63 - Thomas Bernhard's Old Masters (Guest: João Reis)

Books of Some Substance

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4+ y ago 41:01

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On this episode of the podcast, David is joined by author and translator João Reis, author of The Translator's Bride, to talk about lovable literary scamp, the warm and cuddly and optimistic Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard's Old Masters: A Comedy.

They discuss the common aspects of Bernhard's style in general—a monologic riff rife with musical patterns of recursive invective as dark as it is humorous—and Old Masters in particular, which aims its hatred at, among other things: museum guides and their “art twaddle,” Russian tourists, public bathrooms, reading too much of a book, nature, newspapers, Austrian culture, the ubiquity of music, the idea of a happy childhood, crowds, teachers, housekeepers, politicians, Heidegger, Beethoven, all the old masters, and the failure of art to be nothing better than a survival skill "to cope with this world and its revolting aspects."

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