Spareness \/\/TOP\\\\
Ludwig Steinherr's poetry, both profound and accessible, seems an obvious candidate for English translation. For one thing, it gives us a picture of the things that concern many modern German poets: its themes are silence, memory, knowing and the impossibility of knowing, the everyday and what is beyond. It also shares with much contemporary German poetry its spareness of style, lack of ornamentation and even of punctuation. Afterlife is as important as backstory. And so textual gaps, that play so important and poignant a role in modern German poetry, are here not just silent monuments for loss, but they are also the place for the reader to enter into.
spareness
Ludwig Steinherr writes with almost oriental spareness and obliquity. The idea is everything, expressed simply, as if he invites us to take up a thought he has not yet followed into any certainty. See more
The "spare" nature of Salem plays a major role in why the town is the setting for the Witchcraft Trials. In the stage directions to the First Act, Miller describes the town, itself, and makes several observations that allows the reader to fully grasp that Salem is ripe for something like the Witchcraft Trials to happen. The "spareness" that is alluded to is the sparse way of living, where individuals are required to subjugate all emotions and sense of the self to something larger, namely a rather imposing and dominating belief in God. Yet, Miller suggests that this "spareness" in terms of living a life without extravagance actually helps to foster the sense of intrusion that neighbors have towards one another. There is a "predilection" that Miller feels lives in Salem that makes the notion of intruding into the affairs of other people as part of the culture of the town. Miller suggests that this happens because of the paltry demeanor that is emphasized culturally. In order to compensate for this, neighbors become more interested in their neighbors' affairs, if nothing else to ensure that they are living in accordance to the same spareness that all others are forced to live. The excessive emphasis on spirituality removes the notion of materialism, something that Miller points out distinguished Jamestown from Salem. Additionally, it is this coveting of wealth, something that is socially condemned, that makes Corey's claim of Putnam wishing to take more land and sell it at a higher profit a valid assertion.
After gathering kindling and a few logs, I laid a fire. As crackling birch and popping sap flirted with the silence, I watched a cave of flickering light materialize. Furniture and household paraphernalia melted into the shadows. By the unsteady light, I read slowly and indulgently an essay about huts and cabins and other small dwellings. A tangible spareness and intimacy blew through conscious thought and swept away its complicated webs. In the little cave of firelight, a door was opening. I laid aside the practicalities of the coming day and slipped into the dream of the summer cabin.
Within my cave of firelight, this ethereal vision of summer cabin became a solid conviction: In the spareness of our surroundings, we are opened to a peculiar wideness. Like an expanding universe, objects and events pull away from one another. Everything is allowed its proper attention. And everything matters. 041b061a72