INVISIBLE COLLEGE

RILKING

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RILKING

READING RILKE’S DUINO ELEGIES ONE AT A TIME, IN STEPHEN SPENDER’S TRANSLATION. THE TITLE COMES FROM A SOMEWHAT MEAN-SPIRITED LINE FROM A POEM BY KENNETH KOCH, AND NAMES MY PLAYFUL APPROACH TO READING ONE OF THE MOST SENSITIVE, AND MOST PROFOUND, OF THE 20TH CENTURY’S POETS.

THE DUINO ELEGIES HAVE BEEN A CORNERSTONE OF MY PEDAGOGY SINCE 2012: TO READ THEM CLOSELY IS AN INITIATORY AND FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMATIVE PROCESS. THESE ARE POEMS THAT CAUSE LIFE AND DEATH TO FACE ONE ANOTHER-- THEY SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA AT THE START OF THE COVID ERA.

RILKING IS WHERE INVISIBLE COLLEGE BEGAN.

ARIANA REINES’S “RILKING” COURSE WAS ENGAGING AND PROFOUND. REINES READ AND DISCUSSED THE DUINO ELEGIES IN THE LIGHT OF HER SINGULAR INTELLECT AND CREATIVE MIND WHILE PROVIDING THE SPACE FOR A PLURALITY OF PERSPECTIVES. SHE LET THE EVER-EXPANDING IMPLICATIONS OF RILKE’S VISIONARY WORK UNFOLD RATHER THAN HEMMING IT IN WITH DIVISIVE INSTITUTIONALLY APPROVED THEORIES, OPENING UP NEW HORIZONS OF MEANING IN THE POEM WHILE REMAINING REFRESHINGLY TRUE TO THE “THEOLOGY OF RILKE.” REINES’S “RILKING” WAS A TRANSFORMATIVE RITUAL OF ATTENTION THAT I WILL NEVER FORGET! -NATHAN MADER