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Bad Words: Selected Short Prose
“I now no longer use the better words.”
Ilse Aichinger (1921–2016) was one of the most important writers of postwar Austrian and German literature. Born in 1921 to a Jewish mother, she survived World War II in Vienna, while her twin sister Helga escaped with one of the last Kindertransporte to England in 1938. Many of their relatives were deported and murdered.
Those losses make themselves felt throughout Aichinger’s writing, which since her first and only novel, The Greater Hope, in 1948, has highlighted displacement, estrangement, and a sharp skepticism toward language. By 1976, when she published Bad Words in German, her writing had become powerfully poetic, dense, and experimental. This volume presents the whole of the original Bad Words in English for the first time, along with a selection of Aichinger’s other short stories of the period; together, they demonstrate her courageous effort to create and deploy a language unmarred by misleading certainties, preconceived rules, or implicit ideologies.
My language and I:
I. My green donkey ; My father made from straw ; The mouse ; The arrival ; The crossbeam
II. Memories for Samuel Greenberg ; Port sing ; Five proposals ; Only Joshua ; The Jouet sisters ; My language and I
Bad words:
I. Bad words ; Stains ; Doubts about balconies The connoisseurs of western columns ; The guest ; Ambros ; Dover ; Privas ; Albany ; The forgetfulness of St Ives ; Rahel's clothes ; Cemetery in B. ; Wisconsin and apple rice
II. Hemlin ; Surrender ; Salvage ; Galy Sad ; L. to Muzot ; Sur le bonheur ; Consensus ; Insurrection ; Queens
Coda. Snow
Ilse Aichinger (1921–2016) was one of the most important writers of postwar Austrian and German literature. Born in 1921 to a Jewish mother, she survived World War II in Vienna, while her twin sister Helga escaped with one of the last Kindertransporte to England in 1938. Many of their relatives were deported and murdered.
Those losses make themselves felt throughout Aichinger’s writing, which since her first and only novel, The Greater Hope, in 1948, has highlighted displacement, estrangement, and a sharp skepticism toward language. By 1976, when she published Bad Words in German, her writing had become powerfully poetic, dense, and experimental. This volume presents the whole of the original Bad Words in English for the first time, along with a selection of Aichinger’s other short stories of the period; together, they demonstrate her courageous effort to create and deploy a language unmarred by misleading certainties, preconceived rules, or implicit ideologies.
My language and I:
I. My green donkey ; My father made from straw ; The mouse ; The arrival ; The crossbeam
II. Memories for Samuel Greenberg ; Port sing ; Five proposals ; Only Joshua ; The Jouet sisters ; My language and I
Bad words:
I. Bad words ; Stains ; Doubts about balconies The connoisseurs of western columns ; The guest ; Ambros ; Dover ; Privas ; Albany ; The forgetfulness of St Ives ; Rahel's clothes ; Cemetery in B. ; Wisconsin and apple rice
II. Hemlin ; Surrender ; Salvage ; Galy Sad ; L. to Muzot ; Sur le bonheur ; Consensus ; Insurrection ; Queens
Coda. Snow
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 2018
5 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Ilse Aichinger
72 books34 followersIlse Aichinger (born 1 November 1921) is an Austrian writer noted for her accounts of her persecution by the Nazis because of her Jewish ancestry.
Aichinger was born in 1921 in Vienna, along with her twin sister, Helga, to a Jewish doctor (her mother) and a Christian teacher. Her mother's family was assimilated, and Aichinger was raised a Catholic.[2] She spent her childhood in Linz and Vienna, where her family was subjected to Nazi persecution starting in 1933. Aichinger began to study medicine in 1945, working as a writer on the side. In her first novel, Das vierte Tor (The Fourth Gate), she wrote of her own experience under Nazism.
After studying for five semesters, Aichinger interrupted her studies in medicine again in 1948 in order to finish her second novel, Die größere Hoffnung (The Greater Hope).
In 1953, she married the German writer Günter Eich.
In 1955, Aichinger was awarded the Immermann-Preis by the city of Düsseldorf and in 1956, she joined the Akademie der Künste of Berlin. In 1957, Aichinger won the Literaturpreis der Freien Hansestadt Bremen. In 1963, Aichinger moved to Großgmain, near Salzburg. In 1971, she was awarded the Nelly-Sachs-Preis.
