Like Ruins or Torsos

He who wishes to approach his own buried past must act like a man who digs. This determines the tone, the stance of real memories. They must not be afraid to return again and again to the same fact of the matter, to strew it the way one strews soil, to churn it the way one churns the earthen realm. Because facts of the matter are only deposits, layers, which deliver only to the most meticulous examination what constitutes the true assets hidden within the inner earth: the images which, torn from all former contexts, stand -like ruins or torsos in the collector’s gallery- as the treasures in the sober chambers of our belated insights. And, in order to dig successfully, a plan is certainly required. Yet just as indispensable is the spade’s careful, probing penetration of the dark earthen realm; and he who only keeps the inventory of his finds, but not also the dark bliss of the finding itself, cheats himself of the best part. The unsuccessful search belongs to it just as fully as the fortunate search. This is why memory must not proceed by way of narrative, much less by way of reports, but must rather, assay its spade, epically and rhapsodically in the most rigorous sense, in ever new places and in the old ones, to delve into ever deeper layers.

-Walter Benjamin, “Berlin Chronicle”, SW II, 6II)

—
Listening to Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. A work of art, it is.

—
This blog, needless to say, is much more than a mere pastime, a confessional diary or a vulgar celebration of an insignificant private life. Never Neutral seeks to be a life-project, an experiment in self-portraiture and an inventory of my finds, yes, but, rather, and evenmore, it wants to be an ongoing performance act, a phantasmagoric artefact whose purpose is to outline searches, possibilities; to dig deeper, in unexpected places, sometimes avoding traditional “reports”, and resorting to “techniques” thought to be unlikely of someone who calls himself “a writer”.