Unmöglich kann ich da in eine vernünftige Illusion hineinkommen.
Eh ich mich so täuschen lasse, will ich lieber zeitlebens kein Stück wieder sehen.
Ich verstehe nicht. But I like to imagine the "Just so" at the end of the post is pronounced "Yoost zo".
Is this a roundabout way of confessing a fetish?
Für mich fehlt es im Englischen das Begriff Banause. Ein Arsehole ist kein Arschloch ist kein Banause. Doch kenne ich Banausen sobald ich sie sehe.
The quoted text describes (part of) the prologue of Tieck's Der gestiefelte Kater, in which soi-disant "enlightened" (but actually narrow-minded and banausic) members of the audience object in the name of good taste to a cat's, or a fairy tale's, being placed on the stage.
You see, it works on multiple levels, because you can bet I object in the strongest possible terms to this abortion,1 which even down to its god-damn tag line promises to be more despair- and disgust-inducing than anything yet seen or imagined has been, but I lead off with a quotation which characterizes earlier (albeit fictive) objectors to an earlier (albeit fictive) presentation of the same (as far as title!) story as, basically, unimaginative, censorious blockheads.
1. The use of "abortion" in this fashion is the sole, and long enduring, and probably regrettable, effect of A Confederacy of Dunces on me.
I propose "despust" to describe mixtures of despair and disgust.
In Tieck's play, the 'Dichter' comes on stage in the epilogue to declare the failure of his play:
Nur noch ein paar Worte, mit Ihrer Erlaubnis; - mein Stück ist durchgefallen.
But at the world premiere of the play (as per Tieck's description in the Vorbericht to the first volume of his collected works), the audience didn't even let that happen:
Das anschauende Publikum zeigte sich so, wie es mehr oder minder immer ist, und wie es in der Posse geschildert worden. Als der Vorhang zuletzt fiel, und der Epilog gesprochen werden sollte, entfernten sich fast alle, und versäumten den notwendigen Schluß in der Meinung, es sei nun alles abgetan.
So the performance failed, in that the audience didn't allow the 'poet' to declare the failure of the performance.
1. The use of "abortion" in this fashion is the sole, and long enduring, and probably regrettable, effect of A Confederacy of Dunces on me.
This clarifies for me why a certain friend of mine, also a big fan of that book, uses that word in that fashion.
I think I'd been told before that the play was actually staged, but wasn't sure anymore, and am kind of amazed that it happened.
also a big fan of that book
You may have meant "also" as, "in addition to being a friend of mine", but for my part I didn't really like the book and didn't see what the fuss was about. (I mean, I see what the fuss about the author's suicide is about, but I didn't care for the book itself all that much.) But that usage was very striking. (Lots of other sources given in the OED, though, so I guess one could have gotten it elsewhence.)
You may have meant "also" as, "in addition to being a friend of mine"
I did. I haven't read the book.
I think I'd been told before that the play was actually staged
It hasn't come to the stage very often. The first staging was several decades after it was published; the next one of any importance was in 1921, when the scholarly upsurge of interest in the Romantic period started bleeding into the theater as well, answering the call to cleanse the German stage of the "naturalistische Kleinmalerei" of the late 19th century. Tankred Dorst wrote a play in response to Tieck in 1964, Der Kater oder Wie man das spiel spielt. It quite deftly satirizes both Tieck and the Schlegel stuff he was satirizing. If I ever do get a contract to translate Dorst's plays (sort of a back burner project for me), that one will definitely be among them.
(Why yes, please do ask me about issues of representation and stageability in German theater.)
So, when the Tieck is staged, is it staged with the audience member parts actually performed in the audience? Or is there a stage reproduced on the stage? And, if the former, isn't the effect somewhat ruined (or at least drastically altered) when everyone knows that's what they're getting into?
Tieck wanted the play's audience members to be in among the actual audience, but I've only ever read about them being onstage, the 'stage reproduced on stage,' as you put it. Of course, even if they were among the audience members, it wouldn't take long before you'd realize who was actually a cast member. (Unless you had an unusually active and engaged set of fellow audience members?) Dorst's play actually addresses this, having 'Zuschauer' with assigned lines scattered throughout the audience, who at the end of the play are physically thrown onto the stage by stagehands.
Your last question can be addressed to lots of boundary-pushing theater after its first exposure. Was Offending the Audience actually saying anything after the very first night of its premiere? How do you repeat something like that?
Too many levels for me. I got all I could handle of German culture today from SMSvonGesternNacht.
Your last question can be addressed to lots of boundary-pushing theater after its first exposure.
Indeed! In fact, I'd expect that in many cases it can be addressed to lots of boundary-pushing theater before its first exposure.
Lots of boundary pushing art of all kinds, one would think. The Sixth Sense, The Crying Game.
Did The Sixth Sense push boundaries? There had been movies, or stories, in which at the end there's some big surprising reveal before.
Twist endings, sure, but I can't remember one in which the end revealed that the main character themself was already dead. The thing that occurs to me instead are the movies in which the main character's death is announced from the beginning: Sunset Boulevard, American Beauty.
I was sort of being a smartass.
I was actually thinking of Cage's compositions.
Twist endings, sure, but I can't remember one in which the end revealed that the main character themself was already dead
The Last Temptation of Christ?
Also, it was never (successfully) made into a movie, but it's the twist in Ubik. And The Third Policeman, for that matter.
I was actually thinking of Cage's compositions.
I think few of these depend for their success on the audience being unaware of what's going to happen.
Twist endings, sure, but I can't remember one in which the end revealed that the main character themself was already dead
And "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" for that matter.
27: but I'd think many of them had their greatest impact when it had never happened before.
I'm pretty sure The Third Policeman came before The Sixth Sense. By about 70 years.
I assumed 30 was actually addressed to 28.
That would make more sense. Carry on.
I use unexpected alterations of the numbering system to produce a sense of disorientation in the reader.
When you're watching a Nic Cage film, it feels like it's never going to end. But then—surprise! It finally does.
Do those films count?
you take unreadability to even greater heights - gotta love the dedication you show to unreadability, mr. ben.