Heimito von Doderer I - Personal Intro

As you might have guessed already, I love to read. Fortunately there was a time in my life when I could do it a lot. Reading was an essential part of my youth when I was still a member of the proletariat and not yet had become a member of the precariate. In the German society of the 1970s, when the status of your father defined your cognitive abilities for your teachers, literature was the only voice that spoke to you freely and considered you reasonable and smart enough to connect you with ideas and ideals. 

No book ever said to me: "Oh, your father does read books? I thought he would be a worker ..." or "Ah, really? You passed this exam? Hm, well, maybe you are not as downright silly as we all have been thinking here." or "Your opinion can not be considered here, as you do not have the background and education that can confirm you would have anything valuable in your brain." Books just told me what they had to tell, and delighted me with opinions and insights, that allowed me to extend my personal horizon and asked me to think and develop. 

After working myself through the German and European classics - and of course through the Scripture - in my teenage years I discovered more contemporary writing. The start was  difficult for me, because at school we began with Walther von der Vogelweide, jumped directly to J.W. v. Goethe, scratched Th. Storm and then ended up with German WWII and post WWII writers, which occupied us for 6 of 8 years in secondary schools. I never developed the necessary insight to dwell on that for so long and it even annoyed me, that this was not only the favorite topic in literature lessons, but also in those of history, civics and religion. 

The constant recapitulation of cruel, inhuman and stupid actions of a whole folks that I had to consider my own and the even more constant efforts from teachers to make us feel guilty made me angry. Especially because descendants of former concentration camp prisoners were still considered suspects.

Despite all this it so happened that I had a long conversation with a very old lady about literature. She had a lot of knowledge (for German readers: and a family background, proper education, a university degree etc. etc.) and we felt very happy with each other, because we had a lot to share. She had shown me some books she possessed, with handwritten personal dedications from Thomas Mann, Johannes Bobrowski and others when she said suddenly: "Unquestionably you have read Heimito von Doderer." I confessed I had never heard of this author, which made her smile.

"You have to." she decided. "You will fall in love with his writing. Start with the "Strudlhofstiege" and you will want to read all of his books."

I put this name on the list of authors I wanted to read without doing further research. And on a stay in Vienna the book she had mentioned showed itself in a book-store right in front of me. I took it, paid for it, started to read the same evening, fell in love with the writing and immediately wanted to read everything this man had ever written.

There are not many German-writing authors that I count to my favorite ones. The Austrian Heimito von Doderer is on top of them. And in my next entry I will start to introduce him to you.

Novel

I love fairy tales and traditional tales from any cultural background. And now finally there is a space to publish my own fairy-tales.

The first is available from today on: http://www.xinxii.com/stonato-p-343076.html

It tells about the trials and tribulations of a couple who want to make their relationship work.

Prussian for Advanced Speakers

Sagen Se mal 'n Satz mit 'Feldmütze'!
"Herr Schmidt jeht mit seine Frau ins Theater, fällt mit se hin und hebt se wieda uff."


Sagen Se mal 'n Satz mit 'Kandelaba'!
"Kann de Labawurscht nich essn!"

and my absolute favorite:

Sagen Se mal 'n Satz mit 'Opfa'!

"Ob wa noch ein nehm wolln?"

With loving thoughts of my grandpa. Maybe I will remember more ...