Pynchon mention in Jean Paul article

[jochen stremmel]

Of my two favorites – Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise and Flegeljahre –
only the latter seems to be translated
(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_%281920%29/Richter,_Johann_Paul_Friedrich)
but by Carlyle.

It's fun reading as I recall from 35 years ago.

I hope you have some (and tell us what you think of the translation),

Jochen

2013/3/6 Markekohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>:
> Have you read him at all? I am assuming Yes...which ones might be worth
> trying first?
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Mar 6, 2013, at 4:47 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
> wrote:
>
>
> "Doch unermüdliche Jean-Paul-Enthusiasten, ihrerseits weidlich überfordert
> und genervt, geben nicht Ruhe und provozieren dauernd wieder mit der
> lustvollen These, dass Jean Paul poetisch-philosophisch mehr draufhabe als
> Dante, Goethe, Kant, Kafka und Pynchon und dass er vier Geistestypen, die
> sich eigentlich total ausschließen, in sich stimmig und höchstkarätig
> synthetisiert: Denker, Gefühlstyp, Satiriker, Mystiker." (Ulrich Holbein:
> Wir lieben ihn auch auf Bierdeckeln, FAZ, 3/6/13, p. 29)
>
> Well, the referred claim of Jean Paul freaks that their author has more
> poetic and philosophical skills than "Dante, Goethe, Kant, Kafka und
> Pynchon" judges itself, but it nevertheless might make sense to read Jean
> Paul in a Pynchonian context. Myself I actually never did.
>
> His novella Des Luftschiffers Giannozzo Seebuch (Erzählung im 2.
> Anhangsbändchen zu Titan, 1801) about a balloonist can be considered as a
> forerunner of Against the Day.
>
> And the following characterization of Jean Paul's style from the
> Encyclopedia Americana of 1920 sounds familiar to us, no?
>
> "His style is perhaps one of the most barbarous and his books are quite
> without structure. His humor, however, is genuine, though frequently clumsy.
> He affected boldly to despise all literary proportion and technique and is
> recompensed by having the bulk of his work pronounced difficult or
> unreadable."
>
> http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Encyclopedia_Americana_%281920%29/Richter,_Johann_Paul_Friedrich
>