Hans Henny Jahnn

[Mirabell]

I am currently rereading the work of some seminal German writers, D?blin, Thomas Mann (yeah I am SOOO looking forward to reading Lotte in Weimar or K?nigliche Hoheit again. *barf*) and some others, among them this strange genius of a writer.

He deserves a thread even though few here will be able to read him, because he has barely been translated into English. He has been translated into French tho, you might try it that way.

His writing is almost perfect, an archaic, elegant, brutal and modern style. He wrote plays, all out of print today except for his wild rendition of the Medea myth. Jahnn's Medea is the only play I know that approaches Kleist's unearthly Penthesilea.

His first novel, which I am currently rereading is another one of those dark expressionistic German novels written under the shadow of anglo-american modernism, I could mention the J-name, but I'd have to cut out my own tongue, so I'll rather not.

His masterpiece is the 3volume novel extravaganza Flu? ohne Ufer, which is about....everything. Religion, Love, Art, Music, Death, Sex, Myth. Capital letters, yes.

He built and restored (mostly the latter) Organs, wrote scores for Organs and dabbled in Harmony theory.

He had founded a sort of religion, Ugrino, although people can't decide whether it was a religuion or just a bunch of artists with cults and stuff.


Here's a very good, if ugly and German page on him
http://www.hans-henny-jahnn.de/index.html

[obooki]

I remember reading somewhere once that *ONE* book of HH Jahnn's had been translated into English (some time around the 50s / 60s) - the first part of some sort of novel sequence? - You'd be lucky ever to come across a copy though, I'd guess.

I've read both Lotte in Weimar and the other one, which I'm guessing is (in English) the work called Royal Highness. I quite liked RH; LiW (to be honest) I gave up 90 pages from the end (which is pretty unusual for me; I usually give up much earlier on) because I just felt I couldn't take it any more. I also gave up on Buddenbrooks, though frankly my most hated Mann novel is The Holy Sinner. (I know it's short, but I warn you all not to read it).

[Mirabell]

yep lucky.

learn french or german, I say.

[ajourneyroundmyskull]

The Ship (first part of the trilogy and the only one translated) is one of my favorite books. I realized long ago I'll have to brush up on my basic French or learn German to read the rest of it. So what happens when they get off the ship?! I hear the second part gets wildly homoerotic (very muted in The Ship, at least in the translation).

[Mirabell]

The ship is like a prelude. less action later, more awesomeness.

legen -wait for it- dary!

[adaorardor]

The Ship (first part of the trilogy and the only one translated) is one of my favorite books. I realized long ago I'll have to brush up on my basic French or learn German to read the rest of it. So what happens when they get off the ship?! I hear the second part gets wildly homoerotic (very muted in The Ship, at least in the translation).

Anyone comment on how good the English translation of The Ship (or Night of Lead,13 Uncanny Tales,etc) is? Was looking to pick them up but they're expensive used so didn't want to do it for a bad translation.

[JTolle]

Anyone comment on how good the English translation of The Ship (or Night of Lead,13 Uncanny Tales,etc) is? Was looking to pick them up but they're expensive used so didn't want to do it for a bad translation.

I had both The Ship and 13 Uncanny Tales from the library not too long ago. Sadly, I never got too deep into either of them, but I do remember being more intrigued by the Uncanny Tales than The Ship. I'll grab it again, try to read it through, and let you know what I think - keeping in mind that I can't base my judgment off adherence to the original, only off my perception of its quality as it is in English. Which, of course, brings up a question of translation that I'll leave to others..

Oh, and it's Thirteen Uncanny Stories (1954) translated by Gerda Jordan. And a quote by Jordan on the subject:

"The stories presented in this volume were selected by Jahnn from [his novels] Perrudja [1929] and Fluß ohne Ufer* and published in a separate volume in 1954. Their collective title, Thirteen Uncanny Stories (13 nicht geheure Geschichten) is misleading and may have been chosen as a catch word for selling purposes. They are in no way 'uncanny' in the light of Jahnn's philosophy and of his entire work. In the two novels they appear in various contexts, for example, as reading of history, 'Sassanidian King'; as entertainment at a sick-bed, 'The Slave's Story'; as a memory, 'A Boy Weeps.' This selection shows a cross section of various themes, or rather of Jahnn's variation on one theme, as well as a cross-section of his varied styles, from terse, saga-like compactness to the highly ornamental language of the Baroque."

[JTolle]

A quote from The Ship for us English-language readers interested in Jahnn:

"We have witnessed the horrible again and again, a transformation no one could foresee. A healthy body is run over by a truck, crushed. Blood, once secreted, once feeling its way blindly through the body, pulsating in a meshwork of thin streams, spreading the chemically charged hormones and their mysterious functions like a red tree inside man - this blood now runs out shapelesssly in great puddles. And still no one grasps that, in a network of veins, it has form. But even more horrible - the death struggle itself, in which the innumerable organs, which we believe we feel, take part. Terror is stronger in us than delight."