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Condition of Secrecy
For the first time available in English, a selection of some of Inger Christensen’s most insightful essays and poetic prose pieces
The Condition of Secrecy is a poignant collection of essays by Inger Christensen, widely regarded as one of the most influential Scandinavian writers of the twentieth century. As The New York Times proclaimed, “Despite the rigorous structure that undergirds her work—or more likely, because of it—Ms. Christensen’s style is lyrical, even playful.” The same could be said of Christensen’s essays. Here, she formulates with increasing clarity the basis of her approach to writing, and provides insights into how she composed specific poetry volumes. Some essays are autobiographical (with memories of Christensen’s school years during the Nazi occupation of Denmark), and others are political, touching on the Cold War and Chernobyl. The Condition of Secrecy also covers the Ars Poetica of Lu Chi (261-303 CE); William Blake and Isaac Newton; and such topics as randomness as a universal force and the role of the writer as an agent of social change. The Condition of Secrecy confirms that Inger Christensen is “a true singer of the syllables” (C. D. Wright), and “a formalist who makes her own rules, then turns the game around with another rule” (Eliot Weinberger).
The Condition of Secrecy is a poignant collection of essays by Inger Christensen, widely regarded as one of the most influential Scandinavian writers of the twentieth century. As The New York Times proclaimed, “Despite the rigorous structure that undergirds her work—or more likely, because of it—Ms. Christensen’s style is lyrical, even playful.” The same could be said of Christensen’s essays. Here, she formulates with increasing clarity the basis of her approach to writing, and provides insights into how she composed specific poetry volumes. Some essays are autobiographical (with memories of Christensen’s school years during the Nazi occupation of Denmark), and others are political, touching on the Cold War and Chernobyl. The Condition of Secrecy also covers the Ars Poetica of Lu Chi (261-303 CE); William Blake and Isaac Newton; and such topics as randomness as a universal force and the role of the writer as an agent of social change. The Condition of Secrecy confirms that Inger Christensen is “a true singer of the syllables” (C. D. Wright), and “a formalist who makes her own rules, then turns the game around with another rule” (Eliot Weinberger).
132 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Inger Christensen
73 books148 followersInger Christensen was born in Vejle, Denmark, in 1935. Initially she studied medicine, but then trained as a teacher and worked at the College of Art in Holbæk from 1963–64. Although she has also written a novel, stories, essays, radio plays, a drama and an opera libretto, Christensen is primarily known for her linguistically skilled and powerful poetry.
Christensen first became known to a wider audience with the volumes "Lys" (1962; Light) and "Græs" (1963; Grass), which are much influenced by the modernistic imagery of the 60s, and in which she is concerned with the location of the lyric "I" in relation to natural and culturally created reality. The flat, regular landscape of Denmark, its plants and animals, the beach, the sea, the snow-filled winters have determined the topography of many of her poems. Christensen has also been known internationally since the appearance of the long poem "Det" (1969; "it" 2006), a form of creative report on the merger of language and the world, which centres around the single word "it" and covers more than two hundred pages. The book clearly reveals the influence on Christensen's poetic work of such a range of authors as Lars Gustafsson, Noam Chomsky, Viggo Brøndal, R.D. Laing and Søren Kierkegaard. The analogy between the development of poetic language and the growth of life is, as in "Det", also the basic motif of the volume of poetry "Alfabet" (1981; Alphabet). In addition to the alphabet itself – which gives the book its title and provides a logical arrangement for its fourteen sections –, the structure is generated by the so-called Fibonacci series, in which every number consists of the sum of the preceding two. The composition reflects the theme exactly: while "Det" points to the story of creation and its "In the beginning was the Word", here the alphabet is a pointer to the "A and O" of the apocalypse.
The story of her life and work offers access to a poetry that is difficult and enigmatic, but simultaneously simple and elementary. Inger Christensen is one of the most reflecting, form-conscious poets of the present day, and her history of ideas also provides information on the paradox of lyric art; making legible through poetic means what must necessary remain illegible, and in this way wrestling a specific order from the universal labyrinth. Here the transitions between the poet and the essayist Christensen are fluid: just as lyrical figures and motifs give her essays a density of their own, figures of thought and configurations of ideas return as an organic component of the poems.
