I didn't buy The World Goes On when it came out in December of 2017. Not for lack of love--oh, no. For lack of space (in a house filled with books) and for lack of money (in a time devoid of paid work), yes. But the Louisville Free Public Library had a copy, so I checked it out right away. Started it. Renewed it. Renewed it. Renewed it. Returned it. Got it again, this time for my Kindle. Didn't even open it after I'd downloaded it. Let's add lack of time, lack of energy, and lack of dedication to that list above.
But I love László *, and I've read every other one of his books which have been translated into English, so I always meant to come back to it.
After I finished reading Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming, I was on a
László high, so I checked The World Goes On out from the library again. Hard copy version.Had to renew it.
But then I had to take Jacqueline to choir practice, and since I knew I'd be trapped in the church for an hour and a half, I took László with me and got down to it.
The first dozen pages or so were pretty rough. (NOTE: They always are, but esPECially with László.) Then I started feeling myself sink into the narrative. By the end of choir practice I'd made a thirty page dent in the book--hey, you try to read with an organ thundering over your head--and I was really feeling the desire to read on.
But I know how it goes. And I have so many other books sitting on my table calling to me Right Now. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and Their Fans. John Porcellino's Perfect Example. Event Leviathan. Lady in the Lake. The Water Margin: Outlaws of the Marsh. Thy Kingdom Come: 19 Short Stories by 11 Hungarian Authors. Moebius Dick. Not to mention the Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter translation of The Magic Mountain.
So I said to myself, "Self...maybe you could do TWO Daily Devotional Reading books at the same time. Just this once."
Hmmm.
I had already read a bit more in The World Goes On today, so I took a look. I was on page 50. Which meant that I had 311 - 50 = 261 pages to go. If I could read 20 pages a day, I'd be finished in less than two weeks.
Worth a shot, right?
Oh, by the way...in my reading today, there was a bit which went back to Werckmeister Harmonies / The Melancholy of Resistance (= Az ellenállás melankóliája). I loved the book, and Werckmeister Harmonies is one of my all time favorite movies, so yes, that was very nice.
There was also this:
"Wherever and whenever I notice this moment, when in some musical composition the major suddenly shifts to minor, say, an A after a C, that music instantly rends my heart, I take it personally, as if it had happened expressly for me, my face becomes distorted by a grimace, as if by a painful pleasure; in a word, I plunge into melancholy and I sit there, listening, thinking, ah, the beauty - when it was only melancholy."
Oh, I just noticed the melancholy thread. Sorry, didn't sleep much last night and the brain is not out of first gear.
Anyway...we're off, you know.
Some time later...
It wasn't always easy to stick to 20 pages a day...but it wasn't always hard, either. I am definitely of the opinion that Mr. Krasznahorkai's style lends itself more to an extended narrative, but there were some more than a little bit interesting stories in this collection. In fact, the third story from the end..."Journey in a Place Without Blessings"... was quite stunning, actually.
And now that I've finished it off, so far as I can tell there are only three short stories of LK translated into English which I have not yet read:
"The Bogdanovich Story" ("El Bogdanovichtól"). Trans. Eszter Molnár
&
"The Last Boat" ("Az utolsó hajó"). Trans. Eszter Molnár
both of which appear in Thy Kingdom Come: 19 Short Stories by 11 Hungarian Authors
and
"Dumb to the Deaf" ("Néma a süketnek"). Trans. Eszter Molnár, which appears in The Hungarian Quarterly, Summer 2000 (pp. 49-55).
As previously noted, I have (at some expense) obtained a copy of Thy Kingdom Come, but I've been unsuccessful in locating The Hungarian Quarterly Summer 2000. So if anybody out there has a hook up to that issue of The Hungarian Quarterly, 🤙.
* And he loves me. We're as happy as two can be.
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