Der Tod des Körpers

by C.K. Stead, Silvia Morawetz (Translator)

Professor Harry Butler is obsessed with the Mind/Body problem. Unfortunately this is not the least of his problems. Harry's wife has turned his study into a sufi shrine where she sits cross-legged and chants for hours on end, 'I am not the body'. And Harry doesn't know it yet but the Drug Squad has taken up residence in his kitchen so as to observe the movements of his neighbours and their visitors. Among these visitors, photographed by the Drug Quad, is one of his oldest friends. And living next door is a woman Harry may have had an encounter with in Singapore.
The university is no escape from these complications on the domestic front: Harry's relationship with a student is causing concern among the Philosophy Department Women's Collective. Some of his colleagues also suspect him of going astray academically.
The story takes place in Auckland New Zealand. But who is telling the story? Why is he in Europe? Why does he keep moving from one city to another, and why does he seem to require the presence of a certain Uta Haverstrom in order to write it?

Genres: Fiction

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Christian Karlson Stead is a New Zealand writer whose works include novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism.

One of Karl Stead's novels, Smith's Dream, provided the basis for the film Sleeping Dogs, starring Sam Neill; this became the first New Zealand film released in the United States.

Mansfield: A Novel was a finalist for the 2005 Tasmania Pacific Fiction Prize and received commendation in the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region.

C. K. Stead was born in Auckland. For much of his career he was Professor of English at the University of Auckland, retiring in 1986 to write full-time. He received a CBE in 1985 and was admitted into the highest honour New Zealand can bestow, the Order of New Zealand in 2007.

Reviews

[taro · Rating 4 out of 5]

a read intended for writers!! the prose is gentle, self conscious, smooth as the japanese writers do it and yet (excuse the kiwi-aussie comparison) australian in the way it adores and respects and loves the land.

—
11. there’s a problem in telling a story. things have to come one at a time, as through a narrow gate. but in reality nothing is single… have patience, give me time, and i promise i will give you a story.

20. why not drink if you’re going to die? but i dont believe for a moment that im going to die. i just like the wine.

34. if his mind was the author of the fiction of the dream, why didnt his mind know how it was going to end? isn’t it wrong, then, to speak of one mind? on the evidence of this experience there must be at least two, one playing a dream trick on the other

47. she’s trying to rid herself not only of her body but of rational thought which is another kind of sleep

53. there are only philosophical problems at the point where language begins to fail

97. the sea’s breathing, his body relishing its weightlessness, his skin recovering its own life in the perfect water

107. I wake from these dreams of Auckland

127. you have to be very careful, he tells them, not to think that because there are two words, soul and mind, there are therefore two ‘things’ to match them.

130. a group of people could be talking about god. no word illustrates better how language can trap us. if a word gets into circulation and gets used a lot, we behave as if there must be something it refers to. it’s a lot like setting up a fundraising committee and then looking around for a charity to give the money to.

142. these linguistic riches

157. The pools are calm, and although the stream flows through them, dragging at leaves and reeds, the water is clear.

187. It's certainly not triumph. But not despair either.
It's something so neutral it's hard to be sure what it is.
Probably just acceptance, as a well-trained dog accepts when you chain it to its kennel for the night. It is, after all, quite a long chain, and an unusually well-appointed kennel.

—

-1 star because for a novel titled “death of the body” it sure spends a lot of time in (almost petty) third-wave-feminist culture wars instead of its titular themes. impressive though- good form for a 1986 publication. nevertheless a beautiful, lovely read. to be pored over.

[Pascale · Rating 4 out of 5]

After several disappointing reads it was wonderful to end this year with a true stunner. C. K. Stead delivers a witty and engrossing piece of metafiction. As you might expect, the story is far from linear, and has several strands. Basically it follows 3 childhood friends, Philip, a journalist, who is the narrator, Harry, a professor of philosophy, and Jason, the dark horse of the trio. At the beginning of the novel, the drugs squad has set up a base in Harry's kitchen to observe the goings-on next door. Harry tolerates the situation until he realizes that one of the visitors is his pal Jason. Also next door is a young woman, Mandy, with whom Harry had a one-night stand in Singapore on the way home from a conference. Harry is so naive that he never realized the woman used him to smuggle drugs. In fact Harry has a complicated sex life. Divorced from a French wife, he has 2 little boys with his second wife Claire, but is also sleeping with his student Louise. Philip and Harry try to warn Jason, who ends up dead anyway. Another big part of the plot is the writing of this same story by Philip, who has moved to Europe to get some distance from the events. In Italy he meets and gradually falls in love with the wife of the Danish consul, Uta, who becomes his muse but also projects her own emotions onto the narrative Philip is trying to piece together. Uta gets hold of the wrong end of the stick and believes that Philip's book is autobiographical and that the character of Harry is his stand-in. C. K. Stead is perfectly in control of his material and demonstrates that metafiction can be great fun and not just an arid exercise like so many products of the French "nouveau roman" for instance.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one I've read many times over the years. I did not enjoy it as much this time as I remember enjoying it before. Maybe I was too distracted by the pandemic etc to have the same engagement?

[Christine Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleverly told.

[Sally Sorrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philosophy (mind/body conundrum)fun and games, never quite sure who's telling the story. Maybe the author (from New Zealand) just wanted to have fun.