Christensen first became known to a wider audience with the volumes "Lys" (1962; Light) and "Græs" (1963; Grass), which are much influenced by the modernistic imagery of the 60s, and in which she is concerned with the location of the lyric "I" in relation to natural and culturally created reality. The flat, regular landscape of Denmark, its plants and animals, the beach, the sea, the snow-filled winters have determined the topography of many of her poems. Christensen has also been known internationally since the appearance of the long poem "Det" (1969; "it" 2006), a form of creative report on the merger of language and the world, which centres around the single word "it" and covers more than two hundred pages. The book clearly reveals the influence on Christensen's poetic work of such a range of authors as Lars Gustafsson, Noam Chomsky, Viggo Brøndal, R.D. Laing and Søren Kierkegaard. The analogy between the development of poetic language and the growth of life is, as in "Det", also the basic motif of the volume of poetry "Alfabet" (1981; Alphabet). In addition to the alphabet itself – which gives the book its title and provides a logical arrangement for its fourteen sections –, the structure is generated by the so-called Fibonacci series, in which every number consists of the sum of the preceding two. The composition reflects the theme exactly: while "Det" points to the story of creation and its "In the beginning was the Word", here the alphabet is a pointer to the "A and O" of the apocalypse.
The story of her life and work offers access to a poetry that is difficult and enigmatic, but simultaneously simple and elementary. Inger Christensen is one of the most reflecting, form-conscious poets of the present day, and her history of ideas also provides information on the paradox of lyric art; making legible through poetic means what must necessary remain illegible, and in this way wrestling a specific order from the universal labyrinth. Here the transitions between the poet and the essayist Christensen are fluid: just as lyrical figures and motifs give her essays a density of their own, figures of thought and configurations of ideas return as an organic component of the poems.
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August 28, 2023Reviewing an essay collection is no picnic. The best method is to make a few notes for each essay and/or to mark a few quotes to share. I was negligent on both counts, so I'm left with a few broad observations instead.
Inger Christensen, a Copenhagen native, was what they call a well-rounded writer: essayist, novelist, poet. Many essays touch on poetry, in fact. The title comes from Novalis, who wrote, "The outer world is the inner world, raised to a condition of secrecy." Novalis was a big-picture nature guy who saw humans as just another piece of the puzzle called Earth and life, etc. Christensen agrees.
In fact, if anything, her essays lean philosophical. The good news? Her philosophic thoughts are a lot easier to understand than most philosophers. I'm drawn to philosophy but every time I read a famous philosopher's work I feel like an idiot. Not here, at least.
Anyway, it was nice spending some time with Inger. She seems like the sort you could have dinner with and come out all the richer (rich food, rich discussion). Unfortunately, the dinner date will have to wait, as Inger moved into the great mystery (she references death frequently) in 2009 at age 74.
Inger Christensen, a Copenhagen native, was what they call a well-rounded writer: essayist, novelist, poet. Many essays touch on poetry, in fact. The title comes from Novalis, who wrote, "The outer world is the inner world, raised to a condition of secrecy." Novalis was a big-picture nature guy who saw humans as just another piece of the puzzle called Earth and life, etc. Christensen agrees.
In fact, if anything, her essays lean philosophical. The good news? Her philosophic thoughts are a lot easier to understand than most philosophers. I'm drawn to philosophy but every time I read a famous philosopher's work I feel like an idiot. Not here, at least.
Anyway, it was nice spending some time with Inger. She seems like the sort you could have dinner with and come out all the richer (rich food, rich discussion). Unfortunately, the dinner date will have to wait, as Inger moved into the great mystery (she references death frequently) in 2009 at age 74.
July 3, 2022
Poetry is just one of human beings’ many ways of recognizing things, and the same schism runs through each of the other ways, be it philosophy, mathematics, or the natural sciences.
