در جنگل شهر از همان خط اول با تعلیق دیوانه کنندهای شروع میشه و تا انتهای پرده دوم نمایشنامه با ورق زدن هر صفحه از کتاب، فقط سوالات بیشتری هست به ذهن خواننده میرسه. جواب بعضی از این سوالات رو میشه تا نیمه دوم نمایشنامه حدس زد ولی نویسنده، جواب اصلی که خواننده به دنبال فهمیدنش هست رو دقیقا تو آخرین صفحات کتاب آورده.
در مقایسه با بقیه آثار برشت، نمایشنامه در جنگل شهر بیشترین تعلیق رو داشت. نویسنده تو این اثرش هم، از کنایه زدن به نظام سرمایه داری دست برنداشته بود و آنتاگونیست داستان به طرز خنده داری، از شهر شیکاگو آمده بود تا به هر نحوی که شده، زخم زبانش را به نظام سرمایه داری که مولود اقتصاددان های دانشگاه شیکاگو هست، زده باشه.
اين كتاب سراسر تحقير سرمايه داري، خورده بورژوازي، جهل و روشنفكر نماهاي فاسد هست، شايد به شكلي انتقام برشت از جامعه سطحي زمان خودش هست، قهرمان داستان فردي عياش و لاابالي تصوير شده كه وظيفه تحقير زنان سطحي، منتقدين هنري، سرمايه داري و هر چيز ساختگي رو داره، و در عين عياشي لحظه اي تسليم نميشه، بينهايت اثر تميزي هست، ايكاش اونقدر آلمانيم خوب بود كه به زبان اصلي ميخوندم
This is a collection of three of Bertolt Brecht’s earliest plays, in the original German. I found them relatively easy to follow in German although I admit I looked up plot summaries for them on the Internet. The most interesting thing about “Baal” to me is his name. Baal is the name of a Sumerian god whose name appears in the Bible as a demon or code for the Devil (it’s related to the origin of “Beelzebub”).Thus, as I read the play, I imagined the part of Baal being played by a large, muscular, horned guy with skin that varied from dark yellow to bright red. I’m not certain that’s the image Brecht meant to evoke. The play is actually a parody of Bohemian artists who claim to be beyond morals and live to satisfy momentary desires, rather than more complex human needs. Baal ends up betraying and killing his lovers and friends, and on his own, running from just retribution. “Drums in the Night” is a more typical postwar Expressionist play, about a young woman whose fiancé has been lost in the war, and who is courted by an arms merchant at home. Her parents, of course, want her to marry the rich man, and rush her to do so when the fiancé reappears after three years in a prison camp. She faces the dilemma of her decision as Berlin erupts in revolutionary violence. Various characters represent elements of society and their hardships or compromises resulting from the lost war.
Im Dickicht der Städte (In the Jungle of Cities) is a much weirder and wilder ride than the other two. Set in a Chicago Brecht only knew about from movies and pulp fiction, it involves the fight of two “boxers” who come to identify themselves through their struggle. At the outset, the first “boxer” is a lumber-yard owner with criminal connections, and the other is an educated clerk in a bookstore. Shlink, the lumberman comes into the store and asks for an opinion on a book, which Garga, the clerk, refuses to give, even when offered money. This sets Shlink into a rage and results in Garga losing his job. At each turn, however, Garga outsmarts Shlink but suffers increasingly worse consequences until the end, when he realizes that the fight itself is meaningless. By this time his whole family is in shambles and the lumberyard has been burnt to the ground. It seems to be a statement about the bleak prospects and fostering of self-destructive hatreds in Germany after the First World War, and it was, in fact protested by the Nazis on its release (they’d protest anything, so it’s not a major accomplishment). I think this was my favorite of the three, but I’d have to see them in performance to say for sure.
Bueno, un llibre rarot de Brecht. Sincerament m'ha semblat un llibre random que parla tota l'estona del capitalisme, de la prostitució i de mogudes rares. Però bueno, Brecht, com a bon pensador i persona traumatitzada per les guerres, ja buscava una mica aquest distanciament, pel que està OK. Les frases lapidàries que es diuen entre ells m'han semblat prou divertides. En Ganga és un senyor odiós, tot i que sigui el protagonista.
Well, having read nothing of Brecht's before, it's probably unfair to judge him based on three pieces he himself found only kind of palatable. Baal is interesting, very strange. Some scenes are no longer impressive although I'm sure they would have been when he wrote it. Still, his death at the end. so odd. Trommel in der Nacht is like... kind of difficult to describe. You kind of don't care at all about anyone. They're all kind of crummy people, and that soldier, I'm sure you could make him quite pathetic, but still, he's so annoying. in Dickicht der stadte is so utterly bizarre, it's probably supposed to be avant garde or whatever, but my god it is hard to follow. Why the hell does Schlink give up his business to George? What is Marie's fucking problem? Who the hell is Schlink anyway? Ok, I'm still reading it, maybe it'll become clear by the end, but as of right now, pretty crazy man. Pretty damned crazy.
کمتر اتفاق می افته که از هیچ جهتی با قهرمان داستان همذات پنداری نداشته باشی و بعل یکی از همین شخصیتهاست که در عین لذتی که از داستان بردم هیچ وجه اشتراکی پیدا نمیکنی با کسی که همه جوره عوارض زندگی مدرن را تمام و کمال به نمایش میذاره .....................ا ..................... واما در جنگل شهر