corina.gruber

To me, writing prose is a 4-step process. The first two stages are so thrilling that I still can’t believe such a thing really exists. Coming up with the idea for a story and actually writing it, creating worlds and characters out of nothing are some of the best things I experimented. When a story is outlined, when I have its beginning, climax and ending, it draws me in completely. I don’t want to leave the universe until it’s finished. Don’t get me wrong, my worlds are dark and scary. But they are also filled with magic and mystery. No matter how dark a world is and no matter what horrors it hides, I love being part of it, shaping it, dreaming it at night.   Actually writing the story is a whole other thing. When I sit down in front of my computer, something otherworldly takes place. I phase out. My fingers type the words, I know where the scenes end, but I don’t get there consciously. The characters talk. I just register what they say. The plot unfol...

Overview As aesthetics goes, I think Rammstein is best described as an acquired taste. Odd and peculiar at first, it grows on you, and after you get used to all that it means, it grabs hold of you and never lets go. Like old wine, the songs are even better as time goes by. The range of sounds and that of emotions baffles your mind and by listening to them you can be outraged, enraged or brought to tears. The band never ceases to amaze and shock, and it’s like it never stops moving. The aesthetic universe is bleak, cynical, harsh-sounding and full of despair, but it is only a mirror facing reality in the most postmodern and artistic manner possible. Rammstein is an industrial metal band and this means that their musical sound involves the presence of characteristic themes. However, the band stands apart in the rock landscape because of the way in which the sound, the lyrics, the videos and, most of all, the live performance are combined in a perfect unity . It’s n...

"The Tuscan sun" is a frequently used cliché, both in media and in the pictures available on social networks. I only understood the fascination growing from it when I discovered a fresh dimension of the Tuscan landscape while visiting Chianti last summer.  The region is known for its vast vineyards covering the hills near the city of Siena. When I arrived there, I understood the media obsession with the Tuscan sun. The road leading to Chianti passes through the coastal area, where olive trees and vineyards alternate as far as the eyes can see. Afterward, the road to Chianti travels only among hills. They are covered in miles and miles of vineyards, such as I have never seen anywhere in Europe. In the center of every vineyard rises a small castle. They're farms, but the architecture of the area is singular and every dwelling (including these farms) looks like a medieval fortress. Castellina in Chianti a small town, with only 2800 inhabitants, dating back in the Etrus...

I was in a circular room, dark and grey, with crumbling walls. The paint was coming off them, exposing several layers of fading color. The room had one source of light, a large mirror on one of the walls. A light was pouring from it, so I walked to it as in a trance. I saw myself, walking away, alone in a park. The alley was low and on its sides rose two grass-covered slopes, which ended in other alleys, running parallel to the one I was walking on. In the mirror, it was autumn time, and the sky was so blue that it hurt my eyes. The sun shone yellowy and bright and the leaves of the trees were so colorful that I thought that such a scenery could never be real. I couldn't see my own face, as I was walking away, but I could feel the freedom and the peace of that place. The room around me rose gloomily and I remembered my old life, my Mimetic life, where I knew a park just like this one. It was right next to the place where I used to work and every single time I chose to go throug...