German author Guenter Grass dies • Hacker News Board

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#11

Post by jbaiter » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:17 PM UTC

ukigumo wrote: post #6

2511 wrote: post #2

Read 'The tin drum' about 10 years ago. Didn't get a lot of it but I remember getting very fascinated with it. Kind of like Murakami but I found Murakami easier to read. Time to read 'The tin drum' again. R.I.P Mr grass.

I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi. Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

I think you're mixing some things up here. He never worked for the Stasi, on the contrary, he was under their observation since 1961.[1]

He was, however, a member of the Nazi Waffen-SS in his youth, though he claims to never have fired a shot. The fact that he chose to make this public only very late in his life (and many years after he had receiced the Nobel prize) is what is really problematic, in my opinion.

[1] http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass#Beobachtung_d... (the English article doesn't mention it, hence the German version)

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#12

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:18 PM UTC

ukigumo wrote: post #6

2511 wrote: post #2

Read 'The tin drum' about 10 years ago. Didn't get a lot of it but I remember getting very fascinated with it. Kind of like Murakami but I found Murakami easier to read. Time to read 'The tin drum' again. R.I.P Mr grass.

I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi. Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

[deleted]

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#13

Post by littletimmy » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:19 PM UTC

His poem "What Must Be Said" is a wonderful commentary on Israel and the threat it poses to world peace. He talks about how the West has turned a blind eye to Israel's development of nuclear weapons because of its collective guilt. He argues that this must stop.

Here it is (translated): https://kugelmass.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-legitimate-tran...

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#14

Post by pgeorgi » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:20 PM UTC

thomasz wrote: post #8

ukigumo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi. Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

He didn't work for the STASI, he volunteered for the Waffen SS. > Grass was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In May 1945, after service as a soldier in the Waffen SS, he was taken prisoner by U.S. forces and released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, he began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction he frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…

The current official version is that he volunteered for submarine service, was rejected there, then drafted into Waffen SS.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#15

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:20 PM UTC

thomasz wrote: post #8

ukigumo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quite enjoyed the "Tin Drum" but I admit that I lost a bit of respect for the man when it was revealed he had worked for the Stasi. Still, it is a great loss of a great writer.

He didn't work for the STASI, he volunteered for the Waffen SS. > Grass was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). In May 1945, after service as a soldier in the Waffen SS, he was taken prisoner by U.S. forces and released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, he began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction he frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki…

[deleted]

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#16

Post by jacquesm » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:23 PM UTC

littletimmy wrote: post #13

His poem "What Must Be Said" is a wonderful commentary on Israel and the threat it poses to world peace. He talks about how the West has turned a blind eye to Israel's development of nuclear weapons because of its collective guilt. He argues that this must stop. Here it is (translated): https://kugelmass.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-legitimate-tran...

He may have a point but I can think of less controversial figures than Grass to make it.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#17

Post by allendoerfer » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:27 PM UTC

I'd like to quote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung's obituary [0]:

  Es gibt kein anderes Buch in unserer Sprache, das in der
  jüngsten Epoche der internationalen  Belletristik von
  vergleichbarer Präsenz war – und damit an die Seite
  der allerersten Hervorbringungen unserer Literaturgeschichte gehört,
  also an die Seite von Goethes „Werther“, von Fontanes „Effi Briest“,
  Thomas Manns „Buddenbrooks“, Kafkas „Prozess“, Döblins „Berlin 
  Alexanderplatz“ oder Musils „Mann ohne Eigenschaften“.

Which says, that there was no other book [than The Tin Drum] in German language that had a comparable presence in the last epoch of international belletristic.

It then puts Grass alongside Goethe, arguably the greatest honor a German (or really any) writer can ever get from the feuilleton.

[0]: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/autoren/ein-na...

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#18

Post by GabrielF00 » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:29 PM UTC

The Tin Drum is an amazing book and it influenced a lot of fiction - from Midnight's Children to A Prayer for Owen Meany. Some of his shorter books are a little more accessible (Cat and Mouse or Crabwalk, for instance). I found Grass' perspective on WWII and German history to be particularly valuable, since he was a young German (of Polish origin) who had to reconcile with his own participation in the Nazi regime.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#19

Post by skore » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:39 PM UTC

morsch wrote: post #3

The Günter-Grass-Haus published this poem from his work "Fundsachen für Nichtleser" Mit einem Sack Nüsse will ich begraben sein und mit neuesten Zähnen. Wenn es dann kracht, wo ich liege, kann vermutet werden: Er ist das, immer noch er. I don't think it's available in English, and I'll add my own translation here. I hope that's not too presumptuous. I've done some translation, but translating poetry is difficult. Wit…

I'd translate the last two lines slightly different:

  With a bag of nuts
  I'd like to be buried
  and with the freshest of teeth.
  When there is gnashing
  where I lie,
  one can surmise:
  It's him,
  still him.

Re: German author Guenter Grass dies

#20

Post by morsch » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 12:55 PM UTC

skore wrote: post #19

morsch wrote: post #3

The Günter-Grass-Haus published this poem from his work "Fundsachen für Nichtleser" Mit einem Sack Nüsse will ich begraben sein und mit neuesten Zähnen. Wenn es dann kracht, wo ich liege, kann vermutet werden: Er ist das, immer noch er. I don't think it's available in English, and I'll add my own translation here. I hope that's not too presumptuous. I've done some translation, but translating poetry is difficult. Wit…

I'd translate the last two lines slightly different: With a bag of nuts I'd like to be buried and with the freshest of teeth. When there is gnashing where I lie, one can surmise: It's him, still him.

That's what I had originally, but I felt that the pronoun being the first and the last word in the last sentence (and second-to-last/last line, respectively) was significant enough that I wanted to keep it in, even at the cost of being non-grammatical.