Arno Schmidt: A Primer 

22:40 La=bimmel, La=bammel, La=bumm 😊 Wonderful to learn that apparently an effective translation into English of Schmidt's work was actually possible (hats off to John E. Woods!). I have a bit of a feeling that „Bottom‘s Dream“ and the etym theory are a bit of a deterrent and so get in the way of people's perception of Schmidt. If Schmidt's incredible humor and wordplay from Woods also ignites in English, I can also only recommend the reading order for beginners: "Scenes from the Life of a Faun", "Dark Mirrors" and "Republica Intelligentsia". Once you're "in", it will also be a lot of fun with "B/Moondocks". In the late work I find "The School for Atheists" and "Abend mit Goldrand" (both without a first-person narrator, by the way) are great and I've only read parts of "Zettel's Traum" occasionally. I'm waiting for someone to make a reading book out of the best parts (there's already an attempt, but it obviously doesn't hit the best spots). ...and Schmidt as the inventor of emojis! Wonderful! 28:24 The German title ("eine MärchenPosse - 55 Szenen aus der Lä/e/Endlichkeit für Gönner der Verschreibk/Kunst") is nowhere near as explicit as the translated version (In "MärchenPosse" the "Po" (butt) is not orthographically emphasized, the different versions Ländlichkeit/Lendlichkeit/Endlichkeit, are "Country life", "Life of the hip" and "Finiteness").

Glad to have you back making videos. It was only a few weeks ago I was flipping through a copy of one of Arno Schmidt's works at a bookstore and you're right. A lot of perplexing intrigue just from that surface level introduction. I may have to get a copy of one of his works in the near future.

zettel's traum translated in english? i am dazed! that is really mindboggling. world could be worse... ❤

Great video. Moving to the second one. Thank you for this😀

I can't believe I just watched that entire video lmfao subscribing now

Enjoyed this immensely!

Glad you are going down this rabbit hole. I started collecting WTV years before I finally let the damn burst, and I feel the potential energy with Schmidt getting close to a point of action. This was nice to remind me to not just get my ass into gear on Schmidt, but Moore and A. Theroux. It is also time to get back to Vollmann's RURD. Probably more of a kick in my pants than I intended by watching this.

Excited about this. Have all four volumes of Dalkey and started digging in, but now… might dig in deeper. Count me in… Bottom’s Dream is on its way…

Great video! You're a great orator. Verbose and intelligent without being obtuse or indecipherable.

Love this❤ love this format🎉

best way to start august!

yayy new video!

For a couple months now I've been eyeing The School for Atheists but not pulling the trigger. I'll take this as a sign that it's time to finally get into Schmidt.

Thanks for this! I'm gonna start my Arno Schmidt run. First up: The Egghead Republic, followed by the 4 novellas - N's Children, Life of a Faun, B's H & Dark Matter.

WELCOME BACK!!!

I was one of those who bought BD the week it was published from the Strand in NYC, $62 usd. Before it left stores I saw it while I was traveling, in Portland, Oregon marked down to $45 usd. Likewise all of the Dalkey Schmidt paperbacks languished for years in remainder bins-once again at Strand circa 2015 or so I think each Dalkey paperback (novellas, stories, Nobodaddy etc) was around $4. All i mean to say by this, as opposed to bragging, is that it's remarkable all of these books have been published at all given that for YEARS there has been very little to no interest in them. Nice to hear there is interest now!

Im not getting my hopes too high… if the way they’ve handled the release of Miss MacIntosh, My Darling is any indication of how this new leadership does things at Dalkey, then it’ll be over a decade before we see any Schmidt.

Great episode!!! Which are the translators that you mentioned in the Dalkey section? Greetings from Chile

WASTE: any plans to review Finnegans Wake? Maybe you’ve done that already. Another beast of a book. Definitely worth reading. Much harder than Ulysses but far more rewarding 💥

Any advice on where to look for vol. 4 two novels? It’s not just that it’s pricey, but I can’t find it for sale online anywhere. I can find copies of ZT and Evening edged in gold, but not even one listing of Vol. 4.

