Christmas comes early over at Sign and Sight with a timely translation of a 1986 interview with the great Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. Unfortunately, the German original is behind the firewall at FAZ and is not freely available. Before Elfriede, there was Thomas Bernhard, the greatest Nestbeschmutzer. Bernhard, in the tradition of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, was a writer who never averted his gaze from the dark underbelly of the human enterprise. For the reader, the experience is profoundly uncomfortable, but unforgettable. For English readers who want to become familiar with Bernhard’s oeuvre, I recommend starting with his autobiographical book Gathering Evidence. Many resouces in English and a general discussion board can be found at the Thomas Bernhard Web site.
The Sign and Sight interview contains some real gems. Here is Thomas Bernhard on the question of perfection.
"Everything fails in the end, everything ends in the graveyard. There’s nothing you can do about it. Death claims them all and that’s the end of it. Most people give in to death at 17 or 18. The young people of today are running into the arms of death at age 12, and they’re dead at 14. Then there are solitary fighters who struggle on until 80 or 90, then they die too, but at least they had a longer life. And because life is pleasant and fun, their fun lasts longer. Those who die early have less fun, and you can feel sorry for them. Because they haven’t really got to know life, because life also means a long life, with all of its awfulness."
Uplifting thoughts at Christmas from a great Austrian Scrooge.
