The Luzern Photograph
Page 31
‘For you, señora, to use on the boys as you see fit.’ I stare at him, appalled. ‘I jest. The threat is always more powerful than the punishment. You agree?’
‘Oh, I do. Certainly,’ I tell him.
He smiles coyly. ‘Just allow the lash to hang loose, much as Frau Salomé does in the famous Luzern picture.’
When he excuses himself to see to the lighting, Rex nudges me.
‘What’d you think?’
‘I like the idea of the dramatist transported by the theater muses. But I don’t get it about the muscle boys. The muses were goddesses. Thalia for comedy, Melpomene for tragedy.’
‘I know, but he’s into boys and he wants it kinky. Also boys’ll make it more like the Luzern picture.’
The boys are pretty and they sport lovely abs. I suppose I should be grateful DaCosta doesn’t want to tie me up. And I realize that his photo will not only make a great publicity shot, but will also look terrific on the home page of my website.
DaCosta announces he’s ready. I step into Chantal’s chariot. One of the assistants harnesses up the guys while another hands me the reins and whip. The third assistant turns on a big electric fan. Suddenly I feel my hair blown from behind.
‘This picture will be a metaphor,’ DaCosta tells me, assuming a director’s tone. ‘You’re standing straight and confident in the chariot, face forward, eyes clear. You’re riding to the theater across the plains of ancient Greece. Your muses are taking you there. Along the road you come upon an itinerant photographer. Anachronism, yes, but never mind. At heart I’m a surrealist. Adoring this vision that has come out of nowhere, I step forward to beg you to stop and pose.’ DaCosta takes a step then assumes a mock-supplicant’s stance. ‘Theater Goddess, kindly pull at your reins to halt your charging chariot.’ His tone changes back to that of director. ‘Now turn. Look at me. Muses too. I want all eyes on my lens.’
I turn as he instructs. The whole company, assembled behind DaCosta, is gazing at me, eager to see my expression.
I look out at them and nod. I know how to do this.
You belong in this chariot. It’s a warrior’s chariot and you’re a warrior-actress. Theater can be a cruel art. You’ve fought hard at it and sometimes prevailed. You take chaos, form it, put pieces together, tell stories. The theater muses guide you but in the end it’s you who have control. Show them that! Show them your power! Show them your triumph!
DaCosta raises his camera and starts to shoot. Click!Click!Click!Click …!
You’re neither Lou Andreas-Salomé nor Chantal Desforges. You’re Tess Berenson, you’ve written a play and soon you’ll perform it. Show them that!
An assistant hands DaCosta another camera. This one makes a different sound:
Whap!Whap!Whap!Whap …!
You’re an actor, player, performer. You’re a beguiler, deceiver, diseuse. You’re a monologuist, dramatist, storyteller. Show them! Show them that!
DaCosta moves forward and backward as he takes shot after shot. Click!Click!Click!Click! Whap!Whap! Whap!Whap! Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!
He circles me, but no matter where he goes I lock my eyes to his lens.
Show them … show them … show them who you are!
His assistants hand him different cameras. He works the scene, works it some more. Finally, after what seems an eternity, he stops, hands off his cameras, peers at me, beams.
‘Got it! Gracias!’ He turns to his assistants. ‘Cut!’ The fans stop turning. The lights go off. The shoot is finished.
I blink, smile, hand off the whip, step out of the chariot. The boy muses and crew crowd around to congratulate me.
Rex takes me in his arms. ‘That,’ he whispers in my ear, ‘was a performance!’
‘Yes, it was,’ I whisper back. ‘And now my Luzern photograph has been taken.’
AUTHOR’S AFTERWORD
Ever since, decades ago, I learned about the extraordinary life of Lou Andreas-Salomé, I wanted to find a way to put her into a novel. It was only after I focused on the Luzern photograph of 1882 that I discovered my point of departure.
For those interested in learning more about this fascinating woman, I recommend the three major English language biographies, My Sister, My Spouse by H. F. Peters, Salomé by Angela Livingstone, and Frau Lou by Rudolph Binion.
For interesting takes on the Luzern photograph, I would also mention the essays ‘Reading Lou von Salomé’s Triangles’ by Babette Babich, ‘Nietzsche and Lou Salomé: a Biographical Reading of the Coincidences of Life and Work in 1882’ by William Beatty Warner, and the books Nietzsche’s Women: Beyond the Whip by Carol Diethe and Nietzsche and Rée by Robin Small.
As research I delved deeply into Lou’s own writings. For this novel I have especially drawn on The Freud Journal of Lou Andreas-Salomé, Sigmund Freud and Lou Andreas-Salomé Letters, as well as Lou’s books Nietzsche and Looking Back, Memoirs.
I want to thank the following friends for guidance, research ideas and comments on early drafts: Elatia Harris, Gabriele Hoff, M. Violet Leonard, and Eugenia Martino; my very supportive agent, George Lucas; and my wife, Paula Wolfert, without whose belief and support I would not have been able to see this project through.
WB
FOOTNOTES
Chapter Thirteen
1 The NSDAP (Nazi Party) continued to be headquartered in the Braunes Haus (Brown House) in Munich even after Hitler became Chancellor and moved permanently to Berlin.
2 Friedrich Nietzsche’s sister (1846–1935), wife of Bernhard Förster. Together they founded the Nueva Germania colony in Paraguay. Creator of the Nietzsche Archive, she was famous for her anti-Semitism, pro-Nazi sympathies, and lifelong hatred of Lou Salomé.
Chapter Nineteen
1 ‘I’m So Happy Today!’ sung by Müller in the film Die Privatsekretärin.
Chapter Twenty-One
1 Germany’s Military Intelligence Service.
2 On May 10, 1941, Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, having become increasingly unstable, flew solo to Scotland in a crazed and unauthorized attempt to bargain for peace with the British. He was made a prisoner of war, tried at Nuremberg, and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1987 at the age of ninety-three he died by his own hand in Spandau Prison.
3 The Solf Circle was a resistance group of intellectuals and high-ranking German officials secretly plotting against the regime. In September 1943 the group met at a tea party in Berlin hosted by Elisabeth von Thadden. In January 1944, Himmler had seventy-four people (attendees at the party and others associated with them) arrested for treason. Most were tortured and executed.
4 Admiral Wilhelm Franz Canaris (1887–1945), chief of the Abwehr, dismissed by Hitler in February 1944, arrested for his involvement in various assassination plots against Hitler, and executed by hanging in the last days of the war.
5 Allen Welsh Dulles (1893–1969). Following his exemplary wartime service as OSS chief in Switzerland, Dulles, after a career in law and politics, was named director of the CIA in 1953. In 1961 he was forced to resign this position after the debacle of the Bay of Pigs.
6 Situated at 23 Herrengasse in a historical mansion known as the von Wattenwyl House.
7 I learned years later that it was probably the diplomatic courier, Fritz Kolbe, who informed on my operation. Kolbe, operating under the code name ‘George Wood,’ was later described by Dulles as ‘undoubtedly one of the best secret agents any intelligence service has ever had.’
8 76/78 Tirpitzufer, HQ of the Abwehr, adjacent to the building that housed the offices of the OKW (Armed Forces High Command.)
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