From the comment column: "Your eloquence is just as impressive as your subtle wit."

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"The Chinese security services ... pay close attention to China's image abroad ... One building block is ... literature. And Russian propaganda is ... strongly influenced by the literary theories of post-structuralism, which more or less say that reality is produced, among other things, by literature." Benedikt Franke, quoted from the Süddeutsche Zeitung of April 4, 2024. Nicolas Freund quotes Franke in his article 'Security Policy and Literature: The War Oracle'

Refined Cruelty

In 1877, the Sacher-Masochs returned to Graz. Aurora had no sentimental attachment to the sites of a protected childhood and precarious youth (as the daughter of a penniless divorcee). Leopold knew Graz from his student days. The artist’s circumstances as a young cosmopolitan in the Styrian capital were comfortable but not carefree. A prominent name without fortune, combined with indulgent indifference to the material world, a tendency toward indiscretion, and a stubborn insistence on unpopular views, created a confusing pattern.

Leopold’s existence was volcanic, like a tectonic continental border. Experts consulted the knight. The provocateurs of the era corresponded with the dreamer. Political adventurers of rank interacted familiarly with Leopold; at times, they were guests at his kitchen table. He was regarded as a driving force of bourgeois emancipation.

The head of the household consistently evaded the seriousness of the situation. With women from the people, who expected nothing but incomprehensible behavior from the high-born, he rolled on rugs. Leopold discussed his obsessions with Aurora for hours. The wife feared dishonor should she—per Leopold’s demand—take lovers. He ignored her fears. He pushed.

The husband placed an advertisement. A beautiful woman sought to meet an “energetic man.”

“A letter came in response from a Count Attems—I don’t know which one; there are so many in Graz. I had to arrange a rendezvous with him in the forest on the estate where we lived, because my husband wanted to observe us from a secret place to feel the torments of jealousy. I found the count at the designated spot ...”

Emotional Insolvency

Aurora met a small, not very energetic-looking patron; a ridiculous figure with a “washed-out face and ... sticky tongue.” Count Depp tripped over his own feet, damaging his trousers and monocle.

“I would have liked to send him back to where he came from.”

Aurora showered the suitor with ridicule. She walked a fine line between false empathy and real impudence. She celebrated the exposure of the count’s emotional insolvency. A conversation ensued that delighted the voyeur hidden in the bushes. Leopold had to literally restrain himself from applauding in his hiding place. During the subsequent debrief, he praised himself to the skies. She tempered his euphoria:

“Yes, what do you think if I made this idiotic count your master? That would be a sophisticated cruelty you surely couldn’t have even dreamed of.”

Standard variants of the false life (cf. Adorno: “There is no real life in the false one”) include falls from the love bar—erotic failures, first in the years of boundless adolescence, later in the narrow antechambers of old age.

In a daydream episode, Leopold appeared as stately as a true knight. To please him, Aurora received a young man who knew how to behave. She was about to sleep with a stranger under her husband’s supervision. His desire was to be fueled by the natural fire of the guest, who did nothing but follow his nature politely.

Aurora manifested in theLanguage Castle. A light like glowing amber surrounded her. She moved across reflective marble. She slipped off a sable jacket, letting it slide from her shoulders. She enjoyed her husband’s admiration and the bourgeoisly masked desire of the guest—a well-bred Germanist named Glenn.

Leopold encouraged Glenn with a gesture. The guest slipped into the role of the Greek with astonishing confidence. Perhaps you remember: Aurora-Wanda’s husband once imagined an ideal lover for his wife in the context of a cuckold scenario. He encoded the position of the dominant admirer. In his lexicon of desire, this figure appeared as the Greek.

Leopold expected Aurora-Wanda to submit to the Greek and show contemptuous care for the humiliated spectator. Since he directed everything as a director, the arrangement did not go beyond travesty.

Leopold quoted Callicles, who despised anyone whose achievements were tied to specialized manual skills. Even if such a person gained fame, they were still only a “man of the masses” (Jacob Burckhardt); a bourgeois in a slave’s apron.

Glenn was the “brightly colored, extremely attractive male peacock” with magnificent plumage in Fisher’sRunaway Selection.

Richard Dawkins says: what really matters in natural selection is the survival of genes. A male peacock could reasonably be imagined saying:

“If I grow inconspicuous feathers, I will probably live a long time, but I will not find a mate. If I produce colorful feathers, I will probably die early—but before that, I can pass on many genes, including those for producing colorful feathers.”