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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Das war so gut
Ich steh bisschen unter Schock
Wie jemand sich so stark in nur ein paar Wochen ändern kann
Der Vogel steht für Stella!!! Das war so gut gemacht omg
Ich würde sagen, die Novelle war perfekt
Ich steh bisschen unter Schock
Wie jemand sich so stark in nur ein paar Wochen ändern kann
Ich würde sagen, die Novelle war perfekt
Spoilers, she dies
I did not know I had this book in my shelf. This is so depressing Stella deserved better. The writing tho is so good and hmmm the hypocrisy of that couple both of them are terrible
I did not know I had this book in my shelf. This is so depressing Stella deserved better. The writing tho is so good and hmmm the hypocrisy of that couple both of them are terrible
Wir töten Stella: 5 Sterne
Das Fünfte Jahr: 3 Sterne
Das Fünfte Jahr: 3 Sterne
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Killing Stella
Many of us are acquainted with the human flaws known as the seven cardinal sins, a classification of vices of Christian origin, encompassing pride, lust, greed, envy, wrath, sloth and gluttony. In Flanders, a popular weekly has been using the sins as an interview format for years, and the Vatican gave a modern twirl to them in 2008, by listing new sins such as causing environmental blight, genetic modification and causing poverty.
In 1958 the Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer (1920-1970) published a disconcerting tale on the – in this case not only cardinal but also deadly - sin of sloth, as a mind-state of unresponsiveness, a passive inert or sluggish mentation, the disregard of the seven gifts of grace (wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, fortitude, fear of the Lord), leading to the neglect of one’s duties of charity towards its fellow creatures – a failure to do things that one should do.
Frailty, thy name is woman
Anna, a 40 year old Austrian housewife, reflects on the death of Stella, the 19 year old daughter of a friend who has lived temporarily with Anna and her family. Alone in the house for the weekend while her husband and two children are away, she ruthlessly dissects her own emotions and behaviour which have furthered Stella’s death. At first an nondescript, even mouselike girl, Anna encourages Stella to reveal her ‘underlying beauty’ by dressing her up in more flattering clothes. As a result, Richard, Anna’s adulterous husband, seduces Stella, exploiting her ingenuousness, dropping her after a few weeks, after which Stella dies in a traffic accident. Anna concedes to have stood by motionlessly letting her husband annihilate Stella’s life. She did nothing to help, protect or warn the young girl, turning a blind eye to Stella’s misery, evading mercilessly every contact with ill and unhappy people, like her husband does.
Without intervening, she observes Stella’s downfall like she is watching the dying of a little bird which has fallen out of the nest from her window, wishing half-heartedly to turn back time and restore the harm done to both creatures epitomizing weakness and frailty, but without taking action.
Submissively enduring the humiliation of adultery Anna discloses her weak spot, her desire to safeguard the Freudian realm of bliss she has created with her son. As Anna is a mere object to her husband, something he possesses, just like the house and the children, she looks for a surrogate to love in her son Wolfgang, debouching in a semi-perverse attachment to the war child he is. She never confronts her husband with his untrue behaviour and favours the apparent calm and peace above addressing the truth, burying her head in the sand of indifference.
Torn apart by her pusillanimous complicity , Anna bitterly considers herself culpable in relation to Stella’s death, having preferred to uphold the spurious household harmony in her family, however suffocating to its members, including herself.
The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
(Plutarch)
Barbarism begins at home. Where is Anna on the thin line between victim and perpetrator? Her motives and state of mind are repulsive and fascinating at the same time. Are there any extenuating circumstances exonerating this crime of sloth? Even if the suffocating patriarchal bourgeois family structure could be blamed for Anna’s paralysis to a certain extent, Haushofer does not let any member of the nuclear family raise undamaged for the wreckage of cowardice and neglect. Could one simply sigh and quote Joyce, ‘Frailty, thy name is marriage’, as Anne deliberately cages herself in the marital institution? As there is no virtue in suffering in itself, I presume Haushofer wouldn’t agree. 'It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.'(Molière). Haushofer’s brilliant story on guilty silence is proverbial in recalling the hushing up of the Holocaust in the stagnating denazification process of Austria in the fifties even as it is troubling the present day reader’s conscience with disturbing moral questions.
Charles Joshua Chaplin, Fallen Bird's Nest
Wir töten Stella (We murder Stella/Killing Stella) is a highly suggestive, atmospheric and chillingly dark novella about guilt by omission, the failure and refusal to act when a person is in need, by omitting one’s responsibilities, and its unsettling consequences.
