Status Updates From Spitzweg

A mother being allergic to everything artificial. The relation of art and artificial. She is dreaming of people staring into lighted boxes showing photos of her life (narration probably takes place in the 80s). Father has disappeared after revamping the house to being completely natural. He disdained representation by photography instead of perception of life. Nickel shifts gear from talking art to sending message.

I'm torn between enjoying the intellectual banter and shaking my head about high-school graduates talking in the voice of a mid-fifties aesthete.

It's a rewarding challenge following Nickel's thoughts even when he skips in a professional article about the benefits of anonymity in arts as a lecture by Carl into the book. But how many teenagers know about Tieck and his Shakespeare translation.

The opposite of Strunk whom I just read. Mannered, ars gratia artis. The protagonist's friend is called Carl. For Spitzweg? Each description finely chiselled. Detailed talk about Chopin's Nocturnes among teenagers. Still looking for the irony.