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Opaque College
The Antidote to Invisible College
Lose Your Curiosity Here
Antidote to “Rilking”
Ariana Reines describes Invisible College’s Rilking course as an initiatory and fundamentally transformative process. Our students have also described it as such, then looked out into the distance and became mute. Rilking is a deep well, drawing students in and trapping them inside their hearts, leaving them vulnerable to pain and to love.
In his third elegy, Rilke writes, “We don’t accomplish our love all in one year like the flowers.” At Opaque College, we dare to ask: What if we could? This OC class offers a psychological framework and clear, concrete steps to concentrate the average amount of love felt in one’s life into a single year and get it over with.
Why do this? It should not be assumed that love is at the top of everyone’s value hierarchy. For those who hold efficiency and internal calm above love, it is frequently an impediment to higher aspirations. In this course, we will learn strategies for discipline and detachment, referring to texts such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Fergie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry.
“When I first became acquainted with Invisible College, I knew very little of Rilke. Quickly, I discovered that Ariana and the other poet worshippers in her Rilking course viewed Rilke’s elegies as an opportunity to turn toward pain. No thank you, ma’am!!! Thanks to Opaque College, I have now gotten my loving out of the way and managed to forget most of Rilke’s sentimentality.”
- Susan Lazy
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