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There was a case a while ago in which a theater - I think in Vienna - contrived to circumvent the Bernhard embargo by bussing their audience over the border to Slovakia. Yet strangely, the Salzburg Drama Festival somehow managed to put on a piece by him last year...

I note also that Austrian literature has always had a peculiarly antagonistic relationship with the country itself, from Karl Kraus on down to Handke & Jelinek. I suspect that this has something to do with a kind of Vienna vs. the Land dispute, but couldn't say much more.

That is absolutely fascinating. Yes, I find the same with Handke and Jellinek. What's interesting is the two of them apparently had the same writing teacher, as well. I'm not sure I completely understand Austrian politics, but I'd love to read more.

An excellent treatment of a very difficult subject. I read "The Loser" once and was intrigued but also finished it feeling like I had somehow missed something. That's my only exposure to the dense and difficult Bernhard thus far, but this piece makes me think I ought to give him another shot - search just a little harder for the beauty amidst all the complex darkness - in hopes of discovering some of what the author of this piece has found in Bernhard.

try reading his autobiography--gathering evidence.this will not only help you to understand bernhard...it is a tremendous work he compiled, and I have never read another autobiography that is as honest and revealing in regard to a particular type of incessant pain and his undeterable intrigue of this pain that became an obvious impetus...it hinges the fury/onslaught of his later writings. it is the account of "lonely" and of his necessarily lonely individualism.

I have been a Bernhard fan for many years. I believe I've read all of the English translations of his novels, except Frost, three or more times. My favorite is Extinction. The novel I found most emotionally engaging and perhaps the saddest was Wittgenstein's Nephew. I would just like to add one comment about his work in general: It is also very funny! A few examples:

"Instead of committing suicide, people go to work."

"People keep a dog and are ruled by this dog, and even Schopenhauer was ruled in the end not by his head, but by his dog. This fact is more depressing than any other."

"Everyone is a virtuoso on his own instrument, but together they add up to an intolerable cacophony."

"People arrive at nine in the morning, take a shower and rush out for a game of tennis; then they collapse and die, and by two o’clock in the afternoon they end up in the cemetery, as I know from the most dreadful firsthand experience."

I have also read his autobiography, Gathering Evidence, which is extraordinary, and provides much insight into his life and personality. However, I would not recommend it as a substitute for his novels. My own suggestion on where to begin with Bernhard would be to read Gargoyles. It's somewhat more conventional style might prove helpful on first exposure. From there, any of the later novels are full of all manner of pleasures.

Which is the most difficult? For me, Old Masters.

Reading Bernhard is like shooting up. Or better, since I've never shot up, like achieving a cathartic cleansing...
His words hypnotise you, and can't stop reading, always wanting more -- and think about the fact that we are reading him in translation (he hated translations). I've read him in English and in Italian, but the effect is the very same... a hypnotic bath of musical words which flow through your brain and erotically caress you.
Wonderful.

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P.S.: Just a note on the habit of comparing Bernhard with other German-speaking authors, such as Handke et al.
I was just recently reading a past interview (by Werner Wögerbauer, 1986), and this is what Bernhard said >>>>>>


Q. Sometimes you hurl abuse at them too, like Canetti or Handke for example.

A. I don't hurl abuse at anyone at all. That's nonsense. Almost all writers are opportunists. Either they affiliate themselves with the right or with the left, joining ranks here or there, and so on, and that's how they make a living. And that's unpleasant, why shouldn't that be said. One works with his illness and his death and wins prizes, and the other runs round in the name of peace and is basically a nasty stupid fellow, so what's the big deal?

Q. From a non-Austrian perspective, this comes as a surprise – in France, you are often named in the same breath as Handke.

A. Well, that breath will change. A new breath with come. But habits like that last for decades. They're impossible to eradicate. If you open a newspaper today, almost all you read about is Thomas Mann. He's been dead thirty years now, and again and again, endlessly, it's unbearable. Even though he was a petty-bourgeois writer, ghastly, uninspired, who only wrote for a petty-bourgeois readership. That could only interest the petty-bourgeois, the kind of milieu he describes, it's uninspired and stupid, some fiddle-playing professor who travels somewhere, or a family in Lübeck, how lovely, but it's nothing more than someone like Wilhelm Raabe. What rubbish Thomas Mann churned out about political matters, really. He was totally uptight and a typical German petty-bourgeois. With a greedy wife.

[...]

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AND ON "TRANSLATIONS" >>>>>>
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Q. Does the fate of your books interest you?

A. No, not really.

Q. What about translations for example?

A. I'm hardly interested in my own fate, and certainly not in that of my books. Translations? What do you mean?

Q. What happens to your books in other countries.

A. Doesn't interest me at all, because a translation is a different book. It has nothing to do with the original at all. It's a book by the person who translated it. I write in the German language. You get sent a copy of these books and either you like them or you don't. If they have awful covers then they're just annoying. And you flip through and that's it. It has nothing in common with your own work, apart from the weirdly different title. Right? Because translation is impossible. A piece of music is played the same the world over, using the written notes, but a book would always have to be played in German, in my case. With my orchestra!

Agreed: Extinction is the best, its the most complete and has more structure and story(!), and I would recommend those who are new to Bernhard to start there. I happened to just finish Witt's Nephew today, and felt it was more slight than most of his others.

Cutting Timber and the Voice Imitator are both laugh out loud funny in my view, although I'm sure not everyone would agree.

I think I'm a reincarnation of Thomas Bernhard. He has so similar childhood....
I've read all of his books translated into Slovenian language, from jun 08 to now, except the "Old masters".
I love him.
Tomaž (Thomas), Slovenia

Great essay. My introduction to Bernhard was Woodcutters, which, although I haven't read all of his work, seems to be a great example of Bernhard's unique voice. There's something in the absurdity, the repetition of the same thoughts, and the exagerrated negativity in his writing that I find consistently amusing and often completely hilarious. I'm reading The Loser now and finding the same qualities. I can't wait to read the rest of his books.

Perhaps a link? It should be examined. 70. one and two.

I started reading Bernhard with Old Masters and felt the same thrill when first reading Watt by Samuel Beckett. Perhaps it's because I am composer that I feel such an affinity to his works? Besides, he is extremely funny.
Carson Dunbar

I would recommend starting with his last novel, Extinction and then moving on to Wittgenstein's Nephew, Correction, Loser, Old Masters, and the fabulous Woodcutters. I have never been so engrossed in a writer before TB. His style, the cadence of the language (just count sometime for fun the number of times he refers to the high wing-backed chair in Woodcutters!), the biting sarcasm and the wonderful satire. His play Force of Habit is also a delight to read. I have read them all - from Amras to Extinction. No better author in my view.