E-Review of fiction, education, science,
current events, essays, book reviews, poetry and Anthroposophy

Number 29, October 2003


Démasquée - Akseli Gallen-Kallela (Finland) 1865-1931
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Ten years ago I was in Finland for a meeting and had a weekend free in Helsinki, a model city except for the long cold lightless winter. I visited a museum there and discovered Akseli Gallen-Kallela, a kind of Finnish national painter-hero. I fell in love with "Démasquée" at first sight. Mona Lisa's enigmatic glance is a grimace compared to hers, which, moreover, extends to her whole body. Who was she? I had the feeling I knew her, although she lived before I was born. Is that possible? Why not, if everything is relative. (See Rudolf Steiner's musings on relativity in this issue.) Perhaps she was the artist's wife, or mistress. That's unlikely though, for those days in Finland, as elsewhere, no respectable wife or mistress would appreciate being ogled by thousands of art appreciaters in that setting. The experts say she was a Parisian model, but she seems too skinny for a nineteenth-century model. Maybe she was a woman he enticed off the street to pose. Yes, my intuition and my cosmic (relative) memory tells me that is so. Her smile is knowing, yet how frightened she would be if she knew that both it and her innocent child-woman body were about to become immortal, first only in Finnland, now in the world.

On the Editor's page this month I take my turn wacking Bush. One tries to exercise restraint when criticizing the president, but, unfortunately, restraint is no longer possible in this case. Even the Democrats seem to be realizing this.

Benjamin Franklin answers all the people who don't like what we print. Thanks Ben. The three articles in Current Events are excellent examples.

The Anthroposphy section is bigger than usual this month, with a Steiner Karma lecture, a quote by him on Einstein's theory of relativity, when it was still new, and an essay by Bruce Kirchhof on anthroposphy.

Robert Zimmer's serialized, money-less free world book continues. Our long-time contributor, Gaither Stewart has sent us a chapter (Munich) from his latest novel-in-progress. Short fiction goes back in time. Styles change, but quality is eternal.

For those of you who are already his fans, Bobby Matherne's movie snapshots are like none you'll find anywhere else.

I'm running out of space, so please just check the Table of Contents for the rest of this month's goodies.

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Table of Contents

Editor's Page
Bush-whacking

An Apology for Printers Benjamin Franklin

Anthroposophy

Manifestations of Karma
The Theory of Relativity
Rudolf Steiner

Portrait of Rudolf Steiner
Andrei Belyj

The Anthroposophical Path
of Schooling
Bruce Kirchoff

Current Events

The Real Reason for War
 David Wiggins

Martin Luther King
A Latin American Perspective
 Ariel Dorfman

Interview with Utah Phillips
 David Kupfer

Serialized Fiction

The Free World
Robert Zimmer

Fiction

Govar Killian-(exerpt)
Gaither Stewart

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
James Thurber

The Bremen Town-Musicians Brothers Grimm

Education

Computers in Classrooms
Steve Talbott

Cinema Snapshots
by Bobby Matherne

Book Review

Beyond Belief
Elaine Pagels

Review: FTS

Poetry

Let America be America Again
Langston Hughes


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