Molly's Monstrous May Meme (MMMM): DAY 15
I fear I'll still be posting in July...
List of all questions
DAY 15: "Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!"
One? Make that two - two authors who have shaped my writing style. Their lives, personalities and political views were rather different, but their work had much in common: a great understanding of human nature and mankind's weaknesses, humour and morality.
In the left corner, we have
ERICH KÄSTNER (Germany, 1899 - 1974)
perfectly caught in this cartoon by his friend e. o. plauen, who illustrated most of his books. Plauen committed suicide one day before his trial after being arrested by the nazis in 1944.
Who was he?
Most people know Kästner for his wonderful children's books, but his work covered so much more: poetry (from thoughtful to ironic to rude), scripts, satire. Give your kids Kästner to read, and you'll help them a lot on their way to become decent people. Kästner, unusual for his time, took children serious; he had no doubt that they had minds of their own and the intelligence and maturity to understand the difference between good and evil. He also encouraged them to question the world around them, which included family and state. Just because you love and respect somebody, it doesn't mean they are always right. Now you can imagine that such a stance was not very popular under the rule of the nazis.
Kästner, a dedicated pacifist, was forbidden to write. For a while, he lived in Switzerland and Italy, but returned to Berlin, against the advice of his friends who feared for his life. Kästner wasn't exactly careful - he actually attended the public burning of his books, standing right in the middle of the brown-clad mob. He later described Goebbels as an "small, perfidious liar" and "intoning, gesticulating little devil".
But though Kästner got a gag-order and was interrogated several times by the Gestapo, he made it through the war alive. In his later life, he became increasingly disappointed with people's inability to live in peace with each other, and became an alcoholic. I was a little girl when he died, but I can still remember watching the news and being very sad.
What made him an outstanding writer?
His great gift for creating characters and stories aside, I absolutely admire and love his handling of the German language, his often absurd comparisons which still made sense. "Coincidence or destiny: it's a matter of taste. My mother used to say in such cases: one likes to eat sausage, the other green soap." Kästner wrote about the beginning of WWI: "Death put on a helmet. War reached for the torch. The Riders of the Apocalypse released their horses from the stables. And Destiny put its boot right in the middle of the anthill called Europe". He wouldn't simply write "time flies"; "time flies because it doesn't have anything better to do".
I often catch myself using "Kästnerisms" (well, not his, my own). Reading through old LJ entries, I found a post of mine about the risk that our local river might burst its banks, and I wrote "the river is putting on its wellies and prepares to take a walk on the riverside road" - I sure know where that comes from!
Here's a clip from the movie "Das doppelte Lottchen" (with English subtitles), narrated by Kästner himself. Hollywood pilfered the material - twin girls separated at birth meet by accident in a summer camp and decide to switch places - in "The Parent Trap". Without credit, of course.
And in the right corner:
GIOVANNI GUARESCHI (Italy, 1908 - 1968)
can be seen here in a self-portrait, with his most famous creations: Don Camillo and Peppone (the illustrations in the books always show the fighting-happy priest and his opponent, the communist mayor, as angel and devil).
Who was he?
Guareschi was an author, journalist, cartoonist and humourist. As a monarchist, he strongly opposed Mussolini's fascist regime, and only escaped arrest by being drafted into the army. After the war, he spent three years in a prison camp in Poland, and after his return, he began to support the Christian Democrats and fought the Communist Party with a very sharp pen. Like few others Guareschi managed to capture the essence of his home country in his work. You want to understand Italy? Read Guareschi.
What made him an outstanding writer?
He was the master of simple characters, and if I say "simple", I mean this very much as a compliment. Don Camillo, Peppone and the other characters in his books aren't deeply complex people. They have depth, but there's no need for lengthy analysis. Don Camillo is the priest of a small town; he often discusses (and argues) with the Jesus on the cross in his church (Jesus, it has to be said, has a very fine sense for irony and possesses a gentle humour), and he simply tries to do the right thing. Peppone, the communist mayor, can barely read and write, but he has common sense and only has the best of his people and party in mind. He's a decent man, and that's one of the best lessons I learned from Guareschi: two people can hold completely different views and still none of them needs to be a villain.
Don Camillo fights communism with prayers, sermons, benches and guns, if he has to. The stories are set in the 40ies after the war and the early 50ies, so there are many references to the war and Don Camillo's and Peppone's past as resistance fighters, the political situation in Italy and the chaos of that time. Guareschi's work is touching, funny, thoughtful. And he taught me that there is no such thing as "impossible": he once wrote a story about Don Camillo and Peppone, where Peppone takes out a machine gun and shoots at a plane that drops flyers by the Christian Democrats during a meeting of the Communist Party. Guareschi decided that the story was too far-fetched and didn't "allow" Peppone to shoot. "And the next thing I read was a report about a meeting of the Communist Party where they didn't only shoot at a plane dropping flyers, but actually shot it down!"
Here's a wonderful scene from one of the movies (featuring the late great Fernandel and Gino Cervi), in which Don Camillo talks to Jesus and confronts Peppone. With English subtitles!
