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Lucy Van

Open Concept

Open Concept

Lucy Van, Liminal Review of Books, November 2021

In this witty analysis, Lucy Van dissects the 'outrageous banality' of the reality show House Hunters International through the lens of Erich Auerbach’s magnum opus, Mimesis.

What would Auerbach have made of HHI? Writing Mimesis in Istanbul during WW2, he was in double exile from his home and his library (one of the most impressive facts in literary history is the fact that Auerbach composed this masterful work nearly entirely from memory). Would he, like me, be soothed by the show’s vacant formula, or be strangely seduced by the mysteries of the show’s rituals?

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