*
We’re now so fearful that we’re not even fearful anymore, but the fear is spreading anyway, and the closest word for it is sorrow. We see what’s happening, and we’re happy about what’s not happening. We compare what’s terrifying with what’s even more terrifying. We compare limited nuclear war with total nuclear war, and the comparison deprives us of the last remnant of our natural horror. We see thousands of dead birds, thousands of dead and maimed soldiers, thousands of death wishes and their violent expressions, but as long as we see all this annihilation in all its well-known forms, at least we’re seeing something, and as long as we see something, total annihilation hasn’t happened yet. So fear has become a strangely useless feeling, discarded and purposeless, and over these chaotic fragments of a fear that once had a social purpose, sorrow has spread. The future is dead and buried, and the work of transforming ourselves from mourners to survivors, or at least to people capable of surviving, has barely begun.
[...]
But we don’t react anymore. We don’t pack any little brown suitcases with the things we’d need if we were trying to escape, and we don’t pile up any sandbags, either, in the bedroom or by the front door. We see what’s happening. We can’t get alerts, and we don’t want any. But occasionally, in the best Jules Verne fashion, in a dream of getting through all dangers, we set out and arrive safely at our destination, where we dig ourselves down into a mountain cave deep under the Siberian snows.
*
All human beings are actually sparrows, songbirds, siskins, parrots, and the like. They’re prey to chance. And as prey, they aren’t guaranteed a long and fruitful life, not without implementing a comprehensive warning system, a meticulous knowledge of the area, and a network of hiding places.
*
(The universe.) A wonder. That the sun, a roaring ball, destroying itself over the course of millions of years, creates life. For what we call eternity sunlight will arrive with exactly the delay needed to create life on earth and to maintain it. Not as eternal life for the individual. But eternal life for the integrated whole, in a kind of equilibrium between life and death. In terms of the whole, eternal. Until the sun burns out. So we live in a world where creation and destruction pulse as aspects of each other in vast natural surroundings. And we have to believe that, aside from the animals that see us, we are alone in our knowledge that we are here.
*
(Humans.) So just what is the mercy in the world? Might it lie somewhere between wonder and forgiveness? We can see, hear, smell, taste, feel. We can move, eat, sleep, reproduce. And we can speak, dream, play, work. But can we also, by recognizing the miracle play of reality in one another, forgive and be forgiven?
*
I can act as if what I see, can see me. I can examine humanness by revealing it through my way of examining things. Poetry.
*
We’re now so fearful that we’re not even fearful anymore, but the fear is spreading anyway, and the closest word for it is sorrow. We see what’s happening, and we’re happy about what’s not happening. We compare what’s terrifying with what’s even more terrifying. We compare limited nuclear war with total nuclear war, and the comparison deprives us of the last remnant of our natural horror. We see thousands of dead birds, thousands of dead and maimed soldiers, thousands of death wishes and their violent expressions, but as long as we see all this annihilation in all its well-known forms, at least we’re seeing something, and as long as we see something, total annihilation hasn’t happened yet. So fear has become a strangely useless feeling, discarded and purposeless, and over these chaotic fragments of a fear that once had a social purpose, sorrow has spread. The future is dead and buried, and the work of transforming ourselves from mourners to survivors, or at least to people capable of surviving, has barely begun.
[...]
But we don’t react anymore. We don’t pack any little brown suitcases with the things we’d need if we were trying to escape, and we don’t pile up any sandbags, either, in the bedroom or by the front door. We see what’s happening. We can’t get alerts, and we don’t want any. But occasionally, in the best Jules Verne fashion, in a dream of getting through all dangers, we set out and arrive safely at our destination, where we dig ourselves down into a mountain cave deep under the Siberian snows.
*
All human beings are actually sparrows, songbirds, siskins, parrots, and the like. They’re prey to chance. And as prey, they aren’t guaranteed a long and fruitful life, not without implementing a comprehensive warning system, a meticulous knowledge of the area, and a network of hiding places.
