“Duende”
Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my cloak and fangs
had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.Philip Larkin, A Study of Reading Habits
Later, with inch-thick specs,
Evil was just my lark:
Me and my cloak and fangs
had ripping times in the dark.
The women I clubbed with sex!
I broke them up like meringues.Philip Larkin, A Study of Reading Habits
December 10th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Was that really its name? Hobgoblin, elf or pixie – take your pick?
December 11th, 2009 at 9:39 am
On reflection, you might be referring to the Spanish whereas I was thinking in Portuguese. I think in Spanish it has a different meaning.
December 11th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Lara, one of Nick Cave’s defenders (against a strongly critical article by Anwyn Crawford) said that his music had “duende” – that it touched on dark human passions, and that its apparent cruel obsessiveness and misogyny were dimensions of a deep understanding of human nature beyond the ken of purse-lipped feminists. But I agree with AC that Cave’s cloak-and-fangs stuff is horribly stereotyped – it’s pulp in the manner of Larkin’s ripping yarns, and pulp in which the shocks have become a matter of routine rather than genuine gothic excess.
December 25th, 2009 at 3:06 am
There’s ‘duende’ as an elf, which is the same in Portuguese and Spanish, and then there duende, Lorca’s concept from “Juego y teoria del duende,” where he explores it as a kind of artistic authenticity not unrelated the dark spirits of those supernatural beings. Nick Cave himself is pretty obsessed with this duende – listen to The Secret Life of the Love Song (link goes to the text, but track down a recording, it’s worth it).