Hotel Irrealismo discussion

Since Steve has recently read this novel, it should be next on the syllabus, I think...

Thanks, Paul.

I'll jump in with a few initial comments to get the ball rolling.

There are of course endless comments one can make on the moral issues raised by this book. I think every human, post-holocaust, needs come to terms, somehow, with what we humans are capable of doing to each other on the basis of incredibly stupid philosophies, politics and 'science.'

But Sebald isn't trying to elicit gratuitous moralizing (which I'm in danger of slipping into) so I'll leave the moralizing to better and more disciplined minds.

Concerning technique I was amazed at Sebald's ability create a flow of thought: 'stream of consciousness' with an emphasis on 'stream'. When I was a child the family would go to the mountains a lot so when I think of a stream I'm thinking of water rushing along, wearing down the rocks in its way. In other words there was a strong flow to the prose.

The characters also flow into each other not as different voices but more like parts of one movement to a resolution of uncertainty.

The old transit stations fascinate me as well (IRL as well as in this book). All the people that passed through them. So many ghosts. The continuing process of displacement.

And the photographs.

More to discuss.

Thanks for your thoughts thus far, Steve. I'm nearly half way through now. It's another great re-read - an innovative (for reasons upon which you touch) and beautiful book.

Yes, the narrative technique provides relentless motive force both to the prose and story.

I’m quite focused on Life A User’s Manual currently, but I may well consider joining you guys

Steve wrote: "The old transit stations fascinate me as well (IRL as well as in this book). All the people that passed through them. So many ghosts. The continuing process of displacement. "

That's a great comment as displacement is a key theme in his work.

I plan to read Vertigo hopefully soon.

For a bit of extra reading, here's a portrait on Sebald, currently unlocked at the Paris Review:
https://www.theparisreview.org/letter...

Certainly, the experience of the immigrant and the exile loom large in his fiction. Vertigo is indeed a vertiginous reading experience. It's all mere opinion, of course, but I see Austerlitz and The Rings of Saturn as his masterworks, when he had truly perfected that which is Sebaldian. I haven't yet read his essays - that's something I must get around to.

Well, I've finished my re-read of Austerlitz. This will be the next book for our scrutiny. I'm aware, though, that some of us are still finishing Life a User's Manual so perhaps we should hold off on a full-scale analysis for the time being. Alongside Steve's initial impressions, you may wish to look at my review to get the discussion ball rolling.

Well, Steve, I re-read this to accompany you but it looks like no one else has yet. We'll park it here for the time being, then.

OK, I'm going to start re-reading it next week. Can't stop thinking about the narration--the multiple first person narration, if that makes sense. You called attention to the puzzle of the primary narrator in your review. I'm wondering if Sebald is trying to get at imagining a new morality in a post-Christian, post-Stoic world. Of course, I likely may be confusing my own musings with Sebald's.

I'll also see about getting 'The Rings of Saturn'.

Hope we can continue the discussion, later.

Thanks for recommending this author, Paul.

Yes, Steve, it's a remarkable feat of narration - complex, but it's always clear whose point of view it is we're reading.

Interesting idea about morality in post-Christian society - I'd be intrigued to see you expand on that.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on re-reading it.

The Rings of Saturn is splendid. My wife just finished reading it and thought it one of the best books she's read. Since we live in Suffolk, we're going to revisit a couple of the locations this summer, hopefully.