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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,
-
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,
-
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,
-
could be a part of, in a near future,
Hitler's Sturmabteilung
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Strange analogy.
-
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.
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