gj Michelob -> RE: She's got it (?) THE ESSENCE OF "DUENDE" (Jan. 18 2015 20:17:45)
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Giacomo, to carry your last post a step further in terms of the lawyer you quoted, perhaps the term "Duende" should not be nailed down pat with a definition, as it might exclude a feeling that doesn't quite fit the words we use. To this end, I would like to quote Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart on the definition of "obscenity." In 1964, United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart tried to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio. In explaining why the material at issue in the case was not obscene under the Roth test, and therefore was protected speech that could not be censored, Stewart wrote: "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that." We might paraphrase Justice Stewart's description of hard-core pornography ("I know it when I see it.") to apply to Duende: "I know it when I feel it." Bill Well, done, Bill. 'love it. I remember the famous case and the Justice' words, very eloquent and wise. On the issue of defining Duende, while I wholeheartedly concur with your quote of our learned Justice, I really liked Ricardo's point, which I had mentioned. Perhaps, it does not exhaust the definition of the elusive concept, but it certainly captures the most visceral energy of it, "Commiseration". That energy is neither self pity nor lament, neither passion nor pathos, but the solidarity amongst those suffering common "dolor". So, while the lawyer novelist felt the weight of centuries of history on her shoulders, it is the history of shared tragedy and suffering that awakes Duende. But then... Duende has a life of its own!!
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