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A review by neculara
Trær som faller by Thomas Bernhard
4.0
In a big, old chair at a late night dinner party, the main character sits and rages silently over his hosts, their art snobbery and the general state of the culture scene in Vienna. Half hidden behind a door, he observes the other guests and reminisce on events from the past. He regrets accepting the invitation to this "late night artistic dinner" with old acquaintances he obviously loathes. My Norwegian translation has a subtitle that can be translated as "An agitation", which is very fitting. The language is rhythmic, almost hypnotic, very repetitive and intense. The whole book is about the main character's agitation, rage, melancholy and despair.
I think the English title is usually Cutting Timber or Woodcutters, while the original is Hultsfellen. The latter means trees that topple over on their own, from old age or rot, or some other natural reason. And I think it's past tense? So the original title might be interpreted to mean that the old giants, the old authorities, have fallen, maybe from rot, or from growing too big and heavy. This makes sense when you think about the main character's never ending criticism of art snobbery. The entire book can be read as a furious critique of Vienna's high culture.
And still, there seems to be a conflict between rage and accept/friendliness throughout the novel. Especially in the instances when the main character realizes or admits to himself that he is no better than the people he is criticizing. It made me wonder what the secondary characters in this novel are actually like, because the reader has almost no contact with the world outside the main character's raging mind. It's a little bit like stream of consciousness, except this inner monologue is more theoretical/analytical and less about sensory input.
Repetition. The main character repeats words and phrases that gets stuck in his head. Words are doubled and repeated in complex and rhythmical patterns, which builds up and builds up. It intensifies, underlines, focuses and shows his agitation. He even says some of them out loud so many times that people starts to stare at him, and in the first half of the book, this is the only direct contact between the main character and other people. It's like his inner world - his thoughts and frustrations - is leaking out into the world around him. The main character's rants are often quite funny, and the agitated, never ending stream of thoughts are fascinating to read, in spite of their repetitiveness.
Exaggeration. Hyperbole is used throughout - a metaphor of exaggeration, a figure of anger. It strengthens the picture of "the enemy", and by using this type of rhetoric, you can distance yourself from the thing you criticize. The novel makes war on people, social norms and certain types of behavior. But hyperboles are often difficult to take seriously. There is too much patos, it's all to exaggerated (and sometimes quite funny). The main character might have some good points, but he gives us no evidence. He is definitely an unreliable narrator, albeit an eloquent one. This makes me ponder what his intention is. Is he really trying to convince us, or himself, of something, or does his rhythmic, intense and energizing anger have some other purpose?
Italics. The frequent use of italics when he is quoting someone he disagrees with often has a hint of mockery. This is also a way of distancing himself from what he is criticizing. He's making it very clear that these are not his opinions. The use of italics also makes the words stand out as something remarkable, he makes words and phrases that are seen as natural and normal by the people who use them, seem stupid and silly. This is pretty arrogant, and it made me wonder if protest and criticism isn't also an artistic norm? At other times, the use of italics underlines something that's important to the main character.
Composition. The novel consists of one solid block of text. No chapters, no paragraphs, no pauses anywhere. This, like so many other things in this book, creates intensity. It can also make the book tiresome to read. There is no good place to stop reading, it just goes on and on (like an angry rant often does). The composition, like everything else in this book, mirrors the main character's state of mind. Sentences are typically long, but with many commas and semicolons as the main character moves continuously from one line of thought to another.
A lot of the characters have at one point changed their names from their given or "natural" names to something more artistic, fashionable or appropriate to what they want to achieve. They exchange their real names for something that has a desired effect. It all comes back to the dichotomy between the genuine/natural and the fake/fashionable. The main character describes how talented people from the countryside travel to Vienna to fulfill their dreams and are crushed and broken there. It's like two different spheres that are not compatible. But the dichotomy isn't necessary between the city and the countryside. These places represent, to the main character, the fake and the genuine, respectively. It's about people seeking the social status art, fashion and high culture gives them, rather than actually being interested in art for its own sake or wanting to create something great or meaningful. And the people who are genuinely interested, are doomed to fail in such an environment. But although people in the countryside are vaguely described as being genuine, we are not really given an alternative, a solution, a positive counterpart to Vienna's art snobbery. It's just the negative side the main character conveys to the readers.
