I Am Dali kindly reports from the scene of tonight’s Tribute to Robert Walser in New York:
At 4:15 the event started off with the explanation by a Master of Ceremonies that the noticeably empty chair on the stage represented the writers of the world who have no voice, specifically a few dozen writers and journalists who have been railroaded into political prisons in China. Michael KRUGER gave a quick background about Walser and his obscurity relative to Mann, Brecht, and Gottfried Benn who all died around the same time as Walser but whom were memorialized differently, which is to say actually memorialized at all. Specifically he pointed out how each was rememberified as a particular monolithic figure: “Mann, ‘THE’ German writer, even though he never went back to live in Germany; Brecht, the artist as Activist; and Benn […] the pure artist, or something along those lines.” (I’m paraphrasing.) Kruger presided as the unofficial president of the panel because of his careful speaking style combined with his obvious wealth of insider’s information from the German literary sphere. He was given deferential glances when other panelists weren’t confident in their speculations. Susan BERNOFSKY read a few pages from near the start of The Assistant, then read a bunch of pages from her unedited “The Tanners” manuscript. Deborah EISENBERG gave a superb voice to a few passages from Jakob Von Gunten, including the death of the Fraulein. That one really had the crowd of course, not least of all me, I wish I had a handkerchief. As it was I had nothing and couldn’t even blow my personal nose. Jeffrey EUGENIDES read Trousers to the audience, a choice that certainly would have had my stamp of approval if anybody had given me any authority. He gave it a very slow but perfectly cheeky voice, with good comedic timing. Wayne Koestenbaum explained his 6 reasons for loving Robert Walser (all pretty accurate), and then he read “The Job Application” in a sly slippery voice, which may have been his own voice, but which came off perfectly. He also read the The (non?)Robber passage, from Speaking to the Rose, and [Walser’s] Dostoevsky’s Idiot.
I noticed that I say “all pretty accurate” as if I am the supreme allied commander of understanding Walser.
I suddenly can’t remember if Kruger might have read a selection of Walser, too.
The Q&A session:
The influence on Kafka was discussed with the usual citations, and a crowd member pointed out a perceived difference between Kafka’s “nightmarish” visions of society/bureaucracy and Walser’s “more..enchantment” with it. Walser’s striking shifts of tone were commented upon. An audience member asked if the hard-to-pin-down Walserian tone was “for show” or “…nutty”, and decided it was for show. Bernofsky mentioned that there’s several volumes worth of short pieces that aren’t in English yet. I think an American authoress was mentioned by name as someone who arguably does something akin to Walser but I didn’t catch the name. Thomas Bernhardt got mentioned in context of who the [excuses for] successors to Walser are. Emily Dickinson’s fluctuations between minutiae and grand epic themes got mentioned– especially the “Master’s letters.”
I was about to ask if any of the panelists knew of any explicit connection between Walser and Ulrich Braker, who is by a long-shot the only author I know of (except Kafka obviously) who has much of anything in common with Walser stylistically, but the session was over and the museum was closing. That was when I ran away.
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Sam :: May.03.2008 ::
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