιάδης. Ο υπουργός Υγείας μίλησε στον Alpha όπου απέδωσε την επίθεση σε ακροαριστερούς και κομμουνιστές, για τους οποίους είπε μεταξύ άλλων: «Τους σιχαίνομαι και με σιχαίνονται» και πρόσθεσε ότι «έχει έρθει η ώρα να σταματήσουμε να χαϊδεύουμε αυτά τα παλιόπαιδα». (4)

One exhausted guerrilla fighter surrenders to the Greek army during the Greek Civil War. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Getty Images). 1948

Προσεγγιση

Εκεινο που βρισκω ιδιαιτερα ενδιαφερον περα απο τα ιστορικα, κοινωνικα. πολεμικα, πολιτικα ζητηματα του εμφυλιου ειναι η χρηση της γλωσσας απο τις δυο πλευρες.

Δεν θα επιχειρησω βεβαια αναλυσεις και εξαγωγη συμπερασματων. Απλα θα προσφερω παρατηρησεις και σχολια.

Ο τροπος θα ειναι αφηγηματικος, παραθετοντας λεξεις και εκφρασεις.

Αλλα δεν θα  ειναι ευθυγραμμος. Οι λεξεις του τοτε γεννησαν λεξεις του σημερα, καποιες ξεχαστηκαν, καποιες παρεμειναν, και ο χορος συνεχιζεται. Ειναι αναγκαιο λοιπον να παρουσιασθουν και καποιες απο τις συγχρονες λεξεις, που δεν υπηρχαν μεν τοτε, δημιουργηθηκαν ομως απο την ροη της ιστοριας και του πολιτισμου, ο,τι και να’ναι τουτος.

Εθνικοφρων – Νομιμοφρων – Βασιλοφρων

“Με τον ΑΝ (αναγκαστικο νομο) 509, ο πληθυσμός της χώρας χωρίστηκε σε δύο βασικές κατηγορίες: Στους εθνικόφρονες – νομιμόφρονες και στους μη εθνικόφρονες, στους οποίους συγκαταλέγονταν οι κομμουνιστές και οι λεγόμενοι συνοδοιπόροι τους, όσοι, δηλαδή, δε χαρακτηρίζονταν από απόλυτα δουλόφρονη στάση απέναντι στο καθεστώς. Πρέπει ακόμη να σημειωθεί ότι οι εθνικόφρονες για το καθεστώς ήταν ταυτόχρονα και οι πραγματικοί πατριώτες, ενώ οι μη εθνικόφρονες θεωρούνταν απάτριδες και χαρακτηρίζονταν ως μιάσματα του έθνους.”  (8)

Η τριαδα εθνικοφρων, νομιμοφρων, βασιλοφρων, αποτελει το ιδεολογικο θεμελιο της Ελλαδος που ανοικοδομειται απο το Δεκεμβριο του 1944 και μετα, εχοντας αποκλεισει τις κυριες δυναμεις της αριστερας, το ΕΑΜ, τον ΕΛΑΣ, το ΚΚΕ. Ο στοχος ομως αυτης της ανοικοδομησης δεν ηταν μονον ο αποκλεισμος, αλλα η εξοντωση της αριστερας.

Κομμουνιστης

Ο ασπαζομενος τας ιδεας του κομμουνισμου. Γραφεται και με ενα “μ”.

Ισως και το μελος του Κομμουνιστικου Κομματος Ελλαδος.

Ισως και το μελος αλλου κομματος που ασπαζεται τα κομμουνιστικα ιδεωδη.

Ειναι οι κομμουνιστες κατα του εθνους; Οι ιδιοι – ή τελος παντων καποιοι απο αυτους – θεωρουν οτι ειναι κατα του εθνικισμου.

Αρα η εξισωση του κομμουνισμου με αντεθνικες δραστηριοτητες ειναι μαλλον παρατραβηγμενη και κατασκευασμενη προκειμενου να εξυπηρετησει την ιδεολογια της “νεας αρχουσας ταξης”, αυτης που διαμορφωθηκε με το δογμα Τρουμαν.

Εκτος απο τους απλους κομμουνιστες, ειχαμε και κομμουνιστες στο συνθετο, οπως δηλαδη “Σλαυοκομμουνιστης“, που γραφεται επισης με “β”. Αυτη η συνθεση ειναι νομιζω παραλλαγη της λεξης “σλαβομακεδονας”, που γραφεται επισης με “υ”. Εκεινο που θελει να πει ο ποιητης ειναι οτι οι κομμουνιστες δεν ειναι μονον ελληνες, αλλα και σλαβοι, πολλοι δε εξ αυτων μετειχαν στο ανταρτικο, τον συμμοριτοπολεμο, τον ΔΣΕ, οπως το λεει ο καθενας.

Εχομε και αλλες συνθετες λεξεις ομως, οπως Κομμουνιστοσυμμοριτης , ή Κομμουνιστοληστοσυμμορίτης.

Εκφρασεις περι των κομμουνιστων απο τους αντιφρονουντες και εθνικοφρονουντες, και λοιπα μελη της κοινωνιας και του εθνους:

• “Αλητες, προδοτες κομμουνιστες”. Αυτο το θυμαμαι απο τα φοιτητικα μου χρονια, δεκαετια 1970 δηλαδη, δεν μπορεσα να βρω απο ποτε χρησιμοποιειται. Ειναι παντως κλασσικο σημερα.
• “τσεκούρι και φωτιά στα κόκκινα σκυλιά’’. Αυτο ειναι απο τα αγαπημενα της Χρυσης Αυγης σημερα, στην Ελλαδα του 2014.
• “μακρυα απο πουστηδες, πουτανες και κομμουνιστες”. Εκφραση της δεκαετιας του 1960, αγνωστου προελευσεως.

Κομμουνι

Απαξιωτικο παραγωγο του κομμουνιστη. Γραφεται και με ενα “μ”.

“Κομμούνια, κομμούνια θα γίνετε σαπούνια”

Σύνθημα των μελων των παραταξεων ΔΑΠ και ΟΝΝΕΔ στα φοιτητικα αμφιθέατρα στα τελη της δεκαετιας 1990.

Η ΔΑΠ (ΝΔΦΚ) ειναι φοιτητικη οργανωση, ενω η ΟΝΝΕΔ ειναι η οργανωση νεολαιας, και οι δυο στο χωρο της δεξιας της Νεας Δημοκρατιας.

Συνοδοιπορος

Οι κομμουνιστες δεν ηταν μονοι τους. Ειχαν και πολλους συνοδοιπορους. Συναντησαμε τη λεξη και λιγο πριν, στο εδαφιο για τον Α.Ν. 509.

Συμπαθων

Εκτος απο τους συνοδοιπορους, υπηρχαν και οι συμπαθουντες. Μια διαβαθμιση χαμηλωτερα στην κλιμακα των εχθρων του εθνους αυτοι.

Το πληρες φασμα λοιπον ξεκινα απο τους κομμουνιστες, συνεχιζεται με τους συνοδοιπορους, και κλεινει με τους συμπαθουντες.

Τελικα τα κριτηρια ειναι τοσο κρυσταλλινα, που αν καποιος πολιτης δεν ηταν αρεστος, με τον εναή τον αλλο τροπο θα ευρισκετο εις μιαν απο τας ομαδας των εχθρων του Εθνους.

Κομμουνιζω

Σημαινει “ρεπω” προς τον κομμουνισμο.

«Κομμουνιστικό όργανο ήταν η ΕΡΤ. Κομμούνιζε από το πρωί μέχρι το βράδυ. Μέχρι αηδίας». Θεοδωρος Παγκαλος, πρωην Υπουργος Εξωτερικων, καποτε το 2013.

Η χρηση της λεξεως, που εινια μετατροπη του ουσιαστικου “κομμουνι” σε ρημα, απο τον κ. Παγκαλο δεν εκπλησσει.

Ο κ. Παγκαλος ειναι προσφατα εντονωτατα αντι-ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, σε βαθμο παραληρηματος, θα ελεγα οτι βλεπει παντου κοκκινα φαντασματα.

(Μπορει βεβαια να μην τα βλεπω εγω, αλλα αυτο δεν σημαινει οτι δεν υπαρχουν! )

Ανταρτης

Οι μαχητες του Δημοκρατικου Στρατου Ελλαδας (ΔΣΕ) αποκαλουνται κυριως απο την εθνικοφρονα παραταξη ως ανταρτες. Ειναι ομως σχετικα πολιτισμενη λεξη, την χρησιμοποιησε και το περιοδικο TIME οτνα εκανε εξωφυλλο τον Μαρκο Βαφειαδη, τον Αρχιστρατηγο του ΔΣΕ, αποκαλωντας τον “Greek Guerilla Chief Markos”.

Σημειωνω οτι και τα μελη του ΕΛΑΣ αποκαλουνταν ανταρτες. Πολεμουσαν ομως τους Γερμανους και αλλους κατακτητες.

Η λεξη εχει την εννοια του μαχιμου σε μη τακτικο στρατο.

Σχετικες ειναι οι λεξεις ανταρτης πολεων και ανταρτης υπαιθρου.

Συμμοριτης

Η λεξη συμμοριτης ειναι εντελως απαξιωτικη, και χρησιμοποιηθηκε κατα κορον στη διαρκεια του Εμφυλιου αλλα και μετα απο την Εθνικοφρονα παραταξη.

“Οι συμμορίτες αμύνονται σθεναρώς εφ’ όλου του μετώπου των. Τα ναρκοπέδια υπήρξαν το φόβητρο και Διοικήσεων και διοικουμένων. Το ηθικό κατρακυλά. Επί 40 ημέρες ματαίως καταβάλλονται προσπάθειαι διασπάσεώς των. Η Ανώτατη Ηγεσία προ της γενικής καθηλώσεως, υπό την πίεσιν της ανάγκης μελετά την αναθεώρησιν του σχεδίου της. Η κοινή γνώμη είναι ανάστατος” (Βλέπε: Θρασυβουλος Τσακαλωτος “40 Χρόνια Στρατιώτης… “, τόμος Β`, σελίδα 125).

Τωρα το πως καταφεραν αυτοι οι ανταρτες και συμμοριτες να κρατησουν ζωντανη την μαχη απεναντι στον εθνικο στρατο για περιοδο τριων χρονων, απο το 1946 εως το 1949, ειναι μια αλλη ιστορια.

Συμμοριτισμος 

«Κατά δημοσιογραφικάς πληροφορίας εκ του μετώπου του Γράμμου άπαντα τα κατεχόμενα υπό των συμμοριτών υψώματα περιήλθον εις τας χείρας των ημετέρων. Από της στιγμής ταύτης ουδεμία αντίστασις υφίσταται εις τον Γράμμον», έγραφε η Καθημερινή. Και πρόσθετε: «Η απώλεια το Γράμμου αποτελεί σκληρότατον πλήγμα δια τον συμμοριτισμόν» Καθημερινη 30/8/1949.

Συμμοριόπληκτος, Ανταρτοπληκτος

«Συμμοριόπληκτοι» ή «ανταρτόπληκτοι» ονομάστηκαν οι κάτοικοι των ακριτικών περιοχών, που κατά την περίοδο του Εμφυλίου πολέμου (1946-1949) υποχρεώθηκαν να εγκαταλείψουν τα χωριά τους και να εγκατασταθούν προσωρινά σε άλλες περιοχές. Στόχος της υποχρεωτικής μετακίνησης των πληθυσμών αυτών ήταν η δημιουργία «νεκρής ζώνης» ώστε να απομονωθούν οι αντάρτες από τον αγροτικό πληθυσμό, ο οποίος τoυς εξασφάλιζε διατροφή αλλά και εφεδρείες.

Οι ερευνητές εκείνης της περιόδου υπολογίζουν ότι οι «συμμοριόπληκτοι» ανέρχονταν περίπου σε 800.000 άτομα. Σε αμερικανικές και ελληνικές στατιστικές εκείνης της εποχής οι βιαίως εκτοπισθέντες από τα χωριά τους ανέρχονταν σε 684.000 άτομα. (12)

Ληστοσυμμοριτης

“Την 1-10-46 ο ληστοσυμμορίτης Μιχαλόπουλος, από τη Νισιούτα Άρτας(το σωστό: Νησίστα – σημερινή ονομασία Ροδαυγή), δολοφόνησε το δημοκρατικό πολίτη Γιάννη Παπά.” (3)

Εδω εχομε μια διαφορετικη λεξη, που αναφερεται στις συμμοριες που εσπερναν τον τρομο στην ελληνικη υπαιθρο κατα την διαρκεια της λευκης τρομοκρατιας.

Πιστοποιητικο Κοινωνικων Φρονηματων

Το 1948 τα πιστοποιητικά καθιερώθηκαν με το νόμο 516 του 1948 (κυβέρνηση Σοφούλη) ώστε να καλύπτουν όλο το δημόσιο τομέα. Το 1954, τα πιστοποιητικά αυτά τα απαιτούσαν οι αρχές ακόμη και για “την έκδοσιν διαβατηρίων προς αποδημίαν ή προσωρινήν μετάβασιν εις το εξωτερικόν”.

