What makes a man document his affair so meticulously? Did he want to preserve the relationship to relive it later? Was this industrial businessman searching for a creative platform to express his love? Or merely the confirmation of his control over the situation, as he mastered the art of adultery?
March 31, 2015
"The contents of the suitcase, an extraordinary collection of found materials that chronicled the adulterous relationship..."
"... between a businessman and his secretary in the late 1960s and 70s, are now on display for all to see at an art gallery in New York."
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Germans. Document everything. Even the Nazis documented everything.
He's German. Those people documented everything. The Nazis were amazing at record keeping and Gunther must have been in the Hitler Youth, given his age.
Weird and sad. Nice 'do though.
Ew.
Romantic German is an oxymoron.
It was a bright time for Germany. Everything was new.
Günter wrote, after a tiff is resolved, "Devil salad is eaten." That ain't salad, mein Herr! Es soll nicht grün zu sein.
That is some boring, banal "art".
Now if it was Lazlo's abandoned panty drawer...
kzookitty
Once more, the guy is the asshole, and in the wrong.
From what I read, it seems like the secretary was the one in charge, ordering the man to humilate his wife, and getting him to spend money on her. She in the one who calls it off.
But none of that matters, because
woman = good
man = bad
Michael K said...
Germans. Document everything. Even the Nazis documented everything.
I sometimes wonder if Germans ever get sick of this kind of thing. I have no German in my lineage and don't even really know a German, but it is hard not to imagine that the constant references to either Hitler or Colonel Klink don't grate after a while.
He wanted to hurt his wife.
Little did he know, how much total strangers enjoy the show.
I assume this is some tie-in to the start of the final episodes of Mad Men this Sunday.
Is that Jill St. John?
Ah, the big hair.
" it is hard not to imagine that the constant references to either Hitler or Colonel Klink don't grate after a while."
The German warriors were mostly killed off in WWII. The French in WWI.
Americans are castrating the male youth.
Only the Muslims will be ready or the next war.
Grotesque.
She's probably still alive; him possibly.
und am Kitzler gespielt bis zum Abgang
I had to look-up Kitzler. I don't have one.
Those are very insightful questions, I wish I could give you some answers, but that would be mansplaning.
Best porn sites are German.
How is this any different than Facebook?
@ARM,
Even the Nazis documented everything.
I sometimes wonder if Germans ever get sick of this kind of thing.
As someone who's known quite a few Germans, yes, they do, very much so. As one put it "There's a lot more to German history than the Third Reich."
But, then again, try and remind a German that a lot of their history was how they believed in God, and, like, yeah, their ancestors really meant it. A German choir can sing a Bach cantata, but, as for the words, they might as well be singing Pindar odes.
So, when Germans go through life seeing their history through the lens of one kind of historical revisionism, they shouldn't be too surprised when foreigners do it to them in turn.
After reading it all through, this is a couple of sick people. I hope they didn't burden children with their self-destructive behavior.
Oh, yeah....those are good questions, but there is only one answer. They are both sick f**ks.
At the risk of being a Mansplainer First Class, the issue here was control over women using a small amount of money in a world that recently had little or No resources. The War ending in 1945 destroyed everything of value and like the War ending in 1865 did. It was well into thw 1880's (!960s in Germany) before a slow rebuild by the boot straps with borrowed boots made life possible again.
The Southerners had to make alliances favorable to northern Banks to get a small chance at a small potion of capital, as did the German Business Men once the Marshall Plan money was pumped into them thanks to the great American, Harry S. Truman.
She's probably still alive; him possibly.
Word has it, neither is.
These people fascinate me as they are so unlike my experience. What interests me is the self-destructive behavior at such a young age. He's 39 (and with some future as a self employed businessman) and she's 24. A lot of years ahead of both... But where do you go from here?
Fascinating post. Thanks Ms. Althouse.
I'm always fascinated by people like these that don't really give a f&*k what the repercussions their actions bring; that is, they live for the moment.
Damn burden of a typical Midwestern upbringing: plan ahead, think about your future, set aside enough money for old age. All that planning, and my poor mother died of cancer when she was 68 years old.
Makes you think.
Todd,
The problem I have with people like this is the same problem I have with thieves. Thieves get very pissed when you steal their property. And people who treat their spouses and kids poorly get very pissed when their spouses and kids treat them poorly in return. They have no ability to look at their own behavior objectively.
If Hillary Clinton had fucked around on Bill he would never get over it. He would be consumed by his wife's betrayal.
"The affair takes place at the dawn of the sexual revolution and yet old conventions prevail"
Bah. Has always been thus. The sexual revolution wasn't all that revolutionary. It did have a better press agent.
I watched a movie once that had a similar story line but more female characters. Can't remember the name, small theater in Dallas. I think it was set in Sweden.
Maybe it was just his life, and it was actually happening to him and he was writing it all down to see it preserved, for his own contemplation, like scrapbookers and diarists. Maybe it wasn't an attempt to say anything to anybody else at all, because maybe he didn't give a fuck what future armchair psychologizers would make of it, years after he and she were dead.
My question is: what is it about women that gives them the urge to dissect human beings like this? Take them delicately apart, like an anesthetized animal pinned out on a wax tray. Ooo! Look, here's the spleen. Does it look a little oddly-shaped to you? Let's explore further...did you give that pith a good stir? It seems to be squirming a lot...
It's one of the most repellent characteristics of the sex, to so often see other people as stories or lessons or representatives of ideas, movements, ideologies, or actors in some internal debate or drama -- not individual mysteries, miraculous children of God, at all.
Ah, Ecclesiastes!
Many men have been known to have been driven to a strange madness by Ecclesiastes:
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;
While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:
In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
Two people caught up in their own selfish desires.
Don't get it. No one is attractive. The styles are grotesque. The affair itself banal. I'm just trying to figure out why this is of any interest. 50 Shades of Gray tie-ins? Mad Men retro? Documented OCD? No pix of him which lends a creepy factor.
I suppose you can put a frame around anything.
They thing about Islam is that it is a solid system for ruling over the rubble. Therefore, their war aims are probably the only realistic ones in an all out conflict.
That's an awesome blanket in one of the pictures.
I have to do some spring cleaning.
The fact of pictures, photographs that have to be developed and printed, makes me think the guy liked danger.
He would have to go to a film developer outside of his neighborhood and possibly outside of the area where he works. Otherwise the workers, who see the pictures they develop might know he has a wife, who is not in the pictures. Or the film worker might recognize the secretary if the store is near the business man's office.
In addition, the guy needs to keep an increasing stash of pictures and receipts hidden. He could keep them in his office, but how many workers are there? Does his wife ever visit and help with the books when they are short-handed?
Maybe his wife knew all about the affair.
That is weird--the I am not a robot thing had a sentence, "I can dance like a (and then a picture of a dancing robot). It didn't make me do anything other than check a box though.
If Hillary Clinton had fucked around on Bill he would never get over it. He would be consumed by his wife's betrayal.
Have you never looked at Chelsea, and seen the face of Webb Hubbell??
Maybe his wife knew all about the affair
His wife not only knew, but his mistress forced him to force his wife to apologize to the mistress for insulting her.
I sometimes wonder if Germans ever get sick of this kind of thing. I have no German in my lineage and don't even really know a German, but it is hard not to imagine that the constant references to either Hitler or Colonel Klink don't grate after a while.
As a Southerner, I could give a shit if Germans like dealing with stereotypes.
Hell, we voted for FDR and the New Deal fucked the South over six ways from Sunday.
And people wonder why the South left the Democrats.
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