Anyone else a Thomas Bernhard fan?

[Saturnine_Sepulchre]

Just recently read "The Lime Works" and "Gargoyles". Gargoyles really resonated with me in a lot of ways - I would say it's one of the best books I've read in the past 5 years. Lime Works was also great.

[Montevergini]

I love T. Bernhard, he was able to return the size of dislocation that I seek in books. As it happens with Ligotti. My favourite Bernhard's book is Perturbation.
I'm sorry for my bad english, but i'm trying to learn it (reading some Ligotti's books in original language).

[Tsalal Akbar]

I am a Thomas Bernhard junkie. I've read almost everything of his ever translated into English. Victor Halfwit releases tomorrow, which is good, cause I need to get my fix!

[gveranon]

Very insightful essay about Thomas Bernhard's novels:
Notes Toward an Understanding of Thomas Bernhard, by E. J. Van Lanen

[Pan Michael]

I noticed this thread has been inactive for awhile, and I just wanted to share a few idle thoughts about Bernhard. Personally, I've read "The Woodcutters", "Extinction", "Concrete" and "Gargoyles", and plan on eventually going through everything Bernhard ever wrote. Like the other posters, I find Bernhard's writings exquisitely, hypnotically readable, and, so far, "Extinction" is my favorite. It's one of the most perfectly realized novels that I've come across, and the ending is simply brilliant.

( What a shame, though, that there doesn't seem to be any published Bernhard correspondence--how fascinating that would be! Or is there in fact something I've missed?......)

At any rate, one thing that struck me in "Extinction" were the frequent references to Jean Paul Richter, and to his novel "Siebenkas". This stood out for me because one of my other favorite authors, Hermann Hesse, often speaks of Jean Paul in the most glowing terms, such as "My beloved Jean Paul", etc. So that got me wondering if anyone else here has read anything by Jean Paul, and has an opinion on his style of writing? Is he at all like Robert Walser, for example? According to Hesse in his "My Belief", Jean Paul's two great masterpieces are "Siebenkas" (translated as "Flower, Fruit and Thorn Pieces") and "Titan." I just ordered two versions of the classic reprint series, so hopefully they are in English as indicated. Titan is only available in Vol 1 for some reason, but with a little searching, I was able to find a Vol 2.

Anyhow, at this point I'm really eager to read Jean Paul for myself. It's possible, of course, that Hesse's and Bernhard's fondness for Jean Paul won't stand up to the vagaries of Time and translation, though I'm hoping that's not the case here. I don't think that will be a problem for me, as I enjoy long sentences and archaic diction--though I suppose it might rub some readers the wrong way.

Any thoughts? If not, then I'll get back to you in a year or two when I finally get through the Jean Paul novels!

[Pan Michael]

PS

To be precise, in "My Belief" Hermann Hesse calls "Titan" and "Flegeljahre" (I believe it's translated "The Awkward Age") Jean Paul's two masterpieces--rather than "Siebenkas". But in the same essay, he does refer to Siebenkas as "that marvelous book." Anyhow, I hope I'm not getting too far from Bernhard here, but it seems that a lot of us enjoy discovering these worthwhile, but obscure literary figures. So for what it's worth.....

[Waffiesnaq]

This rare selection of blackly comedic vignettes from Bernhard is a real treat:

http://shirtysleeves.blogspot.dk/201...by-thomas.html

My favorite:

Quote

SEVERAL SHADOWS leap out at a homeward-bound workman. They violate him on the riverbank and leave him behind. The moment he tries to get up to set off on his way, the shadows are there again and strike him. They pull him out of his coat and drive him into the river. They push his head under the water and draw long knives through his auditory canals. They attempt to hold him under water until he asphyxiates. At another place he regains consciousness and walks further naked. Again the shadows suddenly appear and strangle him. They throw him into a pit, into a bomb crater and fill it in. He wakes up again and runs along the railway embankment. Now the shadows attack him without warning and throw him into the darkness. He escapes and begins running faster than before. But the shadows haul him in. He hears them screaming his name. They throw him between two boulders that squeeze together and crush him to a pulp. Now he wakes up and turns on the light. He discovers his wife beside him in the bed. He puts on his coat and leaves the house for a couple of hours. In the early morning he is seen riding on his bicycle to the construction site.

The story about the professor who is driven mad from his study of butterflies (couldn't help but think of Nabokov) is also a hoot.

Pan Michael, if you're hankering for some Bernhard correspondence, some of his letters, speeches, and public statements have been translated and posted by the blogger above. They're all a gas. If you can read German, Suhrkamp published the collected correspondence between Bernhard and his main publisher not too long ago, totaling about 500 letters.

[gveranon]

Quote Originally Posted by Waffiesnaq

[...] if you're hankering for some Bernhard correspondence, some of his letters, speeches, and public statements have been translated and posted by the blogger above. They're all a gas.

Thanks, Waffiesnaq. That site is a great find! It's worth posting a link to this long, provocative, hilarious interview: The Philosophical Worldview Artist: A Translation of "Ich könnte auf dem Papier jemand umbringen" (Thomas Bernhard interviewed in Der Spiegel on June 23, 1980)

And this for all posts with the "Thomas Bernhard" label: The Philosophical Worldview Artist: Thomas Bernhard

[teguififthzeal]

I still don't think anything can beat the Prince's monologue in "Gargoyles".

[Lord Jim]

Thank you for the links and such, I'll surely put them to good use. I've recently become enamored with Bernhard's writing, luckily through availability at my library. "Gathering Evidence" may be my favorite thing of his right now, it being a collection of previously published autobiographical pieces. His humor, in things like "My Prizes", is refreshing.