Esoterica #3

Obscure links and a call for subscriber writing

Esoterica is a monthly roundup of obscure links and a call for subscriber writing.

1/4. APOCRYPHA ROUNDUP.

Over the last month, Apocrypha published:

• When Nietzsche met Turgenev. A literary, historical, and philosophical investigation into a little known meeting.

• The Memoirist. A man writing his life story needs to go back further into the past than you’d think.

• ‘The Last Question’ by Isaac Asimov. Short Story Club takes on a Sci-Fi great.

• The Human Animal. A philosophical investigation into what it means to be human.

2/4. ONE TO WATCH.

Larisa Rimerman

is a Russian writer who was born, raised, and educated in the Soviet Union. On

Larisa’s Substack

, she shares her memories of growing up in what she calls ‘a wrong country’, or a ‘tragedy of a utopian experiment’. It’s fascinating:

My first remembrance of myself happened during the period of war, somewhere in 1943. Now, I see myself as a little girl in flashbacks:

It is a harshly cold winter morning. A small girl, three years old, in a heavy winter coat, wrapped up in shawls, her feet in huge valenki (felt boots), is slowly walking to the truck, loaded with some belongings. Behind her, an old woman follows with the bundles in her hands. Around them, everything is in the deep white snow; the whiteness of the snow seems boundless. Only a narrow, trampled path leads to the truck. Snow squeaks under the feet.

My babushka (grandmother) and I are moving somewhere. I hold a doll in my hands. Suddenly, an older girl appears from nowhere and snatches a doll from me. I am standing with only one doll's arm in my hand. I never owned any real dolls after that one perished, only those made from old rugs by my babushka. God bless her memory. May I say that, not believing in God?

Village after village, my babushka and I are among the endless crowds of other women with children and elderly escaping from the German Army. Sometimes, we stay safe for a while in one of those villages after the German Army flees from the Red Army’s pursuit.

from War by the Eyes of a Child

3/4. ARS ESOTERICA.

Head of Medusa — Franz von Stuck (1908)

Franz von Stuck was a German painter and sculptor best known for his depictions of mythology. Founder of the Munich Secessionists, Stuck was awarded a gold medal for painting at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and at the 1900 World Fair in Paris. His achievements saw him granted a solo exhibition at the 1909 Venice Biennale, where this painting was exhibited and purchased by the Venetian modern art, Ca’ Pesaro. Later, as a professor at Munich university, his students included such greats as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

4/4. SUBSCRIBER WRITING.

Next week we will feature a dispatch of subscriber writing. With that in mind, please can you comment below:

• One, and only one, link to a piece of writing from your Substack.

• A one sentence description of the chosen piece, written in the third person.

  • e.g. Al-Biruni’s account of a boy with two heads.

You have until Thursday morning 9am GMT to submit so I have time to put the list together before it goes out the next day. I’ll put the links in order of receipt to keep things as fair as possible.

N.B. This is a community feature for paying subscribers only. If you’re not yet a paid up member but would like to feature, please upgrade your subscription and you can have your writing included in the APOCRYPHAL DISPATCH too.