Anaiis Nin continues to be insane.

Her actions and behaviors are often erratic and unpredictable, yet I find myself unable to break free.

I continue to love her with a passion that borders on obsession.

It's an abusive, codependent relationship we have, filled with turmoil and drama.

But despite the pain and heartache, I have no intention of giving it up.

I am drawn to her like a moth to a flame, unable to resist her allure.

Maybe it's because I see something in her that others don't, or maybe it's because I'm just as messed up as she is.

Whatever the reason, I know that I'm in too deep to turn back now.

I'll continue to ride this emotional rollercoaster with her, no matter where it takes us.

And even though I know it's not healthy, I can't seem to help myself.

Anaiis Nin has become a part of me, and I don't think I could live without her.

I AM THE OTHER FACE OF YOU.

Our faces have soldered together by soft hair, soldered together, showing two profiles of the same soul.

I borrowed your visibility and it was through you I made my imprint on the world. (House of Incest, 1936)

Probably no one would argue if I said this quote was taken from Bergman’s 1966 masterpiece “Persona“. In fact, after reading Nin’s sublime work, an inexorable link between the two was immediately formed.

Art is THE ultimate vehicle to express the intricate mechanics of the human mind and its fascinating, yet bottomless subconscious. It allows us to reach for the purest essence that remains indissoluble and lies outside the borders of language.

“The hopeless dream of being - not seeming, but being. At every waking moment, alert. (…) The vertigo and the constant hunger to be exposed, to be seen through, perhaps even wiped out.” (Persona, 1966)

Both these works share a similar dream-like atmosphere, alternating between subjective realities to reveal what Lacan posits in his mirror stage theory - that we only exist in relation to others, with our knowledge of the world being acquired from them, our language preceding us and shaping our desires.

House of incest is Nin’s first work of fiction and is considered her most complex due to its rich use of symbolism and allegories. It is truly amazing what it accomplishes in its sigh-worthy, watertight 48 indelible pages. I devoured these as if in a single breath of the freshest air.

There is nothing even remotely similar to her poetic use of language, which is both visceral and alluring, tugging at your heartstrings at every turn.

Some may recoil at the title, but don't be misled. Probably the best use of metaphor I've ever encountered, the incest here refers to the lover created as a phantom of one's own imagination, rather a projection of one's self. We love unreal images that are ultimately a part of ourselves, thus committing incestuous acts of love.

Hypnotic, sensual, daring, honest, unfathomable and completely inestimable. I am eager to consume each and every one of her words and I strongly urge you to do the same.

I had absolutely no clue what was going on. However, I have an intense love for fever-dream like, stream of consciousness literature.

It's truly fascinating to explore the depths of the human mind through such works. The quote “[…] I have such a fear of finding another like myself, and such a desire to find one. I am so utterly lonely, but I also have such a fear that my isolation be broken through, and I no longer be the head and ruler of my universe. […]” encapsulates the complex emotions and contradictions that often lie within us.

On one hand, there is a longing for connection and the hope of finding someone who understands. On the other hand, there is a fear of losing one's individuality and the sense of control that comes with being alone. This internal struggle is a common theme in many works of literature and can resonate deeply with readers.

Stream of consciousness writing allows us to experience these emotions in a more immediate and visceral way, as if we are inside the character's mind. It challenges us to confront our own fears and desires and to question our sense of self.

Anaïs Nin, the French writer,

whom I read for the first time,

reading her was a strange experience,

especially for those who are not accustomed to this style of writing yet.

"House of Incest"

is a collection of poetic texts, closer to prose in its writing style.

Despite the poetic nature of the text, you won't find the usual charming words in it.

Anaïs Nin abandons nature, beauty, and all those words that poets use to make their texts musical and poetic.

Instead, she describes decay and destruction within it, and uses strange and unusual metaphors, just like her texts are strange and unusual!

She compares the things around her to minerals!

Every action and every thing around her has a mineral that it resembles.

Nevertheless, you won't feel that the meanings are dry.

On the contrary, the music of the text will surprise you and penetrate you.

Just as the text, its poetry, and its metaphors are strange and unusual,

the story of the text itself is also strange and even crazy.

There is a love relationship between two women, and another between a brother and a sister!

But the story is not the focus of the text, and it is not emphasized.

It oscillates between reality and fantasy, between truth and delusion,

putting you in a strange position between hating the idea and admiring the word.

