Word: attics
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Need for Spontaneity. Kenyatta paid close attention to diplomatic detail: antagonists were seated well apart from one another; security guards were watchful but unobtrusive (two were stationed in the attic of Government House); detailed instructions were posted all the way down to the houseboy level. "It should be noted that guests from Ethiopia are partial to good strong coffee," read one notice. The leaders met in Kenyatta's library-the most soundproof room in the mansion. There was purposely no agenda, for, as Jomo said: "That would have deprived us of spontaneity...
Frantz has lived in an attic for thirteen years--fooling himself into believing that Germany is being destroyed, throwing empty oyster shells at a picture of Hitler, and making tape recordings for the "crabs" who will judge mankind in the thirtieth century. He sees no one, and refuses an interview with his father, whom he associates with the family's Nazi background. Even time is kept out of his attic world. The only one who can see him is Leni, his sister, who brings him his meals and loves him incestuously. To keep Frantz for herself, Leni refuses to tell...
...then switches alliances, and tells Leni that Johanna has been seeing Frantz. That's when it really hits the fan: Leni tells Johanna of Frantz's past as a torturer; Johanna abandons Frantz; Frantz sees his father and they commit suicide together. Leni takes Frantz's place in the attic...
...have, then, five condemned people: Frantz to his attic and guilt; Leni to her incestuous love; the father to death in six months; Werner to his inferior position as unfavored son; and Johanna to an impossible choice. And they live in a world polarized by the existential isolation of Frantz's attic and the mundane world below. Frantz, to escape his war-time guilt, has tried to assume guilt for all. His rejection of ends-justifies-means ("evil was our only material... Good was the final product. Result: the good turned bad") is almost a Camus-esque rejection of political...
Purity and Joy. For artistic success was not something that came easily to this provincial grain merchant's son. His first student efforts look as if they had been painted in a damp attic. He laboriously copied Louvre masterpieces, lasted only a few days as a student of Academician William-Adolphe Bouguereau, who told him, "You will never learn how to draw...