Reviewing a 1957 volume of her short works in translation, The Bound Man and Other Stories, Anthony Boucher described Aichinger as "a sort of concise Kafka," praising the title story for its "narrative use of multi-valued symbolism."[3]
She was honered the German international literary Petrarca-Preis in 1982. After 1985 Aichinger increasingly retreated from public life.[citation needed] In 1987, she received the Europalia-Literatur-Preis, and in 1991, she was awarded the Großer Literaturpreis of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste|Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste. Other honors included the Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis für Literatur in 1995 and the 2001 Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, which she received along with W. G. Sebald and Markus Werner.
Aichinger is the aunt of artist Ruth Rix.
Aichinger was born in 1921 in Vienna, along with her twin sister, Helga, to a Jewish doctor (her mother) and a Christian teacher. Her mother's family was assimilated, and Aichinger was raised a Catholic.[2] She spent her childhood in Linz and Vienna, where her family was subjected to Nazi persecution starting in 1933. Aichinger began to study medicine in 1945, working as a writer on the side. In her first novel, Das vierte Tor (The Fourth Gate), she wrote of her own experience under Nazism.
After studying for five semesters, Aichinger interrupted her studies in medicine again in 1948 in order to finish her second novel, Die größere Hoffnung (The Greater Hope).
In 1953, she married the German writer Günter Eich.
In 1955, Aichinger was awarded the Immermann-Preis by the city of Düsseldorf and in 1956, she joined the Akademie der Künste of Berlin. In 1957, Aichinger won the Literaturpreis der Freien Hansestadt Bremen. In 1963, Aichinger moved to Großgmain, near Salzburg. In 1971, she was awarded the Nelly-Sachs-Preis.
Reviewing a 1957 volume of her short works in translation, The Bound Man and Other Stories, Anthony Boucher described Aichinger as "a sort of concise Kafka," praising the title story for its "narrative use of multi-valued symbolism."[3]
She was honered the German international literary Petrarca-Preis in 1982. After 1985 Aichinger increasingly retreated from public life.[citation needed] In 1987, she received the Europalia-Literatur-Preis, and in 1991, she was awarded the Großer Literaturpreis of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste|Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste. Other honors included the Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis für Literatur in 1995 and the 2001 Joseph-Breitbach-Preis, which she received along with W. G. Sebald and Markus Werner.
Aichinger is the aunt of artist Ruth Rix.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 3, 2020
"To be so quickly misunderstood borders on homage."
This is a curious and playful collection of an Austrian author who doesn't seem quite to have gotten her due despite some past translations and, more importantly, these newer ones. Aichinger is a prose experimenter in the vein of Daniil Kharms or even a short-story Nabokov whacked out on methaqualone while having his feet massaged by apologetic futurists. These "stories", and I use the term lightly, though cohesion is there, bubbling just beneath the surface, are sparse, concise little bizarrities. Aichinger had a whole aesthetic approach that had to do with stripping language and meaning down and basically turning fiction inside-out, so you really are delving into the heights of the potential of the medium here, so be warned.
This likely isn't for everyone. If you feel hobbled or constrained by the idea of plot, narrative, or you find poetry "too anarchic", you'll likely not like these little insanities, but I did. Read this as more poetry than prose and you'll see what I mean.
This is a curious and playful collection of an Austrian author who doesn't seem quite to have gotten her due despite some past translations and, more importantly, these newer ones. Aichinger is a prose experimenter in the vein of Daniil Kharms or even a short-story Nabokov whacked out on methaqualone while having his feet massaged by apologetic futurists. These "stories", and I use the term lightly, though cohesion is there, bubbling just beneath the surface, are sparse, concise little bizarrities. Aichinger had a whole aesthetic approach that had to do with stripping language and meaning down and basically turning fiction inside-out, so you really are delving into the heights of the potential of the medium here, so be warned.
This likely isn't for everyone. If you feel hobbled or constrained by the idea of plot, narrative, or you find poetry "too anarchic", you'll likely not like these little insanities, but I did. Read this as more poetry than prose and you'll see what I mean.
January 3, 2022
I was lazy and read the English translation of Bad Words by Ilse Aichinger. I wonder if it would mean even more to me if I read the German because her writing style apparently took advantage of bending the rules of German to add meaning to her word choice. Big fan of that idea. The short stories themselves were interesting. I would certainly try to give it another read later to see if they hit me differently.
March 25, 2025
“Es gibt auf ausländischen Balkonen keine Enttäuschng, man weiß Bescheid.”
Ni bolj agresivnega literarnega dela, kot so to Schlechte Wörter.
