Correction
"The scientist Roithamer has dedicated the last six years of his life to “the Cone,” an edifice of mathematically exact construction that he has erected in the center of his family’s estate in honor of his beloved sister. Not long after its completion, he takes his own life. As an unnamed friend pieces together—literally, from thousands of slips of papers and one troubling manuscript—the puzzle of Rotheimer’s breakdown, what emerges is the story of a genius ceaselessly compelled to correct and refine his perceptions until the only logical conclusion is the negation of his own soul."
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What Hacker News says
- Bernhard is fantastic. Woodcutters might be a gentler introduction to his style. It's shorter, funnier, and less oppressive than Correction, which is his magnum opus. Apparently he was at least somewhat as unhinged in real life as in his writing. He was notorious for insulting the Austrian intelligentsia and either refusing literary awards or showing up at the ceremony just to rant and insult the audience, which he wrote about in a memoir titled My Prizes. He was a big influence on W.G. Sebald, another great German language writer (my personal favorite) who makes an appearance in McCarthy's library.
- You'll love Correction if you have a taste for experimental literature. I've have all of Bernhard's novels. They are (mostly) uninterrupted walls of text. They can also be quite depressing. You'll likely either love them or hate them. Correction is probably the most exemplary instance of his style and experimentation, and maybe his best novel, but Concrete and Extinction fall into this category as well. Wittgenstein's Nephew, Frost, and Woodcutters are more approachable if you want to ease into it. Starting with Correction might be a bit off-putting and intense depending on how often you read more experimental/stylistic literature.
He also wrote poetry.
- "Correction" from Bernhard. Wow. This is in its own league of weirdness and yet it flows...
- A random book from the collection looks interesting: Correction by Thomas Bernhard.
Described as “a mesmerising, claustrophobic novel about obsession, genius and the impossibility of perfection. Structured in two enormous, uninterrupted blocks of prose, it follows an unnamed narrator reconstructing the life of his dead friend Roithamer, before becoming absorbed in his manuscripts. Sentences spiral, repeat and contradict themselves, creating the sensation of being trapped inside an endlessly turning mind. Roithamer is modelled partly on Ludwig Wittgenstein, particularly his intellectual austerity and obsessive pursuit of perfection, reflected in his design of an extraordinary house for his sister. A darkly comic, exhilarating and exhausting masterpiece.”
Adding to my ‘want to read’ list now …
A review: https://proletarianpolyglot.substack.com/p/correction-by-tho...