Στρατολογια

Ο ΔΣΕ αντιμετώπιζε σοβαρότατο πρόβλημα προσέλευσης μαχητών. Οπως έγραφε ο ίδιος ο Μάρκος Βαφειάδης, η εθελοντική κατάταξη στον ΔΣΕ δεν αποτελούσε ούτε το 10% των νεοεισερχομένων στο αντάρτικο το 1947. Από ένα σημείο και μετά, όμως, οι αντάρτες δεν έβρισκαν άνδρες και εφήβους στα χωριά να στρατολογήσουν και έπαιρναν με το ζόρι ακόμη και γυναίκες και έφηβες. Με την πάροδο του χρόνου ο αριθμός των γυναικών ανταρτισσών αυξήθηκε δραματικά. Την άνοιξη του 1949 οι γυναίκες αποτελούσαν το 30% των μάχιμων και το 70% των βοηθητικών στις μονάδες του ΔΣΕ. Ομως, η υποχρεωτική στρατολογία δεν μπορούσε να έχει την κανονικότητα του επίσημου κράτους. Μια τέτοια κανονικότητα θα σήμαινε στράτευση με βάση ηλικιακές σειρές, φροντίδα για κάποιες ειδικές κατηγορίες του πληθυσμού κ.ά. Αντίθετα, η στρατολογία στον ΔΣΕ ήταν άτακτη χρονικά και γεωγραφικά και βασιζόταν κυρίως στις ξαφνικές βραδινές εισβολές των ανταρτών σε χωριά και κωμοπόλεις ή στις ενέδρες που έστηναν σε τόπους παζαριών των χωρικών. Μπαίνοντας σε κατοικημένες περιοχές οι στρατολόγοι του ΔΣΕ εισέβαλλαν στα σπίτια των κατοίκων αναζητώντας ό,τι υπήρχε διαθέσιμο. (15)

Ταγματασφαλιτες

Τα Ταγματα Ασφαλειας συγκροτηθηκαν το 1943 απο την Ελληνικη Κατοχικη Κυβερνηση του Ιωαννου Ραλλη με την εγκριση της Βερμαχτ για να πολεμησουν την Εθνικη Αντισταση, και ιδιαιτερα τον ΕΑΜ/ΕΛΑΣ. Ειναι γνωστοι και ως Ραλληδες και Γερμανοτσολιαδες, επισης και ως ταγματαλητες.

Ορκος των Ταγματων Ασφαλειας (13) 

Εθνοφυλακη

Μετα την απελευθερωση της Ελλαδας απο τους Γερμανους οι δυναμεις του ΕΔΕΣ διαλυθυκαν. Οι περισσοτεροι ανδρες του τον Ιανουαριο του 1945 οικειοθελως ενταχθηκαν στα Ταγματα Εθνοφυλακης.

Σημειωτεον οτι την εποχη εκεινη δεν υπηρχε Εθνικος Στρατος.

Εθνικος Στρατος

Ο Εθνικος Στρατος συγκροτηθηκε το 1946 με τη συνδρομη των Αγγλων και λιγο αργοτερα των Αμερικανων.

Οι ανταρτες, συμμοριτες, κομμουνιστες και συνοδοιποροι, τον αποκαλουσαν “Μοναρχοφασιστικο” Στρατο.

Ειναι αξιοσημειωτο οτι ο Εθνικος Στρατος μαζι με τον Βασιλεα αποτελεσαν το ισχυρο διπολο της μετεμφυλιακης Ελλαδας, που καθυπεταξε τους πολιτικους. Το τιμημα αυτης της καθυποταγης το πληρωσε ακριβα η δημοκρατια στην Ελλαδα.

ΜΑΥ (Μονάδες Ασφαλείας Υπαίθρου)

Τον Απριλιο 1946 άρχισε η συγκρότηση των «Μονάδων Άμυνας Υπαίθρου» (Μ.Α.Υ.) από όλους τους μη επιστρατευμένους άνδρες, οι οποίοι μπορούσαν να φέρουν όπλο, με σκοπό την ανάληψη στατικών αποστολών. (Γενικο Επιτελειο Στρατου).

ΜΑΔ (Μονάδες Αποσπασμάτων Διώξεως)

Ειχαν επικεφαλης αποστρατους αξιωματικους.

Μονάδες και τα Τάγματα Εθνοφυλακής Αμύνης (ΜΕΑ/ΤΕΑ)

ΔΣΕ (Δημοκρατικος Στρατος Ελλαδας)

Ο Δημοκρατικός Στρατός Ελλάδας (ΔΣΕ) είναι η ονομασία του στρατού των ανταρτών που πολέμησε κατά της κυβέρνησης κατά τη διάρκεια του ελληνικού εμφυλίου πολέμου (1946-1949). Ως συμβατική ημερομηνία έναρξης του εμφυλίου πολέμου θεωρείται η 31η Μαρτίου 1946, ημέρα των βουλευτικών εκλογών, όταν μια ομάδα ανταρτών επιτέθηκε στο σταθμό Χωροφυλακής στο χωριό Λιτόχωρο Πιερίας. Τους μήνες που ακολούθησαν οι επιθέσεις των ανταρτών κατά της Χωροφυλακής πολλαπλασιάστηκαν, ενώ οι δυνάμεις των ανταρτών αυξήθηκαν. Στις 28 Οκτωβρίου 1946 δημιουργήθηκε το Γενικό Αρχηγείο των ανταρτών, ενώ τον Δεκέμβριο της ίδιας χρονιάς οι δυνάμεις των ανταρτών έλαβαν την ονομασία Δημοκρατικός Στρατός Ελλάδας. (14)

Συμμοριτοπολεμος ή Ανταρτικο

Ο πρωην Προεδρος της Ελληνικης Δημοκρατιας Χρηστος Σαρτζετακης γραφει:

“Αὐτὴ ὑπῆρξεν ἡ νικηφόρος κατακλεὶς τριετοῦς καὶ πλέον ἐνόπλου ἀγῶνος τοῦ Ἔθνους ἐναντίον συμμοριτοπολέμου, ἐπιβληθέντος εἰς τὴν Ελλάδα ἀπὸ τοὺς βορείους, ὑπὸ κομμουνιστικὸν τότε καθεστώς, γείτονάς της, …Συμμοριτοπολέμου, ἀποσκοποῦντος εἰς τὴν ὑλοποίησιν ἀφ’ ἑνὸς τοῦ παλαιοῦ, ἀπὸ τὰ τέλη τοῦ 19^ου αίῶνος, πανσλαβιστικοῦ σχεδίου ἐπεκτατικῆς καθόδου εἰς τὸ Αἰγαῖον…” (1)

Λευκη τρομοκρατια

Η περίοδος που ξεκινά από τη Συμφωνία της Βάρκιζας και μέχρι τις εκλογές του Μαρτίου 1946, χαρακτηρίζεται από ένα μεγάλο μέρος των ιστορικών ως περίοδος της «λευκής τρομοκρατίας», λόγω των συστηματικών διώξεων οπαδών του ΕΑΜ. Στόχος τους ήταν η αποδυνάμωση του ΕΑΜ μέσα από την εξουδετέρωση των κοινωνικών του ερεισμάτων και τη διάλυση των οργανώσεών του. Για να το επιτύχουν αυτό έπρεπε πρώτα να συγκροτήσουν ένα νομιμόφρονα κρατικό μηχανισμό, το οποίο σήμαινε την απομάκρυνση όλων των φιλοεαμικών στοιχείων και τη στρατολόγηση αντικομμουνιστών. Παράλληλα η κυβέρνηση επεδίωξε να τρομοκρατήσει τους οπαδούς του ΕΑΜ. Στην ύπαιθρο, ιδιαίτερα, η Εθνοφυλακή αρχικά και η Χωροφυλακή στη συνέχεια, σε συνεργασία δεξιές παραστρατιωτικές ομάδες, εξαπέλυσε μια εκστρατεία βίας κατά των αριστερών στα χωριά. Σύμφωνα με το ΕΑΜ, περίπου 1.500 αριστεροί δολοφονήθηκαν, 6.500 τραυματίστηκαν ή βασανίστηκαν, και 700 γραφεία και τυπογραφεία του ΕΑΜ καταστράφηκαν. Στο ίδιο πλαίσιο οργανώθηκε μια τεράστια επιχείρηση συλλήψεων και φυλακίσεων. (14)

Στρατηγος Θρασυβουλος Τσακαλωτος

Κονσερβοκουτι

“Τα κονσερβοκούτια τα χρησιμοποιούσαν οι νέοι της ΕΠΟΝ και του εφεδρικού ΕΛΑΣ στις πόλεις (κυρίως στην Αθήνα) για να κατασκευάζουν αυτοσχέδιες αντιαρματικές «βόμβες».

Μια περιγραφή υπάρχει στο βιβλίο «Παιδιά της Αθήνας» όπου γράφει (μεταφέρω από μνήμη) ότι έβαζαν στο κονσερβοκούτι ένα- δυο αυτοσχέδια δυναμιτάκια και ότι σκουριασμένο παλιοσίδερο έβρισκαν. Κατόπιν τοποθετούσαν το κονσερβοκούτι, άναβαν τα δυναμιτάκια και με την έκρηξη εκσφενδονίζονταν τα σιδηρικά προκαλώντας ζημιές στα οχήματα των ναζίδων.

Ίσως από αυτό να τους κόλλησαν τη ρετσινιά οι χίτες, ταγματασφαλίτες και λοιπές δημοκρατικές δυνάμεις που πούλησαν αργότερα τον τόπο.” (5)

Για καποιο λογο που δεν τον ξερω, τα κονσερβοκουτια σαν οπλα των κομμουνιστοσυμμοριτων αναφερονται σχεδον παντα στις εκδηλωσεις μνημης των γεγονοτων στον Μελιγαλα Μεσσηνιας.

Πολεμίτιδα

“Στα οχυρωμενα υψωματα, ειδικα στα κλειστα καταφυγια και πολυβολεια, αρχισε να εκδηλωνεται μια ασθενεια που αργοτερα πηρε τη μορφη επιδημιας. Την ονομασαν ‘πολεμιτιδα’ και ηταν ενας συνδυασμος ισχυρου φοβου και κλειστοφοβιας. Οσοι την παθαιναν περιεπιπταν σε μια κατασταση απαθειας και αδιαφοριας, που για μερικους υπηρξε μοιραια στο ιδιο το πεδιο της μαχης.” (11)

Μουλάρια και ντενεκέδες

“Στο Αίγιο μέχρι το 1949 τα περιστατικά έκθεσης κομμένων κεφαλιών ήταν τόσο πολλά και ανατριχιαστικά που ο τοπικός τύπος ( “Αιγιώτης”) δημοσίευσε ένα δυνατό άρθρο του Ανδρέα Βαρελά με τίτλο “Μουλάρια και ντενεκέδες”. Το άρθρο αναφέρεται στους διάφορους κατσαπλιάδες που μάζευαν κεφάλια μέσα σε γκαζοτενεκέδες από τα θύματά τους για να πληρωθούν με μια λίρα το κεφάλι… ” (7)

Ραντεβου στα γουναραδικα

Επιλογος

«Στας 28 Αυγούστου η κίνησις ήτο σχεδόν άνευ αντιστάσεως και το βράδυ τα τμήματά μας ολοκλήρωσαν τον Β. Γράμμον και εξεχύνοντο προς κατάληψιν του Ν. Γράμμου. Τα τμήματά μας εσημείωσαν με φωτιές χαράς και αποδείξεως την κατάληψιν των συνόρων… Στις 29 Αυγούστου στας 5μ.μ. κατελήφθη από τους καταδρομείς του Ρούσσου η Μπάρα του Ν. Γράμμου. Την 30ν Αυγούστου, στας 5μ.μ., η VIII Μεραρχία κατέλαβε το Κάμενικ. Στας 10 το πρωί κάθε αντίστασις εσταμάτησε παντού».  Θρασυβουλος Τσακαλώτος: «40 Χρόνια Στρατιώτης της Ελλάδος», Αθήναι 1960, τόμος β’, σελ. 278

Πηγες

(1) Μνημη Εθνικη

(2) (αστο καλυτερα…)

(3) Η δράση των φασιστών και των ληστοσυμμοριτών στη Χώσεψη (Κυψέλη) Άρτας, αμέσως μετά τη συμφωνία της Βάρκιζας

(4) Ο Αδωνις Γεωργιαδης σιχαινεται τους κομμουνιστες

(5) Σχόλιο του Doctor στην ιστοσελιδα http://www.slang.gr

(6) Η ιστορική αλήθεια και τα γουναράδικα

(7) Το χρονικό των κομμένων κεφαλών

(8) Ριζοσπαστης: ΑΝΑΓΚΑΣΤΙΚΟΣ ΝΟΜΟΣ 509/1947

(9) Οι κομμουνιστες θα μας παρουν τα σπιτια, γραφει ο Ν. Μπογιοπουλος

(10) Γιωργου Πετροπουλου, Η υποχώρηση του ΔΣΕ και το τέλος του εμφυλίου πολέμου.

