New posts from jordanlee.life
📚 Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai
Reading this book was one of the most profound experiences of art I’ve had all year. Written in 2021 by Romanian Nobel Laureate László Krasznahorkai, the reader is given a penetrating look into a thinly fictionalized East German village. The narrative centers around Florian Herscht, a muscular yet boyishly naive and good hearted young man who doesn’t quite understand that he works for a neo-nazi.
Halfway through I noticed for the first time that the book is entirely one sentence. In interviews the author talks of his writing as having “velocity” and I have to agree. The narration moves unceasingly from one townsperson to the next picking up the inflections and worldview of whoever is currently being described. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. In a very short time the town of Kana felt completely inhabited.
I was surprised that most reviews say the book is bleak or difficult. I found that the first half described the inhabitants of this small town in ways that were darkly humorous and sometimes even endearing. As the action picks up the story changes to be about the ways they react to fear and chaos in their own ways. Some appealing to the higher powers of God and government, others becoming nihilistic, some numbing themselves, and others transforming in completely unexpected ways.
After reading this, I did a little research and found out that this specific area of Germany is having a serious resurgence of dangerous far right activity in real life. You could say that this book shows the way that fear and nationalistic nostalgia mixed with an economic downturn create the conditions for movements like virulent fascism but I think it goes deeper than that. It also shows the little ways the townspeople give their lives meaning against the backdrop of chaos and randomness. From the post office workers to the town drunk to the amateur meteorologist- everyone’s seemingly erratic behavior makes sense within their own richly depicted yet contradictory inner world.
As usual it got me thinking about my Zen practice which says that suffering cannot be escaped from but only looked at deeply, understood, and transformed. Viewed through this lens the book is not a nihilistic celebration of suffering but an exercise at looking deeply and, if we’re lucky, eventual transformation.
I am testing out using video embeds with a Penny and the Quarters song me and L sang at our friend’s wedding
{{< yt “H8rumyup0Os” >}}
A Month of Travel through Movies
Blade Runner (1982)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
(seen on the airplane to Paris)
I had never seen Blade Runner and absolutely loved the atmospheric storytelling and the philosophical questions posed. The sequel, made 35 years later was fine but in comparison felt bloated and lifeless. It got me thinking about how the conditions of filmmaking have changed so much in the past decades crowding out weird visions and trying to turn all “IP” into a franchise.
Juste une Illusion (2026)
(seen through Lost in Frenchlation subtitles in Paris)
L and I saw this through a nonprofit group who adds English subtitles to French film. It was a funny and sweet coming of age movie that was kind of like if Superbad had a really good heart and was aware of societal stratification.
Perros Amores (2000)
(seen at Angelika in NYC)
If the promotional text is to be believed, this movie kicked off a golden age of Mexican cinema. It tells the story of three lives forever intertwined by a car crash- a poor dogfighter, a celebrity model, and a mysterious vagrant type. At first I had a hard time with the cruelty and hopelessness but it has stuck with me and I think the filmmaker did a good job of showing the way casual harm is perpetrated on every level of society.
Toy Story 5 (2026)
(seen at Universal Studios in LA)
My friends Noah and Natalie love spectacle so when I visited them in LA they wanted to see the new Toy Story at the IMAX screen at some sort of Universal Studios fake town square. I had a fun time in the unreality and really enjoyed the movie which rails against screen time and advocates for (Disney branded) imaginative play instead. I especially loved the self-serious slapstick comedy of the Buzz Lightyear army.
Jackass Forever (2022)
Father of the Bride (1991)
Hoppers (2026)
(seen at Noah and Natalie’s house in LA)
At Noah and Natalie’s house we watched these movies as we prepared for their wedding (congratulations!) I had never seen Jackass before but it definitely was entertaining. I think my favorite stunt was Steve-O making a beehive on his dick, least favorite was when they got really hurt. Recently a friend said she liked Jackass because she liked watching men destroy themselves.
Speaking of men, Father of the Bride was awful! It’s like it wanted to be sentimental but it was about this rich factory-owning dad who sees his family as just another one of his vast possessions. The main slapstick part is him sneaking upstairs to check the in-law’s bank statements and the main comic relief is the vaguely gay, vaguely European wedding planners. He has no personal growth whatsoever! It’s like he finally decides to spend lots of money on the wedding, admits he lied, everyone just gets used to him, they hug, the end. There’s a version of this movie that could have been great where you see how idiotic he is, but in this one the gaze is firmly his and it is all the other characters who seem ridiculous. It’s such a time capsule of the type of comedy in the 80’s and 90’s where the whole plot is that a man all of a sudden has to have emotional intelligence instead of business savvy for a second. Are you guys ok???
Hoppers was another pseudo-political Disney movie about environmentalism which was cute and fun but ended on a real centrist compromise where, as Joe Biden once said, “nothing will fundamentally change”. In the end her little glade is protected but the system that threatened it is still 100% intact. I know what you’re thinking, why am I thinking so hard about a movie meant for 8 year olds? And you’d be absolutely right. But the movie plays with such potent imagery, the protagonist blocking a bulldozer with her skateboard, her freeing all the pets from her school- they are signaling towards real animal liberation and eco-justice movements where some of the members have been sent to jail for doing this type of thing. All I’m saying is that I wish the movie could have had more political imagination and collectivity than the lone hero protecting her own backyard.
Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
(seen on airplane home from LA)
I loved this movie about the origin story of the Shakers. The musical sequences with eerie dancing and beautiful renditions of hymns were really well crafted. The story felt revolutionary, not just because it partially took place during the American Revolutionary War, but because the Shakers were willing to go to such lengths to live what they believed to be a virtuous life and the sublime transcendence that comes with it.