*
(The universe.) A wonder. That the sun, a roaring ball, destroying itself over the course of millions of years, creates life. For what we call eternity sunlight will arrive with exactly the delay needed to create life on earth and to maintain it. Not as eternal life for the individual. But eternal life for the integrated whole, in a kind of equilibrium between life and death. In terms of the whole, eternal. Until the sun burns out. So we live in a world where creation and destruction pulse as aspects of each other in vast natural surroundings. And we have to believe that, aside from the animals that see us, we are alone in our knowledge that we are here.
*
(Humans.) So just what is the mercy in the world? Might it lie somewhere between wonder and forgiveness? We can see, hear, smell, taste, feel. We can move, eat, sleep, reproduce. And we can speak, dream, play, work. But can we also, by recognizing the miracle play of reality in one another, forgive and be forgiven?
*
I can act as if what I see, can see me. I can examine humanness by revealing it through my way of examining things. Poetry.
August 26, 2019
I am marking this book as read, but the collection of essays will be continue to be revisited until I return the book to my library. This was my introduction to Inger Christensen, well respected Scandinavian author who died in 2009. The selection of words, her phrasing, structure, her thought process mixed with real world stuff all equal brilliance, the reading of which evokes deep reflection.
The paperback from New Directions Book is just 137 pages but could easily provide a month of reading. The book begins with childhood memories, the first "Freedom, Equality and Fraternity in the Summer Cottage" and then "Interplay" where she recalls being 9 and then suddenly 10. "When I turned ten, the world suddenly turned ten million billion years old. How it happened, or when it happened I don't know. Maybe it was the night when I first looked through a telescope." This was also her age May 4, 1945 when she "heard a loudspeaker announce that World War II had ended, or more accurately that Denmark had been liberated."
The essay with the title of this book from 1992 centers on writing poetry as well as reading it. "Occasionally, I wish there were a weather report for human beings' motions, for the motion of the mind that causes us to topple walls, the hunger that causes us to wander like denuded trees through desert sands, the white-collar swarm that attracts us like insects to the stock market ...Especially since I've learned from meteorologists and other scientists I've met that they know about the condition of secrecy."
Well, that was a very small taste. She starts one essay off quoting exclamations from one woman to another riding the Copenhagen metro: "'All those random possibilities--there shouldn't be any need for that.'
'No, there shouldn't. They should put a stop to it. There's way too much being left to chance.'"
This leads to her longest essay of the book and is a fascinating discussion on the role of chance.
In all, this book is a very worthwhile collection of her thoughts on multiple topics over several decades and should appeal to those who appreciate finding the right words to express thought.
The paperback from New Directions Book is just 137 pages but could easily provide a month of reading. The book begins with childhood memories, the first "Freedom, Equality and Fraternity in the Summer Cottage" and then "Interplay" where she recalls being 9 and then suddenly 10. "When I turned ten, the world suddenly turned ten million billion years old. How it happened, or when it happened I don't know. Maybe it was the night when I first looked through a telescope." This was also her age May 4, 1945 when she "heard a loudspeaker announce that World War II had ended, or more accurately that Denmark had been liberated."
The essay with the title of this book from 1992 centers on writing poetry as well as reading it. "Occasionally, I wish there were a weather report for human beings' motions, for the motion of the mind that causes us to topple walls, the hunger that causes us to wander like denuded trees through desert sands, the white-collar swarm that attracts us like insects to the stock market ...Especially since I've learned from meteorologists and other scientists I've met that they know about the condition of secrecy."
Well, that was a very small taste. She starts one essay off quoting exclamations from one woman to another riding the Copenhagen metro: "'All those random possibilities--there shouldn't be any need for that.'
'No, there shouldn't. They should put a stop to it. There's way too much being left to chance.'"
This leads to her longest essay of the book and is a fascinating discussion on the role of chance.
In all, this book is a very worthwhile collection of her thoughts on multiple topics over several decades and should appeal to those who appreciate finding the right words to express thought.
July 26, 2017
Det mest häpnadsväckande i denna är när hon skriver att "det var först efter att jag skrivit Alfabet, som jag fick mer detaljerade kunskaper om Fibonaccis talserie, huvudsakligen från vänliga läsare som gjorde mig uppmärksam på att ett stort antal växter så att säga använder sig av Fibonaccis tal".
