Almost

Tradition And Modernity In The 1920s (IV)

excerpts Chapter IV. What path shall we choose for our evolution? 1 The history of modern Romania has registered, periodically, a phenomenon that might seem strange at first glance. That is the discussion, every two or three decades, concerning the development of the country

Orthodoxy And Romanianness, 1929

excerpts Orthodoxy is the rhythm in which the most authentic breath of complete life can be found, of life lived with the wish for the progress by which the evil that hurt it is made good, and by which it is elevated towards the perfection, which is its real normal status.

The Generation Of '27, Between The Holocaust And The Gulag

excerpt After the year when its first program was launched, namely Mircea Eliade's Spiritual Itinerary, the generation of '27 (or the young generation, the generation of the '30s, the generation that lived life for life's sake, the experiential and Orthodox

Sleep

Heraclitus says that bards, sycophants or mystagogues behave like people asleep when they are awake, looking towards their personal world, while people who are awake only have one single world, which is common to all of them. If this quote had been seen by Constantin Noica

Proto-History Or The Middle Ages

The European nations are divided into two main groups: those which had a glorious Middle Ages period out of whose crises the Renaissance came out, and those which had a minimal, insignificant, derived one. The former created most of the civil, spiritual and cultural history

Religion And Identity In Interwar Romania: Orthodoxism

In the two decades between the world wars the majority of Romanian intellectuals were engaged in a grand debate about what it meant to be Romanian and how national character determined social and political development. [1] The ideological commitments of the protagonists

The Children's Corner

1. The Virgin Mary with the Child, Orthodox icon, 17th century 2. Constantin Brancovan and his family 3. Ştefan Luchian (1868-1916), The Washing (see also Gallery) Romanian painters met the Child long before local art itself was born, in the modern sense of the word (the

All Those Images

Early Sunday afternoon, lying in bed with a large illustrated book of Ion Creangă stories, Memories of Childhood Days: the time stood still, waiting for me to turn over the pages, and I had all the time in the world. My father was sitting next to me reading too, but I was

The Red Scarf

excerpt  Is that what it says? dashed Redhead at Tindei, grabbing him by the jacket's lapels. Does it say I've been to the vineyard? No. . . not that. . . you were just. . . mentioned as a. . . as an example! Tindei answered frightened, almost chocking and with

Blue Evenings

excerpt VICA'S DIARY Vica had forgotten her diary under her pillow. Usually, she kept it in the drawer of her nightstand and in the evening, before turning off the light, she would write down her impressions of that day. Mica found it by chance. She was there tidying

The First Book, The Last Book

excerpts Dear Mother, I'd like to tell you something, and just because if I tried to talk to you about it, you wouldn't let me, I'm putting it in writing. You said to me, I quote: You go to school, do a good job there, finish well and we'll let you do

Novel Of The Nearsighted Adolescent

excerpt  VI. MONDAY, 8 TO 9, GERMAN When I was in the first grade, I flunked French, German and Romanian. I used to spend my afternoons barefoot on the pitch, sweating, short-sighted, playing oina. [1] I had become famous for the lightning rapidity with which I would catch