(11) Γιωργος Μαργαριτης, Ιστορια του Ελληνικου Εμφυλιου Πολεμου 1946-1949, Τομος Β, σ.64

(12) συν-οδοιπορια: συμμοριοπληκτοι

(13) αρταινω – ποιοι ηταν οι ταγματασφαλιτες

(14) ΑΣΚΙ – Ο Ελληνικος Εμφυλιος Πολεμος

(15) Νικος Μαραντζιδης, Το παιδομαζωμα στον Εμφυλιο, Καθημερινη 12.08.2012

Today I pay tribute to Skate the Magnificent! And enjoy it cooked in two ways.

Poached and served as a salad, and fried accompanied by aioli.

Σαλαχι – Skate

Σημερα εχομε Σαλαχι το Μεγαλοπρεπες! Και το απολαμβανομεν μαγειρευμενον εις δυο διαφορετικους τροπους.

Αχνιστο σε σαλατα, και τηγανητο με σκορδαλεα.

Poached skate salad – σαλατα με αχνιστο σαλαχι

It is not often that I find skate in my fishmonger. But when I do, I always enjoy it.

It is a very delicate fish, its flesh tender and juicy, and the bones are soft and tasty.

After poaching the fish, I use a fork to gently pull the flesh out of the bone complex, and let it rest. After that I mix it with chopped dill, green onions, pickled hot peppers, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

I serve over a bed of crispy lettuce.

Poached skate salad detail – σαλατα με αχνιστο σαλαχι λεπτομερεια

Δεν βρισκω συχνα σαλαχι στον ψαρα μου, αλλα οταν αυτο συμβαινει, το απολαμβανω.

Ειναι ενα ψαρι με απαλη και ζουμερη σαρκα, ενω τα κοκκαλα του ειναι σαν μαλακοι χονδροι, και μαλιστα ευγευστοι.

Αφου αχνισω το ψαρι, το ξεψαχνιζω και το αφηνω να χαλαρωσει. Μετα το αναμειγνυω με ψιλοκομμενο ανιθο, καυτερη πιπερια τουρσι, φρεσκο κρεμμυδι, λεμονι και ελαιολαδο. Ολιγον αλατι, ολιγον πιπερι.

Σερβιρω πανω σε φρεσκοκομμενο μαρουλι.

Fried skate – Τηγανητο σαλαχι

The fried skate is a matter of knowing how to fry. The fish must be juicy inside and crispy outside.

I fry it in very hot corn oil for 2 minutes and serve it with aioli. And try to chew and enjoy the bones!

Fried skate detail – Τηγανητο σαλαχι λεπτομερεια

Το τηγανισμα ειναι ολη η ουσια στο τηγανητο πιατο. Πρεπει να ειναι το ψαρι τραγανο απεξω και ζουμερο απο μεσα.

Το τηγανιζω σε καυτο καλαμποκελαιο για δυο λεπτα και μετα σερβιρω με σκοδαλεα μαγιονεζα.

Και απολαμβανω και τα μαλακα κοκκαλακια!

Giant lima beans

In order to have some variety on the table, I also prepared two dishes with giant lima beans, boiled as a salad and cooked in a spicy tomato juice.

Bon appetit!

Giant lima beans

Και για να μην παει το ψαρακι κατω ξεροσφυρι, ετοιμασα και δυο πιατα με γιγαντες φασολια, βραστα σε σαλατα και κοκκινιστα.

Καλην ορεξη!

In light of the recent developments in Greece, the resignation of the General Secretary of the Council of Ministers, Mr. Baltakos, I write this in order to comment on the totally ludicrous, ridiculous, unfounded and propounded by the enemies of Greece assertion that the “party” of Golden Dawn is the tip of the iceberg of fascism in Greece.

Our Prime Minister, Mr. Samaras yesterday helped us understand this phenomenon by saying that “there are no fascists in Greece, so many years I go around and have never met one!”.

I totally agree with Mr. Samaras, I have also been around for so many years (Mr. Samaras is less than 10 years my senior) and I have met so many fascists!

If this is not complete total agreement, then I will burn all of my degrees and papers and scientific publications and become a hermit on the island of Myconos.

Let me remind you all the facts before I proceed to publicly denounce all the traitors who claim that there is fascism in Greece.

Mr. Baltakos has been the General Secretary of the Council of Ministers since the summer of 2012, when the coalition government was formed. He was personally selected by the Prime Minister of Greece, Mr. Samaras.

Last week it became known that Mr. Baltakos had meetings with Golden Dawn members of parliament.  Mr. Kassidiaris, a Golden Dawn member of parliament, publicised a video recording where Mr. Baltakos is shown and heard to claim that the judiciary proceedings against the Golden Dawn, are the result of a political decision by the Prime Minister, who through the Minister of Justice gave instructions to the judiciary and orschstrated the whhole thing.

Following this, Mr. Baltakos resigned, claiming that he did what he did in order to calm Golden Dawn down, and disorient them.

Yesterday Mr. Samaras issued a statement that all of this is nonsense and that there are no fascists in Greece, as he has never met any fascist.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with modern Greek politics, Golden Dawn is a party that considers Adolf Hitler the saviour of modern Europe, because he exterminated millions of Jews.

They hate the immigrants who have come to Greece and work here, they consider them vermin.

They hate the communists, because they are traitors of the Nation.

They salute the same way that the NSDP party members were saluting each other.

But as Mr. Samaras said, there are no fascists in Greece.

Golden Dawn is just a dark cloud, a floating substance of steam and water particles. It is an illusion.

Of course this illusion has killed people, has terrorised citizens and residents of Greece, and has received 7% of the popular vote, and 21 seats in the Greek Parliament.

But they do not exist.

A vehicle like this killed member of parliament Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963 in the city of Thessaloniki

The Greek Judiciary is now prosecuting some of the Golden Dawn members of parliament, but this does not mean that there are fascists in Greece.

We are all democrats, excluding of course the bloody communists who are not a problem any more and we tolerate them because they are harmless.

I want to take this argument even further. Not only Greece has no fascists, not only we are true democrats (excluding the bloody communists) but we also have extreme toleration for other cultures.

Mr. Spiliotopoulos is the candidate of New Democracy, the party whose president is Mr. Samaras, for the Mayoral elections in Athens, Greece, where the Acropolis is.

He came out with the absolutely wonderful idea that once he will get elected Mayor, he will ask the citizns of Athens to vote in a referendum.

What about?

Whether there should be a mosque in Athens or not.

As you see dear reader, we have all corners covered.

We are democrats we are mutliculturalists, we even allow to people like muslims the right to put forward the suggestion that they need a place to pray.

But as we are democrats, the majority will decide.

This is true democracy, and as we are the only true real unquestionable descendants of Pericles, Socrates, Plato and so on, any one who does not agree with our approach should go and ….. themselves.

Becasue democracy has zero toleration for its enemies.

This position that in my modest capacities I have tried to present is by no means only ideological.

The emblem of the military dictatorship of 21 April 1967

It is also scientific.

Therefore, as it has happened in so many great political systems, cultures, and societies over the years, we have idoelogy and science going hand in hand.

Just focus on the strength of the statement: “There are no fascists in Greece, so many years I go around and have never met one!”.

It took me a while to comprehend the statement, but I am still absorbing it.

The first thought that came to my mind was about Mrs. Relativity. I realised that I have never met her, therefore Einstein was wrong.

How can I have a good day after that? Anyway, I will try.

The second thought that came to my mind was that I have met so many fascists in Greece, it will take me many days to recount them.

Collaborator of the German occupying forces during the second world war in Greece

Inverting the scientific ground that if you do not meet someone he/she does not exist, if you meet many of a kind, this kind is all over the place.

Therefore there are many fascists in Greece.

But how could the Prime Minister be so wrong?

Then a bright idea illuminated my brain.

We are both right!

There are no fascists in Greece, and there are many fascists in Greece. Both statements are true!

In order to spot a fascist you must have a definition of fascism in your mind.

The results of your experiential search are then determined by this definition.

Therefore, the Prime Minister and I have different definitions of fascism. This is what causes the paradox that both of us are right, when our experiential statements are contradictory.

Extreme nationalism is one of the key ingredients of fascism.

The 4th August 1936 dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas

The second is totalitarianism.

The third is a thread of populism that is nurtured by social services.

The fourth is the ban  on democracy.

Ioannis Metaxas

By this definition there are many fascists in Greece, in ideology and in practice.

I do not know what the Prime Minister defines as fascism, but obviously he has a very thin definition.

Angelopoulos’ movie is not a journey to a destination.

It is a journey to infinite emptiness.

Voyage to Cythera – Manos Katrakis as Spiros

Spiros is a Greek who fought with the losing side of the Greek Civil War in 1946-1949.

After spending many years in exile, presumably a republic of Soviet Union, he returns to Greece.

He arrives alone, with a suitcase and his violin, aboard a ship named “Ukraina”.

Voyage to Cythera – Angelopoulos directs Katrakis (Spiros)

His son and daughter are waiting for him at the port and drive him to his wife’s house, where old friends and relatives have gathered to welcome him.

But things turn sour from the very beginning.

Minutes after Spiros arrives at the house, his reunion with his wife, Katerina, turns into a disaster.

It was something he said to her when they were alone.

Spiros leaves the house without uttering a word.

Voyage to Cythera – Manos Katrakis as Spiros

Later Spiros recounts his stay in exile: “and one day a woman prepares a meal for you, she mends your shirt… so I have two kids up there”.

After spending a night at a hotel, Spiros, Katerina, his son and daughter embark on a journey to Spiros’ village.

The village is where he lived and fought during the civil war.

Voyage to Cythera – Spiros and Katerina

Upon entering the village, he meets his arch enemy Antonis, who greets him by saying “we both lost”.

The village appears deserted.

Most of the inhabitants have left, and are now ready to sell their land to an “investor”.

Spiros refuses to sign the sale documents and causes the whole deal to break.

Voyage to Cythera – Manos Katrakis as Spiros

Instead of being a “nice old guy who made a mistake but now is back and harmless”, Spiros is a “bad guy, who does not understand the new Greece, and creates problems”.

He therefore has to be expelled.

Spiros and Katerina leave the village before the police come, but they are found at a railway station.

The police take Spiros into custody and lead him to the port.

Voyage to Cythera – Manos Katrakis as Spiros

But the ship has sailed, another that is just moving out of the port refuses to take him on board, and the only solution for the authorities is to take him out on a platform that rests in international waters.

Later Katerina joins Spiros on the platform.

She wants to be with him.

A little while later, Spiros releases the rope that ties the platform to an anchor, and the platform slowly moves out.

To infinite emptiness.

Voyage to Cythera – Spiros and Katerina on the platform

The rupture

Spiros does not belong to modern Greece. And modern Greece does not want him there.

The lonely prophet of Rupture is now a freak in the eyes of “society”.

This is why Spiros’ wooden hut on top pf the mountain is burned by unknown villagers.

His refusal to sell this patch of land destroyed the deal with the winter ski center investor.

Before leaving the village Spiros goes to the graveyard and dances.

It is a farewell dance to his comrades, to the past.

After all, he only exists in the past.

His fellow villagers scorned him after he refused to sign the land deal, saying: “You do not exist. You were condemned to death four times.”

Voyage to Cythera – Manos Katrakis as Spiros

Spiros’ monologue

What sets the stage for the finale of the movie is Spiros’ monologue.

“I hear you coming, Death. I escaped from you five times: five wars, prisons, the execution squad. I escaped from you. I hear you, I hear you coming, I hear you.”

“σε ακούω θάνατε που έρχεσαι. Σε ξεγέλασα πέντε φορές: πέντε πόλεμοι, φυλακές, το στήσιμο στον τοίχο. Σε ξεγέλασα. Σ’ακούω, σ’ακούω που έρχεσαι, σ’ακούω”.

Voyage to Cythera

Questions and afterthoughts 

The importance of Greek Civil War in the development of Greece is unquestionable.

But has not been explored to the full yet.

The economic and social crisis that started in 2008 and continues is not accidental, nor is it unrelated to the legacy of the civil war.

I claim that one of the key components of this legacy is the blueprint of “economic development a la Greque”.

Foreign powers and institutions give a bundle of money, a package so to speak, to Greece.

The package is used to solidify the power of the ruling elite, strengthen the armed forces, and leave some funds for distribution to cooperating citizens.

This blueprint was enhanced by Andreas Papandreou to its “socialist” version, meaning that money were distributed to a wider spectrum of people, and a new elite was formed.

But the blueprint remained the same. More in another post.

Witold Gombrowicz

Existentialism tries to re-establish value, while for me the “under-value,” the “insufficiency,” the “under-development,” are closer to man than any value. I believe the formula “Man wants to be God” expresses very well the nostalgia of existentialism, while I set up another immeasurable formula against it: “Man wants to be young.” Witold Gombrowicz

About the author

In his “Testament—Conversations with Dominique de Roux”, Witold Gombrowicz said about himself: “I am a humorist, a clown, a tightrope walker, a provocateur, my works stand on their head to please, I am a circus, lyricism, poetry, terror, struggle, fun and games—what more do you want?”

