[lit-ideas] Re: The Short Answer

On 27. Aug 2004, at 18:06, Andy Amago wrote:

> Michael Chase, for example, has posted, and no one has answered.
>
Did my excerpt from Adorno's _Minima Moralia_ not reach the list?  I=20
found it to be relevant to Michael's posting.  (The promised commentary=20=

- and more from Adorno - will follow, if any interest is shown.)

How well is Adorno known to other list members?  There was a spate of=20
publications (and a commemorative stamp released) on the occasion of=20
the 100th anniversary of his birth last year.  I attended a very=20
interesting discussion evening last November with the author of one of=20=

those publications (Stephan M=FCller-Doohm: _Adorno: Eine Biographie_). =20=

M=FCller-Doohm told me that the book was to be published in English=20
translation this March (i.e., March 2004).  Has anyone read it?

Adorno is one of the German authors whom I have the most difficulty=20
reading (and listening to: I have a series of CD's of talks of his that=20=

were broadcast during the 50's and 60's).  On the other hand, listening=20=

to Heidegger is sheer delight - although it is Adorno for whom I have=20
more sympathy philosophically.  (The better I get to know Hegel - and=20
it is in no small part thanks to Adorno that I have finally embarked on=20=

that enterprise - the less originality I see in Heidegger.)

Off the top of my head the only author I can think of with whom I have=20=

more difficulty than Adorno is Thomas Bernhard.  'Stream of=20
consciousness' is one thing; his writing - at least in _Der Untergeher_=20=

is more *swamp* of consciousness, and I persist in getting as stuck in=20=

it as his protagonist did.  Anyone read Bernhard either in the original=20=

German or in translation?  Are all of his books like that?

Back to *listening to* German authors:  Robert Musil's _Mann ohne=20
Eigenschaften_ is being released on MP3 CD's.  I am just about through=20=

the first book (just over 33 hours on 2 CD's).  The second book is due=20=

out (again in MP3 format) this fall.  Are there any Musil readers (or=20
listeners) out there?  Is there anyone who shares my opinion that _MoE_=20=

is (one of) *the* most important 20th century novel(s)?

Chris Bruce
rambling on at 2 a.m. in
Kiel, Germany
--

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