Woodcutters (Vintage International)

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El entierro de Joanna esa misma mañana, seguido de la cena artística, son dos actos de la misma representación teatral en la de los supuestos intelectuales y almas sensibles representan sus patéticos papeles como artistas y mecenas, tratando de obtener algún beneficio de su asistencia. Ambas reuniones devuelven de repente al narrador al marasmo la vida cultural vienesa de los cincuenta, de la que él mismo fue parte activa hasta que se dio cuenta que permanecer significaría su aniquilación como artista y como persona… como ha sucedido finalmente a la propia Joanna. A fin de cuentas, ¿quién si no Bernhard podría crear un personaje que se pasa toda la novela callado y sentado en un sillón de orejas, escribir una novela con todos los pensamientos odiosos que se le ocurrieron sentado en ese sillón de orejas, y apostillar, en la mitad de cada uno de esos pensamientos, “pensé, mientras estaba sentado en el sillón de orejas”? Detrás de tanta crítica hay una confesión. El propio narrador ya lo había advertido: no se siente culpable al acusar despiadadamente a los demás de todo tipo de atrocidades porque a sí mismo se juzga incluso con más rigor. Pero al margen del sarcasmo del narrador y su catarsis final, no hay que perder de vista que mucho de lo que dice es tristemente cierto, y no solo para Viena y para los años ochenta. El hecho de que la novela fuera prohibida en Austria por difamatoria durante años prueba que más de un callo debió pisar. La pretenciosidad de un mundo artístico endogámico, la mercadotecnia que oculta la vulgaridad de los consagrados y asfixia la originalidad de los que toman riesgos, las ayudas oficiales a cambio de apoyo político son males que aquejan al mundo artístico en todos los países y en todas las épocas. At "My Wood Cutters", you can find pretty much all common cutting tools for woodworkers. This includes replacement knives for planers and jointers, shaper cutters, Helical cutter heads for planers and jointers, and even molding knives for all common molding machines

One of Bernhard’s trademark traits: He never shied away from controversy. When “Woodcutters” was first published in 1984, a former friend (composer Gerhard Lampersberg) sued the author for defamation - in consequence, all printed copies were confiscated, which of course caused an enormous scandal (Lampersberg and Bernhard later sought an extrajudicial settlement). And Lampersberg was not the only one who felt offended by Bernhard’s text. Anyone else who spots something suspicious can always report it to our Customer Service team, so our Fraud team can investigate.This went on the whole day. Every hour, Peter would stop chopping for fifteen minutes while John kept going relentlessly. So when the competition ended, John was absolutely confident that he would take the triumph. And as the observer in his wing chair thinks with great disgust of all the despicable things that he associates with the various dinner guests, and how he hates, detests and despises this, that and the other (the narrator uses a large number of derogatory words!), it gradually occurs to him that his own behaviour may have been despicable too.

Meanwhile, after a couple of hours, the celebrated actor appears and promptly monopolises the conversation which is entirely about himself. While the unnamed writer sits in his wing chair thinking how utterly detestable the celebrity is, he becomes aware that the actor is perhaps putting on a show for the diners, and that just maybe he isn’t all that bad. And as the narrator continues observing and pondering, he realises that he himself has been ‘guilty’ of the same ‘offences’ that he observes. In fact these people are a mirror image of his own behaviour. There sit the Marianne Moore, the Gertrude Stein and the Virginia Woolf of Vienna, I thought, and yet they are nothing but devious, ambitious little state protégées, who have betrayed literature – and art in general – for the sake of a few ludicrous prizes and a guaranteed pension, kowtowing to the state and its cultural riffraff, churning out their derivative kitsch for the vilest of motives and spending their time going up and down the stairs of the ministries that dole out subventions. To get ourselves out of a tight spot, it seems to me, we are ourselves just as mendacious as those we are always accusing of mendacity, those whom we despise and drag in the dirt for their mendacity; we are not one jot better than the people we constantly find objectionable and insufferable, those repellent people with whom we want to have as few dealings as possible, though; if we are honest, we do have dealings with them and are no different from them. We reproach them with all kinds of objectionable and insufferable behavior and are no less insufferable and objectionable ourselves—perhaps we are even more insufferable and objectionable, it occurs to me.”Since his return he has spent a portion of each day walking up and down Vienna's streets, most recently the Graben and the Karntnerstrasse. Here he runs into old associates, the Auerbergers, who were lovers and mentors thirty years before, but whom he now despises with a passion that is often laughable in its boundlessness. The entire book is an internal monologue of rage. Everyone he was friendly with 30 years ago he now despises. He is appalled by the fact that he has actually attended this so-called artistic dinner. Why did he come? He doesn't know. He is indifferent to nothing. Anything and everything provokes an almost out of control rage. He seeths with perceived slights. Yet, he says nothing. He is as much controlled by the social contract as anyone at the dinner. Indeed, perhaps more so, since a few others are at least not afraid to make their displeasure known when they hear an opinion they disagree with. Stichwort innerer Gehalt: Bernhard hat sich ausschließlich für das Innere interessiert. Das Äußere, Handlung, Ereignisse, usw., "... die halten ja nur auf, sind ja auch uninteressant. Innere Vorgänge, die niemand sieht, sind das einzige Interessante an Literatur überhaupt. Alles Äußere kennt man ja. Das was niemand sieht, das hat einen Sinn aufzuschreiben." so Bernhard im Interview mit Krista Fleischmann. Inesorabilmente non risparmiano nessuno dei presenti, degli assenti, nemmeno dei defunti seppelliti nella stessa mattinata e neppure sé stessi, proseguendo con la consueta ripetizione ossessiva del linguaggio fino all’unico cambio di prospettiva del romanzo, l’abbandono della bergère per accedere al tavolo da pranzo a più stretto contatto con i convitati, mettendo così maggiormente a fuoco (in tutti i sensi…!) i singoli partecipanti a questo inferno dantesco in brodo viennese. Fue una gran experiencia haber leído a este autor, es un libro que no ofrece dificultad en su lectura y me parece muy recomendable.