Enthymesis of H.I.J.H.

by Arno Schmidt, Jan H. Mysjkin (translator)

Vanaf zijn vroegste novelle 'Enthymesis' heeft Arno Schmidt voortdurend nieuwe modellen ontworpen die een juistere weergave van de werkelijkheid moeten bieden. De novelle is nog te lezen als een dagboek waarin de ik-figuur de gedachten noteert die in zijn hoofd tollen: ervaring, filosofische bespiegeling, droom of waanbeeld. In 'Uit het leven van een faun' is het dagboek tot een mozaïek geworden dat nog exacter de bewustzijnsstroom van de ik-figuur wil vatten. In beide teksten rekent de auteur af met het autoritarisme van het Derde Rijk, dat hij aan den lijve heeft ondervonden, ook al is 'Enthymesis' in de Griekse-Romeinse oudheid geplaatst.

40 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Arno Schmidt, in full Arno Otto Schmidt, (born January 18, 1914, Hamburg-Hamm, Germany—died June 3, 1979, Celle), novelist, translator, and critic, whose experimental prose established him as the preeminent Modernist of 20th-century German literature.

With roots in both German Romanticism and Expressionism, he attempted to develop modern prose forms that correspond more closely to the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind and to revitalize a literary language that he considered debased by Nazism and war.

The influence of James Joyce and Sigmund Freud are apparent in both a collection of short stories, Kühe in Halbtrauer (1964; Country Matters), and, most especially, in Zettels Traum (1970; Bottom’s Dream)—a three-columned, more than 1,300-page, photo-offset typescript, centring on the mind and works of Poe. It was then that Schmidt developed his theory of “etyms,” the morphemes of language that betray subconscious desires. Two further works on the same grand scale are the “novella-comedy” Die Schule der Atheisten (1972; School for Atheists) and Abend mit Goldrand (1975; Evening Edged in Gold), a dream-scape that has as its focal point Hiëronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and that has come to be regarded as his finest and most mature work.

Schmidt was a man of vast autodidactic learning and Rabelaisian humour. Though complex and sometimes daunting, his works are enriched by inventive language and imbued with a profound commitment to humanity’s intellectual achievements.

Reviews

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prachtig wraakverhaal over ‘bematist’ Philostratos, een in de Helleense tijd zijn stappen tellende landmeter, die in de woestijn zijn antwoord zoekt op de vraag of de Aarde nu een bol of een schijf is en onderweg in ruzie valt met zijn expeditiegenoten. In zijn koortsdromen beseft hij dat alles uiteindelijk dan toch draait rond de mens, die hij almaar meer haat en verwerpt: ‘Ik vervloek alle gemens.’
Hopelijk vertaalt Mysjkin ook de andere verhalen uit de bundel ‘Leviathan’: het titelverhaal en ‘Gadir’. In het Duits is de ondertitel: ‘oder W.I.E.H.’ wat zou staan voor ‘Wie ich euch hasse’. In de vertaling wordt dat ‘H.I.J.H.’ of ‘Hoe ik je haat’.

[Cathie · Rating 5 out of 5]

processing. but 5 stars for sure.

[Lars Meijer · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Stilte. Wind streek ruisend over het koude avondzand. Ik beloofde de wind: We gaan door.’

[Ahn Hundt]

This is my first foray into the works of Arno Schmidt and for being one of the earliest things he’s written, this story is pretty interesting and enjoyable. Known as the German equivalent of James Joyce, Schmidt is a radical stylist who’s primarily known for his short fiction as well as his massive, over 1600 page and 1.3 million word-long DIN-A3 format tome of a novel, ‘Zettels Traum/Bottom’s Dream’, quite possibly the closest thing that we have that is on par with Joyce’s ‘Finnegans Wake’ when it comes to literary experimentation. As a big reader of modernist literature, I haven’t had much German language modernism impress me much - Robert Musil’s ‘Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften/The Man Without Qualities’ didn’t do it for me, just to essayistic and dry, did not even finish it, nor did Thomas Mann leave much of an impact on me with his playfulness in time and digressing with ‘Der Zauberberg/The Magic Mountain’, a novel that I forgot I read this year already even though I read it over the course of 3 months or so, which is not to say that either of these are bad works, I did enjoy them a lot and admire them even more, it’s just that their strain of modernism doesn’t appeal to me on a personal level as much as somebody like Joyce’s, Woolf’s or Pound’s did.

With that in mind, Schmidt had my intrigue and became one of the major German modernist that I was very eager to read, and while his experimentation is still sparse and toned down here in comparison to what he would do later on, this diaristic account of a character’s stream of consciousness was quite an interesting ride. Being part of his sort of antiquity trilogy, imposing the skittery, sardonic, cynical and pun-heavy narration onto the persona of a historical figure is such an interesting concept that lead to some really interesting contrasts and fascinating implications, and the way in which Schmidt deals with themes of power, truth, science, social progress, fascism, and ambition is intriguing to the point where it is far more evocative than a lot of German short fiction that I’ve read. I’m willing to read anything that the man has to offer if it keeps up the quality like that, and from what I’ve heard, he only gets better and wilder from hereon out. Loved the humor, loved the loose, kooky and eccentric language and the overall presentation was impactful for its length.