Anyone else a Thomas Bernhard fan?

[Dr. Zirk]

I recently started in on works by Thomas Bernhard after reading TL's comments in various interviews. Although I'm limited to reading him in English translation, I'm definitely hooked - there is a bitter dark humor to Bernhard's writing that has a thematic sympathy with TL's own stuff.

I just finished reading the novella "Playing Watten", a narrative of undeniable hypnotic madness. The brief anecdotes in his book "The Voice Imitator" are compelling as well, and an easier introduction than Bernhard's longer works, which often lack much in the way of paragraph or section breaks to let the reader pause and regroup. An effective but daunting technique for the uninitiated.

Anyone else out there exploring Bernhard? His writings strike me as a strong compliment to TL's writings, although not an all within the horror genre (whatever that is).

[bendk]

I have only read two of Thomas Bernhard's books, but I liked both of them. I read his novella THE LOSER and THE VOICE IMITATOR, that you mentioned, which is a mini-anthology of "parable-like anecdotes - some drawn from newspaper reports, some from conversation, and some from hearsay." This compulsively readable collection reads like those NEWS OF THE WEIRD books, but with a decidedly grim slant. I agree that THE VOICE IMITATOR is an accessible introduction to Bernhard, but more in the way of 'getting inside his head' in the things that interest him, as opposed to being typical of his prose style.

I have a few more Bernhard books on the bookshelf, but I haven't gotten around to them yet. THE GARGOYLES sounds very interesting.

One of the stories that stuck with me from THE VOICE IMITATOR was "The Wrong Note." Bernhard recalls a legend from the Belgian city of Bruges. Hundreds of years ago, a children's choir was performing at a church service before the royal court, when one of the children sang a wrong note. It so shocked the queen, that she fainted and lapsed into a coma. The offending nine year old was beheaded and the rest of the choir was imprisoned. The king swore an oath that if the queen failed to recover, the entire choir would be executed. She didn't and they were. Ain't humanity grand.

[Dr. Zirk]

I just realized that the University of Chicago Press has the complete text of five of the selections from "The Voice Imitator" available free on their web site:

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/044017.html

"Hotel Waldhaus" is one of these selections, and as good an introduction to Bernhard's work as I've encountered so far...

[Severini]

I´ve read a few books by Bernhard (Cutting timber, Wittgenstein´s Nephew, Extinction, Gargoyles and the loser) after Thomas Ligotti mention him in his interviews...(I am waiting for some others to arrive: "Correction"," The voice imitator" and his autobiography called "Gathering Evidence")

All of them were excellent reads except for Wittgenstein´s Nephew...that was the weakest, but enjoyable...

There is none of his plays published over here, has anyone read any?

The aspects that I most admire in Bernhard are his prose stile...that monologues (in which he attacks and attacks and attacks everything he disagrees, from doctors to austrian government and so on...) and that relentless repetition... and Dr. Zirk is right about the black humour, there is laughter as much as there are shivers in his books (this is something Mr. Ligotti does very well too) these things got me from the 1st read...

Extinction is his longer book...a challenging one to read...only three paraghraphs in almost 500 pages (the brazilian translation) but very rewarding.

hey bendk!
Gargoyles is the best I´ve read so far...go read that one!
When you think you´ve had enough death and desease...they go to the castle, and meet the Prince Saurau.
The prince Saurau monologue is like being hit with a brick in the head! :roll:

As, Thomas Ligotti declared in a interview, all the Teatro grotesco section in nightmare factory was written based on Bernhard´s style.They are very good stories but to me, the story in which Thomas Ligotti perfected his Thomas Bernhard style is in "The Shaddow, the darkness"

[matt cardin]

Thanks for the link to the excerpts at the U of C site, Dr. Zirk. I enjoyed reading them. My prior exposure to Bernhard has consisted of nothing more than a couple of long essays about him that I discovered online, and these I only skimmed (although I did find much of interest in them).

[Dr. Zirk]

Great stuff - based on Severini and bendk's comments, I've got both "The Loser" and "Gargoyles" on the way from the public library. I feel fortunate that my local library system seems to have almost all of Bernhard's work in English translation, including some of the plays.

I haven't had a chance to read TL's "The Nightmare Factory" yet, so I'm looking forward to getting that one from the library as well - the relationship between the Teatro grotesco pieces and Bernhard's writing is definitely intriguing.

I was interested to read the following in the Wikipedia entry on Bernhard:

"Often criticized in Austria as a Nestbeschmutzer (someone who dirties their own nest) for his critical views but highly acclaimed abroad, Bernhard is seen by many as a genius."

The Nestbeschmutzer characterization is fascinating, assuming the translation into English is accurate. It's definitely my word of the day!

[bendk]

I saw a film clip years ago, that showed Thomas Bernhard receiving the highest literary award in Austria. After he was presented with the award, he went into a denunciatory speech about the 'lack of culture' or 'lack of cultural direction' in Austria. Several distinguished members of the audience got up in mid-speech and left. I think that would define 'Nestbeschmutzer' pretty well. I don't know if Bernhard was justified in his criticism, or if his behavior was appropriate, but it sure was interesting.

[Severini]

Thomas Bernhard describes an award acceptance (I don´t knot if it is the same one bendk watched) in the book "wittgenstine´s nephew" and then he concludes:

"a prize is invariably only awarded by incompetent people who want to #### in your head and who do copiously #### on your head if you accept their prize."

[dekadent666]

:twisted: Bernhard's work has the same refreshing smirk at the world's conventions, authentically absurd perceptions, and bitter misanthropy/basic pessimism as Tom's. He reminds me a great deal of Beckett, only with a bit more structure and mainstream style of writing. At his best he reaches the disorienting, opiated-reverie type heights of Nabokov's "Speak, Memory". At his worst he sounds like a really whiny patriot. My favorite is "Wittgenstein's Nephew", which reads at times like the work of a dissociated schizophrenic with a lot of talent, relating the pitch black mental space he inhabits without sentiment.

[Dr. Zirk]

Thanks to those who recommended Bernhard's The Loser in this thread. I just finished reading it this weekend, and was definitely entranced by it. There is a musical quality to the text (even in translation), with the repeated motifs of "cretinism" and the narrator's "deterioration process." The portrait of the narrator's friend Wertheimer being slowly destroyed (and eventually driven to suicide) by his inability to equal Glenn Gould as a pianist is told with the mix of black humor and willing acceptance of despair that I've found (and enjoyed) in other writings by Bernhard. The Loser is definitely a good introduction to his works; maybe now I can work myself up to the longer novels...