Gombrowicz was born in a small town in Congress Poland, Russian Empire to a wealthy gentry family. “He was the youngest of four children of Jan and Antonina (née Kotkowska.) In 1911 his family moved to Warsaw. After completing his education at Saint Stanislaus Kostka’s Gymnasium in 1922, he studied law at Warsaw University (in 1927 he obtained a master’s degree in law.) Gombrowicz spent a year in Paris where he studied at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Internationales; although he was less than diligent in his studies his time in France brought him in constant contact with other young intellectuals.” (4)

‘Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969) is part of a celebrated generation of mid-20th-century Polish writers, one that includes the doomed magic-realist short story writer Bruno Schulz, the Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz and Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, author of the great and sexily titled novel “Insatiability.” All these writers knew, admired and supported one another. ‘ (5)

Polish American Liner S.S. Chrobry

In 1939, shortly before the Second World War errupted, Gombrowicz went to Argentine, more by chance than by design. He stayed there until 1963.

First Class Passenger List

“In July 1939, fellow writer Czeslaw Straszewicz met Gombrowicz at Zodiak, a bohemian café in Warsaw. Straszewicz told Gombrowicz that he had been invited to participate in the Chrobry’s maiden voyage to Argentina. In exchange, he would write on the Chrobry for the Polish press. Gombrowicz asked Straszewicz if he could get the same deal and Straszewicz promised to pass Gombrowicz’s name to the Gdynia America Line. It obviously worked out, and Gombrowicz was added to the exclusive list of guests.” (3)

Gombrowicz was to stay in Argentina longer than he initially planned. The Nazis invaded Poland on the 1st September 1939 and Gombrowicz decided to stay in Argentina rather than return to occupied Poland. In 1953, still living as an expatriate in Argentina, Gombrowicz began his Diary with one of literature’s most memorable openings:

“Monday Me.

Tuesday Me.

Wednesday Me.

Thursday Me.”

Gombrowicz was not a mainstream writer. Indicative is his distaste for Borges.

Jennifer Marquart writes in her review of Pornografia: ‘One of my favorite (apocryphal) anecdotes about Gombrowicz is about how one day in Buenos Aires he was ranting about Borges to his friends (the two authors didn’t really get along), and one of them interrupted to ask if he had ever even read Borges. “Pfft. Why would I waste my time reading that crap?” (1)

Gombrowicz to Gomez

Gombrowicz stayed in Argentina until 1963, when he crossed the Atlantic and went to Berlin, with a Ford Foundation grant for a year’s stay. After Berlin he went to France. His friendship ties, however, remained strong.

In a letter to his friend Gomez, Gombrowicz writes (9):

Poor Goma, you are unaware of one thing: I had been hiding before you, in part in order to spare you, and in part so as to avoid questioning, etc., that since the moment that I left Argentina, I haven’t had a single good day. (…) You, and also Ada think that I am lazily streched out on a bed of roses, and what’s more, together with Rita. And meanwhile, I am exhausting myself here bit by bit in each direction. In the last resort, maybe it is not all that dramatic. There are moments of good humour. But – my friend – I have never resembled an egoistic and demonic monster more than I do now. Bye, W.G. Now I weigh 68 kg I w e i g h e d 83 kg

Witold and Rita Gombrowicz with their dog Psina in Vence, France, 1967.

During the crossing of the Atlantic from Buenos Aires to Europe Gombrowicz notes, upon reading Sein und Zeit in Spanish, “It’s rocking hard. […] Reading Heidegger is calming”. (10)

Pornografia

Pornografia was published in 1960. I read it in 1985 in a Greek translation, and since then it is one of my favourite novels. The story is as follows. Two middle aged friends visit the country side during the nazi occupation of Poland.

Luca Ronconi’s staging of Pornografia

“The narrator, Witold (Gombrowicz), and his companion, Fryderyk, leave the city and stay with Hipolit, his wife Maria and their daughter Henia and the farmhand Karol. It doesn’t take long for the men to grow bored of the quiet country life, causing them to devise intricate plans to get Karol and Henia to sleep together. They set up meetings and prod the teenagers with questions of sexual attraction to one another. These simple games escalate to a masterfully choreographed play, aimed at breaking-up Henia and her fiancé. Part joke and part perverse desire, Gombrowicz and Fryderyk’s plans take a bizarre turn following the murder of Henia’s future mother-in-law. Hidden notes, hostages, murder-conspiracies and the ultimate manipulation of youth, love and a detached thirst for power are now in play.” (1) ‘Henia is engaged to an upright young lawyer; Karol is a handsome 16-year-old farmhand. The narrator, who is named Witold, and his extremist friend Fryderyk soon decide that these two “children” belong together, even though they reveal absolutely no particular interest in each other. But what does that matter? … Karol admits that he would like to sleep with Henia’s mother; Henia confesses that marriage will keep her from giving in to certain of her sexual inclinations. Following such revelations, Witold proclaims that he is virtually “bathing in their eroticism.” ‘ (5)

Gombrowicz in 1965

“In cryptic conversations and memorably febrile internal monologues, the two men share their fantasies about the young people and scheme to make them a couple. But nothing comes of this folie à quatre until Vaclav’s mother is suddenly stabbed to death, and a resistance fighter who’s come to the end of his courage announces his intention of abandoning the cause and going back home. Goaded by a series of unsigned notes that play on their already considerable paranoia, Witold and Fryderyk hatch a monstrous new plan to bring Henia and Karol together.” (6)

In an interview (2) Pornografia’s translator into English, Danuta Borchardt, says: “Pornografia focuses, perhaps more than his other three novels, on the outer limits of the imagination—on the “forbidden”—on the erotic fantasies of middle age and on living them through the young, and on manipulations that influence the young to the point of crime and murder.

Also, in Pornografia Gombrowicz tests the notion of belief in God versus non-belief. According to Jerzy Jarzębski, one of Gombrowicz’s foremost scholars: “Pornografia is blasphemous in the sense that it presents traditional culture and national customs in a state of exhaustion and atrophy.”

Jarzębski, suggests that Gombrowicz’s ideas may originate from the existentialists’ “death of God,” from old age generally, from World War II and the demands it placed on Polish society, and from the collapse of moral values.” Jennifer Marquart says it all in one sentence:

“It isn’t the actual act of sex that is pornographic, but its entanglement with power, domination, desire and obsession.” (1)

A page from Gombrowicz’s diary

‘Gombrowicz himself once dryly described “Pornografia” as “a noble, a classical novel. . . . The novel of two middle-aged men and a couple of adolescents; a sensually metaphysical novel.” ‘ (5)

When Gombrowicz finished the noval on 4 February 1958, he wrote in his diary:

“…One of my most persistent needs, during the writing of this…. was: to pass the world through youth; to translate it into the language of youth, that is, into the language of attraction… To soften it with youth…. To spice it up with youth – so it allows itself to be violated.” (quoted by Hanjo Beressem in source 7).

In the 2013 Summer Festival  “Spoleto 56 Festival dei 2 Mondi“, Italian Theater Director Luca Ronconi staged “Pornography”, based on Witold Gombrowicz’s novel.

The play is staged in Rome during April 2014.

Epilogue

As an epilogue, I quote from Gombrowicz’ Diary a paassage on the clarity of art.

“Clarity? Its clarity is the clarity of night, not day. Its brightness is exactly like that of a flashlight that extracts just one object out of the darkness, immersing the rest in an even more bottomless night. It should be, beyond the boundaries of its light, dark like the pronouncements of the Pythia, veiled, not spelled out, shimmering with a multiplicity of meanings and broader than precision. A classical clarity? The clarity of the Greeks? If this seems clear to you then it is because you are blind. Go at high noon to take a good look at the most classical Venus, and you will see the darkest night.”    

Sources

(1) Three Percent, a review of Gombrowicz’s Pornografia

(2) Translating Gombrowicz’s Pornografia - an interview with Danuta Borchardt, Raintaxi Online

(3) Gombrowicz on the Chrobry  (1939)

(4) Goodreads, Pornografia

(5) Book World: Michael Dirda reviews ‘Pornografia’ by Witold Gombrowicz. The Washington Post.

(6) Pornografia, Kirkus Review

(7) Hanjo Berressem. Lines of Desire: Reading Gombrowicz’ Fiction with Lacan.

(8) Friday: Me, The Paris Review

(9) Gombrowicz to Gomez, Culture.PL

(10) What you didn’t know about Gombrowicz, Culture.PL

Cod fishing has its history. Like everything else. Even a butterfly in Costa Rica has history, eventhough its life is as short as two days.

The inspiration for writing this is twofold: first of all, I like eating cod; second, I read morcels of cod fishing’s history in Fernand Braudel’s masterpiece “The Structures of Everyday Life: Civilisation and Capitalism, 15th – 18th Century”, and I liked it. So I got to write about cod, because I like eating it, and history, because I like reading it.

The topic is huge, so the piece is short. In this case being short enables the article to see the light of day.

Otherwise, it would remain in the depths of the box with unfulfilled tasks.

In shortening it, I had to limit the fishing area to Terra Nova, off the Northeastern Coast of Canada’a mainland.

But this will not limit the story to unfold.

Barent Langenes map of Newfoundland, 1602-1606

The Northeastern territory of Canada, Newfoundland, was for almost 500 years since 1497 the area in the Atlantic where cod was fished in large quantities.

Until 1992, when the Canadian Government banned cod fishing in Newfoundland.

This decree ended more than 500 years of cod fishing in the area of Newfoundland.

…(the ban) put an estimated 30,000 people out of work and escalated the exodus of people from rural Newfoundland. It was the single largest layoff off of work­ers in Canadian history. Some social scientists say more than 70,000 people have left the bays, coves and outports of the province since. (2)

A good haul of cod in 1921 before the entire Grand Banks fishery collapsed…

But how did it all start?

The name of the person who allegedly discovered Newfoundland is Giovanni Caboto. Born in Venice in 1450, Giovanni went to England and in 1496 he got the necessary sponsoring from King Henry VII and Italian financiers to go west and discover new lands.

He did so in 1497, when he landed on what is known today as Newfoundland.

John Cabot in traditional Venetian garb by Giustino Menescardi (1762). A mural painting in the Sala dello Scudo in the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.

In 1497 the English explorer John Cabot sailed through the waters off the coast of Newfoundland and was astounded at the incredible number of cod which surrounded his ship the Mathew. They had only to lower baskets into the ocean and let them fill with fish and retrieve a large catch. It was suspected that English fishermen may have already been fishing this area now known as the Grand Banks. Many other countries, such as France, Spain and Portugal, joined in the fishing banks for the summer seasons and established summer bases to salt and process the fish. (4) 

A replica of Matthew in Bristol Floating Harbour

Cabot’s ship was the “Matthew”, a caravel with 18 crew members. Today you can see its replica in Bristol, England.

So 500 years after the Vikings had landed on this land, Cabot did the same and brought in his journey back the good news to England and Europe.

Reports that Newfoundland and Labrador’s waters were rich in codfish were of interest to European governments for a variety of reasons at the turn of the 16th century. France, Portugal, and Italy all lacked sufficient supplies of protein for their populations, creating a demand for fish and meat imports on domestic markets. Cod was a good source of protein that preserved well and was easy to transport. Further, commercial fisheries were already an important part of the European economy and merchants could find buyers for new cod imports with relative ease by using existing trade networks. (6)

A Discourse and Discovery of Newfoundland

Sir Richard Whitbourne, who has spent thirty years of his life in Newfoundland, wrote in his “A Discourse and Discovery of Newfoundland” (1620):

“Although I well know, that it is an hard matter to perswade people to aduenture into strange Countries; especially to remain and settle themselues there, though the conditions thereof be neuer so beneficiall and aduantagious for them: yet I cannot be out of all hope, that when it shall bee taken into consideration, what infinite riches and aduantages other nations (and in partiuclar, the Spaniards and Portugals) haue gotten to themselues by their many Plantations, not onely in America, but also in Barbary, Guinnie, Binnie, and other places: And when it shall plainly appeare, by the following Discourse, that the Countrey shall plainly appeare, by the following Discourse, that the Countrey of New-found-land (as it is here truly described) is little inferior to any other for the commodities thereof; and lies, as it were, with open armes towards England, offering it selfe to be imbraced, and inhabited by vs: I cannot bee out of hope (I say) but that my Countreymen will bee induced, either by the thriuing examples of others, or by the strength of reason, to hearken, and put to their helping hands to that, which will in all likelihood yeeld them a plentifull reward of their labours.”

