WEBVTT

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[Between the lines]

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The swiss' name Robert Walser
is not well known by here yet

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But he was admired by some 
of the bigger writers

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and intelectuals of the 
twentieth century once.

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and he just released 
his most important book in Brazil.

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As speaks our collaborator:
Carlos Eduardo Ortolan

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The swiss writer and 
german speaker Robert Waiser

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belongs to the niche of authors
whose just got recognized post death

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Alcoholic, after a life of 
mediocre literary success

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and unexpressive jobs.

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the depressed neurotic Waiser would 
end up his days in a Menthal instalation

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in which he said: "I'm not here
to write, but to be crazy"

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The crew of lovers of his
small work

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gathers Franz Kafka, who
had him as master and role model

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and most recently, Walter Benjamin,

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Elias Canetti, Susan Sontag and Coetzee.

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Waiser's masterpiece, the novel
"Jakob von Gunten: A Journal"

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just received brazilian edition.

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The fictional memories of Jakob von Gunten

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talks, in summary, 
about his season at Institute Benjamenta

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a boy's school,

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in which the weird character enrolls 
as an intern student.

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But everything sounds different at school.

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The boys, who are there to learn 
to be servants of noble families,

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actually, learns nothing but 
lessons about humility and behaving.

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There's only 1 book, 
the Institute's manual

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and just 1 teacher,
Ms Benjamenta

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the sister of the 
institution's owner

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who stays closed in his office 
all days,

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counting money and 
reading the newspaper.

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From an aristocratic family, 
von Gunten says all the time

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that he's there exactly to learn
obedience and humility.

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But through his paradoxal 
point of view

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constantly ridicularizes all
values of humanity and civilization,

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everything considered high level,

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in a kind of stubborn activism,

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remembering our Brás Cubas
with his impudence and cynicism.

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"Thou wouldst give me the fisrt 
place among mortals,

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"beyond science and richness,

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"cause wast the genuine
inspiration of the skies.

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"Thou wouldst be the relief
of our melancolic humanity

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The words of Coetzee,
"Essay devoted to Waiser",

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Gunten would be the kind of boy

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who, because of his deep contempt
for everything human and moral,

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could be a part of, in a near future,
Hitler's Sturmabteilung

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Strange analogy.

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the book of the apolitical Rober Waiser
shows the ruines of civilization

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and the aproximation of 
darker and darker times.

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Everything very kafkian

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... meaning, the most faithful
expression of a tragic reality.