1 00:00:01,875 --> 00:00:04,594 [Between the lines] 2 00:00:04,751 --> 00:00:08,207 The swiss' name Robert Walser is not well known by here yet 3 00:00:08,207 --> 00:00:11,493 But he was admired by some of the bigger writers 4 00:00:11,549 --> 00:00:13,549 and intelectuals of the twentieth century once. 5 00:00:13,575 --> 00:00:16,517 and he just released his most important book in Brazil. 6 00:00:16,550 --> 00:00:20,111 As speaks our collaborator: Carlos Eduardo Ortolan 7 00:00:20,111 --> 00:00:22,497 The swiss writer and german speaker Robert Waiser 8 00:00:22,540 --> 00:00:26,610 belongs to the niche of authors whose just got recognized post death 9 00:00:26,693 --> 00:00:30,729 Alcoholic, after a life of mediocre literary success 10 00:00:30,729 --> 00:00:32,729 and unexpressive jobs. 11 00:00:32,729 --> 00:00:37,186 the depressed neurotic Waiser would end up his days in a Menthal instalation 12 00:00:37,230 --> 00:00:41,287 in which he said: "I'm not here to write, but to be crazy" 13 00:00:41,500 --> 00:00:45,095 The crew of lovers of his small work 14 00:00:45,095 --> 00:00:48,261 gathers Franz Kafka, who had him as master and role model 15 00:00:48,291 --> 00:00:50,546 and most recently, Walter Benjamin, 16 00:00:50,609 --> 00:00:54,152 Elias Canetti, Susan Sontag and Coetzee. 17 00:00:55,072 --> 00:00:59,018 Waiser's masterpiece, the novel "Jakob von Gunten: A Journal" 18 00:00:59,038 --> 00:01:01,452 just received brazilian edition. 19 00:01:01,514 --> 00:01:04,136 The fictional memories of Jakob von Gunten 20 00:01:04,140 --> 00:01:07,870 talks, in summary, about his season at Institute Benjamenta 21 00:01:07,914 --> 00:01:09,524 a boy's school, 22 00:01:09,524 --> 00:01:13,446 in which the weird character enrolls as an intern student. 23 00:01:13,446 --> 00:01:16,029 But everything sounds different at school. 24 00:01:16,029 --> 00:01:19,673 The boys, who are there to learn to be servants of noble families, 25 00:01:19,714 --> 00:01:24,106 actually, learns nothing but lessons about humility and behaving. 26 00:01:24,175 --> 00:01:27,024 There's only 1 book, the Institute's manual 27 00:01:27,050 --> 00:01:29,728 and just 1 teacher, Ms Benjamenta 28 00:01:29,749 --> 00:01:31,750 the sister of the institution's owner 29 00:01:31,773 --> 00:01:34,142 who stays closed in his office all days, 30 00:01:34,142 --> 00:01:36,826 counting money and reading the newspaper. 31 00:01:42,978 --> 00:01:46,474 From an aristocratic family, von Gunten says all the time 32 00:01:46,474 --> 00:01:49,623 that he's there exactly to learn obedience and humility. 33 00:01:49,919 --> 00:01:52,701 But through his paradoxal point of view 34 00:01:52,701 --> 00:01:57,573 constantly ridicularizes all values of humanity and civilization, 35 00:01:57,597 --> 00:01:59,669 everything considered high level, 36 00:01:59,713 --> 00:02:02,251 in a kind of stubborn activism, 37 00:02:02,251 --> 00:02:05,426 remembering our Brás Cubas with his impudence and cynicism. 38 00:02:05,426 --> 00:02:08,087 "Thou wouldst give me the fisrt place among mortals, 39 00:02:08,137 --> 00:02:10,893 "beyond science and richness, 40 00:02:10,922 --> 00:02:14,339 "cause wast the genuine inspiration of the skies. 41 00:02:14,477 --> 00:02:18,617 "Thou wouldst be the relief of our melancolic humanity 42 00:02:18,644 --> 00:02:22,010 The words of Coetzee, "Essay devoted to Waiser", 43 00:02:22,010 --> 00:02:24,185 Gunten would be the kind of boy 44 00:02:24,185 --> 00:02:27,349 who, because of his deep contempt for everything human and moral, 45 00:02:27,349 --> 00:02:31,897 could be a part of, in a near future, Hitler's Sturmabteilung 46 00:02:57,568 --> 00:02:59,002 Strange analogy. 47 00:02:59,002 --> 00:03:02,848 the book of the apolitical Rober Waiser shows the ruines of civilization 48 00:03:02,848 --> 00:03:05,687 and the aproximation of darker and darker times. 49 00:03:05,687 --> 00:03:07,302 Everything very kafkian 50 00:03:07,302 --> 00:03:11,637 ... meaning, the most faithful expression of a tragic reality.