Cara Mayer Takeover
In the last few weeks, I’ve had a hard time sleeping through the night. My spouts of insomnia reminded me of
the French term ‘nuit blanche’ – sleepless night – which in turn reminded me of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s short novella ‘White Nights’ from 1848. I read this book last January, when the encroaching darkness at 4pm made it feel like I was living through an eternal night. Now, it’s the light that chases me. The sky betrays hints of turquoise at 3am: my night has been robbed by the day.
Using sound bites from two cinematic interpretations of Dostoyevsky, ‘Four Nights of a Dreamer’ (1971) by Robert Bresson and ‘Le Notti bianche’ (1957) by Luchino Visconti, and borrowing the voice of my friend, Eva Mayer reciting poetry on the subject, I attempt to disentangle my insomnia with some lullabies.