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Twee verhalen van Bohumil Hrabal uit de jaren 60 van de vorige eeuw. In beide verhalen lopen verschillende verhaallijnen door elkaar. Het eerste verhaal 'Gietsels en gietseltjes' is onder andere geinspireerd op Hrabals werkzaamheden bij de Poldi-ijzergieterij in Kladno, niet ver van Praag. Zijn werkzaamheden bestonden voornamelijk uit het sorteren van schroot op metalen onderdelen, die vervolgens in de smeltoven omgevormd werden tot gietsels (ingots). De periode dat Hrabal bij Poldi werkte, duurde maar kort: in juli 1952 kreeg hij een gietijzeren wiel tegen zijn hoofd die uit een strop van een hijskraan was gegleden. Hij overleefde het ongeval, maar werd voor zijn leven arbeidsongeschikt verklaard voor zware werkzaamheden. Het voordeel hiervan was dat hij hierdoor meer tijd had om zich aan het schrijven te wijden. Zo schreef hij met enige zelfspot hierover: ‘zonder barst in je kop kan je niet leven’ (‘Kafkade’), ‘maar ik ben daarna wel beter gaan schrijven’ (‘Enkele zinnen’). Het tweede verhaal 'Bedrieglijke spiegels' laat zien waar een van bovenaf opgelegde norm voor kunst toe kan leiden. Vanaf 1949 werd een enorm groepsbeeld gebouwd van arbeiders met Stalin voorop als leider van de arbeidersklasse. Het beeld wordt in 1962 alweer opgeblazen. Oplage 500 exemplaren. Speciale, bibliofiele uitgave.
56 pages, Cahier
Published April 1, 2024
About the author
Bohumil Hrabal
199 books1,368 followersBorn in Brno-Židenice, Moravia, he lived briefly in Polná, but was raised in the Nymburk brewery as the manager's stepson.
Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on.
He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, an experience which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time.
His best known novels were Closely Watched Trains (1965) and I Served the King of England. In 1965 he bought a cottage in Kersko, which he used to visit till the end of his life, and where he kept cats ("kočenky").
He was a great storyteller; his popular pub was At the Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra) on Husova Street in Prague, where he met the Czech President Václav Havel, the American President Bill Clinton and the then-US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright on January 11th, 1994.
Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to the objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (Městečko, kde se zastavil čas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).
He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window were mentioned in several of his books.
He was buried in a family grave in the cemetery in Hradištko. In the same grave his mother "Maryška", step father "Francin", uncle "Pepin", wife "Pipsi" and brother "Slávek" were buried.
He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is made up of just one sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.
Along with Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, and Milan Kundera - who were also imaginative and amusing satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
Hrabal received a Law degree from Prague's Charles University, and lived in the city from the late 1940s on.
He worked as a manual laborer alongside Vladimír Boudník in the Kladno ironworks in the 1950s, an experience which inspired the "hyper-realist" texts he was writing at the time.
His best known novels were Closely Watched Trains (1965) and I Served the King of England. In 1965 he bought a cottage in Kersko, which he used to visit till the end of his life, and where he kept cats ("kočenky").
He was a great storyteller; his popular pub was At the Golden Tiger (U zlatého tygra) on Husova Street in Prague, where he met the Czech President Václav Havel, the American President Bill Clinton and the then-US ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright on January 11th, 1994.
Several of his works were not published in Czechoslovakia due to the objections of the authorities, including The Little Town Where Time Stood Still (Městečko, kde se zastavil čas) and I Served the King of England (Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále).
He died when he fell from a fifth floor hospital where he was apparently trying to feed pigeons. It was noted that Hrabal lived on the fifth floor of his apartment building and that suicides by leaping from a fifth-floor window were mentioned in several of his books.
He was buried in a family grave in the cemetery in Hradištko. In the same grave his mother "Maryška", step father "Francin", uncle "Pepin", wife "Pipsi" and brother "Slávek" were buried.
He wrote with an expressive, highly visual style, often using long sentences; in fact his work Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age (1964) (Taneční hodiny pro starší a pokročilé) is made up of just one sentence. Many of Hrabal's characters are portrayed as "wise fools" - simpletons with occasional or inadvertent profound thoughts - who are also given to coarse humour, lewdness, and a determination to survive and enjoy oneself despite harsh circumstances. Political quandaries and their concomitant moral ambiguities are also a recurrent theme.
Along with Jaroslav Hašek, Karel Čapek, and Milan Kundera - who were also imaginative and amusing satirists - he is considered one of the greatest Czech writers of the 20th century. His works have been translated into 27 languages.
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October 20, 20242 verhalen
je voelt gewoon de sfeer, de ruwheid, de pathetiek, het trieste in beide verhalen
over politiek, over impact, over plaats in de maatschappij, over ordeloosheid, over chaos en dwang, over zinloosheid, over cirkeltjes draaien
aparte stijl, te lezen
https://mappalibri.be/?navigatieid=61...
je voelt gewoon de sfeer, de ruwheid, de pathetiek, het trieste in beide verhalen
over politiek, over impact, over plaats in de maatschappij, over ordeloosheid, over chaos en dwang, over zinloosheid, over cirkeltjes draaien
aparte stijl, te lezen
https://mappalibri.be/?navigatieid=61...
September 15, 2024
'Princ liep naar het raam en duwde het meisje naar buiten. Het was een vreemde val: alsof het meisje doorboord werd door de denkbeeldige as van het raamkozijn, draaide ze met haar hoofd en bovenlichaam als aan een braadspit om haar middel, terwijl haar benen zich als twee hermelijnen in de lucht verhieven (…) en alleen het raamkozijn met de trillende sterren aan het uitspansel bleef achter'
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews