halfway through Homo Faber, I really enjoy it so far.

remember liking that book too... during your bildung, have you read kleiner mann, was nun? thinking of pulling that one out again...

if you love ANTISEEN like i do ...GET THIS NOW!

I really like the Faber-character, in the beginning the book describes him as totally rational, without being able to see all these non-rational things in life, the things literature and art in general (probably) are about, not even human relationships seem to mean anything at all to him at first (or even frighten him at some point, probably because he isn't able to predict them as he is able to predict everything else he cares about in his life), then you learn more about his past and his current situation and it seems to me that he is just that way because he is really lonely, and fled into his work and only focus on this because everything is clear for him that way (and safe), but emotional he is pretty much dead.
I'm curious on how the book will go on, I read that he will change his weltanschauung (anyone know why the german word is common in this context?) in the 2nd half of the book.



no, never heard of it, to be honest (but my Bildung hopefully drags on for some more time ).

it's because it sounds cool of course... just like weltschmerz, schadenfreude, spielführer and schreibtischerei...

edit: not heard of hans fallada? weird... kleiner mann etc totally describes the despair of the kleiner mann during the weimar republic.

so, why is Sauerkraut an english word then? that is a pretty embarassing word (and I'm not quite sure what schreibtischerei means).



sounds interesting, thanks (will check it out sometime).
Another Weimar Republic book that I want to read since a long time is Berlin Alexanderplatz, I have it for ages now but somehow never started it.

schreibtischerei? a word i picked up from an interview with traudl junge. tedious paperwork... and sauerkraut does make pickled cabbage sound more palatable... seriously!

good stuff! recommended!

ha, agreed, in german the word describes it exactly as disgusting as it really is.

hey, sauerkraut and eisbein rule! and toss in a few nürnbergers and some senf as well!



edit: i'm drunk and just have to post these two fabulous and bona fide german nouns:

donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz

blew through "the road" on a long flight earlier this week. slightly disappointed by the ending but i'm looking forward to the film.