Salt cod drying on a St. John’s wharf, pre-1892

The transatlantic fishery further helped the European economy by creating jobs for workers directly and indirectly involved in the harvesting of fish. Alongside the thousands of people who travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador each year were the many more who manufactured nets, hooks, barrels, salt and other goods associated with the catching, processing, and packaging of fish. Other workers found employment with merchant firms selling cod to domestic and foreign markets. Alongside its economic benefits, the migratory cod fishery also became attractive to many European governments as a means of supplying skilled seamen to their navies and armadas. (6)

Drying cod on flakes, pre-1898

The French, Spanish and Portuguese fishermen tended to fish on the Grand Banks and other banks out to sea, where fish were always available. They salted their fish on board ship and it was not dried until brought to Europe. The English fishermen, however, concentrated on fishing inshore where the fish were only to be found at certain times of the year, during their migrations. These fishermen used small boats and returned to shore every day. They developed a system of light salting, washing and drying onshore which became very popular because the fish could remain edible for years. Many of their coastal sites gradually developed into settlements, notably St. John’s, now the provincial capital. (10)

The Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua

The Northern Cod were so plentiful that until the late 50′s over 250,000 tons was caught on an annual basis. The Canadian fishing industry would traditionally fish just off the coast in smaller vessels using traditional methods such as jigging from a dory or small inshore gill nets. In the late 50′s the arrival of large factory ships from other countries hailed the first onslaught to the finely balanced renewable cod fishery. (4)

Scientists, policy makers, and fishermen say the commercial extinction of cod here began after World War II, when factory-sized trawlers, first from Europe and then from Canada, began vacuuming up the seas. As the massive ships took in well over a billion pounds of cod a year, rising global temperatures began melting Arctic ice, cooling the surrounding waters and severely stressing the thinning stocks, fisheries scientists in Newfoundland said. Other sources of food for cod, particularly a type of smelt called capelin, also began to decline sharply. (3)

The Atlantic Dawn being escorted by pilot boats into Dublin Port in 2000. Photograph: Frank Miller/The Irish Times

The world’s largest freezing trawler by gross tonnage is the 144-metre-long Annelies Ilena ex Atlantic Dawn, presently alongside Killybegs harbour, having been detained in November 2013 by the Irish Navy and the Sea Fisheries Protection Agency for breach of regulations.  She is able to process 350 tonnes of fish a day, can carry 3,000 tons of fuel, and store 7,000 tons of graded and frozen catch. She uses on board forklift trucks to aid discharging. (9)

The vessel sparked a political controversy after it was built in Norway and delivered to Ireland in 2000 for late skipper and fleet owner Kevin McHugh at a time when the European Commission was trying to reduce overall fleet sizes. (8)

Codfish on a trawler off the Grand Banks of NL, 1949

With the arrival of these foreign fleets and the huge increase in their ability to net the fish, the annual catch, in 1968 increased to over 800,000 tons. At this level the cod were not able to renew their numbers and the available cod began to decline so that by 1975 the annual catch had declined to 300,000 tonnes. (4)

It was these floating fish factories owned by Canadian, Spanish and Por­tuguese corporations (plus other EU countries) that fished the northern cod to the brink of extinction before moving on to do the same with other species in South America and West Africa. (2)

Greenpeace activists take direct action for the second time in three days to halt North Sea trawlers fishing cod towards extinction.

The fishing technology had also taken another destructive leap in catch power by with deployment and use draggers. These ships dropped huge nets that were dragged along the bottom of the ocean which caught everything in its path and destroyed the underlying eco-system in the process. Fish, young fish, other sea life and the food source for the cod were all being destroyed in order to keep the catch rate on the rise. The entire eco-system was upset and destabilized. Much of the cod that was caught were spawning fish and hence the reproductive cycle was also disrupted. (4)

Emptying fishing nets of a trawler

Ironically, the establishment of the 200-mile limit in 1977 by Canada did more to destroy the Newfoundland fishery than protect it. With the new limit the government encouraged, licensed and financed fisherman and fish companies to build bigger boats and enterprises to exploit the new fish­ing zones. A 400-year-old passive fish­ery became an active and aggressive hunting enterprise. They were encour­aging overfishing.(2)

Where do we stand now?

There is still cod in  the Atlantic. For example, off the coast of Maine, in the USA.

Also there is cod in the North Sea.

There is also some good news.

Whole Foods, a USA food market chain, announced in April 2012 that they would stop selling fish caught in a way that depletes its stock.

“Stewardship of the ocean is so important to our customers and to us,” said David Pilat, the global seafood buyer for Whole Foods. “We’re not necessarily here to tell fishermen how to fish, but on a species like Atlantic cod, we are out there actively saying, ‘For Whole Foods Market to buy your cod, the rating has to be favorable.’ ” (7)

Cod caught by trawlers in nets that drag nets across the ocean floor will no longer be bought and sold by Whole Foods.

A lot more needs to be done.

Sources

1. 19th century cod fisheries

2. The day the fishery died. By Greg Locke. Herald, Arts and Life.

3. In Canada, cod remain scarce despite ban. By David Abel. Boston.com

4. Cod collapse. Canada History.

5. The international fishery of the 16th century. Newfoundland Heritage.

6. Origins of migratory fishery. Newfoundland Heritage.

7. A ban on some seafood has fishermen fuming. The New York Times.

8. Former Atlantic Dawn ship detained in Irish waters. The Irish Times.

9. Factory Ship. Wikipedia.

10. Cod fishing in Newfoundland. Wikipedia.

Marathon Lake and Dam

I live in a small village called Kaletzi (or Vothon) 2 km east of the artificial lake of Marathon, in the Attica region of Greece.

This post is about the lake and the dam that created it in the early 1930s.

The Marathon area is more or less 40 km away from Athens, the capital of Greece. Today approximately 5 million people live in the Athens greater metropolitan area. There is plenty of water to accomodate the needs of this population.

This was not the case at the end of the 19th century.

Water distribution in Athens, early 20th century

Athens did not have regular water supply. Water was distributed to the population over a network of fountains and taps that were most of the time dry (1).

After the 1922 Minor Asia defeat of Greece and the exchange of populations with Turkey, it was estimated that the population of Athens would double. Something had to be done about the water supply.

The situation changed when the Marathon articifial lake was created, after the construction of the Marathon dam.

The Marathon dam was constructed by an American firm, Ulen & Company.

At this point I have to introduce Henry C. Ulen, the key person behind the company.

Henry Ulen’s home in Indiana, USA

Henry Ulen was born in Lebanon, Indiana, USA, in 1861.

In 19th October 1912, The New York Times wrote in an article “Twenty five years ago (1887), Henry Ulen was a tramp.” (2)

In his own words, Ulen is quoted as saying “I was a pretty wild lad, and when I was sixteen, I run away from my home in Lebanon, Indiana.” (2)

But Henry Ulen was not destined to remain a tramp. He became a businessman, and a banker.

Marathon dam – construction

Ulen & Co. was incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware on the 15 February 1922. (3) At the time Ulen had signed contracts to build water and sanitation facilities and railroad lines in South America. The newly incorporated company would finance and carry out the construction of these projects. In 1929 principal stockholders in the firm were American International Corporation, organized in 1915; Field, Globe and Company (a banking concern run by Marshall Field (son of the Marshall Field retail magnate)); Stone and Webster, one of the largest engineering contracting companies in the world; and Ulen Contracting Corp.(4)

Ulen & Co,. did not do business only in South America. In 1924, Ulen began work on water and sewer projects in ten Polish cities. (4)

Marathon dam – construction

On December 1924, after a restricted public tender, the Greek Government, and the Bank of Athens sign a contract with Ulen & Co. to build the Marathon dam and the pipeline to transfer the water to a water treatment facility in the Galatsi neighbourhood of Athens.. The project would be financed by issuing bonds worth a total of 10 million US dollars.  A new entity was incorporated, the “Public Water Company of Athens Piraeus and Suburbs, with two shareholders. Bank of Athens (today the National Bank of Greece) had 50% of the shares and Ulen & Co. had the other 50%. The new entity would have the right to operate the water facilities it would build for a minimum of 22 years. Ulen got out by selling its shares to the National Bank of Greece in 1974.  In article 22 of the relevant contract, it was stated that water would be priced in a way that would cover the new entity’s costs and profits.

Marathon dam – Plaque

Ulen & Co. also signed another contract with the Bank of Piraeus in order to incorporate the Greek Water Company (Ελληνική Εταιρεία Υδάτων ΑΕ). The company became the owner of the water distribution network of Athens, and the Municipality of Athens had from now on to pay the newly established company for the supply of water.

In 1928 Ulen & Co. landed a huge project in Persia to construct 800 miles of railroad from the capital of Teheran to the Persian Gulf. (4)

In 1931 an Indiana magazine reported that Ulen and Co. was the “largest engineering and contracting corporation in the world” with millions of dollars in contracts each year. (4)

Marathon Lake

The foundation stone for the Marathon dam was laid in October 1927 by Prime Minister Alexandros Zaimis; Venizelos was also present at the ceremony. (5)

The dam was completed in 1929 and solved the water supply problem of Athens.

Marathon Dam

The dam is a 54 m (177 ft) tall, 285 m (935 ft) long gravity dam with a crest width of 4.5 m (15 ft) and base width of 28 m (92 ft). (5)

The dam’s face and visible structure were also covered in the same Pentelikon marble that was used to construct the Parthenon. (5)

Exit to Athens

The dam would serve as the primary water supply for Athens until 1959, when water was pumped from Yliki lake.(5)

Sources 

1. Βρύσες, κρήνες και νερό νεράκι… (Fountains, taps, but no water)

2. Banker saw world first as a tramp. The New York Times, 19 October 1912.

3. Delaware concern to carry on South American concern. The New York Times, 16 February 1922.

4. Henry Ulen. Small town boy. Worldwide impact.

5. Marathon Dam, wikipedia.

Αισθανομαι βαθεια συγκινηση καθως τα δακτυλα μου θωπευουν τα πληκτρα και αρχεται η συγγραφη αυτης της επικολυρικης πραγματειας.

Εχοντας επιβιωσει την προεκλογικη εκστρατεια περιπου 40 σχηματισμων που διεκδικουν την ψηφο των Ελληνων και Ελληνιδων στις Ευρωεκλογες, αλλα και την πρωτη εκλογικη αναμετρηση της Κυριακης 18ης Μαϊου 2014 για την αναδειξη τοπικων αρχοντων,

Ξεκιναω με μια συντομη ιστορικη αναδρομη.

Οι προηγουμενες εκλογες για το ευρωπαϊκο κοινοβουλιο εγιναν στις 6 Ιουνιου 2009.

Πρωτο κομμα αναδειχτηκε το ΠΑΣΟΚ με ποσοστο 36,64% .

Δευτερο κομμα ηταν η Νεα Δημοκρατια, με ποσοστο 32,29%.

Ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ πηρε τοτε 4,70%.

Αυτα για να μην ξεχναμε.

Εκτοτε πολλα συνεβησαν.

Η χωρα καταστραφηκε και παραμενει κατεστραμμενη, οσο και αν προσπαθουν καποιοι να μας πεισουν περι αναγεννησεως εκ της τεφρας.

Η Ελλας δεν ειναι ο Ανεγεννωμενος εκ της τεφρας Φοινιξ!

Ασε που ο Φοινιξ και η τεφρα του παραπεμπουν εις την 21ην Απριλιου 1967.

The Phoenix Program

(ουδεμιαν σχεσιν εχουσιν τα ανωτερω με την επιχειρησιν Φοινιξ της Αμερικανικης ΣΙΑ εις το Νοτιον Βιετναμ)

Επανερχομαι εις το προκειμενον.

Εχθες εκλεισαν οι προεκλογικες εκστρατειες.

Αι πλειονες τουτων απετελεσαν αρχιδολογιαν. Περιαυτολογων, ομολογω οτι η προσωπικη αρχιδολογια, την οποιαν εδημοσιευσα προ τινος, ειναι ασυγκριτα καλυτερη.

Ο βασικος λογος ειναι οτι οταν εγω αρχιδολογω, το διατυμπανιζω και το διακηρυσσω.

Οι αρχιδολογουντες Ελληνες πολιτικοι προσπαθουν να μας πεισουν οτι ασχολουνται με το εθνος, την πατριδα, το καλο μας, και αλλα παρομοια.

Μαγειρευοντας όρχεις…

Η Ελλας δεν εχει εξελθει του πελατοκεντρικου της πολιτικου συστηματος.

Οι πολιτικοι θεσμοι ειναι δομημενοι με τροπο που υπηρετει τον πελατοκεντρισμο.

Εν ταυτω και εν παραλληλω και την εξαρτηση απο τας μεγαλας δυναμεις (εν προκειμενω την μεγαλην Γερμανιαν).

Ο πελατοκεντρισμος λοιπον ζει και βασιλευει, ενω οι δημοκρατικοι θεσμοι φυλλοροουν.

Αυτα ομως δεν πρεπει να μας απασχολουν, αφου εχομεν πλεονασμα μας λενε μερικοι.

Πουλαμε τη δημοκρατια μας λοιπον και αγοραζομε πλεονασμα. Ενδιαφερον!!!

(περισσοτερον ενδιαφερον επειδη το πλεονασμα ειναι λογιστικον, και οχι πραγματικον)

The word got out “This place is a dump”

Ετεθησαν ομως και ορισμενα πρωτοτυπα ζητηματα κατα την διαρκειαν της εκστρατειας, και εν τη καταληξει της.

Τι θα μας προστατευσει απο την αποσταθεροποιησιν την οποιαν επιδιωκουν οι απατριδες, οι κομμουνισται, οι ομοφυλοφιλοι, οι τσιγγανοι, ολα τα περιθωριακα στοιχεια, οι αλλοεθνεις, οι αλλοθρησκοι, αυτοι που θελουν να γινει τζαμι στην Αθηνα, οι μεταναστες, οι…. οι…..

Ο Φαλλός!

(οσοι ενδιαφερεστε, να μελετησετε το γλωσσολογικον πονημα μου επι του πανδαματορος)

Archaelogical Museum of Poligiros, Halkidiki, Greece

(μην βιαστειτε να απορριψετε την τοποθετησιν μου)

(δεν γνωριζετε τα μυστικα της βασκανιας)

(και οσοι τα γνωριζετε, δεν θυμαστε – γιατι δεν εχετε μνημη – τας πρακτικας των Αρχαιων Ημων Προγονων)

Archaelogical Museum of Poligiros, Halkidiki, Greece

Εδω θα πρεπει να τονισω προς απαντας οτι ειμαι Ελληνας, απογονος Αρχαιων Ελληνων.