Tanken svindlar.
Tanken svindlar.
January 19, 2025
This essay collection by Danish poet and writer Inger Christensen may be a mere 138 pages, but there is much to think about in here. Composed between the 1960s and the late 1990s, she writes about writing—poetry in particular, but novels as well—language, art, nature, and the regulating effect of chance among other topics. She is sometimes political, sometimes philosophical, and always thought provoking. I have owned this book for years, and often pulled it out to consider reading it, but it was waiting, I suppose, for the right time. As 2025 looms ahead, her words seem especially wise.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/01/19/an...
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2025/01/19/an...
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July 15, 2025DNFing because Libby is going to yank this back in about 2 hours. I liked some of these essays a lot, particularly “Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart” (1992) and “I Think, Therefore I Am Part of the Labyrinth” (1978), but I’m flagging a little so not sure I’ll try to renew & finish this. I tend to find books of essays grueling, and this one is heading in that direction. It might be better, though, as a physical book that’s easier to pick up and put down.
November 6, 2020
I can’t say I enjoyed these essays too much, not due to any perceived flaws on the author’s words or style, they simply went a bit over my head. I don’t usually read texts as philosophical as these and they reminded me of the frustration I sometimes feel at art galleries when trying to make sense of texts describing this or that exhibition. They often seem to say a lot while meaning very little to me, personally.
That being said, the collection holds up and I got through it even though I realised it wasn’t for me. If I can recommend one of these, it is “Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart” (1992), in which Christensen begins with the etymology of the word “silk” and then goes on a meta-journey through language and by extension, the universe, which is beautiful and mind-bending. Psychedelic, even.
That being said, the collection holds up and I got through it even though I realised it wasn’t for me. If I can recommend one of these, it is “Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart” (1992), in which Christensen begins with the etymology of the word “silk” and then goes on a meta-journey through language and by extension, the universe, which is beautiful and mind-bending. Psychedelic, even.
September 20, 2016
Inger Christensen må ha vært en spennende samtalepartner! I denne boka finner man en en nokså variert samling essays og taler (og ett dikt), men som alle sonderer forholdet mellom virkelighet, diktning og språket. Jeg skjønte fort at dette ikke var en bok som burde leses fra perm til perm, men heller en essay nå og da. Av og til ble jeg fristet til å kverulere med Christensen, og noen ganger synes jeg at hennes sveipende påstander om virkeligheten ble for enkle. Men oftest beundret jeg hvor opplyst og reflektert hun klarte å snakke om de grunnleggende ting, men samtidig på en måte som var en fryd å lese.
Mest av alt fikk jeg lyst til å lese poesien hennes, da de lille smakebitene vi får av dem her (og tanken rundt den) er et klart høydepunkt.
Mest av alt fikk jeg lyst til å lese poesien hennes, da de lille smakebitene vi får av dem her (og tanken rundt den) er et klart høydepunkt.
April 18, 2019
Christensen's first essay about summers in Denmark during WWII is quite evocative, it was a promising start. She then made some interesting observations about horses and tractors. Then the essays really bog down, more essays about being a poet and the act of composing poems. Things that have been said more profoundly by others. I think I may need to read her poetry to understand what value this has, but as a standalone work there wasn't much new or interesting.
November 22, 2025
So. It’s snowing. The snow is no longer snow, but it’s snowing.
July 18, 2021
" Can we forgive ourselves? I don't think forgiveness is something we can work to achieve. But I do think that work in itself can lead to forgiveness. Not work for the sake of money. But work for the sake of our shared survival, along with work for its own sake. Not work to gain control over things and existence in the world, but work that's part of the process of creation that work itself provides insight into. And there is no work that doesn't do that, whether it's housecleaning, manufacturing, customer service, art, garbage collection, caring for others, or whatever it might be. Degrees of play--which always is deeply serious, when we devote ourselves to it."
(The Miracle Play of Reality, 136)
(The Miracle Play of Reality, 136)
November 3, 2024
this book is such an interesting fusion of prose centering philosophy mixed with poetry mixed with memoir, and it's lovely. i love that christensen is able to recognize the importance of love, humanity, and everyday experiences in her philosophical conceptions as they come across more grounded. i also love the way she dissects language and its power. great little book!