This novel is complex and, yes, artistic, even as it criticizes the art scene. Everything in it is carefully chosen and molded. There is definitely a melancholy longing for a past long gone where the main character was inspired by, and interested in, art. Throughout the novel he isolates himself from the people around him. He prefers to observe and criticize from a distance the milieu he used to be a part of. His change of heart has been a difficult and agonizing process, and his present day anger seems to me to have the purpose of an exorcism. He is driving all of these people away from himself, trying to cleanse himself of everything they represent.
I think the English title is usually Cutting Timber or Woodcutters, while the original is Hultsfellen. The latter means trees that topple over on their own, from old age or rot, or some other natural reason. And I think it's past tense? So the original title might be interpreted to mean that the old giants, the old authorities, have fallen, maybe from rot, or from growing too big and heavy. This makes sense when you think about the main character's never ending criticism of art snobbery. The entire book can be read as a furious critique of Vienna's high culture.
And still, there seems to be a conflict between rage and accept/friendliness throughout the novel. Especially in the instances when the main character realizes or admits to himself that he is no better than the people he is criticizing. It made me wonder what the secondary characters in this novel are actually like, because the reader has almost no contact with the world outside the main character's raging mind. It's a little bit like stream of consciousness, except this inner monologue is more theoretical/analytical and less about sensory input.
Repetition. The main character repeats words and phrases that gets stuck in his head. Words are doubled and repeated in complex and rhythmical patterns, which builds up and builds up. It intensifies, underlines, focuses and shows his agitation. He even says some of them out loud so many times that people starts to stare at him, and in the first half of the book, this is the only direct contact between the main character and other people. It's like his inner world - his thoughts and frustrations - is leaking out into the world around him. The main character's rants are often quite funny, and the agitated, never ending stream of thoughts are fascinating to read, in spite of their repetitiveness.
Exaggeration. Hyperbole is used throughout - a metaphor of exaggeration, a figure of anger. It strengthens the picture of "the enemy", and by using this type of rhetoric, you can distance yourself from the thing you criticize. The novel makes war on people, social norms and certain types of behavior. But hyperboles are often difficult to take seriously. There is too much patos, it's all to exaggerated (and sometimes quite funny). The main character might have some good points, but he gives us no evidence. He is definitely an unreliable narrator, albeit an eloquent one. This makes me ponder what his intention is. Is he really trying to convince us, or himself, of something, or does his rhythmic, intense and energizing anger have some other purpose?
Italics. The frequent use of italics when he is quoting someone he disagrees with often has a hint of mockery. This is also a way of distancing himself from what he is criticizing. He's making it very clear that these are not his opinions. The use of italics also makes the words stand out as something remarkable, he makes words and phrases that are seen as natural and normal by the people who use them, seem stupid and silly. This is pretty arrogant, and it made me wonder if protest and criticism isn't also an artistic norm? At other times, the use of italics underlines something that's important to the main character.
Composition. The novel consists of one solid block of text. No chapters, no paragraphs, no pauses anywhere. This, like so many other things in this book, creates intensity. It can also make the book tiresome to read. There is no good place to stop reading, it just goes on and on (like an angry rant often does). The composition, like everything else in this book, mirrors the main character's state of mind. Sentences are typically long, but with many commas and semicolons as the main character moves continuously from one line of thought to another.
A lot of the characters have at one point changed their names from their given or "natural" names to something more artistic, fashionable or appropriate to what they want to achieve. They exchange their real names for something that has a desired effect. It all comes back to the dichotomy between the genuine/natural and the fake/fashionable. The main character describes how talented people from the countryside travel to Vienna to fulfill their dreams and are crushed and broken there. It's like two different spheres that are not compatible. But the dichotomy isn't necessary between the city and the countryside. These places represent, to the main character, the fake and the genuine, respectively. It's about people seeking the social status art, fashion and high culture gives them, rather than actually being interested in art for its own sake or wanting to create something great or meaningful. And the people who are genuinely interested, are doomed to fail in such an environment. But although people in the countryside are vaguely described as being genuine, we are not really given an alternative, a solution, a positive counterpart to Vienna's art snobbery. It's just the negative side the main character conveys to the readers.
This novel is complex and, yes, artistic, even as it criticizes the art scene. Everything in it is carefully chosen and molded. There is definitely a melancholy longing for a past long gone where the main character was inspired by, and interested in, art. Throughout the novel he isolates himself from the people around him. He prefers to observe and criticize from a distance the milieu he used to be a part of. His change of heart has been a difficult and agonizing process, and his present day anger seems to me to have the purpose of an exorcism. He is driving all of these people away from himself, trying to cleanse himself of everything they represent.