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Immanuel Kant analyzed the experience of an aesthetic object as an act of contemplation that is independent of one’s personal interests and desires and free from reference to the object’s reality, moral effect, or utility. Writing in 1912, Edward Bullough introduced the term “distance” to the idea of aesthetic experience. He points, for example, to the difference between our ordinary experiences with a dense fog at sea – the strains, anxiety, and fear of invisible dangers – and an aesthetic expe...
It took me a while to get into this collection. At first, I found the stories tantalising but disappointing; too short to be narratively satisfying. As I got further in, I found a few of the stories much more substantial, while I was also falling into the rhythm of the shorter pieces. By the end, I found that the best of them were polished little mysteries that gave just enough to get me invested and then dazzled with their, often enigmatic, conclusion.
Europe’s forgotten corners are nestled beneath social and political upheaval, the shifting of power, hidden agendas and the re-drawing of borders. This is the backdrop of Secret Europe, a collection of tales set in Europe before the great war up until WW2. The tales revolve around old traditions, strange secrets, hidden artifacts, and occulted lore that lurks beneath the surface tension. Both Howard and Valentine has a keen sense of place and history, and wonderfully evokes, not only the shades
"It was Stevenson, I think, who most notably said that there are some places that simply demand a story should be told of them. . . But there are also, I believe, places which have their story stored already, and want to tell this to us, through whatever powers they can; through our legends and lore, through our rumors and our rites. By its whispering fields and its murmuring waters, by the wailing of its winds and the groaning of its stones, by what it chants in darkness and the songs it sings
I started reading Secret Europe on my way to Berlin, and was really looking forward to it. Given my enthusiasm for Howard/Valentine's later Inner Europe, I'm surprised how much trouble I'm having with this. The stories here are much shorter, and the ideas don't seem to me very developed in their specific contexts. For example, I get the references in "The Hunting Castle", but I thought it was a little exercise that I couldn't get into."Prince Aziz" was amusing, with the sly and ironic narrator.
A review of Secret Europe by John Howard and Mark Valentinehttp://jayrothermel.blogspot.com/2017...
A spell for dark eyes, Spy’s in the Orchestra, Chessboard cities, Gnostic conversations as the great serpent sleeps, Goat eyed strangers smuggled in through secret gates…… 26 tales (Tartarus edition) of inter war intrigue and mystery with a nod to the Decadents. A crescendo is often preceded by a slow, perhaps unmemorable beginning. This is the approach this volume of tales used to lure me in. Bravo!
A mesmerizing collection of strange fiction. These tales cover the whole gamut of moods and tones, but are held together by setting: the backwaters of Europe between the wars, the fraying hems of unravelling empires. But the gaze is unflinching, not wistful, nostalgic. Though the atmosphere throughout is uncanny, the supernatural element is largely muted (though the denouement of stories such as 'The Other Salt' and 'The Atelier at Iasi' did give rise to a shudder, and the alt-historical 'The Hu...
A perfect ending to our perfect book. Thanks for allowing me to share it.The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long to post here.Above is one of its observations.
A beautiful collection of tales. Highly recommended.
Though I no longer revisit it as often as before, Secret Europe is indisputably my favourite volume ever to have been released by Ex Occidente & its various imprints.Born & raised in an East Asian setting, my ignorance of European history & culture was absolute, 'til I was fortunate enough to leave for the distant Australian shores, free to indulge in & explore as I wish these topics, albeit only through books & travelogues (alas!). Which is to say, this volume fits perfectly with this hobby / l...
