Papageno
Well-known member
One of Germany's most famous post-war writers Martin Walser is dead.
Martin Walser (1927-2023)
- Thread starter Papageno
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Leseratte
Well-known member
RIP!
tiganeasca
Moderator
From Deutsche Welle:
"Alongside Heinrich Böll, Günther Grass and Siegfried Lenz, Martin Walser, who died on Friday at the age of 96, was one of Germany's most important postwar authors."
"Failure is a theme at the center of many of Martin Walser's novels. As he once said, "'I think that world literature is about losers. That's just the way it is. From Antigone to Josef K. — there are no winners, no champions. And furthermore, anyone can confirm that in their circle of acquaintances: People are always more interesting when they are losing than when they are winning.'"
"Alongside Heinrich Böll, Günther Grass and Siegfried Lenz, Martin Walser, who died on Friday at the age of 96, was one of Germany's most important postwar authors."
"Failure is a theme at the center of many of Martin Walser's novels. As he once said, "'I think that world literature is about losers. That's just the way it is. From Antigone to Josef K. — there are no winners, no champions. And furthermore, anyone can confirm that in their circle of acquaintances: People are always more interesting when they are losing than when they are winning.'"
Leseratte
Well-known member
“You always know more than you think you know without being aware of it. You always remember best what has hurt most.
Memory is a reflex of the pain. Knowledge is the memory of the pain combined with the unconsciousness which we 'rationalize' via dreams or by means of reading literature. It is impossible to learn from someone else's experience unless we don't assume this experience as our own's, which we can achieve only by living it anew and from scratch. We can not live our lives at someone else's expense. Only life fraught with dangers and risks and lived as your own's deserves its name. Only selfish people do not live their lives as if they do not belong entirely to them. Cowardice equals a life that you refuse to live at its fullest and at its most dangerous.”
― Martin Walser"
Memory is a reflex of the pain. Knowledge is the memory of the pain combined with the unconsciousness which we 'rationalize' via dreams or by means of reading literature. It is impossible to learn from someone else's experience unless we don't assume this experience as our own's, which we can achieve only by living it anew and from scratch. We can not live our lives at someone else's expense. Only life fraught with dangers and risks and lived as your own's deserves its name. Only selfish people do not live their lives as if they do not belong entirely to them. Cowardice equals a life that you refuse to live at its fullest and at its most dangerous.”
― Martin Walser"
Martin Walser Quotes (Author of Ein fliehendes Pferd)
14 quotes from Martin Walser: 'You always know more than you think you know without being aware of it. You always remember best what has hurt most. Memory is a reflex of the pain. Knowledge is the memory of the pain combined with the unconsciousness which we 'rationalize' via dreams or by means...
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Stevie B
Current Member
I recall reading about Walser years ago. He was a celebrated writer as well as a somewhat controversial figure. Joining the Nazi party as a teenager at the end of WWII, Walser claimed someone else signed him up. In the early 1980s, there were some allegations of anti-Semitic tropes in a Walser book inspired by a Jewish literary critic he strongly disliked. Walser's books were still translated afterwards, though I have the sense that, unlike Grass and Boll, he was never widely read outside of Germany. The controversy put me off from reading him. In hindsight, that might have been an overreaction on my part.
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