Herr F

by Momus

The devil has given Herr F eternal fame in exchange for his eternal soul. But Herr F, knowing that everything living forever is sooner or later screaming forever, is determined to squelch and squander this fame, return to obscurity, and die. Herr F, the take of infamous musician and writer Momus on the Faust legend, is an experimental narrative about bargaining for immortality soaked in abstracted ideas of “German-language literature,” drawn mostly from English translations of twentieth-century figures like Brecht, Kafka, Rilke, Klee, Fassbinder, and Adorno. Behind the narrative is also, of course, Goethe and his (worked and reworked) Faust.

ebook

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Nick Currie, more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a prolific songwriter, blogger and former journalist for Wired. Most of his songs are self-referential and many could be classified as postmodern.

For more than twenty-five years he has been releasing, to marginal commercial and critical success, albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness." He is fascinated by identity, Japan, Rome, the avant-garde, time travel and sex.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momus_%2...

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Momus's updating of the Faust archetype in his latest novel. It's a work of dandyism, in the best sense of that word. It's a funny, obsessively dismissive (and metaphysically dismissive) novel. Everything must go. Culture. Divinity. Success. Sex. The novelist and the novelist's best intentions. All sales are final. It's a bit of a pantheon novel where German authors are first enshrined, then summarily dismissed. I suppose a few stay enshrined, if they were themselves exceedingly dismissive (ex. Handke, Brecht). If Baudelaire had turned novelist, he would probably have written something like this (just with a different pantheon).

[Alex Sarll]

An increasing tendency towards a very European flavour of abstraction has made me less fond of Momus' music in recent years, but I enjoyed this short novel animated by the same complex of interests. It's a Faust riff in which Momus' Faust realises that, if his infernal pact is guaranteed to make his book a huge success anyway, he may as well really take the piss. And so an avant-garde book about moss becomes a bestseller, ubiquitous as it is unread, while Herr F finds that fame isn't all it's cracked up to be. This book is arid, perverse and self-regarding, ultimately swallowing its own tale altogether. None of which is intended as criticism.

[Antonomasia]

FAO the few other Momus fans on my friendslist (MJN sorry for telling you this twice) - his new ebook is free at the moment on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0...
Also on the publisher's site: http://fiktion.cc/book/herr-f-2/ (English & German versions)
NB I still haven't read any of his fiction (though heard most of the lyrics) and I gather it's pretty bizarro.

[Randal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Herr F (Everything Living Forever Is Screaming Forever)!! I found it very easy to indulge in the abstract concepts and lean into its minimalism. The story is very much Momus in its voice. Honestly, that might have been what made it so enjoyable for me, seeing as I can usually find a way to enjoy anything he creates, and carry it through whatever I end up doing as well.

"By becoming famous for writing about moss, and by selling my posthumous existence to the devil, I, Heinrich Faust, have scored a triple whammy: I have combined moss, death and fame into a sort of existential sandwich. I have then munched into my sandwich, only to be disappointed that the ingredients all taste the same."

Rather than just a story, there really is a stronger impression of a jumble of reformed pre-existing ideas. Notes that may or may not be true or relevant. While Momus's idea isn't necessarily something out of worldly expectations, or so out of the box that it's jaw-dropping... He breaks out of those expectations, I believe, and his story is gripping through its jumps, wild descriptions, and what conclusions it leads your brain to.

Most people I talk to usually already have a preconceived notion about the give and take with fame. How there's not too much fulfillment in it, and how important it is to never fully reach your aspirations. This story takes this idea to its extremes.

I noticed that the book speaks for itself in the same way that it speaks for the reworked and referenced literature inside of it. All in a very detached way. It's a quality I like, because compared to other stories I've read, or movies I've seen with similar attempts, it doesn't end up justifying itself as other works have. This is what really leads to it coming across as self-indulgent, with such a fascinating and mind-changing idea of identity and the retelling of experience that I haven't seen mirrored anywhere else so effectively.

"Nevertheless, when you speak of moss, you are actually speaking of your wish not to negotiate the complexities of everyday life. You would like me to bear this in mind, because it will become important later."

I wouldn't have enjoyed this book as much if I hadn't been leaning into odd descriptions that never get clarified. It's effective in its effect on the reader, and you don't need to know the reality to know the truth. In truth, being an unreliable narrator is sometimes, if not most times, more fulfilling.

[Nirvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poignant, playful, random and violent, at first glance Herr F is precisely what one would expect from a novel written by the prolific cult songwriter; yet he defies expectations.

Best Kindle freebie ever.

[Susi · Rating 3 out of 5]

ich habe nur die Hälfte geschafft, die Schreibe ist toll, der Story fehlt aber einiges.