Ολοι οι τουρκοσποροι και προϊοντα αλλων τινων επιμιξεων να κανουνε πισω γιατι μιλαει τωρα η Αρχαια Ελλας!

Και η Αρχαια Ελλας εδιδαξεν και το σεξ.

Ως εκ τουτου, δεν ημπορω παρα να δεχθω οτι οι εκλογες αυτες θα ειναι καθαρα σεξουαλικες.

Καποιος γαμαει, καποιος γαμιεται. Εδω μπερδευεται βεβαια και ο ενικος με τον πληθυντικο, αλλα για να αποφυγω περιπλοκες, το αφηνω ετσι.

Μην προστρεξετε να μου πειτε για τις καταληξεις, αρσενικα θηλυκα, και τα λοιπα.

Ο,τι αρπαξει ο κωλος μας παιδια, εις το πεδιον της μαχης.

Archaelogical Museum of Poligiros, Halkidiki, Greece

“Ποσο μ’ αρεσει ο τροπος που με …αμάς”

Θα εχομεν σεξ αυριον λοιπον.

Υπαρχει ομως ενα προβλημα.

The Rope, Andrew Wyeth

Εαν εχομεν σεξ (που θα εχομεν) θα περιπεσομεν στο κατοπιν σε καταθλιψιν (Post-coital depression -tristesse).

Τι αντιδοτον πρεπει να λαβομεν;

Δια να κατανοησετε το προβλημα, ηδη πολλοι δηλωνουν (πρωτη η Αφροδιτη Σ) οτι αν βγει πρωτο ενα συμπαθες κομμα θα μεταναστευσουν.

Αυτο ομολογω δεν το εχω ξαναδει.

Ενταξει, ειπαμε, το ξερουμε, μετα το σεξ επερχεται η καταθλιψη.

Αλλα οχι και να φευγουμε απο τη χωρα μας για ενα “γαμησι”!

Τελος παντων, αβυσσος η ψυχη του ανθρωπου.

Καλη Ψηφο Συν-Ελληνες!

I visited the restaurant recently, on the occasion of the visit to Athens of dear family members.

As it happens, within days the restaurant will be relocated to Piraeus, so the visit was also a farewell to the nice terrace with view of the Athenian Acropolis.

Sea bream with smoky eggplant

The Chef of Varoulko is Lefteris Lazarou, one of the best chefs in Greece. The restaurant specializes in seafood, and this is what we had in the menu they offered to us.

The first dish was “Sea bream fillets on a bed of smoky eggplant”. The fillets were adjoined to crispy bread, adding texture to the tasty dish. I liked the eggplant very much, but do not understand the point of adding so many mini ingredients on the dish.

Sea Bream – detail

I did not taste anything special in these “vegetable drops”. If the intention is to add color to the presentation of the dish, there are better solutions.

Ground Grouper Cylinder

The next dish was the best of the evening. Ground grouper meat  cylinder. It was delicious. A hint of mint and a thick sauce elevated the dish. I could not believe that grouper would taste so good. Another interesting aspect of the dish were the white flakes served on top of the cylinder. IT was fried skin. Simply delicious! As my cousin observed, I have always been a skin-enthusiast, so my verdict was to be expected.

Stuffed Cabbage

The third dish was an inventive remake of a Greek traditional dish: “Stuffed cabbage”. The difference being that in the traditional dish the stuffing is pork meat, whereas chef Lazarou stuffed the cabbage with a tasty seafood mix that was not cohesive. The primary taste I could make out was that of shrimp, both in the stuffing and in the sauce.

The dish had some foam on top. It tasted of dill and lemon. I personally do not like foams, but this one was good. The fact however remains, that the foam always destryes the visual impression of the dish.

It is also interesting to note that chef Lazarou was not a fan of foams and similar gimmicks, but obviously he surrendered to the wave of customer demand. How can you go to a Michelin – starred restaurant and not be bombarded with foamy dishes?  What are you going to say to your friends, if there is no foam on the food?

The fourth dish was the less memorable of all, and as it were submerged under a thich layer of foam, there is no photo to be shown.

It was John Dory was a porcini mushroom sauce, chick peas and a parmesan foam. I liked the fish, but the dish overall did not come together for me.

We enjoyed the dishes with a superb white wined from Santorini, Greece: Asyrtico Sigalas 2013.

Three deserts ended the dinner. My favourite was the Orange Cake. Simply because to create a sirupy cake with balance is difficult. This was almost perfect. And the accompanying vanilla ice cream was delicious.

Overall it was an excellent dinner. Next time though, I will ask for my dishes to have no foam!!!!

Today is the day of Illumination and my mind goes to Arthur Rimbaud.

Rimbaud was born in Charleville, a provincial town of northeastern France in 1854.

When he was 21 he stopped writting and became an itinerant salesman, adventurer, opportunist.

Rimbaud’s tombe in Charleville

He lived a short life, but in a sense he also lived a full life.

He died of bone cancer  in 1891 in Marseille, at  the Hôpital de la Conception. He was only 37 years old.

He was burried in Charleville. His tombe stone reads “Pray for him”.

Henri Fantin Latour

“I am the saint, at prayer on the terrace . . . / /

I am the learned scholar in the dark armchair . . . / /

I am the walker on the great highway . . .

I gaze for a long time at the melancholy gold laundry of the setting sun.”

Illuminations, translated by John Ashbery (3)

Plaque at the house where Rimbaud was born

I rest my elbows on the table, the lamp illuminates these newspapers that I’m a fool for rereading, these books of no interest.
At a vast distance above my underground salon, houses take root, mists assemble. The mud is red or black. Monstrous city, endless night!
Further down, the sewers. At their sides, nothing more than the thickness of the globe. Maybe gulfs of azure, wells of fire. Perhaps at those levels moons and comets, seas and fables meet.

Illuminations, translated by John Ashbery (4)

Benjamin Britten’s Illuminations (5)

Britten was deeply affected by the emotional intensity of these prose poems and decided to set them to music as soon as he had read them.  As the soprano Sophie Wyss, the dedicatee of the cycle, recalled:  “He was so full of this poetry he just could not stop talking about it, I suspect he must have seen a copy of Rimbaud’s works while he was recently staying with [W.H.] Auden in Birmingham.”

Britten chose a sentence from one of the poems as the motto for his cycle:  “J’ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage” (“I alone have the key to this savage parade”).  This sentence also provides the “key” to Britten’s view of Rimbaud’s poetry:  only the artist, observing the world from the outside, can hope to make sense of the “savage parade” that is life.

Rimbaud’s Litter Replica

Patti Smith and Rimbaud

Draped in a mosquito net-like sheath, the “litter,” a sort of palanquin, is a recreation of that used to transport Rimbaud from Abyssinia to France for medical care, where he died just months later at the age 37. On the surface of the litter, Mr. Rimbaud’s last words are inscribed. In this way, the piece is a sick bed as well as a grave, complete with epigraph. (1)

This installation was part of Patty Smith’s “Camera Solo” exhibition back in 2011 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.

“Oh arthur arthur. we are in Abyssinia Aden. making love smoking cigarettes. we kiss. but it’s much more. azure. blue pool. oil slick lake. sensations telescope, animate. crystalline gulf. balls of colored glass exploding. seam of berber tent splitting. openings, open as a cave, open wider, total surrender.”

Patti Smith, from “dream of rimbaud”.

Rimbaud’s fork and knife

Being Beauteous

Against a snowfall a Being Beauteous, tall of stature.  Whistlings of death and circles of muffled music make this adored body rise, swell and tremble like a spectre; wounds, scarlet and black, break out in the magnificent flesh.  The true colors of life deepen, dance and break off around the Vision, on the site.  And shivers rise and groan, and the frenzied flavor of these effects, being heightened by the deathly whistlings and the raucous music which the world, far behind us, casts on our mother of beauty, — she retreats, she rears up.  Oh! our bones are reclothed by a new, loving body.

***

O the ashen face, the shield of hair, the crystal arms!  The cannon on which I must hurl myself through the jumble of trees and buoyant air!

Illuminations, translated by George Hall (5)

Rimbaud in Africa

Bob Dylan and Arthur Rimbaud

Suze Rotolo introduced Dylan to the works of Rimbaud:

“I came across one of his letters called “Je est un autre,” which translates into “I is someone else.” When I read those words the bells went off. It made perfect sense. I wished someone would have mentioned that to me earlier.”

Bob Dylan: “Chronicles, vol 1″

The literary characters, themes, and lines that have populated the world of Dylan’s musical landscape have been as deep and varied over the years as his references to history and the folk tradition. In his early years, Dylan was significantly touched by the American Beats—by Kerouac’s On the Road, and also by the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti—and by French symbolists like Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud. Both Verlaine and Rimbaud are mentioned specifically in the Blood on the Tracks song “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” (6)

Ellen Willis writes that “[Dylan] had less in common with the left than with literary rebels—Blake, Whitman, Rimbaud, Crane, Ginsberg”—mostly poets—and later describes Dylan as a man whose admirers look at him as “a poet using rock-and-roll to spread his art.”(6)

Rimbaud in Aden (first man on the right)

The Escape
“My day is done: I am leaving Europe. The marine air will burn my lungs; unknown climates will tan my skin.” (A Season in Hell)

The year 1878… After stopping by several cities in Africa, Cyprus welcomes Rimbaud with its tranquillity. Here in Cyprus, he works as a supervisor at a stone quarry. He turns out to be a “man of action” totally leaving aside his personality of a “ man of thought”. He takes fancy in doing hard work. Poetry is dead for him. He never mentions his ‘previous’ life and his glorious days in Paris. No one, not even his employer, knows where he is from or who he is. Upon the inquiries concerning his past he replies, “absurd” and goes on “ridiculous, disgusting”. Rimbaud, has become somebody else. He is leading a tranquil and silent life in Cyprus, where he escaped from his past or maybe from himself. (7)

Sources

1. Patti Smith: Camera Solo, by Rena Silverman

2. Arthur Rimbaud, Wikipedia

3. Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud – review. Charles Bainbridge, The Guardian, 2011.

4. Visionary Materialism, by Adam Thirlwell

5. The Chamber Orchestra of Boston. May 2007. Program Notes by Jeremy Black.

6. The Weird and Wonderful Literary World of Bob Dylan. By Benjamin Wright.

7. A French Poet in Cyprus: Arthur Rimbaud. Il Paradiso di Beatrice.

Terroir is a concept almost untranslatable, combining soil, weather, region and notions of authenticity, of genuineness and particularity — of roots, and home — in contrast to globalized products designed to taste the same everywhere. (1)

Terroir was the theme of the family reunion dinner I hosted in Marathon, Greece.

Chicago, Illinois, USA

It is a long way from Chicago, Illinois to Marathon!

Marathon Beach, Attica, Greece

But my cousin and his family made it, and here we were, having dinner in the piazzetta of my hunting lodge.

I had some ideas about the menu, but my inner voice was telling me to take it easy and not rush to the market with a shopping list. Instead, I was going to get the best produce and ingredient I would find on the day.

What follows is the result of this process that never fails me.

Inevitably, the menu was based on the ingredients and produce of the terroir, comprising air, soil and sea.

Beetroot from Marathon, Greece

To start with the vegetables, Peter likes beetroot. So I got the best from Vassilis in Marathon.

Boiled beetroot

In addition to the bulb, which I boiled and peeled the skin off, I boiled the leaves. Both were served au naturel, with olive oil, salt, chopped garlic and lemon juice as optional dressing on the side. I particularly enjoy the beetroot with the chopped garlic, much more than with garlic dip (skordalia in Greek). It has a powerful taste, and I particularly like the contrast of the sweetness of the beetroot with the uncompromising sting of the garlic.

Boiled beetroot leaves

Vassilis is also producing zucchini, which are unbelievably tasty.

Zucchini from Marathon, Greece

So, zucchini were my second choice for a summer vegetable to enjoy on the table.

I boiled the zucchini and served them au naturel, with the dressing on the side. The taste of the zucchini without anything is so delicious, that sometimes I eat a couple without dressing, and only after I Add some olive oil, salt and lemon juice.

Green peas from Livanates, Greece

Moving on, I got some green peas from Livanates, a small town near Thebes.

Green peas with pomodori, onions, chilli pepper, and parseley

I cooked them with pomodori, onion, chilli pepper, and parsley.

Another one in the bag.

The next round of dishes comes from the sea.

Skate from Euboia, Greece.

My fishmonger is just fantastic, and one more he proved himself to be one.

Skate from Euboia, Greece

When he saw me he pointed at a skate on the icebed and said. “This is for you”.

I do not argue with statements like this.

Boiled skate with garlic, parseley, chilli pepper, olive oil, salt and lemon juice

I just obey. For my own good.

I boiled the fish, took the flesh off the bones and mixed it in a big bowl with chopped garlic, olive oil, a touch of salt, lemon juice and a little chilli pepper.

