Paul Chan The Seven Lights
The 7 LightsDrawingsTextAudio
New Museum
In 2006, Chan released My own private Alexandria on his Web site, a collection of free mp3 DIY audio essays. Below is a selection of audio essays chosen by Chan to accompany "The 7 Lights."
About losing and being lost by Anna Freud (1953)

00:31:49 | Mispronounced German, English | No ISBN
KEYWORDS: Psychoanalysis, Winnicott, mistakes, losing as form of acknowledgement, transference, Freudian slips, getting lost in folklore.
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Adorno without quotation by Robert Hullot-Kentor (2004)

00:25:14 | Mispronounced French, German, English | ISBN 0873658469
KEYWORDS: History, philosophy, September 11, Samuel Beckett, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Rolf Tiedemann, escape.
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From slices of knowledge by Henri Michaux (1954)

00:06:08 | One cough | ISBN:0520212290
KEYWORDS: Sharks, truth as impediment, hating kids, clarity through hallucination.
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In praise of a topsy turvy lifestyle by Karl Kraus (1908)

00:08:42 | No problem except the war | ISBN 0226452662
KEYWORDS: Cultural criticism, never get up before noon, all the world’s stupidities happen before noon, newspapers are not worth toilet paper, Vienna, war, work at night, sleep in day.
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Notes on composing in film by Hollis Frampton (1976)

00:25:26 | Mispronounced French, English | October 1976
KEYWORDS: Art, film, language as structuration, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, music as ethic of film composing, syntax outside meaning.
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Post Festum by Theodor Adorno (1964)

00:02:51 | Mispronounced English, German, Latin | ISSN 0028 6060
KEYWORDS: Philosophy, history, decay of erotic relationships, fear, after the "event," a guilty circle.
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The author as receiver by Kaja Silverman (2001)

00:46:29 | Mispronounced French, messed up English too | ISBN 026275245
KEYWORDS: Art, Jean Luc Godard, film, video, installation, love, passivity as activity, strength as sensitivity like an antenna, against Brecht, for a promise of the future through love and ruthless sensitivity of history.
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The birth of art by Maurice Blanchot (1971)

00:27:05 | Mangled French | ISBN 0804727597
KEYWORDS: Art, history of art, caves, Lascaux, Georges Bataille, art as wonder, body as signature, myth of origins, fear of death, exigency of life.
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The rest is silent by Chris Marker (1995)

00:14:14 | Mispronounced Russian, French, Brazilian, German, Japanese, Italian, probably English too | ISBN 1881390101
KEYWORDS: History of silent film, no such thing as silent film, shoot the piano player, fixing emotions, Benshi, love of Clara Bow, large faces, color as sex.
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What is a myth by Karen Armstrong (2005)

00:14:47 | No problem except the war | ISBN 184195716X
KEYWORDS: History, myth as another form of knowledge, myth is not reason.
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