“Die Balkonen in den Heimatsländern sind anders. Sie sind besser befestigt, man tritt rascher hinaus. Aber man sollte sich vorsehen, weil die Balkone in den Heimatsländern anders sind. Weil ihre Bauart Dinge ermöglicht, die auf anderen Balkonen nicht möglich waren. […] Man kann es sich gut vorstellen, wie die Balkone ineinander verkrallt zu den Engeln stürzen, liebevoll von Flügeln getragen, und man wagt nicht zu bedenken, was sich daraus ergeben könnte, in welcher From sie daraus Nutzen zögen.”
Ilse Aichinger opisuje kraje, kjer namiguje na mejne situacije, ki omogočajo ljudem, da doživijo trenutke jasnovidnosti in veličastnosti. Njeni kraji nikoli niso poimenovani, ampak samo poduhovljeni. Iz oči svojega rojstnega kraja bere visoko stopnjo trpljenja, žalosti in žrtvovanja.
“Es schmälert diese Sicherheit nicht, dass sie von woanders, von der Fremde her, als fremdländische Balkone angesehen werden könnten. Das ergibt keinen Sinn für sie. Und das macht ihre Gefahr aus.”
Sovraži Združene države zaradi njihovega sijaja, arogance, neizmernosti, nasprotno, o Angliji govori s posebno nežnostjo in hvaležnostjo.
Vedno se giblje med žalostjo in ogorčenjem, pomanjkanjem iluzij in upanjem. Kljub temu ima toliko poguma, da ne dovoli svojimi bolečim premislekom, da jo podrejo.
Najbolj zanimivi so tako njeni balkoni iz domovine, najljubša mi je njena nežnost do Anglije, kjer je bivala njena sestra.
Podobno kot v drugih delih gleda z ogorčenjem na dogajanja. Naučila se je živeti s strahom: njeno delo je eno samo soočenje ali poskus soočenja z njenim življenjem in okoljem.
Težka knjiga, vsako zgodbo je potrebno prebrati, se poglobiti vanjo, veliko razmišljati o njej. Ta knjiga mi je njeno najljubše in najtežje literarno delo, ki ga bom še prebirala jutri, in jutri, in pojutrišnjem in spet jutri…
Ni bolj agresivnega literarnega dela, kot so to Schlechte Wörter.
“Die Balkonen in den Heimatsländern sind anders. Sie sind besser befestigt, man tritt rascher hinaus. Aber man sollte sich vorsehen, weil die Balkone in den Heimatsländern anders sind. Weil ihre Bauart Dinge ermöglicht, die auf anderen Balkonen nicht möglich waren. […] Man kann es sich gut vorstellen, wie die Balkone ineinander verkrallt zu den Engeln stürzen, liebevoll von Flügeln getragen, und man wagt nicht zu bedenken, was sich daraus ergeben könnte, in welcher From sie daraus Nutzen zögen.”
Ilse Aichinger opisuje kraje, kjer namiguje na mejne situacije, ki omogočajo ljudem, da doživijo trenutke jasnovidnosti in veličastnosti. Njeni kraji nikoli niso poimenovani, ampak samo poduhovljeni. Iz oči svojega rojstnega kraja bere visoko stopnjo trpljenja, žalosti in žrtvovanja.
“Es schmälert diese Sicherheit nicht, dass sie von woanders, von der Fremde her, als fremdländische Balkone angesehen werden könnten. Das ergibt keinen Sinn für sie. Und das macht ihre Gefahr aus.”
Sovraži Združene države zaradi njihovega sijaja, arogance, neizmernosti, nasprotno, o Angliji govori s posebno nežnostjo in hvaležnostjo.
Vedno se giblje med žalostjo in ogorčenjem, pomanjkanjem iluzij in upanjem. Kljub temu ima toliko poguma, da ne dovoli svojimi bolečim premislekom, da jo podrejo.
Najbolj zanimivi so tako njeni balkoni iz domovine, najljubša mi je njena nežnost do Anglije, kjer je bivala njena sestra.
Podobno kot v drugih delih gleda z ogorčenjem na dogajanja. Naučila se je živeti s strahom: njeno delo je eno samo soočenje ali poskus soočenja z njenim življenjem in okoljem.
Težka knjiga, vsako zgodbo je potrebno prebrati, se poglobiti vanjo, veliko razmišljati o njej. Ta knjiga mi je njeno najljubše in najtežje literarno delo, ki ga bom še prebirala jutri, in jutri, in pojutrišnjem in spet jutri…
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews