The Axe and The Frozen Sea: Carson McCullers

Friday, August 5, 2022

Carson McCullers - The Member Of The Wedding (Penguin, 1947) *

Many years ago I read and liked "The Ballad Of A Sad Café" by Carson McCullers. I liked her voice of the narrative, its southern US climate and the sympathy for the characters. This novel I did not manage to finish. It was too friendly, too sweet, too much lacking in suspense. Maybe because I am not a little girl and maybe because I do not have an older brother who will get married, it was difficult for me to relate to the story, but I assume that a good author would manage to write something appealing to audience wider than the main character's situation.

Why would I continue reading if it does not resonate with me at all? I have dozens of other books waiting to be read. Onward and forward.

Das gefrorene Meer in uns

“Ich glaube, man sollte überhaupt nur solche Bücher lesen, die einen beißen und stechen. Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen, uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Schädel weckt, wozu lesen wir dann das Buch? Damit es uns glücklich macht, wie Du schreibst? Mein Gott, glücklich wären wir eben auch, wenn wir keine Bücher hätten, und solche Bücher, die uns glücklich machen, könnten wir zur Not selber schreiben. Wir brauchen aber die Bücher, die auf uns wirken wie ein Unglück, das uns sehr schmerzt, wie der Tod eines, den wir lieber hatten als uns, wie wenn wir in Wälder verstoßen würden, von allen Menschen weg, wie ein Selbstmord, ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns. Das glaube ich”.

(Franz Kafka, brief aan Oskar Pollak, 27 januari 1904)

THE AXE FOR THE FROZEN SEA IN US “If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us. What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.” ― Franz Kafka