Doppelgängers & Doubles

“The Sandman”: Tale of Madness and Trauma Still Haunts, 200 Years On”

“Prussian author ETA Hoffmann’s tale of a poet driven mad would have shocked the Brothers Grimm – and the violence of it remains shocking, even two centuries later…”

By Dorothea E. von Mücke for Public Books
Guardian Books Network

“In 1816, only four years after the Brothers Grimm brought out a collection of fairy tales carefully selected and edited for the use of children, ETA Hoffmann published his Nutcracker and Mouse King. To the extent that Hoffmann’s fairy tale introduced rather weird, even scary elements, his story departed significantly from what the Grimm brothers would have considered proper. It would seem that Hoffmann had a very different approach to what was uncomfortable and upsetting for children. But most of his fantastic tales that focus on the scary aspects of childhood memories —involving children, dolls, or automata — were actually written for adults. Thus The Sandman, published in the same year, might shock its readers by reminding us of the fragility of our sane and safe reality. At the same time, however, this story also demonstrates how literature and the arts are uniquely able to deal with the uncanny elements lurking in our midst.” (emphasis Dr. Mintler)

Click this link to watch John Stewart’s Daily Show Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates about his new book, The Message–the title clearly riffing on the song by Grand Master Flash.

“Best-selling author Ta-Nehisi Coates sits down with Jon Stewart to talk about his latest book, “The Message,” and reconciling past and present vestiges of oppression.”

See if you see evidence of double consciousness in other places in our contemporary world.

“They discuss his visits to Senegal, South Carolina, and The West Bank, how past atrocities like slavery and the holocaust can create a zero-sum game of control, the need for safety and statehood despite morally problematic systems, his exposure to Palestinian stories that have been hidden in American media, understanding the physical traumas of the Black community, and the purpose in writing to shape the world around us.”

Artists often create paintings that feature similar subjects. For example, there are many religious paintings of the “Madonna and Child” and Jesus Christ, as well as many paintings of iconic historical figures, like Elizabeth I.

There are also many paintings of the same cities–such as New York, London, and Paris, as well as landscapes of beaches  and still life paintings of the same kinds of fruit.

The video below imagines what one of the most iconic and enigmatic paintings by Leonardo DaVinci, the Mona Lisa, were painted by other painters with characteristic painting styles . . . see what you think!

What if Mona Lisa was painted by . . .

“Why I Wrote the ‘Yellow Wallpaper'” by Charlotte Perkins Gilmaman (from The Forerunner)

CPG’s concluding sentence about “The Yellow Wallpaper” is her central argument of this short newspaper article–we could call it her THESIS:

“It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from becoming crazy, and it worked.”