Imaginary

Fictional Narratives

Fiction by Franz Kafka (“Kafka’s stories and novels have provoked a wealth of interpretations. Brod and Kafka’s first English translators, Edwin Muir and his wife, Willa, viewed the novels as allegories of divine grace. Existentialists have seen Kafka’s environment of guilt and despair as the ground upon which to construct an authentic existence. Some have seen his neurotic involvement with his father as the heart of his work. Others have emphasized the social criticism, the inhumanity of the powerful and their agents, the violence and barbarity that lurk beneath normal routine.”):

• Franz Kafka, The Complete Stories
• Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories (Oxford University Press) (audiobook of The Metamorphosis).
• Franz Kafka, The Trial (1915) (audiobook of The Trial; film adaptation)

Other insightful works of fiction:

• Téa Obreht, The Tiger's Wife: A Novel (Random House, 2011): the author couples her childhool experiences in Yugoslavia with keen imagination and insight, creating a compelling work of fiction.
• Peter Kimani, Dance of the Jakaranda: A Novel (Akastic Books, 2017): “I grew up in Kenya, and I have never read a novel about my own country that’s so funny, so perceptive, so subversive and so sly.”
• Aravind Adiga, Amnesty: A Novel (Scribner, 2020): “No one in his novels is simple to understand. Adiga may not agree with everything that gets said or thought, but there is no gauze on his mental windshield. Nice people are often skewered, as if on kabobs. Reading him you get a sense of having your finger on the planet’s pulse.”

Poetry

That music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning, yet long
untaught I did not hear,

But now the chorus I hear and am elated,

A tenor, strong, ascending with power and health, with glad notes
of daybreak I hear,

A soprano at intervals sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense
waves,

A transparent base shuddering lusciously under and through the
universe,

The triumphant tutti, the funeral wailings with sweet flutes and
violins, all these I fill myself with,

I hear not the volumes of sound merely, I am moved by the
exquisite meanings,

I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, contend-
ing with fiery vehemence to excel each other in emotion;

I do not think the performers know themselves—but now I think
I begin to know them.

[Walt Whitman, “That Music Always Round Me”]

Arthur Rimbaud, an icon of insight:

• Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations, translated by John Ashbery (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011): Rimbaud was a “meteoric” young poet with “flashes of insight” “whose very eruption and subsequent accomplishments remain dazzling and difficult to explain away”. See also:
• Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations (New Directions Publishing, 1946).
• Arthur Rimbaud, The Illuminations, translated by Keith Miller (CreateSpace, 2009).
• Arthur Rimbaud, Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library, 2002).
• Arthur Rimbaud, A Season In Hell and The Illuminations, translated by Enid Rhodes Peschel (Oxford University Press, 1973).
• Links to works by Arthur Rimbaud

Music: Composers, artists, and major works

Ludwig van Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas occupy a prominent place in music history and in music-making. “Spanning several decades of his life as a composer, the sonatas soon came to be seen as the first body of substantial serious works for piano suited to performance in large concert halls seating hundreds of people.” Yet they are equally suitable for performance in more intimate settings. Covering a wide range of musical themes, they also expanded the understood range of the piano. Beethoven composed piano sonatas throughout his life as a composer. For contemporary listeners, what may stand out is that each sonata offers its own set of ideas and insights. Many of our greatest classical pianists have recorded the entire set. These include Artur Schnabel (1930s), Wilhelm Kempff (1950s), Friedrich Gulda (1960s), Richard Goode (1990s), Jonathan Biss (2000s), Stephen Kovacevich (2000s), Ronald Brautigam (2000s), Maurizio Pollini (2000s), François-Frédéric Guy (2010s), and Igor Levit (2010s).

Murray Perahia is a classical pianist known for his musical insights. “Perahia’s pianism, recognised as exceptional since his student days, has matured over more than four decades to deliver unique insights into music’s spiritual qualities, its power to communicate where words end.” He has been praised for “his stellar technique and profound insight that touches the soul . . .” Of one performance, a reviewer wrote: “A Mozart specialist, Mr. Perahia played that composer's work with the kind of insight that gives each individual note vitality.” Even when he could not play, he seems to have had a knack for finding previously unseen truths. After he injured a hand, and was unable to play, he commented: “What seemed like a curse actually turned into a blessing, because it gave me a lot of time to think about music and to listen to it more. And so I felt I was actually growing as a musician, even though I was not playing.” Here is a link to his playlists.

Rafael Kubelik was known as an insightful conductor, with Mahler’s symphonies, Schumann’s symphonies, and other works. Notable insight in a conductor is the ability to appreciate and bring forth what others miss, even other great conductors. Here is a link to Kubelik’s playlists, and a video of his conducting. 

Johannes Brahms composed several series of short pieces for piano. In each piece, he explores a single musical idea:

• 16 Waltzes, Op. 39 (1865) (approx. 16-22’)
• 18 Liebeslieder Waltzes (Love Song Waltzes) for 4 Voices and Piano 4 Hands, Op. 52, Verses from "Polydora" (1869) (approx. 25-28’)
• 8 Klavierstücke (Piano pieces), Op. 76 (1878) (approx. 24-28’)
• 7 Fantasies (Fantasias), Op. 116 (1892) (approx. 23-26’)
• 3 Intermezzi for Piano, Op. 117​​ (1892) (approx. 15-18’)
• 6 Klavierstücke (Piano pieces), Op. 118 (1893) (approx. 22-23’)
• 4 Klavierstücke (Piano pieces), Op. 119 (1893) (approx. 15-16’) 

Frederic Chopin, Waltzes (1829-1847) (approx. 51-54’) give brief expositions on discrete themes. “The waltzes are rarely found on lists of his greatest works or of performers' favorites. Yet they afford a unique opportunity to consider the wonder of his art. While most of his other morsels are free-form and deeply personal in conception, the waltzes dwell within prescribed dance forms and their social function.” Top recorded performances are by Robert Lortat in 1931, Dinu Lipatti in 1950, Ingrid Haebler in 1960, Arthur Rubinstein in 1963, Ingrid Fliter in 2009, and François Chaplin in 2022. 

Other compositions:

• Alfred Schnittke, Five Aphorisms for piano (1990) (approx. 12-14’): “. . . Schnittke . . . requested that these five pieces be individually paired with Brodsky poems of the performer's choosing, to be recited aloud before or after the music.”
• Kurt Weill, Violin Concerto, Op. 12 (1924) (approx. 28-33’): “The work is inspired by the idea – one never carried out before – of juxtaposing a single violin with a chorus of winds.” [Weill] He also wrote: “I was stupid to give this somewhat rough, abstract, completely dissonant piece to the Dessauers, who are the most ignorant and philistine of all . . . It will be unanimously rejected. One has to have already digested a portion of Schoenberg with all good will before one can understand this music. The cynical attitude of the orchestra and the impotence of this conductor make me quite nervous . . .”

Music: songs and other short pieces

• Depeche Mode, “Insight” (lyrics)
• Richard Strauss (composer), “Im Abendrot” (At Sunset), from Four Last Songs, TrV 296 (lyrics)

Visual Arts

• Salvador Dali, The First Days of Spring (1929)

Film and Stage

• Drugstore Cowboy, about a heroin addict, whose friend’s death prompts him to reform