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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
I went looking for a Walser because I hadn’t read him yet and found this: four mini-dramas not written for the stage, though a couple have been performed. I’m not sure how to rate my enjoyment of them. The words flow like poetry and meaning seems straightforward, though I know it isn’t, and I’m not sure I captured it all.
I thought the fairy-tale tropes would be turned upside down in these works, but if anything they are reinforced to the extreme. For the most part, the tales aren't reworked, though they aren’t told ‘straight’ either. I suppose it isn’t wrong to say that they’re told ‘slant.’
My favorite was “Cinderella,” because of how hilariously voluble the title character is, even though some of her words are alarmingly masochistic -- yet, maybe, some of them are progressive in their regressiveness. The fairy-godmother character is called Fairy Tale and some of her speech, not surprisingly, is ‘meta’.
Some of Cinderella’s words that spoke to me:
Let us seek out the trail that leads to empathy, the one that we lost in our vulgar passions. It will not be easy to find this sweetness. It requires infinite patience, like a sense rarely achieved.
Hush, don’t disturb me in this thought…it will never leave its cell, this sense of being forsaken, which I feel rising up in my heart. It will fade away like a sound, faint, guilty; and the memory will never die.
When we hang on to a scruple for much too long—something stupid—yet that provides us with no end, since a beginning, middle, end are all but shifting things…
I thought the fairy-tale tropes would be turned upside down in these works, but if anything they are reinforced to the extreme. For the most part, the tales aren't reworked, though they aren’t told ‘straight’ either. I suppose it isn’t wrong to say that they’re told ‘slant.’
My favorite was “Cinderella,” because of how hilariously voluble the title character is, even though some of her words are alarmingly masochistic -- yet, maybe, some of them are progressive in their regressiveness. The fairy-godmother character is called Fairy Tale and some of her speech, not surprisingly, is ‘meta’.
Some of Cinderella’s words that spoke to me:
Let us seek out the trail that leads to empathy, the one that we lost in our vulgar passions. It will not be easy to find this sweetness. It requires infinite patience, like a sense rarely achieved.
Hush, don’t disturb me in this thought…it will never leave its cell, this sense of being forsaken, which I feel rising up in my heart. It will fade away like a sound, faint, guilty; and the memory will never die.
When we hang on to a scruple for much too long—something stupid—yet that provides us with no end, since a beginning, middle, end are all but shifting things…
took me a suspiciously long time to read. I suppose it was the density of the language, despite the brevity of the book itself. extremely enjoyable, though macabre and surreal at times. walser is an author i will keep my eye upon in the future.
dark
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated