Three Novellas

Walking is an early novella by Bernhard translated into English by Kenneth J. Northcott. The story is a stunning read even as it is presented in unparagraphed totality. It fuses philosophy’s depth of thought with poetry’s contemplative spaciousness.

The following excerpt provides an idea of the author's approach:
"we may not ask ourselves how we walk, for then we walk differently from the way we really walk and our walking simply cannot be judged, just as we may not ask ourselves how we think, for then we cannot judge how we think because it is no longer our thinking. Whereas, of course, we can observe someone else without his knowledge (or his being aware of it) and observe how he walks or thinks, that is, his walking and his show more thinking, we can never observe ourselves without our knowledge (or our being aware of it)."

I was reminded, ever so slightly, of some of the reveries of Thoreau or Rousseau on walking although this text is more late twentieth century than either of those authors. The famous essayist Lewis Thomas also comes to mind as he assayed the nature of how a jellyfish and a sea slug illuminate the mystery of the self. You can imagine why I might consider myself both excited and exasperated with his prose. Nonetheless in this novella and the other two, Amras and Playing Watten, I found some of the very best writing this reader of Bernhard had ever encountered, even though they may have been composed a bit earlier than his other recognized masterpieces. show less

Is Thomas Bernhard funny? This collection could hint at an answer. His subjects are as un-funny as can be: committing suicide, becoming mad, walking and thinking, thinking and walking. His characters can be pitiful and pathetic. His worldview can be tragic. His voice is vitriol. The commas, as well as the ellipses, are so damn plentiful. They usher in a collapse of thinking, of existence. "Every existence is a mitigating circumstance, dear sir. Before every court, before every self-judgment."

The three novellas are called "Amras", "Playing Watten", and "Walking". Each is a journey into the interior, into a mind of darkness. Each is an intricate mental adventure that can be maddening and infuriating. The prose style is at least show more infuriating. By the time I reached the third novella, I felt like a helpless victim in a Kafkaesque story.

"I am walking into the bell jar of our sensations ... pointless attempt at a swift escape from hopelessness ... with my head schooled in darkness, welded to darkness, from one extreme to the other ... conflicts ... forever into the depth through depth, guided by the power of imagination ... In that thought I pursued my self for a while ... To avoid suffocation, I suddenly turned back in that thought ... as if for dear life I had run back into myself in that thought ..." (from "Amras", ellipses and italics not mine)

This collection of novellas shows that there is a method to madness in Bernhard's constructions. His use of repetition must be a form of political resistance. His use of nested narrative attributions ("the landlord said to the traveler, the truck driver said") must be a form of fictional resistance.

The narratives hover between a broken record and a crazy monologue. It is freewheeling poetry, definitely not for the faint of prose. Bernhard must be so funny because otherwise he is so unremittingly bleak, so unrelentingly despairing, and deadly poisonous. In his fiction, the world is nothing more than an insane asylum. Is it a comedy? Is it a tragedy? show less

This was my second time through this collection. Amras, the first novella, is my least favorite and I still am not sure what Bernhard's fuss was all about regarding how much he personally liked it. Playing Watten and Walking were both far superior to me, and I loved them both very much. These are some of the very best writing he had ever done, even though they may have been composed a bit earlier than his other recognized masterpieces.

An excellent volume for history of literature purposes; the development in Bernhard's career is very clear here, as is the improvement, as he became more ironic, funnier, and smarter. Walking is available on its own, and is truly fantastic, but Playing Watten is very, very good, and worth the extra cost.