Bookblog #68: The joys of non-fiction
Bernhard Schlink, Guilt about the Past (UQP
2009)
Theodore Seifert, Snow White: Life Almost Lost (©1983, translation into English, Chiron Publications Illinois 1986)
I've read somewhere that it's a scientifically proven fact that as men
get older they prefer non-fiction to fiction. I hesitate to say anything of the
kind is scientifically proven about me in particular, but anecdotal evidence
indicates that this collection of lectures by Bernhard Schlink thrills me much
more than The Reader did some years ago. The Reader was a bloody
good, thought provoking read. Guilt about the Past strikes sparks from my
brain with just about every
paragraph.
The essays/lectures deal with the question of collective guilt: is it a legitimate concept, and if so what is to be done about it? Who has the right to forgive? How can a valid reconciliation be achieved between those who inherit a shared history of monstrous deeds in which their forebears were perpetrators and objects respectively? Bernhard Schlink has recent German history in mind and refrains from talking about his subject in universal terms, but what he manages to articulate is powerfully relevant to all manner of situations. He talks in terms of law, and morality where it's not covered by law. I won't try to write a proper review here, but recommend that you read the book. It's short, clear, and lively. Every time I picked it up, as I flicked through the pages looking for my place, sentences would leap out at me. At random:
'The notion that the past could be brought into form and order is foreign to the law.'
'... simply stated, everyone whose relationships have been damaged can reconcile. While forgiveness lifts the burden of guilt from the guilty parties, reconciliation merely makes it a bit lighter.'
'... understanding does not have only positive connotations.'
'... my mother was right. If a person does not believe in a forgiving God, then they have to live with their guilt when they can no longer obtain forgiveness from the person they injured.'
The book is very readable, but I'll need to re-read it and meditate on it.
Snow White: Life Almost Lost, on the other hand, does the
meditating for you. It's a discussion of the fairy story from the point of view
of a Jungian therapist. Much wisdom is dispensed about the challenges of the
inner life, and the Grimm Brothers' 1859 version of the tale provides a mostly
plausible springboard for it, but Herr Seifert surely sets record of some kind
by taking 32 pages of discussion to get us through the first 45 words of
the story – and that's without any attention to 'Once upon a time'! The
words themselves, in case you need reminding: 'Once upon a time in the middle of
winter, snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven; a queen was sitting
at a window that had a frame of black ebony, and she was sewing. As she sewed
and looked up at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle.' You'll have
to read to book to discover what profundities about life and death, hope and
despair, belief, imagination, love, law and deprivation they contain -- I'm
assuming that like me you can't see these profundities
unaided.
My favourite couple of sentences, from much later in the book (remember there is no married couple in the story, until the wedding in its last paragraph):
Leaving aside the incomprehensible phrases, which can probably be laid at the translator's door, this measures up fabulously against some of the most ingenious of mediaeval biblical hermeneutics. And for all that, and for all the preoccupation with marriage as the one road to a fully human life, I have come away from the book with a much deeper appreciation of the Snow White story.
Theodore Seifert, Snow White: Life Almost Lost (©1983, translation into English, Chiron Publications Illinois 1986)
I've read somewhere that it's a scientifically proven fact that as men
get older they prefer non-fiction to fiction. I hesitate to say anything of the
kind is scientifically proven about me in particular, but anecdotal evidence
indicates that this collection of lectures by Bernhard Schlink thrills me much
more than The Reader did some years ago. The Reader was a bloody
good, thought provoking read. Guilt about the Past strikes sparks from my
brain with just about every
paragraph.The essays/lectures deal with the question of collective guilt: is it a legitimate concept, and if so what is to be done about it? Who has the right to forgive? How can a valid reconciliation be achieved between those who inherit a shared history of monstrous deeds in which their forebears were perpetrators and objects respectively? Bernhard Schlink has recent German history in mind and refrains from talking about his subject in universal terms, but what he manages to articulate is powerfully relevant to all manner of situations. He talks in terms of law, and morality where it's not covered by law. I won't try to write a proper review here, but recommend that you read the book. It's short, clear, and lively. Every time I picked it up, as I flicked through the pages looking for my place, sentences would leap out at me. At random:
'The notion that the past could be brought into form and order is foreign to the law.'
'... simply stated, everyone whose relationships have been damaged can reconcile. While forgiveness lifts the burden of guilt from the guilty parties, reconciliation merely makes it a bit lighter.'
'... understanding does not have only positive connotations.'
'... my mother was right. If a person does not believe in a forgiving God, then they have to live with their guilt when they can no longer obtain forgiveness from the person they injured.'
The book is very readable, but I'll need to re-read it and meditate on it.
Snow White: Life Almost Lost, on the other hand, does the
meditating for you. It's a discussion of the fairy story from the point of view
of a Jungian therapist. Much wisdom is dispensed about the challenges of the
inner life, and the Grimm Brothers' 1859 version of the tale provides a mostly
plausible springboard for it, but Herr Seifert surely sets record of some kind
by taking 32 pages of discussion to get us through the first 45 words of
the story – and that's without any attention to 'Once upon a time'! The
words themselves, in case you need reminding: 'Once upon a time in the middle of
winter, snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven; a queen was sitting
at a window that had a frame of black ebony, and she was sewing. As she sewed
and looked up at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle.' You'll have
to read to book to discover what profundities about life and death, hope and
despair, belief, imagination, love, law and deprivation they contain -- I'm
assuming that like me you can't see these profundities
unaided.My favourite couple of sentences, from much later in the book (remember there is no married couple in the story, until the wedding in its last paragraph):
Even after many years of marriage, going to bed at different times is still a problem for many couples. Every evening they suffer the same irritation: The one has to go now, the other can't go yet. Each always experiences this as a form of a seeming demand; and without exception the mate is accused. We talk only of what the other did to us; we do not talk of our own lack of readiness to risk corresponding conflict and stand up for our own wishes. Ultimately all these poisoned thoughts suffocate our soul, just as the bodice laces suffocated Snow White.
Leaving aside the incomprehensible phrases, which can probably be laid at the translator's door, this measures up fabulously against some of the most ingenious of mediaeval biblical hermeneutics. And for all that, and for all the preoccupation with marriage as the one road to a fully human life, I have come away from the book with a much deeper appreciation of the Snow White story.
Posted: Tue - May 19, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Quick Links
About this Blog
This started out as a patchy journal about family life with my mother-in-law, Mollie, who has Alzheimers and was then living with us. Mollie has moved, first into a "low-care facility" then, in July 2004, into a nursing home. As these and other events have overtaken us, the blog has moved on ...
Latest comments
Categories
Archives
XML Feed
eXTReMe Tracking
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Search the blog
Library search
Who's near here
Creative Commons License
From My Library
Links
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category: 437
Published On: May 25, 2009 12:09 AM
Total entries in this category: 437
Published On: May 25, 2009 12:09 AM