tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post5657061505980060293..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Airplane reading 2 - Stifter's AbdiasAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-20645189965899562812008-07-31T07:19:00.000-05:002008-07-31T07:19:00.000-05:00My translation omitted a phrase I had trouble with...My translation omitted a phrase I had trouble with -- a classic translator's ploy! The sentence should read: ""It [Stifter's work] really astonished me, I enjoyed it and it also kind of knocked me flat." It makes me think of Stifter as a sort of teetering boulder perched on an Austrian Alp. Writers tiptoe around him in fear of being crushed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-48021386385807823992008-07-30T21:55:00.000-05:002008-07-30T21:55:00.000-05:00A 23-year-old Austrian, Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker,...A 23-year-old Austrian, Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker, has just written a book which reviewers are comparing to Stifter. It's about a farmer in the 1950s who marries a city girl and the sad results. The author hadn't actually read Stifter before writing (if he had, he'd have been much older when he started). But his response was: "„Das hat mich dann sehr gewundert, gefreut – und auch irgendwie zerkracht. Ich hab' mir gedacht, wenn du das schon vorher gelesen hättest, da hättest du dir Arbeit gespart. Was willst du denn jetzt noch – Stifter hat ja alles längst gesagt!“ <BR/>"It [Stifter's work] really astonished me and I enjoyed it. I though, if you'd read that beforehand, you'd have saved yourself some work. But what do you want -- Stifter's already said everything long ago!"<BR/><BR/>I'll translate the Stifter-like novel in a later post. Kidding.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-72244288655680194522008-07-30T07:42:00.000-05:002008-07-30T07:42:00.000-05:00Sebald did write about Stifter. I will direct you ...Sebald did write about Stifter. I will direct you to the expert at Vertigo: http://tinyurl.com/5kwvao.<BR/><BR/>It's a book of essays on Austrian writers - you know Hebel, Hebbel, and so on. All the favorites. I haven't read it, 'cause it's in German. When <EM>meine Frau</EM> read it years ago, she said something like "Here's a book that will never be translated."<BR/><BR/>I'm mildly excited about the NYRB "Rock Crystal". Not too excited, though - that would be un-Stifterian.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-90490732862139423532008-07-29T21:59:00.000-05:002008-07-29T21:59:00.000-05:00I added Stifter to my TBR list when some reviewers...I added Stifter to my TBR list when some reviewers (Sontag?) likened Sebald to him, but I haven't got to him yet. Do you know if Sebald writes anywhere about Stifter? BTW, NYRB Classics is re-issuing the Moore-Mayer translation of Stifter's <I>Rock Crystal</I> with an Introduction by Auden. On the publicity website they quote Thomas Mann calling Stifter "one of the most extraordinary, the most enigmatic, the most secretly daring and the most strangely gripping narrators in world literature." That site address is <A>http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product?usca_p=t&product_id=8331</A>praymonthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09799593980838361293noreply@blogger.com