Looks like I just can't stick to short answers... curse you, meme, curse you!
List of all questions
DAY 15: "Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!"
One? Make that two - two authors who have shaped my writing style. Their lives, personalities and political views were rather different, but their work had much in common: a great understanding of human nature and mankind's weaknesses, humour and morality.
In the left corner, we have
ERICH KÄSTNER (Germany, 1899 - 1974)
perfectly caught in this cartoon by his friend e. o. plauen, who illustrated most of his books. Plauen committed suicide one day before his trial after being arrested by the nazis in 1944.
Who was he?
Most people know Kästner for his wonderful children's books, but his work covered so much more: poetry (from thoughtful to ironic to rude), scripts, satire. Give your kids Kästner to read, and you'll help them a lot on their way to become decent people. Kästner, unusual for his time, took children serious; he had no doubt that they had minds of their own and the intelligence and maturity to understand the difference between good and evil. He also encouraged them to question the world around them, which included family and state. Just because you love and respect somebody, it doesn't mean they are always right. Now you can imagine that such a stance was not very popular under the rule of the nazis.
Kästner, a dedicated pacifist, was forbidden to write. For a while, he lived in Switzerland and Italy, but returned to Berlin, against the advice of his friends who feared for his life. Kästner wasn't exactly careful - he actually attended the public burning of his books, standing right in the middle of the brown-clad mob. He later described Goebbels as an "small, perfidious liar" and "intoning, gesticulating little devil".
But though Kästner got a gag-order and was interrogated several times by the Gestapo, he made it through the war alive. In his later life, he became increasingly disappointed with people's inability to live in peace with each other, and became an alcoholic. I was a little girl when he died, but I can still remember watching the news and being very sad.
What made him an outstanding writer?
His great gift for creating characters and stories aside, I absolutely admire and love his handling of the German language, his often absurd comparisons which still made sense. "Coincidence or destiny: it's a matter of taste. My mother used to say in such cases: one likes to eat sausage, the other green soap." Kästner wrote about the beginning of WWI: "Death put on a helmet. War reached for the torch. The Riders of the Apocalypse released their horses from the stables. And Destiny put its boot right in the middle of the anthill called Europe". He wouldn't simply write "time flies"; "time flies because it doesn't have anything better to do".
I often catch myself using "Kästnerisms" (well, not his, my own). Reading through old LJ entries, I found a post of mine about the risk that our local river might burst its banks, and I wrote "the river is putting on its wellies and prepares to take a walk on the riverside road" - I sure know where that comes from!
Here's a clip from the movie "Das doppelte Lottchen" (with English subtitles), narrated by Kästner himself. Hollywood pilfered the material - twin girls separated at birth meet by accident in a summer camp and decide to switch places - in "The Parent Trap". Without credit, of course.
Click to viewAnd in the right corner:
GIOVANNI GUARESCHI (Italy, 1908 - 1968)
can be seen here in a self-portrait, with his most famous creations: Don Camillo and Peppone (the illustrations in the books always show the fighting-happy priest and his opponent, the communist mayor, as angel and devil).
Who was he?
Guareschi was an author, journalist, cartoonist and humourist. As a monarchist, he strongly opposed Mussolini's fascist regime, and only escaped arrest by being drafted into the army. After the war, he spent three years in a prison camp in Poland, and after his return, he began to support the Christian Democrats and fought the Communist Party with a very sharp pen. Like few others Guareschi managed to capture the essence of his home country in his work. You want to understand Italy? Read Guareschi.
What made him an outstanding writer?
He was the master of simple characters, and if I say "simple", I mean this very much as a compliment. Don Camillo, Peppone and the other characters in his books aren't deeply complex people. They have depth, but there's no need for lengthy analysis. Don Camillo is the priest of a small town; he often discusses (and argues) with the Jesus on the cross in his church (Jesus, it has to be said, has a very fine sense for irony and possesses a gentle humour), and he simply tries to do the right thing. Peppone, the communist mayor, can barely read and write, but he has common sense and only has the best of his people and party in mind. He's a decent man, and that's one of the best lessons I learned from Guareschi: two people can hold completely different views and still none of them needs to be a villain.
Don Camillo fights communism with prayers, sermons, benches and guns, if he has to. The stories are set in the 40ies after the war and the early 50ies, so there are many references to the war and Don Camillo's and Peppone's past as resistance fighters, the political situation in Italy and the chaos of that time. Guareschi's work is touching, funny, thoughtful. And he taught me that there is no such thing as "impossible": he once wrote a story about Don Camillo and Peppone, where Peppone takes out a machine gun and shoots at a plane that drops flyers by the Christian Democrats during a meeting of the Communist Party. Guareschi decided that the story was too far-fetched and didn't "allow" Peppone to shoot. "And the next thing I read was a report about a meeting of the Communist Party where they didn't only shoot at a plane dropping flyers, but actually shot it down!"
Here's a wonderful scene from one of the movies (featuring the late great Fernandel and Gino Cervi), in which Don Camillo talks to Jesus and confronts Peppone. With English subtitles!
Looks like I just can't stick to short answers... curse you, meme, curse you!