{"id":13622,"date":"2024-10-30T12:38:32","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T12:38:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=13622"},"modified":"2024-10-30T12:38:32","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T12:38:32","slug":"lecture-on-obsession-paul-genega","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/?p=13622","title":{"rendered":"LECTURE ON OBSESSION &#8211; Paul Genega"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the weeks before Halloween,<br \/>\nedging to the end of the interminable<br \/>\nelection, I found myself obsessed<br \/>\nwith the silent vampire classic Nosferatu.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe whys for my obsession are murky<br \/>\nthough a preference for silence over<br \/>\nthe clamor and din of political ads<br \/>\nis certainly part of the appeal.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nNot that Murnau\u2019s movie is really<br \/>\nsilent. Befitting a \u201csymphony in horror,\u201d<br \/>\nit has a fine score, not as lugubriously<br \/>\nmemorable as the oboe solo opening<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nthe Universal Dracula (borrowed<br \/>\nfrom Swan Lake) but with its<br \/>\nheaving organ and screeching violins<br \/>\na powerful part of the plot.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nA plot, I must admit, which is<br \/>\nludicrous for me to obsess on,<br \/>\nrecoiling, as I do, from the sight<br \/>\nof blood, sometimes fainting<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nfrom the merest razor nick shaving.<br \/>\nMe who averts his eyes the moment<br \/>\nsomeone reaches for a knife, flicks open<br \/>\na switch blade, simply mentions a chain saw<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n(the black-and-whiteness immaterial).<br \/>\nBesides, Count Orlok, as Murnau called him<br \/>\nto fend off lawsuits from Stoker\u2019s widow,<br \/>\nis a tidy bloodsucker with little spillage.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nOf course I could mention the obvious:<br \/>\nthe undead rising from his sarcophagus,<br \/>\nvisiting plague upon the land.. but I think<br \/>\nmy obsession rests mostly with the end \u2013<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nvampire tricked by a stalwart woman<br \/>\nto stay up past dawn, light at last puncturing<br \/>\nhis evil which crumbles like his castle<br \/>\ninto dream dust<br \/>\n                          again and again and again. <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13590\" src=\"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Paul-and-dog-d-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"247\" \/>Paul Genega&#8217;s seventh full-length collection, <em>Outtakes: New and Selected Poems 1975-2023<\/em>, was published by Salmon Poetry in December, 2023. Over a long career, his poems have appeared in scores of magazines and journals, including <em>Poetry, New York Quarterly, The Nation<\/em> and <em>North American Review.<\/em> He is Professor Emeritus at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University in New Jersey where he founded the creative writing program, taught literature and writing, chaired the Humanities Division, and served as Chair of Faculty. Visit him at www.paulgenega.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the weeks before Halloween, edging to the end of the interminable election, I found myself obsessed with the silent vampire classic Nosferatu. &nbsp; The whys for my obsession are murky though a preference for silence over the clamor and din of political ads is certainly part of the appeal. &nbsp; Not that Murnau\u2019s movie [&#038;hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[455,149],"class_list":["post-13622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-nosferatu-by-j-janben","tag-wikicommons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13622"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13648,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622\/revisions\/13648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/narrativenortheast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}