The Startled Space: Susanne Langer, Rilke, and the Resistance to Modernity’s Flattening
Reclaiming the Multi-Dimensional Temporality of Human Experience through Music and Poetry
Published in
11 min readJun 2, 2024
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’ hierarchies?
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In the end, those who were carried off early no longer need us: they are weaned from earth’s sorrows and joys, as gently as children outgrow the soft breasts of their mothers. But we, who do need such great mysteries, we for whom grief is so often the source of our spirit’s growth — : could we exist without them?
Is the legend meaningless that tells how, in the lament for Linus, the daring first notes of song pierced through the barren numbness; and then in the startled space which a youth as lovely as a god had suddenly left forever, the Void felt for the first time that harmony which…
