The Best Books of the 20th Century/: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

Mark A. Douglas schrieb:
> >
> > [quotating me]: Not to forget "Westwaerts 1 & 2" (1975) and "Rom, Blicke" 
(1979, posthum),
> both
> >  by Rolf Dieter Brinkmann. These books are the true European counterpart to
> GR.
> >
>
>[and asking]: Call it American naivete, but who?  More information, please, 
certainly if the
> books are that strong.  Published in translation?
> Available?  Background on author?  A run through Amazon turned up pretty much
> nothing...one out of print book.
>
> Inquiring minds want to know.
>
> Peace


Rolf Dieter Brinkmann (1940-1975) was a furious poet, who wrote many good poems 
(most of them you find in the collection "Standphotos. Gedichte 1962-1970"), a 
novel ("Keiner weiss mehr"), stories ("Die Umarmung; "Raupenbahn"), diary novels 
("Erkundungen fuer die Praezisierung des GEFUEHLS fuer einen Aufstand") radio 
plays ("Auf der Schwelle"; "Der Tierplanet) & essays (collected among other 
prose in "Der Film in Worten"). He was also a rough photographer & experimental 
film director. And a collage artist ("Schnitte"). Main Influences: Hans Henny 
Jahnn (- whose "Fluss ohne Ufer" also belongs to the century's best books), 
Gottfried Benn, Arno Schmidt. Also Céline & Robbe-Grillet. A-and America! RDB 
was one of the first German readers of Pynchon. Learned his English, among 
frequent visits in London, by reading American literature: Pound, W.C. Williams 
(- "no idea but in things" is often quoted by Brinkmann), Bourroughs, Bukowski, 
Ginsburg & Frank O'Hara (- whose "Lunch Poems" he also translated). Also liked 
John Cassavetes, Telonius Monk, Don Siegel & Jim Morrison. In 1968, Leslie 
Fiedler came to Germany and held some lectures at German universities. 
His connecting of pop culture & high brow literature was quite unusual for 
German professors in those days; the reactions in the media were in most cases 
unfriendly. In this situation Brinkmann published an enthusiastic article about 
Fiedler: "Angriff auf das Monopol" (- Attack on the monopoly). In it he praised 
Pynchon's "V" for its new "carnivalictic" way of writing by which European and 
especially German literature could overcome its deadly tiredness & bridge the 
gap between life and literature. In 1969 he, together with R.R. Rygalla, 
published "Acid", a collection of works from - like it says in the subtitle - 
the "new American scene". There are lots of photos (- some very sexy), comics & 
collages. & texts from Barthelme, Fiedler, Burroughs, Berrigan, O'Hara, Warhol, 
McClure, Sanders, Zappa, McLuhan, Bukowski & many more. The book's influence on 
the arts & drugs wing of German "counter-cultures" in the 70s and even later can 
hardly be overestimated. But when things started to go wrong (- among other 
factors the political wing of the movement started to get authoritarian & the 
notorious "K-Gruppen" emerged), Brinkmann started his meta-politics of 
withdrawal. Between 1970 and 1975 he didn't publish a book. In this half decade 
he wrote his best texts. "Rom, Blicke", which was written 1972/73 is a kind of 
"travelling-diary--novel" (- "Reiseromantagebuch"), again with many photos and 
collages. And "Westwaerts 1 & 2" is the most intensive German book of poetry 
since Rilke's "Duineser Elegien". In April 1975, when "Westwaerts 1 & 2" 
went into print, Rolf Dieter Brinkmann was run over by a taxi in London. He, who 
had alsways feared car accidents and written about this, was dead at once.
Well, it's difficult to say why I see RDB & P so close. Maybe it's more a 
personal thing. But they share a "cinematograhic" style & motifs like entropy, 
violence, counter cultures, the truth of the body & "Life against Death". Like 
GR "Westwaerts 1 & 2" (- since a few months it's available again)and "Rom, 
Blicke" take a take a vivid but black, pop-gnostic perspective on things, that 
became reachable in the early 1970s and which hasn't been transcended since 
then. What about translations? I fear there isn't much. Between january and may 
of 1974 RDB was giving lectures in Austin at the University (- and wrote a poem 
book called "Eiswasser an der Guadelupe Str." which is also very good but out of 
print). In this time his friend Hartmut Schnell, who studied there, wrote his 
master thesis or something about Brinkmann; a central part of this work was the 
translation of several poems. Maybe it's possible to get it. It's a shame that 
there is nothing in the net. Checked it out too. - "Who said that something like 
that is life? I'm going into another kind of blue" ( - my rough translation from 
"Westwaerts 1& 2", p. 41).
                              Hope this helps, Kai
PS: All of RDB's books (- except for "Acid") are published by Rowohlt (Reinbek 
bei Hamburg), Pynchon's German publishing house.