Shrimp from Kranidi, Greece

Then came the shrimp.

Fished from a bay east of Nafplion, they looked fantastic.

Grilled shrimp

I grilled them as they came off the sea. I add a few bay leaves on the side of the grill, for extra flavor.

Grilled shrimp

Last but not least, I got some super fresh sardines, because I love sardines, and Mary likes them too.

My fish monger gutted them and chopped their heads off. I sprinkled coarse salt over them and grilled them.

Grilled sardines

I always take them off while they are juicy and soft. My new touch was that I added some mint leaves on the side, to enhance the flavor. It worked.

The sardines were sweet, juicy and delicious.

And as Ferran Adria once said “fresh sardine is better than stale lobster”.

We had a great time, the only problem as Peter said was that there was not enough food.

Next time I will get more.

It was nice to see you guys, come again!

Kaletzi, near Marathon, view south

Sources

1. Vive le Terroir By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: August 31, 2013. The New York Times.

Aristotle

In this post I present two arguments relevant to Bacon’s thesis. With each argument I offer a quotation and an example.

This was originally written as an essay to a course I have taken on the relationship between management and philosophy.

I do not claim to exhaust the subject, I merely touch upon it.

But it is a fascinating subject, especially in view of the fact that Bacon was one of the great fathers of the technological approach that today is a key pillar of our economy, culture and life.

Francis Bacon

Argument 1: I claim that Bacon is putting forward an argument to support his inductive approach to human knowledge and power. What he is saying in effect is that before we master nature (and take advantage of it by commanding it) we must understand it. Therefore knowledge begins from the observation of nature, not the other way around.

In substantiating my point of view, I will refer to “Novum Organum”, from which the quotation-theme of this essay originates (Book One, III).

Quotation 1: “Man, being the servant and interpreter of Nature, can do and understand so much and so much only as he has observed in fact or in thought of the course of nature. Beyond this he neither knows anything nor can do anything.” (1)

Bacon is saying that man should approach nature with humility, because there are so many things that our senses cannot sense and our minds do not understand. Instead of wasting time on pointless meditations, speculations and glosses, we should be studying nature.

All of this makes sense in the context of the time Bacon wrote “Novum Organum”. It was time when Aristotelian thought was still strong. Bacon wanted to break away from Aristotle, and march on towards command of nature. In this sense he can be considered as one of the fathers of engineering.

Francis Bacon, Royal Academy of Arts, London

While deduction is the anticipation of nature, and deductive theories may refer to nonobservable entities, induction is driven by empirical observation and study.

I do not suggest that Bacon was alotgether against deduction. But at the time of his writing, he wanted to push forward the notion that man can command nature, provided he understands it well. Bacon saw knowledge and power as interconnected.

Example 1: “There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and to the discovery of middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried.” (2)

Bacon’s true way is induction.

Karl Popper

Argument 2: Karl Popper introduced his theory of a hypothetico-deductive system in the philosophy of sciences. Popper argued that most of the scientific theories are deductive and they can be falsified, or refuted, but not confirmed.In this he appears to be on the opposite side of Bacon’s argument. However, I claim that in a sense Popper provides the mirror image of Bacon’s thesis. Bacon seeks to derive most of theories from experience, while Popper seeks to falsify theories from experience. Thus experience (as senses, observations from nature) is essential in both philosophers’ theories.

Quotation 2: “In other words: I shall not require of a scientific system that it shall be capable of being singled out, once and for all, in a positive sense; but I shall require that its logical form shall be such that it can be singled out, by means of empirical tests, in a negative sense: it must be possible for an empirical scientific system to be refuted by experience.” (3)

The example I want to offer comes from Einstein’s theory of reletivity.

Albert Einstein and Sir Arthur Eddington at Cambridge University

Example 2: “Einstein’s theory made one or two predictions which distinguished it from Newton’s theory, and, if true, these predictions would show that Einstein’s model was closer to reality. For example, Einstein predicted that a gravitational field should bend rays of light much more than was expected by Newton’s theory of gravity. Although the effect was too small to be observed in the laboratory, Einstein calculated that the immense gravity of the massive sun would deflect a ray of light by 1.75 seconds of arc – less that one thousandth of a degree, but twice as large as the deflection according to Newton, and significant enough to be measured. During a lunar eclipse in 1919, Eddington compared his eclipse photos with images taken when the sun was not present, and announced that the sun had caused a deflection of roughly 1.61 seconds of arc, a result that was in agreement with Einstein’s prediction, thereby validating the theory of general relativity.” (4)

Here experience comes to NOT falsify a hypothesis. Until a hypothesis is falsified, it remains valid. But when a theory is falsified once, it is falsified for good.

References

(1). Francis Bacon. Novum Organum.Book One. I.

(2) Francis Bacon. Novum Organum.Book One. XIX.

(3) Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1959.

(4) 1919. Eclipse and General Relativity. Times Literary Supplement.

Today’s post is based on an answer I gave to an assignment in Professor Youngman’s online course “Understanding Media by Understanding Google.” The question had to do with a person who “instinctively and repeatedly picks up a mobile device to consume media (or conduct Google searches) while engaged in another activity”. Is this person using the mobile device to enhance/deepen the first activity, or be distracted from it?

I claim that the person is bored, and seeking to escape from the first activity.
My argument is structured in two parts.
The first part deals with the mobile (smart) phone (or tablet) as the device of the escape.
The second part deals with the rationalization of the escape.
As Nicholas Carr (citation 1) points out, the smart phone is a boredom-eradication device. The person has an objective, and the device to achieve this objective. This works in two ways. Many a times, having the device, makes you adopt relevant objectives. One day I was hanging some pictures on the walls, and had to use a hammer. Once I finished with the pictures, I kept the hammer in my hand, and started going around looking for things to do aith a hammer. All of a sudden, the world had been transformed to nail-like objects and other-objects. Device is the result of technology. People were bored also in medieval times. They had to use other devices. Technology makes a difference. In this sense, technology also creates (and destroys) civilizations. I say this, because the right to be bored and remain bored for a while, is part of what I consider civilization. Bored results in innovation, in poetry, in drama, and so on. If I am right, the mobile phone is a massive killer of contributors to our civilization.

Having dealt with the device, and its inexorable power, I proceed to the second part of my argument, which has to do with the rationalization of the escape. This rationalization rests on the premise of “available information”. A rationalization is needed whenever the actor of the escape claims that he/she is doing something worthwhile. A person playing games has no reason for rationalization. Likewise for a person watching a cartoon clip. These persons escape boredom, by having raw unadulterated fun. But rationalization is a necessary premise for people who escape and seek to present this escape as an act of “doing something worthwhile”. This being information. I am searching for something, I am watching a documentary on something, I am reading something. All this happens at a fraction of the time the same actions were taken thirty years ago. Here is where the second citation becomes relevant. Information overload, instantly available information, overload, spreading everything thin, is not just a rationalization. It also creates a new way of conceiving of reality, of information, of life. And in this sense it radically changes life.

Citation 1
As many have pointed out, one thing that networked computers are supremely good at is preventing their users from experiencing boredom. A smartphone is the most perfect boredom-eradication device ever created. (Some might argue that smartphones don’t so much eradicate boredom as lend to boredom an illusion of excitement, but that’s probably just semantics.)
Nicholas Carr, “A post on the occasion of Facebook’s billionth member”
Citation 2
I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense and “cathedral-like” structure of the highly educated and articulate personality—a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self—evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the “instantly available.”
Playwright Richard Foreman, quoted in Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”

“Only ruins remain and the beauty of the natural environment.” Lord Byron

Amfissa Castle, Greece

ΧΑΛΑΣΜΑΤΑ

Γύρισα στα ξανθά παιδιάτικα λημέρια,
γύρισα στο λευκό της νιότης μονοπάτι,
γύρισα για να ιδώ το θαυμαστό παλάτι,
για με χτισμένο απ’ τών Ερώτων τ’ άγια χέρια.
Το μονοπάτι το ‘πνιξαν οι αρκουδοβάτοι,
και τα λημέρια τα ‘καψαν τα μεσημέρια,
κ’ ένας σεισμός το ‘ρριξε κάτου το παλάτι,
και μέσ’ στα ερείπια τώρα και στ’ αποκαΐδια
απομένω παράλυτος· σαύρες και φίδια
μαζί μου αδερφοζούν οι λύπες και τα μίση·
και το παλάτι ένας σεισμός το ‘χει γκρεμίσει.

ΚΩΣΤΗΣ ΠΑΛΑΜΑΣ

Ασάλευτη ζωή, 1904
‘Απαντα, τομ. Γ´, σελ. 72

Amfissa Castle, Greece

RUINS

I RETURNED TO MY GOLDEN PLAYGROUNDS,
I RETURNED TO MY WHITE BOYHOOD TRAIL,
I RETURNED TO SEE THE WONDROUS PALACE,
BUILT JUST FOR ME BY LOVE’S DIVINE WAYS.
BLACKBERRY BUSHES NOW COVER THE BOYHOOD TRAIL,
AND THE MIDAY SUNS HAVE BURNED THE PLAYGROUNDS,
AND A TREMOR HAS DESTROYED MY PALACE SO RARE,
AND IN THE MIDST OF FALLEN WALLS AND BURNED
TIMBERS, I REMAIN LIFELESS; LIZARDS AND SNAKES
WITH ME NOW LIVE THE SORROWS AND THE HATES;
AND OF MY PALACE A BROKEN MASS NOW REMAINS

Costis Palamas
Translated by A. Moskios

Amfissa Castle, Greece

INTERVIEWER
On the question of the Greek poet’s relation to his tradition, it has always seemed to me that the Greek poet has an advantage over his Anglo-Saxon counterpart who makes use of Greek mythology and sometimes even of Greek landscape. I remember years ago when I was writing a thesis on what I thought were English influences in the poetry of Cavafy and Seferis, I asked you about certain images that crop up in your landscape, for example, the symbolic meaning of the statues that appear in your work. You turned to me and said: “But those are real statues. They existed in a landscape I had seen.” What I think you were saying is that you always start with the fact of a living, actual setting and move from there to any universal meaning that might be contained in it.

SEFERIS
An illustration of that from someone who is a specialist in classical statues came the other day from an English scholar who was lecturing about the statuary of the Parthenon. I went up to congratulate him after his lecture, and he said to me, as I remember: “But you have a line which expresses something of what I meant when you say ‘the statues are not the ruins—we are the ruins.’” I mean I was astonished that a scholar of his caliber was using a line from me to illustrate a point.

George Seferis
The statues are not the ruins—we are the ruins

From an Interview to “The Paris Review”, 2005 (epopteia)

Amfissa Castle, Greece

“Unless we can relate it to ourselves personally, history will always be more or less an abstraction and its content the clash of impersonal forces and ideas. Although generalizations are necessary to order this vast, chaotic material, they kill the individual detail that tends to stray from the schema. . . . Afterwards all that remains of entire centuries is a kind of popular digest.”

Czesław Miłosz, Native Realm

Amfissa Castle, Greece

Ruins come out of ruins. The story of the Acropolis is a good example. The original temple of Athena has been destroyed at least nine times in its two-and-a-half-thousand-year history. Burned by Heruli barbarians in ad 267, it was restored by Julian in ad 360, and then in 438 Christian priests hacked away at the nude sculptures and crowned the temple with a cross. The Ottoman Turks in 1456 replaced the cross with a minaret. There are still-bitter feelings about the damage done by the Venetians in 1687 when they bombed the Parthenon on September 26 under Francesco Morosini. Then there was also the sale of seventy-five sculptures by the Ottomans to Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to Greece, in 1802.

Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Ruin

Amfissa Castle, Greece

You said: “…Wherever I turn, wherever I happen to look,
I see the black ruins of my life, here,
where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”
The City

C.P. Cavafy

Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

Η ταξη στην αυλη του Βενετοκλειου.

Εισαγωγη – Introduction

Σημερα κλεινω εξι χρονια απο την ημερα που αρχισα αυτο το μπλογκ, και ανασυρω απο την μνημη την μαθητεια μου στο Βενετοκλειο Γυμνασιο Ροδου, απο το 1968 εως το 1973.

Today is my sixth WordPress anniversary. I started this blog six years ago, and I felt necessary to reminisce about my Gymnasium in Rhodes, where I grew up. Its name is Venetokleion and is still operational. This post features photos I took in excursion with the teachers and the class.

Εχω υπεροχες αναμνησεις απο το Βενετοκλειο για δυο λογους.

This is a time and space specific post, and language is crucial. The post  must be in Greek. So I stop here with the English part, and wish the visitor a happy visit.

Ο πρωτος ειναι οτι γνωρισα εξαιρετικους ανθρωπους, συμμαθητες, συμμαθητριες, καθηγητες και καθηγητριες.

Ο δευτερος ειναι οτι πηρα τις πρωτες συγκινησεις της μαθησης, μαζι με καποιες αλλες.

Θα αναφερθω στους συμμαθητες και τις συμμαθητριες με τα μικρα τους ονοματα, ενω στους καθηγητες και τις καθηγητριες και με τα επιθετα τους. Οσοι διαβασουν αυτο το κειμενο και δουν τις φωτογραφιες θα αναγνωρισουν τους συμμαθητες και τις συμμαθητριες.