An Austrian film adaptation of the novella by Julian Pölsler came out in 2017. As We Murder Stella is reputed to be Marlen Haushofer’s first fully achieved piece of writing and a 'prequel' to her more known [b:The Wall|586852|The Wall|Marlen Haushofer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435260852s/586852.jpg|573687] (also a film by Pölsler), I look forward to read that as well.
I heartily thank M. Sarki for bringing this intriguing author to my attention.
Many of us are acquainted with the human flaws known as the seven cardinal sins, a classification of vices of Christian origin, encompassing pride, lust, greed, envy, wrath, sloth and gluttony. In Flanders, a popular weekly has been using the sins as an interview format for years, and the Vatican gave a modern twirl to them in 2008, by listing new sins such as causing environmental blight, genetic modification and causing poverty.
In 1958 the Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer (1920-1970) published a disconcerting tale on the – in this case not only cardinal but also deadly - sin of sloth, as a mind-state of unresponsiveness, a passive inert or sluggish mentation, the disregard of the seven gifts of grace (wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, fortitude, fear of the Lord), leading to the neglect of one’s duties of charity towards its fellow creatures – a failure to do things that one should do.
Frailty, thy name is woman
Anna, a 40 year old Austrian housewife, reflects on the death of Stella, the 19 year old daughter of a friend who has lived temporarily with Anna and her family. Alone in the house for the weekend while her husband and two children are away, she ruthlessly dissects her own emotions and behaviour which have furthered Stella’s death. At first an nondescript, even mouselike girl, Anna encourages Stella to reveal her ‘underlying beauty’ by dressing her up in more flattering clothes. As a result, Richard, Anna’s adulterous husband, seduces Stella, exploiting her ingenuousness, dropping her after a few weeks, after which Stella dies in a traffic accident. Anna concedes to have stood by motionlessly letting her husband annihilate Stella’s life. She did nothing to help, protect or warn the young girl, turning a blind eye to Stella’s misery, evading mercilessly every contact with ill and unhappy people, like her husband does.
Without intervening, she observes Stella’s downfall like she is watching the dying of a little bird which has fallen out of the nest from her window, wishing half-heartedly to turn back time and restore the harm done to both creatures epitomizing weakness and frailty, but without taking action.
Submissively enduring the humiliation of adultery Anna discloses her weak spot, her desire to safeguard the Freudian realm of bliss she has created with her son. As Anna is a mere object to her husband, something he possesses, just like the house and the children, she looks for a surrogate to love in her son Wolfgang, debouching in a semi-perverse attachment to the war child he is. She never confronts her husband with his untrue behaviour and favours the apparent calm and peace above addressing the truth, burying her head in the sand of indifference.
Torn apart by her pusillanimous complicity , Anna bitterly considers herself culpable in relation to Stella’s death, having preferred to uphold the spurious household harmony in her family, however suffocating to its members, including herself.
The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
(Plutarch)
Barbarism begins at home. Where is Anna on the thin line between victim and perpetrator? Her motives and state of mind are repulsive and fascinating at the same time. Are there any extenuating circumstances exonerating this crime of sloth? Even if the suffocating patriarchal bourgeois family structure could be blamed for Anna’s paralysis to a certain extent, Haushofer does not let any member of the nuclear family raise undamaged for the wreckage of cowardice and neglect. Could one simply sigh and quote Joyce, ‘Frailty, thy name is marriage’, as Anne deliberately cages herself in the marital institution? As there is no virtue in suffering in itself, I presume Haushofer wouldn’t agree. 'It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.'(Molière). Haushofer’s brilliant story on guilty silence is proverbial in recalling the hushing up of the Holocaust in the stagnating denazification process of Austria in the fifties even as it is troubling the present day reader’s conscience with disturbing moral questions.
Charles Joshua Chaplin, Fallen Bird's Nest
Wir töten Stella (We murder Stella/Killing Stella) is a highly suggestive, atmospheric and chillingly dark novella about guilt by omission, the failure and refusal to act when a person is in need, by omitting one’s responsibilities, and its unsettling consequences.
An Austrian film adaptation of the novella by Julian Pölsler came out in 2017. As We Murder Stella is reputed to be Marlen Haushofer’s first fully achieved piece of writing and a 'prequel' to her more known [b:The Wall|586852|The Wall|Marlen Haushofer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1435260852s/586852.jpg|573687] (also a film by Pölsler), I look forward to read that as well.
I heartily thank M. Sarki for bringing this intriguing author to my attention.
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes