[Marxism] Interview with Peter Handke

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Maybe all the hounding of the NY Times about their failure to cover the 
Handke controversy by Marxmailer and Swans publisher Gilles d'Aymery has 
finally had an impact. Handke became an "unperson" in Europe after 
attending Milosevic's funeral. The interview is a regular column by Deborah 
Solomon, who has interviewed Noam Chomsky in the past, to give you a sense 
of her willingness to engage with dissident intellectuals, even though she 
is hardly a dissident herself. 
(http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20031102.htm).

---

NY Times Magazine, July 2, 2006
Questions for Peter Handke
Facing His Critics
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON

Q: As one of the most revered novelists and playwrights in Europe, how have 
you managed to create such an uproar and infuriate so many of your devoted 
readers?

A: I think it was because I assisted with the funeral of Slobodan Milosevic 
in his hometown of Pozarevac, in Serbia.

Q: Yes, you spoke at his funeral in March. Why would you attend the funeral 
of a man who died while he was on trial for war crimes?

A: I think he was a rather tragic man. Not a hero, but a tragic human 
being. But I am a writer and not a judge. I'm a lover of Yugoslavia ? not 
so much Serbia, but Yugoslavia ? and I wanted to accompany the fall of my 
favorite country in Europe, and this is one of the reasons to be at the 
funeral.

Q: Why are you so moved by the former Yugoslavia?

A: I'm Austrian, but my mother was Slovenian. Her brother became a partisan 
of Yugoslavia between the two World Wars, and when Hitler annexed Austria ? 
my uncle was Austrian ? he was forced into the Nazi army. He died in Russia 
long ago. This was the beginning of my writing, the stories my mother told 
about her dead brother. It started very early for me when I was a child.

Q: I see the Comédie-Française, the French national theater, has just 
canceled a scheduled production of your play "Voyage to the Sonorous Land, 
or the Art of Asking."

A: Yes, this is true, because of my assistance at the funeral.

Q: What about the Heinrich Heine Prize, the prestigious $63,000 award you 
just returned to the city of Düsseldorf?

A: Ah, this was strange, too. The German politicians thought that I was not 
the right man for the award. And there was a lot of noise. Finally I told 
myself, Leave them alone. It's finished now.

Q: Do you have enough money without the prize?

A: We shall see. If you send me something.. . .

Q: When is your next novel coming out in the United States?

A: In several months. It's very difficult to translate. It's called "The 
Loss of the Image." It's a medieval novel about modern times. The hero is a 
woman banker who is starting to forget herself in the Spanish mountains.

Q: You're generally described as an avant-garde novelist and playwright.

A: Me? No, I'm a classical writer. I'm a conservative classical writer.

Q: What does that mean?

A: With a lot of air in it. With a lot of snow flurries and summer breezes 
in the books.

Q: But your best writing is hardly naturalistic. I'm thinking of "A Sorrow 
Beyond Dreams," which has just been republished in this country.

A: When they review my books, the reviewers always say it is very 
beautiful, but it lacks plot or intrigue. I don't like intrigue. I'm not a 
man of intrigue.

Q: Nor of politics, really. In 1966, at what is now a historic conference 
at Princeton University, you tore into Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll, 
claiming that they demeaned the novel by turning it into a form of social 
criticism.

A: Yes, but in my novels I never do this. Not even now. Language is 
language, and language is not for opinions.

Q: What is language for?

A: This is the question! This is a big question, and there is no answer. 
Language exists to become language in the great books.

Q: Aren't we using language now in this conversation?

A: The most real dialogue for me is when I am alone, writing.

Q: Do you think a conversation between two people can communicate anything?

A: Sure. But you have to know that this is a game. It can become at moments 
very touching and serious, but it starts as a game and it should end as a game.

Q: You have often been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in 
Literature. Do you care about winning?

A: When I was younger I cared. Now I think it's finished for me after my 
expressions about Yugoslavia.

Q: How old are you?

A: I will be 64 in December, like Paul McCartney.

Q: You're pretty young.

A: I am neither pretty nor young.


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