Adriano,
I too hope you will recover. Once during one of Susan’s visits to her doctor I
referred to her as being bedridden. He corrected me. He said she was “house
bound” and not bedridden. I gathered that in his parlance “bed ridden” is a
more serious situation than “house bound.”
And like you I bought one of Jon Fosse’s writings, I am the Wind. In earlier
days I spent a lot of time on and in the sea. I loved “free diving” which is
like scuba diving but without the tanks, just holding one’s breath and diving,
but with a spear gun for spearing fish. We ate a lot of fish in those days.
My first boat was a 14-foot West Wight Potter, an English sail boat intended
for use in the North Sea. I used it mostly as a diving platform. Later, Susan
liked to sail for sailing’s sake so I bought a Catalina 22. I had a ladder
rigged to the aft end so I could get in and out in order to free dive, and
Susan didn’t mind just being out at sea, nor did I, although I preferred diving
to sailing.
Nevertheless I experienced the sailing-sorts of things described in I am the
Sea. I couldn’t really relate to either “The One” or “The Other.” Although I
once took my first wife, Karen, sailing with the West Wight Potter and the seas
picked up as they do in I am the wind,” and Karen became afraid as “The Other”
did. I tried to get her to take the tiller so I could change the sails, but
she was too afraid. So I had to spill the wind out the sails as best I could
while sailing back to shore.
Susan on the other hand was fearless at sea. We were once in the tail end of a
storm and encountered spooky conditions near Catalina, surfing on the waves in
order to get into the lee of the Island where we hoped the winds weren’t as
strong. The wind had picked up much as it did in I am the Wind, gradually
though and I never thought to have her put a life preserver on. Had the boat
capsized, I would have put on my fins rather than a life preserver and towed
Susan to shore, but fortunately the boat handled the rough seas and wind. We
anchored in a cove, spent the night there and then motored back to the mainland
before the wind picked up. We’d had enough wind for a while.
“The Other” doesn’t know how to sail and yet he sails by means of the tiller
only back toward the Light House which he couldn’t have done. Some
manipulation of the sails would have been necesary. Also, you do not head
directly toward a lighthouse. Lighthouses are for warning sailors not to head
toward the rocks lighthouses are built upon.
I wasn’t terribly impressed with I am the Wind.
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of adriano paolo shaul gershom palma
Sent: Tuesday, July 09, 2019 11:12 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: On Jon Fosse
while I am unsure or unable to tell whether this is an invitation to read the
author, I bought the english edition called
scenes from a childhood
I shall read it quickly since bedridden
best
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
palma, a paolo shaul םֹשׁ ְרֵגּ
Er selbst bevorzugte undurchdringlich Klarheit
On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 12:49 AM Torgeir Fjeld <t.fjeld1@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:t.fjeld1@xxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
Dear all,
Jon Fosse (1959-) is translated from his native Norwegian (he writes in
*nynorsk*), to more than 40 languages. He is widely acclaimed as a pivotal
voice in contemporary fiction. Since his debut with the novel *Raudt, svart*
[Red, Black] in 1983, Fosse has published many novels, poetry, essays,
children's stories, and plays. It is perhaps as dramatist he is most widely
known internationally.
His plays include *Og aldri skal vi skiljast* [And we'll never part] (1993),
*Nokon kjem til å komme* [Someone will arrive] (1996), and more than 30 other
texts. Fosse became internationally recognised as dramatist with French
director Claude Régy's staging of *Someone Will Arrive* in Nanterre in 1999.
The following year the Berlin theatre Schaubühne with their director Thomas
Ostermeier performed *Namnet* [The Name] at the Salzburg Theatre Festival,
ensuring Fosse's reputation as one our age's most important playwrights.
Fosse holds a Master of Arts (cand.philol.) in Comparative Literature from the
University of Bergen, Norway, an institution which has since awarded him an
Honourary Doctorate. He has won a long series of awards, such as the
International Ibsen Award (2010), Pope Benedict XVI's honourary medal (2009),
and the Swedish Academy's Nordic Award (2007). He is a Commandor in the Royal
Norwegian Order of St. Olav, and was made a Knight in France's National Order
of Merit in 2007. In 2015 he won the prestigious Nordic Council's Literary
Award for the trilogy *Andvake* [Insomnia], *Olavs draumar* [Olav's Dreams] and
*Kveldsvævd* [Evening Web].
In 2011, as Norway's Poet Laureate, Jon Fosse moved in to the official
Honourary Residence for artists, after it's previous occupier, the cherished
and innovative composer Arne Nordheim had passed away. This dwelling is
situated on the grounds of the Royal Palace in Oslo, and was first owned by the
poet Henrik Wergeland in the early 19th Century. In recognition of this honour
Fosse crafted a series of poems that take Wergeland's lyrical treasure as their
starting point; "Two angels" and "It is cramped under the arch of heaven" are
from this collection (2016).
Fosse is married, and has five children. Today he lives in Oslo, Bergen, and
Hainburg, Austria.
See also:
* Translation of parts of *Morgon og kveld* [Morning and Evening]:
https://www.freelists.org/post/lit-ideas/Morning-and-evening-by-Jon-Fosse ;
* Pure Prose -- On Translating Jon Fosse from Norwegian by Damion Searls
in The Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/09/pure-prose/
* A short bio in English: https://upclosed.com/people/jon-fosse/
Mvh. / Yours sincerely,
Torgeir Fjeld
https://torgeirfjeld.com/
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