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Vale
Confœderatio Helvetica!
I wasn't really suggesting Bernhard
stole the plot from Schaffer. Just rather that this "stunned by one's own
mediocrity" musical plot has been treated before in modern literature,
Berhard fails to win the Originality Prize.
Do you like Böll? When he won The Prize, I was working in
a bookstore and so I stole a copy of "The Clown," not expecting very
much, between the translation and me being a dumb American. I was astonished. A
tremendously powerful, courageous book that "pulls no punches" (does
that translate well?).
Hey, I am doing your Europe another
favor and taking my wife to .NL to see the Floriade (big once-every-ten-years
flower extravaganzaloopa) 19-23 April. I will face to the east and yodel at you.
This time I will finally find and see Spinoza's House!
Bob
Elmer Elevator's Discount
Prep:
hello list Well ... first
... as long as Jost says that there is no German word
"Untergeher," then I like my translation better. I am
copyrighting it.
the
noun does not exist. but there is a verb called "untergehen"
which simply means "to drown" or "going under".
therefore the title of the book can roughly be translatet as The
Drowning Man"
The plot sounds as if it was nicely lifted from
"Amadeus." The instant Solieri hears Mozart perform, he
realizes for the first time in his life that he (Solieri) is mediocre
and condemned to be mediocre forever. (It gets worse when Constanz shows
him some of Mozart's scores and tells Solieri he just writes them out
once, he never revises.) Solieri also is enraged to realize that God has
chosen this vulgar, hedonistic creature to make music
through.
If I am correct then
Bernhard had the idea around the time of GG's untimely death so there is
only a small relation to the plot of amadeus Am I going to like this novel? This
doesn't sound like the Feel-Good Hit of the Season to
me.
Nah, definetly not. It is
a very difficult read, It is very hard to follow the plot (if one can
call it a plot anyway), the text has almost no paragraphs and the
language/attitude ist the sort of post-war post-1968 intellectual
blah-blah not uncommon to german intellectuals of the
time.
I also have to mention
that there are a few paralells between GG and Bernhard. Both of them
were quite eccentric (Bernard's landlord recalls that at one time in
1972 he made an attempt to stage his funeral, amongst other things) and
with age bernhard, like gould, tetreated from society.
give it a read
anyway
rgds
pat
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