Fugls føde

by Peter Seeberg

English (translation)
Original Danish

Genres: Danish, Classics, Literature, Novels, Fiction

201 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Danish author. Has mainly written novels and short stories. Peter Seeberg characterised as a young poet his authorship as "Esoteric and of spartan nature, with few motifs, if there is more than the one - fundamental egocentric - than the will of reaching the bottom in the bottomless". Seeberg's début happened during the breakthrough of modernism in Danish literature in the 50's. This was with the slightly special novel "Bipersonerne" (1956). Peter Seeberg, whose authorship circulated around the strict modernistic consciousness of man's strangeness, has with its vision of History's entropy as a utopia shown itself as the great confirmation.

Reviews

[Lars Jerlach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Seeberg’s 'Fugls Føde’ (Bird Pickings, 1957), a novel heavily influenced by the French existentialists, is perceived exclusively through the narrator’s procrastinating consciousness, but whereas you usually feel some kind of sympathy with the main character, Tom, a nihilistic writer who vainly attempts to create something ‘real’, never achieves this. There are in fact so many annoying factors attributed to the protagonist, who is without a doubt the main bulk of his own misery, that it’s hard to find anything to attach one’s sympathy to. Tom is so absolutely hopeless that it often diverges into the absurd, and the novel is almost comical in its descriptions of how far he will go to do absolutely nothing. Tom’s a perpetual drifter both tangibly and philosophically, and even a significant monetary incentive to write something real, offered to him by his polar opposite, Hiffs, a successful and content character, cannot make Tom commit to any form of action. Throughout the novel he begs, borrows, and steals to get by, but getting by is all he ever does.

This short novel is a merciless portrayal of alienation in the Western world, and our complex relationship to reality permeates every layer of the narrative. We are introduced to damp dilapidated interiors, the stench of petroleum, muddy fields, noisy streets, city busses stinking of diesel, and of butchers, shopkeepers, and tobacconists, and while all of it feels very real, it is not possible to find a place quite like it in real life. This is a fictional representation that is merely reminiscent of our reality, and although Tom’s existence seems to be on a constant collision course with reality, he is completely unable to connect with it. He has no money, and as he can’t properly heat his house, he feels the coldness creeping in at night when he lies sleepless covered by his damp bed linen, and there’s a hole in the threadbare sole of his shoes, so he can feel the ground under his feet when he walks the wet city streets. In these small, but significant moments, reality attaches itself to Tom like gritty fragments that somehow prevent him from floating away, and though his life seem very real within this structured reality, Tom still cannot figure out how to come to terms with his own life.

The title 'Bird Pickings' refers to something small and insignificant, and the book is in many ways exactly like it. Tom hardly acts, and while his life can easily be compared to no more than a seed in the proverbial bird feeder of life, the novel is also about something profoundly essential. Though Tom is ultimately procrastinating and emotionally passive throughout the narrative, something innovative, earnest and overwhelming is always going on in his mind, and the reader is constantly reminded of their place in their own reality.

Physically the novel is small, and yet Seeberg eloquently manages to address some major philosophical issues. The core of the novel is essentially about how life should be lived, and about what it is like to be human, placed in a reality that sometimes seem disconnected and alien.

Four and a half stars.

[Finn Wiedemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historien om forfatteren Tom som ikke kan skrive, platter sig frem og ikke kan finde nøglen til livet er ikke for sarte sjæle. Det er psykologisk portræt af en mand, som gerne vil, men ikke evner. Huset er ikke bygget færdigt, romanen bliver aldrig skrevet, han elsker ikke sin troskyldige kone, som forlader ham. Han er som han selv siger, impotent. At landskabet er vådt, og det er tåget, og de fleste af de personer, som portrætters på afstand ikke skildres positivt, bidrager til bogens grundlæggende uhyggelige stemning.

[Linus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der er flere slående ligheder mellem hovedpersonen, Tom, og den uudholdelige hovedperson Leon i den tyske film Roter Himmel (2023). Begge er unge forfattere, der er overbevist om deres egen genialitet, men som ikke for alvor magter at sætte pennen til papiret. Deres syn på virkeligheden er underligt distanceret, og det er ikke meget sympati, man fatter for de to, når de gang på gang nægter at se virkeligheden i øjnene og opleve den på egen krop. Selvom de to værker hverken deler tidsalder eller medium, er det tungeste ved dem begge seeren og læserens erkendelse af, at vi allesammen i nogen grad deler visse af Tom og Leons træk.

Jeg er vild med beskrivelsen af, hvordan Tom hutler sig gennem tilværelsen, og hvor langt han er villig til at gå for at undgå at lave noget og dermed vende blikket bare en smule indad. Navnet "Tom" taler for sig selv. Sproget flyder enormt godt, og Seebergs skildring af Tom er lige dele tragisk og humanistisk. En meget fin, trist tekst, som til tider er både sjov og tankevækkende.

[Peter Ellermann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Godt nok en ekstremt deprimerende bog om at have et følsomt kunstnersind.

[Mads Steiner Nielsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeberg skriver sig direkte ud fra Hamsuns Sult og i nogen grad også Tom Kristensens Hærværk for ikke at nævne Noter fra et Kælderdyb. En kammerat beskrev det som som en "useless hovedperson med storhedsvanvid i eksistentielt kaos" og det er ganske præcist.

Det er det selvretfærdige menneske, der balancerer på flere knivsæg; det fysiske eksistensgrundlag i form af føde, det mentale mellem forsvarsmekanismerne for nederlag grænsende til vrangforestillinger og i det mindste storhedsvanvid.

Hele tiden er man ikke klar over hvad hovedpersonen er i stand til at gøre og hvor det ender. han er utilregnelig og det giver romanen en stærk nerve.

[Juma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beskrivelsen af en trøstesløs æstetiker, der ikke vil være til, kryber helt ind under huden. Mesterværk.

[Axel Gaub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nietzsche mødes Dostojevskij og skriver en landevejsrøver-roman på dansk . Der er også lidt metafysik, men uden det bliver irriterende. Let at læse og nem at komme til at genlæse. Stor fornøjelse. Vil anbefale til alle over 12 år.

[Niels Toksvig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to get through eventhough there weren't many words on the few pages. I guess the ending is the great surprise. Deals with Writer's Block

[Ryan Stangl]

English title is "The Imposter"

[Emma Kolditz Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Læst til sidefaget, Dansk, på AAU.

[Sebastian Ljungkvist]

Mesterværk