God, you broke my heart open this morning. I didn’t realize how much I needed a good cry. This is such a powerful and important story, Adam. What a gift.
Infinite beauty and infinite sadness. Sometimes it can feel like all of this one wild and precious life is spent staring into the Ink. I’m glad Mike chose to look at the stars.
God, may we all. I certainly hope I remember to. Some certainly do. I want to be them.
Lovely note on Ink versus stars. Very early on in initial scribbled notes I had thought of inverting the stars and the darkness at the very end. I moved a different direction, but you reminded me of that. 🙏
“The idea is that the teachers tell you before you go on, so you feel what you’re dancing in your heart.” Ohhhh. Listening to “Bell Nuit” and weeping. This cracked me open.
Truly beautiful. Moving. Astonishing. I'm reeling. I honestly don't think anything has moved me that much in years. Probably since the death of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway. I can't currently upgrade, but I most certainly shall soon. Bravo.
We read this in bed this morning, and then lay in quiet reverie, listening to the barcarolle (instrumental) on loop. I keep thinking about ‘Story of Your Life’, the Ted Chiang short story that became the film Arrival. I feel moved, and changed, in the same way for having experienced The Gondolier. I don’t know how you do it, but ‘it’ is something very, very special. David & I are now brainstorming how we get this made into film, obviously. I’d love to hear how Hans Zimmer or Max Richter would fill in any Offenbach gaps. This is an important piece of writing, my friend.
Oh Adam. This is a very special piece. Glorious and wrenching . Layered with just enough stories within.
You directed me to this piece in your reply to
Part I. So there it was, the soundtrack to my part II.
“Les Comptes d’Hoffman, Act 4, “Belle Nuit, o nuit d’amour” The recording with Placido Domingo. Seiji Ozawa conducts”
And it did not get past me to take a closer look at the photograph of the Astronaut’s head shot.
( A shoutout to Ben Wakeman, excellent work).
I want the movie version .
It is all right here. The kind where I’m still in my seat. Dabbing my eyes with a tissue. Listening to “Belle Nuit, o nuit d’amour” while the credits are rolling.
“ἀγάπη – In infinite beauty there is infinite sadness.”
The photo album from his father, the picture taped on the back.
I’m so glad you listened to the music with it. It was looped incessantly while I wrote some days. It’s tempting to write “play now” into the text and I did that elsewhere at one point, but it just breaks up the flow. And yet it’s exactly the right music to be listening to. for all the cinematic reasons and the feeling of it. And of course it’s a gondolier’s song. So it all just fits.
(Of course, I’d love to see it on a screen too.)
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm about the piece.
Well, it was absolutely worth the wait. Thanks for helping me start my morning off with a good cry. The secret of the gondolier, the turning toward the stars—the truth in this weaving of loss and what remains, of sorrow and love, of heartbreak and breathtaking beauty.
"Here is someone whose mind no place becomes injured, and who does not suddenly feel his soul on the left, where the heart is. Here is someone for whom life is a point, and for whom the soul has no edges and the mind no beginnings." -Artaud
"For whom the soul has no edges and the mind no beginnings." Surely, the universal is in everything, visible or otherwise. It can't hide from itself forever.
Jesus Adam. I will remember this story forever. Dare I say maybe even upon my last breath? The image of Mikhail paddling into bonne nuit offers a strange kind of agency to our inevitable deaths, turning towards—long, deliberate strokes into the infinite. Such a profoundly tragic and yet comforting story. Thank you for this gift.
"A strange kind of agency." That's exactly right, as usual, Kimberly. I hadn't thought of the word, but that's exactly what's happening. There's something truly grand in the expression of agency in the face of that situation. Thanks for the kind words, too.
I saw that you read it in one shot – which is the way it was intended. Up to adrenaline and then out through catharsis, kind of how so much of life presents itself. It was really satisfying seeing the note after the first one and hoping that you would keep going. And you did. ❤️
God, you broke my heart open this morning. I didn’t realize how much I needed a good cry. This is such a powerful and important story, Adam. What a gift.
From our convo yesterday and your note later on, yes, you did need a good cry. Don't we all? Happy Sunday. Peace.
Devastated. This was profound and heartbreaking, and now I’m reeling in the belle nuit. I mean — the ending!!
Thanks so much, Stephanie, for reading it and, as odd as this is to write, for feeling it. 🙏
Infinite beauty and infinite sadness. Sometimes it can feel like all of this one wild and precious life is spent staring into the Ink. I’m glad Mike chose to look at the stars.
God, may we all. I certainly hope I remember to. Some certainly do. I want to be them.
Lovely note on Ink versus stars. Very early on in initial scribbled notes I had thought of inverting the stars and the darkness at the very end. I moved a different direction, but you reminded me of that. 🙏
“The idea is that the teachers tell you before you go on, so you feel what you’re dancing in your heart.” Ohhhh. Listening to “Bell Nuit” and weeping. This cracked me open.
There was certainly a lot of crying writing it. Here's the recording of the song I played practically on a loop.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/les-contes-dhoffmann-act-4-belle-nuit-o-nuit-damour/1452576365?i=1452577510
Pure beauty, Adam!
And then Ariadne returns later on. The thread extends as she revisits Venice with her son Mick....inverting the stars and the ink
Thank you, Bertus. 🙏
Truly beautiful. Moving. Astonishing. I'm reeling. I honestly don't think anything has moved me that much in years. Probably since the death of Septimus in Mrs. Dalloway. I can't currently upgrade, but I most certainly shall soon. Bravo.
Thank you. More than thank you.
We read this in bed this morning, and then lay in quiet reverie, listening to the barcarolle (instrumental) on loop. I keep thinking about ‘Story of Your Life’, the Ted Chiang short story that became the film Arrival. I feel moved, and changed, in the same way for having experienced The Gondolier. I don’t know how you do it, but ‘it’ is something very, very special. David & I are now brainstorming how we get this made into film, obviously. I’d love to hear how Hans Zimmer or Max Richter would fill in any Offenbach gaps. This is an important piece of writing, my friend.
Oh Adam. This is a very special piece. Glorious and wrenching . Layered with just enough stories within.
You directed me to this piece in your reply to
Part I. So there it was, the soundtrack to my part II.
“Les Comptes d’Hoffman, Act 4, “Belle Nuit, o nuit d’amour” The recording with Placido Domingo. Seiji Ozawa conducts”
And it did not get past me to take a closer look at the photograph of the Astronaut’s head shot.
( A shoutout to Ben Wakeman, excellent work).
I want the movie version .
It is all right here. The kind where I’m still in my seat. Dabbing my eyes with a tissue. Listening to “Belle Nuit, o nuit d’amour” while the credits are rolling.
“ἀγάπη – In infinite beauty there is infinite sadness.”
The photo album from his father, the picture taped on the back.
He is the Gondolier. Simply incredible.
I’m so glad you listened to the music with it. It was looped incessantly while I wrote some days. It’s tempting to write “play now” into the text and I did that elsewhere at one point, but it just breaks up the flow. And yet it’s exactly the right music to be listening to. for all the cinematic reasons and the feeling of it. And of course it’s a gondolier’s song. So it all just fits.
(Of course, I’d love to see it on a screen too.)
Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm about the piece.
Well, it was absolutely worth the wait. Thanks for helping me start my morning off with a good cry. The secret of the gondolier, the turning toward the stars—the truth in this weaving of loss and what remains, of sorrow and love, of heartbreak and breathtaking beauty.
Thank you, Holly. 🙏
"Here is someone whose mind no place becomes injured, and who does not suddenly feel his soul on the left, where the heart is. Here is someone for whom life is a point, and for whom the soul has no edges and the mind no beginnings." -Artaud
What is this from, Frank? I can't find it. Is it directly translated from French here?
From a random letter.
"For whom the soul has no edges and the mind no beginnings." Surely, the universal is in everything, visible or otherwise. It can't hide from itself forever.
This isn’t so much a story as it is an initiation. Well played, Adam.
“I don’t really know why they call it Belle Nuit.”
“I do,” Mikhail said.
Thanks, Eric. I thought you'd get this one.
Truly stellar 💙
Jesus Adam. I will remember this story forever. Dare I say maybe even upon my last breath? The image of Mikhail paddling into bonne nuit offers a strange kind of agency to our inevitable deaths, turning towards—long, deliberate strokes into the infinite. Such a profoundly tragic and yet comforting story. Thank you for this gift.
"A strange kind of agency." That's exactly right, as usual, Kimberly. I hadn't thought of the word, but that's exactly what's happening. There's something truly grand in the expression of agency in the face of that situation. Thanks for the kind words, too.
superb
Thanks, Appleton.
Bravo!
🙏
I’m crying Adam. Beautiful and infinitely sad.
I saw that you read it in one shot – which is the way it was intended. Up to adrenaline and then out through catharsis, kind of how so much of life presents itself. It was really satisfying seeing the note after the first one and hoping that you would keep going. And you did. ❤️
Oh, so much feeling. I won’t cry, but maybe I’ll squeeze my kids a little extra when I see them next.
Do. ❤️