Last Gunter Grass book

[hector_jorge]

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In the last Gunter Grass book, "Die Box.Dunkelkammergeschichten" or "La Caja de los Deseos" in the Spanish translation, the Leica Cameras are mentioned several times. Maybe a "hidden" publicity?. Anyway, the book is excellent as all the Gunter Grass books are.

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[UliWer]

The book tells the story of a "Box"-Camera being used in the author's family. Sometimes it mentions, that other people in or outside the family used "a Leica". Not much else.

 

Whether you like the book, is up to personal taste (I think it's old man's gossip, lacking style completely and very boring...). It certainly is far, far away from promoting Leica.

[hector_jorge]

The book tells the story of a "Box"-Camera being used in the author's family. Sometimes it mentions, that other people in or outside the family used "a Leica". Not much else.

 

Whether you like the book, is up to personal taste (I think it's old man's gossip, lacking style completely and very boring...). It certainly is far, far away from promoting Leica.

Of course Gunter Grass promoting Leica is only a joke. Sorry but I`m not agree with you. The book is good for me, and the Leica and the Agfa box owner is one of the central caracters in the story. Anyway, as you said, it is matter of personal taste. But the point is that it is not frecuent to see the Leica cameras mentioned in a Nobel Prize winner book several times.

[scaryink]

I would like to congratulate you on getting through one of his novels. I have found his writing stilted, boring and the subject matter uninteresting. Other than these items and the fact that he was a Nazi and I'm sure he is a nice guy.

[UliWer]

... and the fact that he was a Nazi ....

 

Fact is, that he was not even 18 years old, when the Nazis ended.

Since then and for sure since he was publishing books Grass can never be called a Nazi.

 

Fact is that it took him all his life to reveal the facts about his relation to the Nazis at the time when he was a youngster. You may critizise him for this, and of writing bad books (my critizism only applies to his last book, the early ones i know are very, very good ones), but there is no reason at all, to position him anywhere in the surroundings of Nazis.

[scaryink]

Fact is, that he was not even 18 years old, when the Nazis ended.

Since then and for sure since he was publishing books Grass can never be called a Nazi.

 

Fact is that it took him all his life to reveal the facts about his relation to the Nazis at the time when he was a youngster. You may critizise him for this, and of writing bad books (my critizism only applies to his last book, the early ones i know are very, very good ones), but there is no reason at all, to position him anywhere in the surroundings of Nazis.

 

He was a young nazi and concealed this fact very shrewdly and carefully. The last Grass novel I tried to get through was The Tin Drum. I thought the author had a tin ear.

[alun]

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Scaryink, After trying to read THE TIN DRUM, you may have thought Grass had a tin ear but this is likely to be your difficulty rather that that of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Grass's guilt and the erosion if not collapse of his moral authority following revelations that at age 17 he was recruited by the Waffen SS is a serious and worthwhile debate, however.

 

So far, the revelations seem not to have resulted in quite the outpouring of condemnation that might have been expected. I suspect this may be because of Grass's lifelong reputation as an anti-Nazi and a writer who has sought to understand and come to terms with Germany's wartime guilt; and it may also be because many have read the facts and feel 'there but for the grace of God....' -- his situation as a youth puts him at the epicentre of twentieth century moral choice and consequences...

 

THis thread has been a timely reminder for me that I need to read more Grass and try and understand his situation better.

[scaryink]

Scaryink, After trying to read THE TIN DRUM, you may have thought Grass had a tin ear but this is likely to be your difficulty rather that that of the Nobel Prize-winning novelist. Grass's guilt and the erosion if not collapse of his moral authority following revelations that at age 17 he was recruited by the Waffen SS is a serious and worthwhile debate, however.

 

So far, the revelations seem not to have resulted in quite the outpouring of condemnation that might have been expected. I suspect this may be because of Grass's lifelong reputation as an anti-Nazi and a writer who has sought to understand and come to terms with Germany's wartime guilt; and it may also be because many have read the facts and feel 'there but for the grace of God....' -- his situation as a youth puts him at the epicentre of twentieth century moral choice and consequences...

 

THis thread has been a timely reminder for me that I need to read more Grass and try and understand his situation better.

 

I believe your post to be well measured and carefully considered. The issue of Grass is very interesting and full of conflict - irregardless of his writing content. I honestly think it may have been the very poor translations that I have read. While the Pulitzer prize is often political, those who receive it in writing are at the very least accomplished writers. As I dont anticipate learning German at this point, perhaps you know of an excellent translation that will do justice to the intent of the original work.

 

His anti Nazi work is notable. His hidden past is also notable. Of couse he is human as well and has to eat like the rest of us. I suspect if this had come out early in his career, it would have finished him as an author.

[UliWer]

...

His anti Nazi work is notable. His hidden past is also notable. Of couse he is human as well and has to eat like the rest of us. I suspect if this had come out early in his career, it would have finished him as an author.

 

I do not think so. If Grass had been outspoken from his very beginning about his own thinking and decisions when he was very young and what changed his attitude there might have been a debate about his mistake and the how it should be looked about under very different cirumstances. He missed this chance. This does not make him a better or worse author.

 

Others who were more envolved and older when they declared themselves pro-nazi used this chance. Best example is the german writer Franz Fühmann.

[alun]

[...] As I dont anticipate learning German at this point, perhaps you know of an excellent translation that will do justice to the intent of the original work.

 

Scaryink, I wasn't aware of this but a bit of Googling reveals that a new translation of THE TIN DRUM (by Breon Mitchell) is about to be published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the work.