What are we reading? 11th May 2022

[AB76]

Reading Thomas Manns 1914 essay "Thoughts on Wartime" and its praise for German nationalism and of war, i started to contemplate the idea of nationalism and its dangers.

As an Englishman, with no real contest for freedom and liberation of my own nation for maybe 400 years, it can be easy to scorn the desperate notion of nationalism that infects many but in the modern day, i think we can see nationalism that is healthier and progressive.

In the Ukraine war,Putin has shown a scorn and disregard for a people that many English kings and generals showed the Welsh, Scots and Irish over the last 1000 years. Putin's scorn unlike the english kings and generals,(whose showed ignorance) shows weakness in that Ukraine has been a nation for 30 years, with its own tongue and culture. Numerically far larger than Ireland, Wales or Scotland in relation to England, it is, or was, emerging as a stronger, more liberal state than Russia in the last decade. Its nationalism can be denigrated by its minute right-wing militia fringe but overall it is a people casting off centuries of denigration.

In Scotland, the SNP offer a broad, civic and far less right wing nationalism than has featured on these islands before. It is also a majority nationalism, unlike the far more toxic english fringe movements (BNP-NF) and unites rather than divides. Of course it does not face an english military or cultural threat, unlike Ukraine but it is unhappily tethered to the British state more than Ukraine was to any last vestiges of the USSR or CIS.

Returning to Mann, i found this 1914 essay quite shocking,in that an intelligent German thinker could glorify war so much, now of course in 1914 many people seemed to think it would be quick and glorious "over by christmas", so i give Mann some leeway on that but it seems he overlooks the death and disaster that followed that German incursion into neutral lands, people died, innocent people died for the war he felt was necessary. Not burly six foot German trained soldiers, in combat with the French equivulant but women, children,the aged and the unfortunate. I'm not a militant pacifist but the glory of war always feels like a hollow phrase

[Georg]

Thomas Mann's book was at best a reckoning with, and at worst a declaration of war to Heinrich's views.

In that context Heinrich said about him that he was incapable to empathize with "others".

That was echoed by TM's son Klaus over 20 years later: "his complete disinterest in human beings, no more obvious than here..."
He, the son, also noted "writes to complete strangers equally charmingly. A mixture of highly intellectual, even benevolent conciliatory generosity - and icy coldness."

As a human being he was, by all accounts, a fairly nasty piece of work who damaged everybody who was close to him.

[AB76]

Georg wrote: "Thomas Mann's book was at best a reckoning with, and at worst a declaration of war to Heinrich's views.

In that context Heinrich said about him that he was incapable to empathize with "others".

T..."

I started with the 1914 essay as Lilla, in his intro says it gives a good context to the far longer "Reflections"

Its a shame these translations arent or havent been more widely available before now. Translations of German writing on WW1 always fascinates me, Junger's memories of the trenchs, Fischers immense work on the German war aims and the many novels too.

I would suggest from Manns tone in "Thoughts on Wartime" that in the fog of wartime patriotism he is angry at Germany being slighted by France and Britain, angry that both nations fail to analyse or think about German culture and its history. His last line of this essay says "and to your suprise the only result of your attack will be that you will be forced to study us"

[Andy]

Berkley wrote: "Andy wrote: "Berkley wrote: " ... Tutuola's The Brave African Huntress..."


Let me know how that goes when you get round to it.. "

Will do. Should be some time within the next three or four month..."

I didn't realise. And I am immediately interested. Im a big Byrne fan.

[Andy]

scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "and Uncle Charles Has Locked Himself In by Georges Simenon, translated by Howard Curtis.

This is one..."

Its out of print, along with many others.
But, I discovered it is available, with several more, on the internet's free archive, at archive.org.
Donadieu's Will
The Cat
Across the Street
Betty
The White Horse Inn
The Brothers Rico
The Watchmaker of Everton

[Andy]

scarletnoir wrote: "Andy wrote: "and Uncle Charles Has Locked Himself In by Georges Simenon, translated by Howard Curtis.

This is one..."

To the second part of your post, I think that's a good observation. Also that the characters, esepcially in the romans durs, are particularly convincing.
Building tension is something else he does very well. Its rare to lose attention, something I do with other writers.
And the climax nearly always satisfies.
All done within less than 180 pages also.

[scarletnoir]

Georg wrote: "Thomas MannIn (was according to )Heinrich incapable to empathize with "others".

TM's son Klaus (described) "his complete disinterest in human beings, no more obvious than here...

As a human being he was, by all accounts, a fairly nasty piece of work who damaged everybody who was close to him."

Interesting... I have never been tempted to read Mann, and even less so after your comment! (I was already aware of the disagreement with his brother re WW1)

[Andy]

I finished an interesteing new South Korean novel this afternoon.
The Cabinet by Kim Un-su translated from the Korean by Sean Lin Halbert.

Initially this takes the form of vignettes which describe uncanny events are described in great detail; a person who can exhale methane gas to flammable effect, another grows a ginkgo plant from his little finger and it slowly begins to dominate his life. These ailments are the maladies of 'symptomers'. Their files sit in Cabinet 13 of an unnamed research institute in Seoul, where the narrator, Kong, works.
During the course of a few weeks Kong reads all 375 of these files of bizarre people. Though the events depicted border on the impossible, and are certainly fantastical, the tone in which they are related is intentionally dry.
Kim does throw in the odd event though that surprises, as has actually occured. For example, a woman whose tongue is gradually being eaten by a lizard inside her mouth, which echoes the behaviour of parasitic fish.
Though the novel appears initially as a series of unrelated incidents, in the second part of the novel they converge into a reality-twisted narrative with morphs into paranoia, satire, and body horror.

Up until this stage of the novel I was absorbed by its originality and that it had taken directions that I had least expected. Unfortunately though, the latter part treads the more familiar ground of a spy thriller, as Kong is approached by mysterious forces who ask him to take part in a bit of espionage and betray his supervisor.
It would have been a better book without this, in fact, just finishing after 200, maybe less, pages would have worked much better.

At its best though, it is a zany and emotive concotion of humour, nonsense and the grotesque.
Think Gilliam or Brautigan, but for the twenty twenties.

[[deleted user]]

I'll put the new thread up in a couple of hours.