Geoff's Reviews > Satantango

Been thinking about this one a little more, and it seems to me K is less akin to Beckett than to writers like Bernhard and Kafka and Poe. Poe especially, in the atmospherics. Like Kis and Kafka and Beckett and Poe and Bernhard. Not saying he supercedes any of these. But those traditions are where I place him. He even feels like a classic Russian novelist at points, Chekhov or Dostoevsky. Good fuckin writer, this man. At least in the translations I'm exploring. On to War & War.

tonally i don’t really get any beckett from him at all. kafka and poe feel closer- and maybe a dash of flann o’brien

alex wrote: "tonally i don’t really get any beckett from him at all. kafka and poe feel closer- and maybe a dash of flann o’brien"

I suppose I was thinking that his characters often act in a similar manner to characters in Beckett

But again, I’m not thinking too critically about literature these days, so all of these comparisons are probably lazy

But the Little Esti chapter of this (Unraveling) - just sustained brilliant agony. Mind-blowing writing. Reread it this morning.

This is interesting, having only recently read Poe properly. I hadn't seen them as similar, as Poe is often caught up in the aesthetics and beauty of dark circumstances, whereas Krasznahorkai isn't into making them sound appealing - anything like that comes from the reader. (And most people categorise Satantango as dark and depressing - whereas if, like me, you read it not long after This Way for the Gas Ladies and Gentlemen, and with a history of Stalinism on the go, you see how state decay has allowed people more freedom by the time of Satantango.)

I've always felt the Bernhard influence on the original text. The Hungarian translations of Frost and The Lime Works were a big deal... Brilliant translations by an awesome poet (Tandori), they came out in the 70s when Krasznahorkai was a young man. I think he even mentioned them in an interview somewhere.

Yeah I'm not doing well with engaging critically with books anymore. But I do see what you're saying about Poe. Poe enjoys or illuminates that aesthetic and K prods it to show us the mucky dread. But while reading it I kept thinking Fall of the House of Usher, or perhaps another of his stories. Again, could be way off. Interesting to know that about the translations of Bernhard. Clearly felt his presence in Baron Wenckheim, more than this one even, but he is definitely an antecedent.

I think Gogol is another it's feasible to see in this (you did mention Russian classics). Gogol's sentences are really long (I've never seen anyone mention this; only discovered it by reading him, though they are long in an ebullient way rather than with Bernhardian grimness) - and Dead Souls is also about swindlers in a provincial rural area. Likewise, the characters are pretty much all rotten in one way or another if looked at morally, and compelling regardless.

Antonomasia wrote: "I think Gogol is another it's feasible to see in this (you did mention Russian classics). Gogol's sentences are really long (I've never seen anyone mention this; only discovered it by reading him, ..."

Gogol is spot on. That's it. Yeah exactly Gogol

I wonder if the influence of Faulkner is felt in the English translation?

I've just finished Baron Wenckheim and the dominant narrative technique is stream of consciousness (or stream of speeches), run on sentences, frequently switching speakers and so on.

Though I guess he is still more Bernhardian than Faulknerian.

Incidentally, I am planning to read Dead Souls in December.

If you are reading Dead Souls in English, do consider the Guerney translation (Yale). It is really funny and also, if such things carry any weight with you, its original version (the one now available is revised) was considered by Nabokov to be the only good translation. (Quite a few other Russian scholars/speakers still seem to think it the best.) Nabokov did recommend some odd translations and methods that don't necessarily read well in English - but in this instance I think he was right. It is a lot more fun than any others I looked at.

It only has part 1 as the main book (though I've heard a few people, incl on here, say that only that should really be read as Dead Souls). There are bits of part 2 in an appendix. I am going to read pt 2 in Rayfield (NYRB).

Thank you for the recommendation but I'm going to read it in Hungarian :)

I'm curious how much it will resemble Krasznahorkai (à la "Kafka and His Precursors")

Nice review, Geoff. I've just read it myself. Yes, Thorough fallenness and dread indeed!