tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post3345223530636468734..comments2023-11-22T04:10:49.266-05:00Comments on Dispatches from Zembla: Thomas Bernhard: ExtinctionAlokhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-36227260345822846352007-09-30T08:44:00.000-05:002007-09-30T08:44:00.000-05:00my library here doesnt have anything by Blanchot. ...my library here doesnt have anything by Blanchot. Will keep him on radar anyway.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-70740075776320973142007-09-29T17:12:00.000-05:002007-09-29T17:12:00.000-05:00I think you'd like "Death Sentence". I have "Amina...I think you'd like "Death Sentence". I have "Aminadab" lying around somewhere but haven't read it, and "The One Who Was Standing Apart From Me" makes for rewarding reading. I haven't read any of the later work, which shades more and more into criticism, I believe. Blanchot presents more of a problem than other writers mentioned here because is more explicitly theoretical. Also unlike the other writers, he doesn't have much of a comic sense.Cheshire Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463645065346922684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-76437630877500815192007-09-29T16:07:00.000-05:002007-09-29T16:07:00.000-05:00Yes I agree. The negation in Beckett for example i...Yes I agree. The negation in Beckett for example is the negation of writing and the negation of language itself. He seems unwilling to complete even a sentence. Some of his later plays contain more grunts and groans than full scale dialogues or speeches. I am not familiar with Blanchot at all but keep coming across him at so many places.<BR/><BR/>Also agree with the Swift connection. May be that's why I like Bernhard more. Gulliver's Travels is perhaps my favourite english language novel, certainly of all the "pre-modern" writers.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-55975023449034839922007-09-29T15:46:00.000-05:002007-09-29T15:46:00.000-05:00I just think one should distinguish degrees of ne...I just think one should distinguish degrees of negation. Bernhard is really closer to someone like Swift than to modernists like Kafka, Walser or Beckett. Kafka is a better example, but his fictions have too exquisite a logic - his writing is often about negation, but does not manifest it. I tend to think more of writers like Walser, Blanchot and (of course) Beckett, the very form of whose fictions are saturated with negation.Cheshire Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463645065346922684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-64641319000301888522007-09-29T15:21:00.000-05:002007-09-29T15:21:00.000-05:00actually it is hard to say with him because his bo...actually it is hard to say with him because his books are so similar. And even though it is longer I found it a little easier to read than the loser. <BR/><BR/>I think this awareness of futility that you talk of is there in Bernhard too. In fact it is made explicit in Extinction. All of his monologues are spoken in the shadow of a certain death, and in most cases the monologues are reported <I>after</I> the death of the narrator, after the voice is already "extinct."<BR/><BR/>Kafka is also a negation specialist. More obviously in his diaries and aphorisms but also in his fiction. plus most of modern continental philosophy in so far as I understand revolves around negation, following Nietzsche the original precursor.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-32705993088605880202007-09-29T15:02:00.000-05:002007-09-29T15:02:00.000-05:00350 pages seems rather long for a Bernhard novel. ...350 pages seems rather long for a Bernhard novel. But if you actually think it's better than "The Loser", it's certainly worth a try.<BR/><BR/>I think Walser is a far better example of the literature of negation than Bernhard. Bernhard's is a potent rage, while Walser's work manifests a being that is utterly convinced of its own powerlessness and is reduced simply to a voice.Cheshire Cathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463645065346922684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-88938596021307867072007-09-29T09:52:00.000-05:002007-09-29T09:52:00.000-05:00kubla: Love or hate can be debated but one thing i...kubla: Love or hate can be debated but one thing is sure he is obsessed with Austria. Somebody said that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. and whatever it is what he feels for austria, it is anything but indifference.<BR/><BR/>what struck me is this attempt to justify or make excuses for him and his books because his books are full of hatred for everything. this sentimental need for shallow affirmation, which people look for in books and when they don't find it they find justifications or criticise it.<BR/><BR/>I have read your post on Yes. I have subscribed to your blog and read it regularly. I don't comment always because i have nothing substantial to add to the post.<BR/><BR/>antonia: i have read about her work on heidegger in some of the articles and book reviews about here but don't know much. I won't understand it either if I find it anywhere. I am still struggling with what "being" means :)Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-66191294617715117572007-09-29T07:54:00.000-05:002007-09-29T07:54:00.000-05:00oh yes that is true, Kubla, i can remember your po...oh yes that is true, Kubla, i can remember your post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-37528807867629129682007-09-29T07:43:00.000-05:002007-09-29T07:43:00.000-05:00Bachmann said about her thesis that she wanted to ...Bachmann said about her thesis that she wanted to defeat Heidegger, sort of prove him wrong, you know this youthful eager thing, you are wrong and here is why. She was 23 when she wrote it. What she does in her thesis is to compare lots of critical reactions of different philosophical schools on Heidegger and points out quite some one or two problems in Heidegger's philosophy. It is a bit outdated by now, but gives a good summary and is nicely written.*https://www.blogger.com/profile/05680450955867041830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-11320195434097171962007-09-29T07:36:00.000-05:002007-09-29T07:36:00.000-05:00i have written a post on Yes in my blog.i have written a post on Yes in my blog.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-6841011798914537212007-09-29T07:34:00.000-05:002007-09-29T07:34:00.000-05:00i will endorse what you feel about this book. rega...i will endorse what you feel about this book. regarding Yes, i have it and thoroughly enjoyed it.<BR/>there is a reference to Bachmann, as antonia has mentioned.<BR/><BR/>i think far from hate, Bernhard actually loves his country and the very things he demolishes. in psychological defense mechanisms, as i discussed this once with a friend, this hate or rant is called possibly reaction formation, behaving in opposite to what you actually feel.<BR/>these destructive monologues serve the purpose of reminding the interested reader of perhaps seeing the comic side to a serious thing.<BR/>i might be totally wrong.Kubla Khanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11973223751363547679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-13963419657071850672007-09-29T06:51:00.000-05:002007-09-29T06:51:00.000-05:00there is also a hilarious comment in Old Masters. ...there is also a hilarious comment in Old Masters. In the middle of his tirade against Heidegger, Reger says that he can't understand why a lady friend of his who is otherwise extremely intelligent and a great poet wrote her thesis on him!<BR/><BR/>in this novel also Maria agrees to participate in poetry discussion only when they agree not to talk about Heidegger. it is really funny.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-89859047991128971392007-09-29T06:44:00.000-05:002007-09-29T06:44:00.000-05:00i have asked the library for woodcutters as well. ...i have asked the library for woodcutters as well. will read that soon when it is available.<BR/><BR/>Ja is translated as Yes in English. I think all of his novels are translated now, they are just a little difficult to get because not all of them are published by corporate publishers.Alokhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12947383354732747209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12674755.post-49781533330793011392007-09-29T06:41:00.000-05:002007-09-29T06:41:00.000-05:00i love the book too and i dont have anything to ad...i love the book too and i dont have anything to add except there is one other one that deals with Bachmann and that is his "Ja" - no clue whether it is translated. I think you might like "Woodcutters" as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com