January 12, 2024
måten hun skriver på er kunst i seg selv
August 12, 2023
the essays definitely got better and clearer as she went on but was lost for most of it lmao, such pretty writing tho was kunda happy to not comprehend it
June 1, 2025
Adorei a primeira parte, segunda parte uma beca seca
July 24, 2025
“language as a labyrinth whose passages keep collapsing because words construct them only in passing, on their endless way toward the things whose shadows are buried somewhere behind them in the collapsed passageways”.
August 11, 2023
Adding this review for a book I read a few months ago and never put up here.
Something about Inger Christensen's writing feels like she's been in the back of everyone's mind. Just hiding, listening, learning more about the world. Her words here meant a lot to me, although maybe they shouldn't have. Maybe I wanted them to mean something. Here's an excerpt from one of the essays here, "Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart."
"The French poet Bernard Noël has an excellent description of poets’ situation in this context:
We write in order to get to the last word, but the act of writing constantly delays that. In reality, the last word can be anywhere at all in what we write. Or maybe it’s everything we write. In that way, when I write, I’m chasing a shadow — and it’s my chasing it that keeps the shadow in motion.
— Tr. by Susanna Nied
This is how we must view silk, the universe, language, and the heart. They’re parts of the shadow that we’re chasing. Shadows of silk, of the universe, of language, and of the heart; and as we chase them, they merge with each other and even with the shadow of god. Or as Lu Chi didn’t write, but might well have written: Things vanish into the shadows of each other and of themselves; but with the reflections of those shadows, poems return to light."
Something about Inger Christensen's writing feels like she's been in the back of everyone's mind. Just hiding, listening, learning more about the world. Her words here meant a lot to me, although maybe they shouldn't have. Maybe I wanted them to mean something. Here's an excerpt from one of the essays here, "Silk, the Universe, Language, the Heart."
"The French poet Bernard Noël has an excellent description of poets’ situation in this context:
We write in order to get to the last word, but the act of writing constantly delays that. In reality, the last word can be anywhere at all in what we write. Or maybe it’s everything we write. In that way, when I write, I’m chasing a shadow — and it’s my chasing it that keeps the shadow in motion.
— Tr. by Susanna Nied
This is how we must view silk, the universe, language, and the heart. They’re parts of the shadow that we’re chasing. Shadows of silk, of the universe, of language, and of the heart; and as we chase them, they merge with each other and even with the shadow of god. Or as Lu Chi didn’t write, but might well have written: Things vanish into the shadows of each other and of themselves; but with the reflections of those shadows, poems return to light."
December 30, 2018
"Knowing something leaves us responsible for what we don't know."
"It's not about freedom; it's about broadening our understanding of our connection to the other, to the other human or humans in the world."
I read and loved "it" a few years ago and having read this now I'll be seeking out more of Christensen's work, as this selection of essays gave me a better sense of her preoccupations, her genius.
It is in sentences like the one above, which compels us to engage with the unknown and do our part in learning the world and those in it. It is in her great and happy heart that sparkles through her prose, her exhilaration at otherness and wonder of being anything at all.
"It's not about freedom; it's about broadening our understanding of our connection to the other, to the other human or humans in the world."
I read and loved "it" a few years ago and having read this now I'll be seeking out more of Christensen's work, as this selection of essays gave me a better sense of her preoccupations, her genius.
It is in sentences like the one above, which compels us to engage with the unknown and do our part in learning the world and those in it. It is in her great and happy heart that sparkles through her prose, her exhilaration at otherness and wonder of being anything at all.
May 7, 2019
Give me everything written by Inger Christensen and I will read them all...
I took the time to read The Condition of Secrecy by Inger Christensen plainly because this collection of lyrical essays warmed my heart. This book was a brilliant piece of art that I wanted to just stare at it all day. It gave me so many perspectives and I obsessively lingered on Christensen's creative thinking process. I love her aesthetic observation, insights and questions on life, earth, human, nature, art, language and literature. The beauty of her writing made me really appreciate the meaning of reading. The praise was totally right, Christensen was "a true singer of syllables". So full of arts, beautiful language and philosophy. I am now hungry to read her poems and eventually all her works.
