Tag: Puppet

The human being as multiplicity: mask, "doppelgänger" and puppet

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Esotericism, Philosophy, Italian Literature, Mito, Characters, Psychology

Since modern man has dramatically realized that the unity of the human being is an illusion some of the highest minds of his consortium have sought - in a uncanny game of masks, mirrors and dolls - to understand how to integrate one's infinite personalities and overcome the existential nihilism that such masks potentially offer: from ETA Hoffmann's “The Sandman” and EA Poe's “William Wilson” to Hermann Hesse's “The Steppe Wolf”; from the contemporary cinema of Roman Polanski and David Lynch to Thomas Ligotti's "marionette metaphysics" and HP Lovecraft's "cosmic horror".

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From Montague Rhodes James to Ari Aster's “Hereditary”

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Cinema and TV, Esotericism, Italian Literature, Characters, Guests Book

In some of the most terrifying stories of Montague Rhodes James emerges the Hoffmannian-Ligottian theme of man as a puppet or marionette, at the mercy of demonic entities that hide behind the scenes of reality: particularly successful is "The Haunted Doll's House", which has partially inspired by Ari Aster's film “Hereditary”.

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Eyes, puppets and doppelgänger: the "uncanny" in "Der Sandmann" by ETA Hoffmann (I)

Published on: Last updated on: Written by: Categorized into: Esotericism, Italian Literature, Characters, Guests Book

Two centuries after its publication, ETA Hoffmann's "Man of the Sand" is still today one of the literary works indispensable for understanding the poetics of the "uncanny", destined to influence the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Jentsch, the works of Hesse and Machen, the films of Lynch and Polanski.

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