Comments on: Pity: Living Only for Others http://www.spinozablue.com/2009/04/2300/ An Eclectic Journal of the Arts Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:16:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Cuchulain http://www.spinozablue.com/2009/04/2300/#comment-426 Cuchulain Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:31:04 +0000 http://www.spinozablue.com/?p=2300#comment-426 Robert, it's a very good novel. Not as good as <em>The Post-Office Girl</em>, but good all the same. Zweig was not an innovator as far as structure and style, but he did capture the zeitgeist of his day well, and integrated his own psychological drama. His books deal often with suicide and suicidal thoughts. I wonder if his friends knew how closely his fiction echoed his own fears in some ways. Murnau deals with that psychology in a different form, of course. It would have been interesting to see how he would translate a Zweig fiction onto the silver screen. I think he was probably better suited for Kafka than Zweig, but it would have been more than interesting, all the same. Thanks, as always, for the comment.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('426','Cuchulain'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('426','Cuchulain','Robert, it\'s a very good novel. Not as good as <em>The Post-Office Girl<\/em>, but good all the same. Zweig was not an innovator as far as structure and style, but he did capture the zeitgeist of his day well, and integrated his own psychological drama. His books deal often with suicide and suicidal thoughts. I wonder if his friends knew how closely his fiction echoed his own fears in some ways. \n\nMurnau deals with that psychology in a different form, of course. It would have been interesting to see how he would translate a Zweig fiction onto the silver screen. I think he was probably better suited for Kafka than Zweig, but it would have been more than interesting, all the same. \n\nThanks, as always, for the comment.'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Robert, it’s a very good novel. Not as good as The Post-Office Girl, but good all the same. Zweig was not an innovator as far as structure and style, but he did capture the zeitgeist of his day well, and integrated his own psychological drama. His books deal often with suicide and suicidal thoughts. I wonder if his friends knew how closely his fiction echoed his own fears in some ways.

Murnau deals with that psychology in a different form, of course. It would have been interesting to see how he would translate a Zweig fiction onto the silver screen. I think he was probably better suited for Kafka than Zweig, but it would have been more than interesting, all the same.

Thanks, as always, for the comment.

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]]> By: Robert Mueller http://www.spinozablue.com/2009/04/2300/#comment-425 Robert Mueller Mon, 06 Apr 2009 08:07:13 +0000 http://www.spinozablue.com/?p=2300#comment-425 Once again I relate this discussion to <em>Amok</em>, which is the earlier sequence of novellas by Stefan Zweig all relating in some way to the concepts of running amok and of obsession; and I am very happy to see the progress in complexity and narrative surprises that you describe here. As you note, a kind of static obsession imperils Toni as well, but as part of a "character [that is] complex", which tells me Zweig will be worth continued reading after all. (Remember, too, the historical context, that he began and pursued this kind of writing around the same time as the appearance of the F.W. Murnau films you celebrated in your essay posted last December 14.)<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('425','Robert Mueller'); return false;">Reply</a> - <a href="#" class="quote" onclick="quote('425','Robert Mueller','Once again I relate this discussion to <em>Amok<\/em>, which is the earlier sequence of novellas by Stefan Zweig all relating in some way to the concepts of running amok and of obsession; and I am very happy to see the progress in complexity and narrative surprises that you describe here. As you note, a kind of static obsession imperils Toni as well, but as part of a "character [that is] complex", which tells me Zweig will be worth continued reading after all. (Remember, too, the historical context, that he began and pursued this kind of writing around the same time as the appearance of the F.W. Murnau films you celebrated in your essay posted last December 14.)'); return false;">Quote</a></div> Once again I relate this discussion to Amok, which is the earlier sequence of novellas by Stefan Zweig all relating in some way to the concepts of running amok and of obsession; and I am very happy to see the progress in complexity and narrative surprises that you describe here. As you note, a kind of static obsession imperils Toni as well, but as part of a “character [that is] complex”, which tells me Zweig will be worth continued reading after all. (Remember, too, the historical context, that he began and pursued this kind of writing around the same time as the appearance of the F.W. Murnau films you celebrated in your essay posted last December 14.)
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