I should really read Blindness (saw it on your shelf)

PSA: I made an error when plugging the link to the audio version of today's episode in the description box. I've since repaired it but you can also find it here: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wastemailinglist/episodes/Arno-Schmidt-Primer-An-Introduction-e27i8qm

Basically this whole video is making me realize David Foster Wallace is a chumpppppp!!! Way, WAY more trippy shit out there. Definitely want to try Bottoms Dream

What is that black and white swirly book on top of Philip Freedenberg's Cactus Boots?

Truly my favourite channel on RU-vid! May I ask where you find all these books? Currently reading solenoid because of your video and loving it. Keep it up!

Any shot someone could tell me what the title of that beautiful book with the concentric circles on the spine is?

well hello there 👋

Which one is German romanticism?

Nobodaddy needs that! Lol!

"farternoiser FW 530.36 n. One who makes the sound or noise of expelling gas or farting. This suggests the Our Father or Pater Noster. In Finnegans Wake, God’s voice through thunder can come across as a farting sound. (“A farternoiser for his tuckish armenities.”) The next sentence begins, “Ouhr Former who erred in having,” that brings in the Wake’s contention that God messed up big time when he created the heavens and the earth, what Joyce believed was the real Original Sin. In Ulysses, Joyce created the noise of Bloom’s fart on the sidewalk with “Kraaaaaa . . . Pprrpffrrppfff,” a hint of many more literary inventions to come within Finnegans Wake. This fart is famous as the place where a disgusted Virginia Woolf finally abandoned her reading of Joyce’s banned book. belchybubhub FW 239.33 n. Lucifer or Beelzebub violently shooting out or belching, most likely fire in Hell, with a great uproar or hubbub. (“oaths and screams and bawley groans with a belchybubhub and a hellabelow bedimmed and bediabbled the arimaining lucisphere”) McHugh translates “hellabelow” as “hullabaloo” and gives the Spanish diablo for “devil” in “bediabbled.” Joyce wrote one children’s book, The Cat and the Devil, for his much loved grandson, Stephen James Joyce. It paints a purrfect picture of “belchybubhub.” slumbwhere FW 580.15 n. Some place or somewhere to sleep or slumber. After draining the dregs of his customers’ glasses, HCE’s “slumbwhere” is, briefly, the floor of his pub. (“light in hand, helm on high, to peekaboo durk the thicket of slumbwhere, till their hour with their scene be struck for ever and the book of the dates he close”) For “durk,” as well as referring to “dark,” McHugh gives the German durch for “through.” He also points out that The Egyptian Book of the Dead is closed. murkblankered FW 612.22 adj. Appearing empty or blank from a covering or blanket of darkness, gloom, or murk. London was once famous for its enveloping fogs that gave the city a “murkblankered” appearance. (“beingtime monkblinkers timeblinged completamentarily murkblankered in their neutrolysis”) McHugh translates “beingtime” as “for the time being,” “monkblinkers” as “blinkered,” “completamentarily” as the Italian completamente for “completely,” “murkblandered” as “blankminded,” and “neutrolysis” as “electrolysis” and “neutrality.” allfaulters FW 355.35 n. All the mistakes or faults of God or Our Father. Joyce believed the real original sin (“original sinse”) was God’s creation of the universe, and James Atherton in The Books at the Wake writes that “attribution of Original Sin to God is one of the basic axioms of Finnegans Wake.” (“We all, for whole men is lepers, have been nobbut wonterers in that chill childerness which is our true name after the allfaulters”) McHugh provides the Danish Alfader for the god “Odin.” venerections FW 356.33 n. 1. reverences or venerations for things straight up or erections. The great success of drugs and devices to correct erectile dysfunctions pays tribute to our society’s “venerections” for things that are stiff and stand straight up. (“I have just been seeing, with my warmest venerectrions, of a timmersome townside upthecountrylifer”) The Wellington Monument in Dublin’s Phoenix Park is a venerection in granite to the Dublin-born duke. It certainly has phallic overtones throughout Finnegans Wake and is identified as Finn MacCool’s erect penis in the giant’s body spread under the Dublin landscape." -Bill Cole Cliett