In the midst of the state of delusion that she put me in while reading,

there was also a state of fear.

Her words resembled me and expressed me in a terrifying way.

There were lines that I almost felt that I was the one who wrote them.

Or that they were inside me, really knew me,

and expressed my confusion with her poetic words that I couldn't express.

We resemble each other in loving unity and solitude,

the desire to be lost in solitude and the fear of it!

Loving lies and seeking the truth.

Perhaps this is where the fear lies, the fear of the first time

when you find someone who resembles you.

When you read these texts, you will wish from the music inside you

that it never stops!

It's over.

The writing failed to engage me, and the photomontages by Val Telberg didn't do it for me either.

There are, however, a few interesting lines that managed to catch my attention.

For instance, the line "Day is the light on harrowing discoveries" presents an interesting concept. It implies that during the day, when there is light, we are able to uncover and face the harsh and disturbing truths or discoveries in our lives.

Another thought-provoking line is "Life requires an effort which I cannot make." This expresses a sense of helplessness and perhaps a feeling of being overwhelmed by the demands and challenges that life presents.

The final line, "I looked upon a clock to find the truth," is also quite intriguing. It makes one wonder what kind of truth the person was seeking by looking at the clock. Was it the truth about time, about their own life, or something else entirely?

Overall, while the writing and photomontages didn't fully resonate with me, these few lines managed to pique my interest and make me think.

**Title: A Remarkable Story**

Once upon a time, there was a small town.

In this town, there lived a young girl named Lily.

Lily was a remarkable child.

She had a kind heart and a brilliant mind.

Despite facing many challenges in her life, she always remained positive and determined.

One day, a great storm hit the town.

The wind was so strong that it blew down many trees and houses.

Lily saw the chaos around her and knew she had to do something.

She gathered her friends and together they went around the town, helping those in need.

They carried water, distributed food, and even helped to rebuild some of the damaged houses.

Thanks to their efforts, the town slowly recovered from the disaster.

Lily's actions inspired everyone in the town, and she became a hero in their eyes.

Her remarkable spirit and selflessness showed that even a small child could make a big difference in the world.

And from that day on, Lily continued to use her kindness and intelligence to help others, leaving a remarkable legacy behind.

Anaïs Nin, a woman with passion, seething sexuality, and exuding femininity.

The House of Incest is a fabricated poem that is engraved with Nin's seal, representing the inner attempt to unify the two selves imprisoned within each of us; like the dark side of the moon trying to meet the bright side for the happy moment of this union, this completion. But it is also more than that. It is also the fear of escaping from our incestuous body and mind, of suckling our own milk instead of truly turning towards the other, with capital.

Anaïs Nin has her own identity and way of expression. Her life and personality are reflected in her writings, uniquely feminine, erotic, chaotic, and poetic.

The House of Incest is a sensory breeze that passes incomprehensibly between the breasts and makes them tremble slightly.

"There is no room for a quarrel between women. One lies peacefully on top of the other as on her own back."

"If only we could all escape from this house of incest, where we only love ourselves in the other, if only I could save you all from yourselves, said the modern Christ."

"We all now watched the dancer who stood in the center of the room dancing the dance of the woman without arms. She danced as if she were deaf and could not follow the rhythm of the music. She danced as if she could not hear the sound of her castanets. Her dance was isolated and disconnected from the music, from us, from the room, and from life. The castanets sounded like the steps of a phantom.
She danced laughing, sighing, and breathing only for herself. She danced her fears, stopping in the middle of each dance to fend off criticisms that we could not hear, or bowing for applause that we had not burst into. She was absorbed by a music that we could not hear, shaken by hallucinations that we could not understand."

The last excerpt at the end of my book engraved a song in my mind. It is by Jacques Brel, but I prefer it from a woman, Barbara. It speaks of a girl who only dances in the square. The hermeneutic, slothful world is indifferent in front of this image and closes, closes. It is never able to make the connection between wonder and reality. And the man remains to "weep his fate", that is, death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYZ3A...

Anaïs Nin's surrealist prose poem is a remarkable reconstruction of her diary entries.

It is as if the house she describes is the womb that gave birth to her inner world, where she wanders the halls of her psyche, filled with an incestuous love of the feminine self. The convoluted nature of the language mirrors the fragmented self-perception of women, and the lyrical fluidity interweaves with the eroticism of the female body and imagination.