.
"Things vanish into the shadows of each other and of themselves; but with the reflections of those shadows, poems return to light"
.
I am also grateful for Susanna Nied who translated this book from Danish into English so smooth and enchanting.
I took the time to read The Condition of Secrecy by Inger Christensen plainly because this collection of lyrical essays warmed my heart. This book was a brilliant piece of art that I wanted to just stare at it all day. It gave me so many perspectives and I obsessively lingered on Christensen's creative thinking process. I love her aesthetic observation, insights and questions on life, earth, human, nature, art, language and literature. The beauty of her writing made me really appreciate the meaning of reading. The praise was totally right, Christensen was "a true singer of syllables". So full of arts, beautiful language and philosophy. I am now hungry to read her poems and eventually all her works.
.
"Things vanish into the shadows of each other and of themselves; but with the reflections of those shadows, poems return to light"
.
I am also grateful for Susanna Nied who translated this book from Danish into English so smooth and enchanting.
March 15, 2019
See my piece on the book in Michigan Quarterly Review!
Here's an excerpt:
"For the work in The Condition of Secrecy is questing, less concerned with making a point or arguing a position than the act of exploration. Many of the essays seek, in some way, a “depth of understanding that will reveal the whereabouts of God” (from “The Shadow of Truth”). And the book’s essays are remarkably free of occasion or anything smacking of assignment—they are not explorations of chance via the grounding framework of, say, a film review. Indeed, the essays collected in The Condition of Secrecy have a private, almost diaristic (albeit highly polished) feel. Their raison d’etre is reflexive."
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2018/...
Here's an excerpt:
"For the work in The Condition of Secrecy is questing, less concerned with making a point or arguing a position than the act of exploration. Many of the essays seek, in some way, a “depth of understanding that will reveal the whereabouts of God” (from “The Shadow of Truth”). And the book’s essays are remarkably free of occasion or anything smacking of assignment—they are not explorations of chance via the grounding framework of, say, a film review. Indeed, the essays collected in The Condition of Secrecy have a private, almost diaristic (albeit highly polished) feel. Their raison d’etre is reflexive."
https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2018/...
January 26, 2019
I often try to read books by authors from other countries. I read about this book in the New York Times and thought I would give it a try. I often like collections of essays by author/poets especially when they write about books; either reading them or creating them. I was disappointed by this book as I didn't find much that interested me. I think this English translation could have been made better by having an overall introduction or some write up putting each essay in context.
February 23, 2023
I think I was the very first person to check this out from my library, based on the crisp pages and unbroken spine. I got it after reading Christensen’s poetry, but she’s pretty obtuse as an essayist. Maybe it’s the translation? Probably not. Unfortunately the book offers no context whatsoever as to where the essays were originally published. I underlined (in pencil, lightly) many thought-provoking sentences. But I had to wade through a lot of things I didn’t understand to get at them.
July 16, 2019
In a way, I think we should try to live with a reduction of meaning. To get rid of the idea that there is any meaning beyond what we’ve always been able to recognize, to reflect, and to simulate — an ability stemming from our existence as precisely that part of meaning that’s able to see its own meaning — no more, no less.
May 1, 2019
I wanted to enjoy this collection more than I did. Sometimes the essays were like reading her poetry and I enjoyed them, but other times (perhaps also like her poetry) it seemed like overly long and complicated ramblings that I couldn’t get in to.
December 8, 2020
a direct quote: "The parts of speech that we call adverbs may not even exist in Chinese. I could look it up. But ultimately it's beside the point here." well ofc, if your point is to exploit the language for your own orientalising fantasies and generic meditations..
February 6, 2019
brainy but sensual!
June 9, 2020
Haunting and heavy and weird and beautiful
August 13, 2022
poets write clear focused essays challenge. poets stop fooling around challenge. poets stop writing essays challenge
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