Scenes from the Life of a Faun - Arno Schmidt's 1953 novella set in Germany during a time when Nazi goons and more Nazi goons flooded the country.
Heinrich
Düring, in his early fifties and a veteran of WWI, serves as narrator
of the tale. He works as a county clerk in the local government office
and is married to a woman who refuses him sex. The novella is, in
effect, Herr Düring's musings, presented in the form of sharp, satiric,
cynical, yet poetic short paragraphs - all in distinctive Arno Schmidt
style: each paragraph starts with italicized words, and the first line
of the paragraph is not indented; instead, all subsequent lines are
indented. The narrative unfolds at three points in time: February 1939,
May to August 1939, and August to September 1944.
The above
dates take on a supercharged significance when we keep in mind the Nazis
invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. And in July 1944, Allied forces
raced eastward towards Paris.
On one level, Arno Schmidt's
fiction is all about the exactitude of language. Thus, I'll zero in on a
batch of direct quotes taken from the first section (Feb 1939) and
offer a splash of commentary.
“SA, SS, military, HY andsoforth :
humans are never more trying than when playing soldier. (Surfaces
periodically among them about every score of years, something like
malaria, of late the pace is quicker). In the end it's always the worst
ones who end up on top, to wit : bosses, executives, directors,
presidents, generals, ministers, chancellors. A decent person is ashamed
of being a boss !”
Düring plays the game, assuming the role of a
dutiful citizen when in the presence (and under interrogation) of the
buffoonish Nazi chiefs. However, on a deeper level, much like Arno
Schmidt himself, he spends the Hitler years in his own inner exile.
“Oh,
they all work nice and hard there !” with a pinched and lordly smile :
“The Jews.” Pause. He nudged the index card closer to his big blue eyes;
but he just has to let it out : “And if they refuse – they string 'em
up.” - ? ! ! ? - : “On a special gallows.”
Ahhh! Such ferocious
Nazi language blurted out by an oafish office worker hearkens back to
Martin Luther's infamous words, “The Jews deserve to be hanged on
gallows seven times higher than ordinary thieves.” Throughout the saga,
numerous references attest to Arno Schmidt's thorough knowledge of his
country's history, particularly its literature.
“I am a servant
of the heath, a worshiper of leaves, a devotee of wind ! … what I trust
most are the beauties of nature. Then books; then roast with sauerkraut.
All else changes, legerdemains.”
I agree with a number of
critics who have noted that Arno Schmidt is a Romantic at heart, with a
Romanticism that's more realistic than Realism. I take a special delight
when Arno combines art with nature. “To the john, number one; and then
to the window : boulders of air with polished edges; across the way,
fields and roads done in angular woodcuts by the moonlight, until barely
recognizable.”
“Just like the “Führers” up top, who are
forever thinking up new titles for each other, new ranks and
Arabian-Nights' uniforms. The whole nation is in the grip of a mania for
medals and badges, enthusiastically weaving away on the legend of its
own grandeur ! The sort of thing that truly fits the Germans to a T !”
Arno
Schmidt held a fierce contempt for anything smelling of herd mentality
or group-think. And we as readers cringe along with Heinrich when his
only son tells him he wants a Hitler Youth dagger for Christmas. I bet
Düring could picture his son yearning to join the boys below, following a
youth leader (look at the expression on that kid's face) who would
dearly love the opportunity to stick his dagger in the gut of a fellow
German who dares not offer allegiance to Hitler.
“The daughter
(very pretty face – but I mentioned that already? !), with her thighs
spread wide and visible a long way up, slowly turned a rig on her little
finger, and gazed at me through impenetrable lashes. (Just like in the
picture).”
The Nazi propaganda machine was extremely effective,
especially among the impressionable young, in creating a clear, vivid
picture of the ideal Nazi youth. Posters (kitschy art that would turn a German Shepherd's stomach) were plastered up in every available pubic space so nobody would miss the message.
“All that exists
refers either to the Invisible or the Divine Pleroma, including what
has occurred both within and without the Pleroma, or to those things
belonging to the visible world.”
The first section of the novella
concludes with a two-page detailed elaboration of Gnostic theology,
complete with references to things like the 30 Aeons, Bythos, Sige, and
Sophia. A critically important feature of Gnosticism: our world was not
created by a good God but by a flawed monster called the Demiurge. In
such a world as ours, is it any wonder cruelty and stupidity go on the
rampage?
I've only touched on a few of the provocative subjects covered in Scenes from the Life.
For the full Arno Schmidt complement, including Heinrich's ogling over a
luscious she-wolf by the name of Käthe Evers, you'll have to read for
yourself.
*Note - The above quotes are taken from John E. Wood's translation of Scenes from the Life of a Faun included in Nobodaddy's Children, published by Dalkey Archive Press
Arno Schmidt, 1913-1979
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