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117

Black Danube

on Karl Kraus & Thomas Bernhard

6
terms
1
notes

about the locality of satire, and two Viennese satirists: Karl Kraus, who is hard to read out of context (I think?) and Thomas Bernhard who wrote (among others) a novel on Wittgenstein that is one of the "towering achievements of postwar literature". the essay ends by noting that Bernhard had a special hatred for Austria (expressed in his work) and noting the limits of that hatred? this one didn't really resonate with me

Steiner, G. (2009). Black Danube. In Steiner, G. At the New Yorker. New Directions, pp. 117-127

(noun) diocese / (noun) the office of bishop / (noun) the administrative body of a Mormon ward consisting of a bishop and two high priests as counselors

118

of bishopric and cabinet

—p.118 by George Steiner
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

of bishopric and cabinet

—p.118 by George Steiner
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) a region or scene of simple pleasure and quiet

118

That there was within Kraus a jealously guarded arcadia--a shy, tensed love of certain Bohemian and Alpine retreats--is certain.

—p.118 by George Steiner
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

That there was within Kraus a jealously guarded arcadia--a shy, tensed love of certain Bohemian and Alpine retreats--is certain.

—p.118 by George Steiner
uncertain
7 years, 6 months ago

(noun) a person who sells quack medicines from a platform / (noun) a boastful unscrupulous pretender; charlatan / (verb) to beguile or transform by trickery / (verb) to play the mountebank

122

In front of Hitler, an anti-master of the word more ruthless than he was--an actor, mountebank, declaimer more mesmerizing--Kraus fell silent.

—p.122 by George Steiner
unknown
7 years, 6 months ago

In front of Hitler, an anti-master of the word more ruthless than he was--an actor, mountebank, declaimer more mesmerizing--Kraus fell silent.

—p.122 by George Steiner
unknown
7 years, 6 months ago

(verb) to wear off the skin of; abrade / (verb) to censure scathingly

124

an instrument wholly fitted to its excoriating purpose

—p.124 by George Steiner
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

an instrument wholly fitted to its excoriating purpose

—p.124 by George Steiner
notable
7 years, 6 months ago
125

I was soon confirmed in my suspicion that our relations with Jesus Christ were in reality no different from those we had had with Adolf Hitler six months or a year earlier. When we consider the songs and choruses that are sung to the honour and glory of any so-called extraordinary personality, no matter whom--songs and choruses like those we used to sing at the boarding house during the Nazi period and later--we are bound to admit that, with slight differences in the wording, the texts are always the same and are always sung to the same music. All in all these songs and choruses are simply an expression of stupidity, baseness, and lack of character on the part of those who sing them, The voice one hears in these songs and choruses is the voice of inanity--universal, worldwide inanity. All the educational crimes perpetrated against the young in educational establishments the world over are perpetuated in the name of some extraordinary personality, whether his name is Hitler or Jesus or whatever.

quoting Thomas Bernhard (Gathering Evidence)

—p.125 by George Steiner 7 years, 6 months ago

I was soon confirmed in my suspicion that our relations with Jesus Christ were in reality no different from those we had had with Adolf Hitler six months or a year earlier. When we consider the songs and choruses that are sung to the honour and glory of any so-called extraordinary personality, no matter whom--songs and choruses like those we used to sing at the boarding house during the Nazi period and later--we are bound to admit that, with slight differences in the wording, the texts are always the same and are always sung to the same music. All in all these songs and choruses are simply an expression of stupidity, baseness, and lack of character on the part of those who sing them, The voice one hears in these songs and choruses is the voice of inanity--universal, worldwide inanity. All the educational crimes perpetrated against the young in educational establishments the world over are perpetuated in the name of some extraordinary personality, whether his name is Hitler or Jesus or whatever.

quoting Thomas Bernhard (Gathering Evidence)

—p.125 by George Steiner 7 years, 6 months ago

(adjective) fatty oily / (adjective) smooth and greasy in texture or appearance / (adjective) plastic / (adjective) full of unction / (adjective) revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality

126

Austria's unctuous burial of its thoroughly Nazi past

—p.126 by George Steiner
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

Austria's unctuous burial of its thoroughly Nazi past

—p.126 by George Steiner
confirm
7 years, 6 months ago

(verb) to give off or reflect light in bright beams or flashes; sparkle / (verb) to be brilliant or showy in technique or style

127

a coruscating epilogue to fin-de-siècle Vienna

—p.127 by George Steiner
notable
7 years, 6 months ago

a coruscating epilogue to fin-de-siècle Vienna

—p.127 by George Steiner
notable
7 years, 6 months ago