A call for contribution for Video Vortex 4 is up (ah, since the 2nd of december): http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/videovortex/archives/108. Also a a pdf of the reader covering Video Vortex 3: http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/portal/publications/inc-readers/videovortex//.
I know, I should write on 2666 myself. For now, I’ll just point you to an Interesting discussion over at Waggish: http://www.waggish.org/2008/12/16/notes-on-roberto-bolano-2666 and http://www.waggish.org/2009/01/18/more-notes-on-roberto-bolanos-2666.
Les Bienveillantes mobilizes. Leads to discussion. To then conclude that other books are, in fact, so much better. But those books did not mobilize, did not initiate discussion. So we read Littlell. So we discuss Littell. And partly because his book is flawed it initiates discussion. So much becomes clear, browsing reviews and discussion fora.
For those of you who read German, the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeneine Zeitung) has a good dossier on Littell’s novel: http://lesesaal.faz.net/littell/. In it I find confirmation of my doubts wrt the literary quality of this big novel — considering that it still is a major work.
Another thing — and this regards the comparision between 2666 and Les bienveillantes — is that during the first 200 or 300 pages of the book, images from 2666 and especially of the character Hans Reiter as a soldier during WW II in the Oekraine, kept haunting me, so much that sometimes Aue became more like Reiter. The image of Reiter was stronger than that of Aue. While reading Littell I was wondering about Reiter, and the Sonora murders from 2666. The characters fuse maybe up to a certain extent because both Bolano and Littell use aspects from Ernst Jünger (and his novels) for Reiter and Aue. (No: I was reminded in both instances of Jünger, that’s more correct; they do not use concrete aspects from Jünger’s biography, rather they seem inspired by a certain distanced aesthetized look at the world that I identify with Jünger).
Reading Bolano I want to reread Bolano to come closer to understanding ‘life’. Reading Littell I want to do research and find out more about the history of WW II.
Hmm. Am I making myself clear?
Finished reading Jonathan Littell’s De welwillenden (Les Bienveillantes), the beste-selling novel about the atrocities of World War II from the perspective of a homosexual SD-member. Yes, it’s an impressive book. And more than any other book — including Vollmann’s Central Europe — (and including Primo Levi’s novels — which fall in a totally different class) this novel heightens my interest in WW II. The novel is horrifying and gripping.
But, but… (with every book I read there should be a ‘but’) … I did find that the passages about the protagonist, well, let’s call it ‘disturbed’ relationship with his twin sister, and his relation with his mother, weaken the novel’s possible impact. It is good for some delirious stretches of prose, and shocking descriptions, but it is a bit ‘cliche’ too. Although I do understand the function in the novel.
There are a few more motives which border on the cliche (the policemen that keep following the protagonist). Not that this ever really disturbed me. Just thinking of how the book could’ve been even better…
In some ways there are two books here — one is about a homosexual art-and-literature loving dandy- Nazi who is in love with his twin sister (good for some scandalous scenes). The other one is a very serious historical novel about the atrocities of WW II in Eastern Europe (much more shocking). One bridge between those two sides is provided by “Robert Brasillach” and “Leon Degrelle”, and in a sense by Theweleit’s Mannerphantasien — on which Littell wrote a long essay (that I have not read). (Of course the protagonist reads Blanchot during the war).
What I am asking myself: would I find such a novel stronger if the protagonist would have for instance a married Nazi, with a workers-background (or were all of those in the Wehrmacht?), instead of a cosmopolitan cultured person from a pretty rich family, and a troubled relation/lovelife? Surely the idea is not that all ‘executioners’ and murderers are “disturbed” psychologically, like this protagonist? I know, this is a very bad type of criticism. Yet, still, as I said, the pages about the ‘personal problems’ of Aue (the protagonist) did not really capture my attention as much as the ones about the war as such, and well, as you see, I keep on wondering about it.
It is a novel about ‘evil’ (though Littell in an interview in the FAZ says it is not). That invites comparision with Bolano’s 2666 — with its 200+ pages of descriptions of murders in Sonora.
Oh well, yes, I prefer 2666. And that preference indicates a ‘poetics’, a set of ideas of what constitutes good literature. (I wish I were able now to make an outline of that.)
Enough.
“Whatever the answer, experimental music doesn’t translate on paper but makes sense with a beer in hand and equally inquisitive music fans eager to talk shop. Best to experience it yourself.”
My favorite musical ‘hang-out’ is reviewed by Colin Delany in Time Out Amsterdam. The text is here: http://stopdroprocknroll.blogspot.com/2009/01/sounds-of-science.html.
DNK: http://www.dnk-amsterdam.com. Concerts start again next monday, January 12th.
There’s finally a new CD of Office-R, Recording the Grain, published by the Norwegian label +3db. Office-R is pretty much my favorite band, my favorite music…
Reviews here, or via here (mostly Dutch):
http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/office-r-6/recording-the-grain
http://www.goddeau.com/content/view/5329
http://www.hardhatarea.com/hatlog/2008/11/officer_new_cd.html
Office-R: http://www.n-collective.com/etc
Oh, yes, and finished 2666. (What to read now?)
This was a year of ‘big books’ too: Moby Dick, The Confidence Man, The Savage Detectives, Buddenbrooks, Jahrestage, 2666, Against the Day.
(Just to remind myself).
Ah, good — updated WordPress. Thanks Peet! The interface of 2.7 restores most of the good things of the previous versions, those before 2.6 :-)
Oh, and I am twittering. Sometimes. My username is easy to guess.
10.20 – 11.40. Het verschil van de wind. De temperatuur opnieuw rond het vriespunt, maar nu met een beetje zon en nauwelijks wind (zuidoost), best aangenaam. Gisteren kreeg ik het na een uur echt koud. Nu had ik best wat verder willen rijden.
Marcusstraat – Amstel – Middenpolder – Elsenhove – Amstel – Ouderkerk – Holendrecht – Ouderkerkerplas – snelweg – dijkje – Amstel – Ouderkerk – Amstel – Marcusstraat