Ο Μανωλης Παπαμανωλης, Γυμνασιαρχης του Βενετοκλειου

Η αναφορα σε επιλεγμενους καθηγητες και καθηγητριες με τα πληρη ονοματα τους οφειλεται κυριως στο οτι θελω να υπαρχει καπου στο διαδικτυο γραπτα και επιφατικα το υπεροχο εργο που επιτελεσαν οι ανθρωποι αυτοι. Ετσι απλα.

Ζητω προκαταβολικα συγγνωμη, αλλα καποιους απο τους απεικονιζομενους δεν τους ενθυμουμαι με τα ονοματα τους.

Μια αλλη διασταση που επιβαλλει ο χρονος ειναι η χρηση του παρελθοντος στην αφηγηση και τα ρηματα. Αυτο βεβαια δεν σημαινει οτι καποιος δεν ζει πια. Απλα αναφερομαι στο παρελθον και σε αυτα που θυμαμαι απο τοτε.

Οι φωτογραφιες ειναι ολες απο το αρχειο μου, οι περισσοτερες παρμενες σε σχολικες εκδρομες.

Βενετοκλειο: Αρρενων αλλα και Θηλεων. Κατω σειρα απο δεξια: Λεωνιδας, Ανθουλα, Τετα, ?, Γιωργος. Επανω σειρα απο δεξια: Κλεανθης, ?, Γιωργος, Νικος

Αρρενων, αλλα και … ολιγον θηλεων

Την εποχη εκεινη το Βενετοκλειο ητανε Γυμνασιο Αρρενων. Επειδη ομως η πρακτικη κατευθυνση σπουδων (το πρακτικο) υπηρχε μονο στο Βενετοκλειο, στις τρεις τελευταιες ταξεις (Τεταρτη, Πεμπτη και Εκτη) ερχοντουσαν να φοιτησουν στο Βενετοκλιεο και μαθητριες, απο το Καζουλειο Γυμνασιο Θηλεων. Θυμαμαι οτι η πρωτη φουρνια απο το θηλεων ητανε η ταξη της αδελφης μου. Ακολουθησαμε εμεις.

Ετσι λοιπον στην φωτογραφια που βλεπετε παραπανω, απεικονιζονται ορισμενοι νεοι με ορισμενες νεες.

Οι σχεσεις μας ητανε πολυ καλες. Τις ειχαμε τις κοπελλες στα οπα οπα. Ομολογω δε οτι ουδεποτε καταλαβα για ποιον λογο χωριζανε τα παιδια σε αρρενες και θηλεις στα σχολεια.

Οι καθηγητες.  Απο δεξια καθιστοι: Γιωργος Μανδραγος, Νικος Βολονακης, ?, Κωνσταντινιδης.

Οι  καθηγητες

Μεσα σε μια περιοδο εξι χρονων, ειναι επομενο να εχει κανεις πολλους καθηγητες, και ολιγες καθηγητριες. Τωρα που το αναπολω, οι καθηγητριες ητανε πολυ λιγοτερες.

Καποιο ομως ξεχωρισαν και παραμενουν στην μνημη μου εντονα και με σεβασμο και αγαπη.

Ξεκινω λοιπον απο τον Γιωργο Μανδραγο, Φυσικο, που παρολον οτι δεν τον ειχαμε για πολυ στην ταξη, τον αγαπησα πολυ. Ημουνα και συμμαθητης με τον γυιο του τον Μιχαλη Μανδραγο, που χαθηκε προωρα το 2012. Ο Γιωργος Μανδραγος ητανε αυθορμητος, απλος, και αξιαγαπητος. Πηγαινα πολλες φορες στο σπιτι του, γιατι παιζαμε με τον Μιχαλη. Με τον Μιχαλη πηγαιναμε μαζι και στον Ναυτικο Ομιλο Ροδου, Ν.Ο.Ρ. στην ΕΛΛΗ, οπου ιστιοπλοουσε με σκαφη τυπου “Οπτιμιστ”. Μετειχε και σε αγωνες, και πηγαινε πολυ καλα.

Ο μαθηματικος Γιωργος Μανιατακης (αριστερα)

Συνεχιζω με την μεγαλη μου αδυναμια, τον Μαθηματικο Γιωργο Μανιατακη. Ισως ενας απο τους λογους που αγαπησα τα μαθηματικα ητανε ο Μανιατακης. Εξαιρετικος δασκαλος, με οξυτατη αισθηση του χιουμορ και σεβασμο προς ολους τους μαθητες. Με τη χαρα της ζωης, σοβαροτητα και μετρο. Εξαιρετικος ανθρωπος και δασκαλος.

Τωρα ενθυμουμαι και τον αλλον αγαπημενο μου μαθηματικο, τον Αντωνη Μπαϊραμη απο την Καλυμνο, που χαθηκε προωρα. Ειμασταν στην ιδια ταξη με την αδελφη του την Ποπη, που εικονιζεται στην φωτογραφια της εισαγωγης.

Ο Φιλολογος Σεβαστιανος Πολιτης

Ενας αλλος αξεχαστος δασκαλος, ητανε ο Σεβαστιανος Πολιτης, Φιλολογος. Ο,τι εμαθα στα αρχια το χρωσταω στον Πολιτη και την μητερα μου. Ο Πολιτης ητανε ανθρωπος χαμηλων τονων, και δημιουργουσε την περιεργεια να μαθεις τι κρυβεται πισω απο τις λεξεις. Εξοχος! Περναγε η ωρα και δεν το καταλαβαινα.

Και μια και ζουμε σε κοσμο αντιθεσεων, δεν μπορω να μην αναφερω εναν αλλο φιλολογο, που ητανε μαλλον κακολογος. Το τι φωνες ακουγαμε δεν περιγραφεται. Και ειχε πει και το απαραμιλλο “τι νομιζετε οτι ειναι ο ανθρωπος; μια λεκανη εντερα”.

Ο θεολογος Κωνσταντινιδης

Ο θεολογος Κωνσταντινιδης θα μου μεινει αξεχαστος για την ευγενεια και την προσχαρη φυση του. Και το λεγω αυτο επειδη ειχαμε και εναν αλλο θεολογο που μας ειχε τρελανει στις φαπες. Εκρηκτικος τυπος, ξεσπουσε ξαφνικα και οποιον παρει ο … χαρος. Σε αντιθεση λοιπον με τον ευεξαπτο αλλον, ο Κωνσταντινιδης ητανε οαση. Παντα με το χαμογελο. Και μαθαμε και ολιγα θρησκευτικα.

Ο Φυσικος Γιωργος Μανδραγος (δεξια)

Πολλες φορες οταν θυμομαστε κατι απο την νεοτητα μας, εχομε την ταση να υποθετομε ή και να δηλωνουμε ευθεως οτι τοτε ητανε καλα τα πραγματα, ενω σημερα… Δεν ξερω πως ειναι σημερα τα πραγματα, αλλα τοτε που ημουνα στο Βενετοκλειο, χωρις να ειναι ολα τελεια, μαθαιναμε. Ολοι μαθαιναμε. Και δεν παπαγαλιζαμε. Και μπορουσε ο καθενας να τα βγαλει περα χωρις φροντιστηρια. Και οι καθηγητες νοιαζοντουσαν. Υπηρχανε βεβαια και εξαιρεσεις, ολιγες ομως.

Παρολο που δεν τον εχω σε φωτογραφια, ο Βασιλης Λεβεντης, Γυμναστης, ητανε απο τους ανθρωπους που με τον ενθουσιασμο και την καλη καρδια του με ειχε εμπνευσει. Δεν ημουνα ποτε καλος στη Γυμναστικη. Ομως προσπαθουσα. Ο Βασιλης Λεβεντης υποστηριξε την προσπαθεια μου. Και οχι μονο τη δικη μου. Ολων των παιδιων που δεν ημασταν αστερια. Πριν μερικα χρονια μιλησαμε σοτ τηλεφωνο, βρισκοτανε στις Καλυθιες και τα ειπαμε για λιγο.

Θεωρω επισης απαραιτητη την μνεια στον Έξαρχο των Γυμναστων, τον Χρηστο Παλαιολογο. Που με την βραχνη, μπασα φωνη του μας εβαζε στη σειρα.

Ο Μαθηματικος Αντωνης Μανιατακης (δεξια)

Θα ητανε παραλειψη να μην αναφερθω και στον εξαιρετο Μανωλη Παπαμανωλη, που τον θυμαμαι ως Γυμνασιαρχη. Εξαιρετικος ανθρωπος, χαμηλων τονων, παντοτε με εγνοια για τους μαθητες και το σχολειο.

Οι καθηγητριες

Σε συγκριση με τους αντρες, οι γυναικες στο Γυμνασιο ητανε πολυ λιγοτερες.

Περιττο να αναφερω οτι  η συγκινηση των αγοριων ανεβαινε σε υψηλα επιπεδα οταν η καθηγητρια ητανε νεα και ωραια.

Ειχαμε βεβαια ολον τον σεβασμο στις αλλες καθηγητριες, ομως η προτιμηση μας ητανε σαφως στις νεες.

Θυμαμαι στη δευτερα γυμνασιου ειχε ελθει μια νεαρα καθηγητρια γαλλικων. Ολοι θελαμε να μαθουμε γαλλικα.

Βεβαια εκεινη την εποχη οι ξενες γλωσσες στο γυμνασιο ητανε ανεκδοτο. Οι καθηγητες και καθηγητριες ελαχιστες, που μετετιθεντο συνεχως.

Με την καθηγητρια μας των γαλλικων δεν θυμαμαι καν αν κλεισαμε ολοκκληρη τη χρονια.

Ομως η συγκινηση θα παραμειενει αξεχαστη στο υποσυνειδητο των 14 ετων.

Απο δεξια: Γιωργος, Νικος, Κλεοβουλος, Γιωργος

Οι συμμαθητες

Οπως ειναι φυσικο, με καποιους απο τους συμμαθητες ειμασταν πιο κοντα, μια παρεα ας πουμε.

Ανακαλω πρωτο τον Μιχαλη Σταματιου, ενα χρυσο παιδι που χαθηκε προωρα και αυτος.

Ο Μιχαλης Σταματιου ητανε ενας υπεραθλητης και ενας υπεροχος ανθρωπος. Μεσα σε ολα, και καλος μαθητης. Παντα με το χαμογελο. Τον θυμαμαι σα να ειμασταν μαζυ εχθες. Πριν απο μερικα χρονια συναντησα στην Αθηνα ολως τυχαιως εναν συγγενη του και τιμησαμε την μνημη του.

Το γυμνασιο της εποχης εκεινης ειχε και μια ιδιομορφια γεωγραφικου τυπου. Πολλα παιδια ερχοντουσαν απο τα χωρια με λεωφορειο το πρωι και γυρναγανε στο χωριο τους το απογευμα.

Απο δεξια: Γιωργος, Λεωνιδας, Νικος (καπου στην Κω)

Ειχαμε λοιπον ενα εξαιρετικο μιγμα απο παιδια της πολης και των χωριων.

Η μεγαλη ομαδα απο τα χωρια ητανε οι Αρχαγγελιτες. Ερχοντουσαν συντεταγμενοι και παντα χαρουμενοι.

Το Αρχαγγελιτικο χιουμορ ειναι αξεπεραστο. Δωρικο αλλα και Ιωνικο μαζυ.

Το τι ιστοριες εχω ακουσει δεν λεγεται.

Ο Κλεοβουλος ερχοτανε απο τη Σορωνη. Τον συναντησα προσφατα και τα ειπαμε. Παντα με ευγενεια και μετρημενος.

Ειχαμε βεβαια και τις συναγωνιστικες μας διαδικασιες, παντα στα πλαισια του “ευ αγωνιζεσαθι”.

Ενας συναγωνιστης ητανε ο Λεωνιδας, σοβαρος και μετρημενος, και ταλαντουχος.

Απονομη βραβειων το 1969

Παντα τον θυμαμαι με αγαπη. Ειχαμε μιλησει και στο τηλεφωνο πριν μερικα χρονια.

Ομως αυτος που εχει παραμεινει παντα κοντα, παρολη την γεωγραφικη αποσταση, ειναι ο παιδικος φιλος, συμμαθητης και υπεροχος ανθρωπος, ο Γιωργος. Συναντηθηκαμε προσφατα στην Αθηνα και περασαμε πολλες ωρες μαζι.

Το 2005 ειχα κατεβει στη Ροδο και με πρωτοβουλια του Γιωργου συναντηθηκαμε παρα πολλοι απο την ταξη του Βενετοκλειου.

Η συναντηση αυτη θα μου μεινει αξεχαστη.

Κι αν κατι θελω κασι το εκφραζω και απο εδω, ειναι να ξαναβρεθουμε οι συμμαθητες του Βενετοκλειου που αποφοιτησαμε το 1973.

Θα ειναι μεγαλη χαρα και τιμη μου.

Ευχαριστω σε Βενετοκλειο, ευχαριστω σε Ροδο!

Υποσημειωση

Αν καπου η μνημη μου επαιξε παιχνιδια, προσκαλω την ευγενικη αναγνωστρια να με βοηθησει, υποδεικνυοντας την αστοχια, και – αν μπορει – προτεινοντας και την επανορθωση.