Austerlitz
- Brand: Unbranded
Description
A fusion of the mystical and the solid ... His art is a form of justice - there can be, I think, no higher aim' Evening Standard La conversación entre Austerlitz y el narrador, que aunque en el libro no se mencione es el propio autor, comienza en el verano de 1967. Sebald está esperando un tren en la Estación Central de Amberes. Aburrido de observar la espectacular estructura de hierro y cristal de la cubierta, su atención de desvía hacia un hombre de edad indefinida, aspecto un tanto desaliñado y gastadísima mochila que toma notas y bocetos concienzudamente. Tiempo de espera en abundancia y un interés compartido son terreno abonado para la conversación así que, sin más preliminares, comienzan a hablar. Jaques Austerlitz resulta ser un investigador de Historia del Arte londinense obsesionado con los grandes edificios públicos de la era capitalista. Como el tema interesa a ambos, hablan sobre la historia de las fortificaciones; titánicos proyectos condenados al fracaso desde la primera piedra—no hay fortaleza inexpugnable—, cuya única utilidad, a lo largo de la Historia, opina Austerlitz, ha sido poner en evidencia nuestra inseguridad y patetismo.
There are so many wonderfully written passages to quote, but the ones that are lingering in my memories this morning are the ones that involve loss. ”I remember, said Austerlitz, how Alphonso once told his great-nephew and me that everything was fading before our eyes, and that many of the loveliest of colors had already disappeared, or existed only where no one saw them, in the submarine gardens fathoms deep below the surface of the sea.” There is certainly a nostalgia for the past being felt by Alphonso, but to even think about the loss of colors from the modern age that will never be seen again is a disconcerting thought. We’ll never see the world the same way as Alphonso did, and neither will our children see the same world we did. Maybe the color isn’t gone though, maybe it has just faded from his own eyes? Mysterious and evocative photographs are also scattered throughout the book, enhancing the melancholy message of the text. Many of these features characterize Sebald's other works of fiction, including The Emigrants, The Rings of Saturn and Vertigo. Smith, Dinitia (12 March 2002). "National Book Critics Circle Honors 'Austerlitz' ". The New York Times . Retrieved 22 April 2012. The scenes of the Battle of Austerlitz itself are some of the best written on the Battle, and this is nearly a 60 year old book. Manceron's description of the climactic Cavalry duel between the French and Russian Imperial Guard horse made for genuinely exciting reading. For me, Austerlitz is the quintessence of my ideal book. An intellectual adventure and an emotional earthquake at the same time. I adore the author's sublime and unobtrusive use of symbols, especially water. The clarity and elegance of his writing style, particularly while discussing complex philosophical topics like the perception of time, were breathtaking also.Austerlitz forces us to reflect on man's vanity and specific human constructions, fortresses obsolete and overcome by the progress they have been completing. Constructed to defend and ultimately used to kill innocent people, built modern libraries to promote the culture and leave a trace in the history of their initiator. And finally, unsuitable for promoting culture, a book made to recall a past that we seek to move aside, the importance of traces of spent not forgetting a message from a German anti-Nazi author. As for the protagonist’s surname, I agree with James Wood’s analysis (the battle of Austerlitz --> Auschwitz) but I also thought the fact that Jacques's family name begins with an A and ends with a Z might suggest that the character’s experiences are a summa of many, many others. Austerlitz is akin to Everyman. Battle of Austerlitz, (December 2, 1805), the first engagement of the War of the Third Coalition and one of Napoleon’s greatest victories. The battle took place at Austerlitz in Moravia (now Slavkov u Brna, Czech Republic). Napoleon’s 68,000 troops defeated almost 90,000 Russians and Austrians nominally under Gen. Mikhail Kutuzov, forcing Austria to make peace with France ( Treaty of Pressburg) and keeping Prussia temporarily out of the anti-French alliance. Formation of the Third Coalition and Trafalgar A medida que Austerlitz narra la búsqueda de sus orígenes perdidos en las ruinas de un continente arrasado por la guerra, la novela se mueve, de un modo delicado y sutil, entre lo trascendente y lo cotidiano, entre la realidad y la ficción. Los acontecimientos históricos relatados por Sebald están dotados de una dimensión irreal, casi de cuento de hadas. Episodios como el campo de trabajo de concentración de Terezín y la película de propaganda que los nazis filmaron allí para mostrar al mundo que centros de exterminio y guetos eran agradables lugares de retiro para trabajadores judíos y sus familias, son mucho más difíciles de creer que las historias imaginarias con las que comparten página. Al mismo tiempo, los personajes ficticios son tan reales que, aunque es poco probable que Austerlitz haya existido fuera de la mente del autor, el lector se niega a creerlo.
It seems to me then as if all the moments of our life occupy the same space, as if future events already existed and were only waiting for us to find our way to them at last… And might it not be, continued Austerlitz, that we also have appointments to keep in the past, in what has gone before and is for the most part extinguished, and must go there in search of places and people who have some connection with us on the far side of time, so to speak?” Each word weighed, each description of the place, and each historical or cultural reference is a pleasure. What knowledge accumulated was made available to the reader. Maybe a little too complicated, sometimes seeming accumulated unnecessarily. There's this nitwit I work with, for instance, who is traumatized by any day that isn't sunny, warm, and encouraging, who refuses to see any movie that isn't expressly feel-good, and who (proudly) never reads books of any kind—because they would divert her from truly fun and mindless activities. It should go without saying that although I am a non-violent person I occasionally have fantasies about entering her office with a sledgehammer and destroying everything in sight. You should see the look on her dumb face when I show up at the door with that sledgehammer! Priceless! (This is what twenty-first century Middle America does to a man.)Con toda probabilidad W. G. Sebald me hubiera dado la razón, amante como era de conversaciones y caminatas largas y pausadas. Sus libros son un reflejo de sus aficiones: aunque suene extraño, más que novelas, son conversaciones. Y no me refiero a que abunden los diálogos o a que estos sean brillantes, sino a que cuando uno lee uno de sus libros tiene la sensación de haber abandonado la habitual posición pasiva del lector y estar conversando, de tú a tú, con el autor. Y si las novelas de Sebald son conversaciones, Austerlitz, su última obra, publicada póstumamente, es una conversación sobre una conversación The darkness does not lift but becomes yet heavier as I think how little we can hold in mind, how everything is constantly lapsing into oblivion with every extinguished life, how the world is, as it were, draining itself, in that the history of countless places and objects which themselves have no power or memory is never heard, never described or passed on.” The narrator, who had Jacques Austerlitz as a teacher, talks with him. Jacques is now a lecturer at a London art history institute. But he has had so many other interests, so many different passions, so many other lives, so many other trades. La dimensione più congeniale al protagonista è quella austera e solitaria, in cui "prendere le distanze se qualcuno mi veniva troppo vicino" e non veder "altro intorno a me se non misteri e segni". The French army had some 9,000 casualties in the Battle of Austerlitz, while Russian and Austrian allied forces had about 15,000 casualties. In addition, about 11,000 Russian and Austrian troops were captured.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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