Without Lifting A Finger

Finished with Frisch (for now). Moving on to another favorite: Buchner's Lenz . I took just a few "clips." I always love Montauk . * Lynn will not get to know what his vice is. There will not be time for that. It needs a marriage, a long one, to reveal it . . . I did not turn her into a maidservant (I occasionally washed the dishes, carried out the trash cans, did the shopping, etc.) and I have never struck the woman I love. Her complaint is a different one, and it is deserved. It took me a year to see it. At first I thought her verdict grotesque: it was that in ten years I had done nothing to help her develop her potentialities. I lavished every attention on her: the easiest way of treating a woman, and the worst. I can see that. Her reproach strikes home, but not in the way she meant it. Obviously, I have been acting from the very start as if I were God Almighty, or at least Adam, from whose rib Woman was made: COME, FOLLOW, AND I WILL LEAD! This woman is not un...

There's word golf and author golf. I got to Wedekind via Buchner. * Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918), usually known as Frank Wedekind , was a German playwright . His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism , and he was a major influence on the development of epic theatre . Works Wedekind's first major play, Frühlings Erwachen ( Spring Awakening , 1891), which concerns sexuality and puberty among some young German students, caused a scandal, as it contained scenes of homoeroticism , implied group male masturbation , actual male masturbation, sado-masochism between a teenage boy and girl, rape, and suicide , as well as references to abortion . In 2006, it was adapted into a successful Broadway musical , Spring Awakening . The "Lulu" plays Erdgeist ( Earth Spirit , 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora ( Pandora's Box , 1904) are probably his best k...

Lenz shuddered when he touched her cold limbs and saw her half-open glassy eyes. The child seemed to him so forlorn, and he himself so alone and isolated; he threw himself on top of the corpse; death frightened him, he was seized by an agony of pain, these features, this quiet face were going to rot away, he threw himself to his knees and with all the plangent ardour of despair he prayed that God might give him, weak and wretched creature that he was, a sign, and bring the child back to life; whereupon he huddled down in total concentration, focusing all his will-power on a single point, and thus he remained for a long time, quite rigid. Then he stood and, grasping the hands of the child, said loudly and firmly: 'Arise, and walk!' But the words echoed back from the sober walls as though in mockery, and the corpse stayed cold. 

Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz (23 January 1751, or 12 January in the Julian calendar –4 June 1792, or 24 May in the Julian calendar) was a Baltic German writer of the Sturm und Drang movement. Life Lenz was born in Sesswegen (Cesvaine) , now Latvia , the son of the pietistic minister Christian David Lenz (1720–1798), later General Superintendent of Livonia. When Lenz was 9, in 1760, the family moved to Dorpat (Tartu) , where his father had been offered a minister's post. His first published poem appeared when he was 15. From 1768 to 1770 he studied theology on a scholarship, first at Dorpat and then at Königsberg . While there, he attended lectures by Immanuel Kant , who encouraged him to read Jean-Jacques Rousseau . He began increasingly to follow his literary interests and to neglect theology. His first independent publication, the long poem Die Landplagen ( "Torments of the Land" ) appeared in 1769. He also studied music, most likely with either the Ukrainian v...

     In the tiny churchyard the snow was gone, dark moss amongst the black crosses, a cluster of late roses leaning against the churchyard wall, late flowers, too, peering from the moss, sometimes sunlight, then shadow again. The service began, the voices of the people merged in bright pure harmony; it was like gazing into pure clear water from a mountain spring. The sounds of the singing died away, Lenz began to speak, he was shy, thanks to the music his numbness was gone, all his pain awoke and filled his heart. A sweet sensation of endless well-being crept over him. He spoke simply to the people, all shared his suffering, and it was a comfort to him if he could bring sleep to weeping tired eyes and peace to tortured hearts, if in the face of this existence racked by material needs he could guide this silent suffering towards heaven. He had found more strength by the time he finished, then the voices began to sing again: Let in me the sacred passion ...

From the Intro by John Reddick: No other writer is more enthusiastically hailed by his present-day successors: Heinrich Boll has spoken of his 'remarkable relevance', Gunter Grass of his 'incendiary' force; for Christa Wolf, 'German prose begins with Buchner's Lenz ' -- which constitutes her 'absolute ideal', her 'primal experience' in German literature; Wolf Biermann has gone so far as to describe him simply as Germany's 'greatest writer'.

Casting around for something new to read, I hit on Buchner. His works (very few in number) were on Kindle, so I thought: Why not reread Georg. OK, so I had to shell out a little cash (freebies were only in German). I remembered liking him very much in paper. Currently reading his play,  Danton's Death . *** Karl Georg Büchner (17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837) was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was also a revolutionary, a natural scientist, and the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. His literary achievements, though few in number, are generally held in great esteem in Germany and it is widely believed that, had it not been for his early death, he might have joined such central German literary figures as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller at the summit of their profession. Life and career Born in Goddelau (now part of Riedstadt ) in the Grand Duchy of Hesse as the son of a physician, Büchner attended a human...