It is no wonder that Henry Miller fled from his attempt to rewrite "House of Incest," as Nin clearly had the desire to write a piece "as a woman, and as a woman only." Her phantasmagoric stream-of-consciousness writing spills out her heart and subconsciousness, transforming the experiences and portraits of people that anyone who has read even excerpts from her diary will recognize.

In my own reading experience, I was completely spellbound by her metamorphic writing of existence, which is both created and confined within the female symbolic language.

As she writes, "I am an insane woman for whom houses wink and open their bellies. Significance stares at me from everywhere, like a gigantic underlying ghostliness. Significance emerges out of dank alleys and sombre faces, leans out of the windows of strange houses. I am constantly reconstructing a pattern of something forever lost and which I cannot forget; I catch the odors of the past on street corners and I am aware of the men who will be born tomorrow. Behind windows there are either enemies or worshippers. Never neutrality or passivity. Always intention and premeditation. Even stones have for me druidical expressions."

Her words paint a vivid and captivating picture of a world that exists within her, a world that is both beautiful and disturbing, and one that invites the reader to explore the depths of the female psyche.

I really need to go through this with a pen and highlighter.

You know, it's like there's so much important information here that I don't want to miss a single thing.

Using a pen and highlighter helps me to focus and really zero in on the key points.

It's a great way to make sure that I understand everything and can remember it later.

Plus, it makes the whole process a lot more engaging and interactive.

Instead of just passively reading, I'm actively marking up the text and making it my own.

So, that's why I always make sure to have a pen and highlighter on hand when I'm going through important documents or articles.

It's a simple but effective strategy that really helps me to get the most out of my reading.

The dream of the fusion of the two selves, the anxiety of this only completion that is not achieved, alone sailing in a difficult and airy sea. Upside down, front and back views that never meet and yet are always in communication. The world in the eyes of him that I give and the him that I hide from. A "divided love" as she herself writes, "love without malice", male and female view, as much as the female imagines, the male and the male the female. The self that suffers and the self that gets angry, between ecstasy and daily life, until death, "feeding on" each other. Eternal search for the simultaneous gaze, the paired hearing. Dreamy, lyrical and unceasing writing, millions of real and internal images.

This text seems to explore the complex and often contradictory nature of the self and love. It presents the idea of two selves that are in a constant state of longing for unity, yet are separated by various factors. The description of the "divided love" and the different perspectives of the male and female add to the depth and complexity of the theme. The use of vivid language and imagery, such as "sailing in a difficult and airy sea" and "the eternal search for the simultaneous gaze", creates a sense of mystery and longing. Overall, it is a thought-provoking piece that invites the reader to reflect on their own experiences of self and love.

The rating of 3.5 stars indicates that the text has some strengths, but may also have areas for improvement. It could potentially be enhanced by further developing the ideas and adding more specific examples or personal anecdotes to make the concepts more relatable. Additionally, some readers may find the language a bit too abstract or difficult to understand, so a bit more clarification or explanation could be beneficial. However, despite these possible shortcomings, the text still manages to engage the reader and stimulate their imagination, making it a worthwhile read.

The only good thing that came out of my reading of the novel "Far from the Madding Crowd, Close to the Silence" is my acquaintance with the author Anais Nin.

I would be wrong if I said that I understood what Nin meant in that novel. In fact, it is not really a novel. It has no coherent plot or context. One could say it is a hodgepodge or a jumble or literary fragments. And although I did not fully understand the author's intention, I really enjoyed reading this work and felt that in many ways it expressed me in one way or another.

But anyone who is in a state of depression should not read any work by Anais Nin. I fell into this trap, but strangely enough, I listened during my reading!

It was truly an enchanting experience, reading this. It was as if one was watching a dream unfold before their very eyes. The words seemed to melt like poetry, flowing seamlessly and captivating the reader's heart.

One could almost feel themselves swimming in a sea of beautiful music, carried away by the rhythm and melody of the language.

If you have a deep longing to witness pure emotion being beautifully encapsulated in words, then this book is an absolute must-read for you.

It has the power to touch your soul, to make you feel, to make you believe that there is still magic and beauty in the written word.

Pick up this book and let yourself be transported to a world where emotions run wild and words have the ability to heal and inspire.

You will not be disappointed.