The milkman

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The milkman is a short story by the Swiss writer Peter Bichsel . It was 1964 in the short story collection Actually, Mrs. Blum would like to meet the milkman in Walter Verlag published. The short story is about the relationship between a milkman and his customer, who have been around all their lives but never get to know each other personally. Instead, they only communicate in writing.

content

The short story is about a milkman who every morning at 4 a.m. delivers 100 grams of butter and two liters of milk to a certain Frau Blum . He and Ms. Blum communicate continuously by means of slips of paper, which deal with Ms. Blum's orders, deficiencies in payments and sometimes an apology. Frau Blum thinks about the milkman, his professionally clean hands and the way he fulfills his duties. She would like to get to know him and hopes that he doesn't think badly of her because of her dented milk pot . She also hopes he won't talk to her neighbor, but nobody in the whole neighborhood knows the milkman. The milkman doesn't care much about Mrs. Blum, who always pays on time. He knows her order and her dented pot.

background

According to his own statement, Peter Bichsel designed the story Der Milchmann based on its first sentence: "With this milkman story I remember having this sentence: 'The milkman wrote on a piece of paper:' No more butter today, unfortunately '', and this sentence haunted me for weeks. […] The whole story is contained in this first movement, everything else is a variation on it. ”The variation of an idea or a theme is a common construction principle in Bichsel's work. He often does not have a concept for the course of the story and the end of the story in advance.

While Hans Bänziger suspected that Bichsel was inspired by Kurt Schwitters ' poem An Anna Blume for the name Blum , Bichsel confessed in 1966 that he often used names that he knew from his youth. The name Blum goes back to a real person named Hans Blum, a soccer player from FC Olten whom he adored in his youth. In contrast to Ms. Blum, the milkman is not given a name, but is only a representative for a collective. In fact, there is a second nameless milkman in the collection of short stories. Actually, Ms. Blum the milkman would like to meet, namely in Peonies , and he too is out early in the morning and has to do with an older woman.

interpretation

According to Peter Bichsel, the story is about a very special kind of communication . Two people only communicate in writing on small pieces of paper. They do not know each other, but have been busy with each other all their lives. Peter Rusterholz describes: “The characters live and act in indicative clauses , they think and wish in the subjunctive .” The stories that could arise from this do not take place. Both characters are stuck in conventions , fulfill a role and do not live out their individuality. The possibilities are not lived, just thought about and therefore missed. Nobody knows the milkman, not even Mrs. Blum, who would like to get to know him.

Peter Hamm is already attached to the word "actually" in the title of the volume of stories. Actually, Mrs. Blum would like to get to know the milkman . Because the restriction also includes the statement that Ms. Blum does not want to get to know the milkman after all, because she would have to take it upon herself to get up early and overcome her shame. The milkman, on the other hand, thinks he already knows Mrs. Blum in everything that matters to him in his work. He only wants to do his duty and reduces people to their demands on him. Hamm draws the conclusion: “A rather melancholy fact that is already hinted at in the title - and yet an enchanting story; a deceptive idyll about alienation , and despite the deceptive one enjoys the idyllic. "

Choice of words, sentence structure and rhetoric

If you look at the language level of the short story Der Milchmann by Peter Bichsel, you will notice that the text is written in everyday language . This type of language is easy to understand for everyone. If one takes a closer look at the sentence structure of the story, statements stand out first, e.g. B. "With us he comes at four in the morning". This type of concise formulation helps the reader understand the text more easily. In addition to the short statements, there are also complex sentence constructions. In contrast to the simple sentences, these can be more difficult to read. However, if you pay attention to the choice of words, you will notice that the text contains numerous clear adjectives and participles that make it appear more lively. Expressive verbs have the same effect as the descriptive adjectives in the short story, but they reinforce the impression gained.

When looking at the rhetorical stylistic devices of the text, one recognizes right at the beginning an ellipse "No more butter today, unfortunately". It simplifies the text and reflects the natural expression. The second is an anaphor ("The milkman [...] a note."). This stylistic device highlights certain parts of the text and is emotive speaking. Finally, in Der Milchmann there are parallelisms that reinforce statements and make them urgent ("Der Milchmann [...] more, unfortunately." And "Frau Blum is afraid [...] her pot is dented.").

text

  • Peter Bichsel : Der Milchmann , in: Actually Mrs. Blum would like to get to know the milkman (21 stories), first published in 1964, current edition Frankfurt am Main (Suhrkamp) 1993, ISBN 3-518-22125-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chalit Durongphan: Poetics and Practice of Storytelling with Peter Bichsel . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3091-5 , p. 128.
  2. ↑ Urs Amacher: Peter Bichsel: "... and he provided the name for my wife Blum" . In: Oltner Tagblatt dated December 7, 2014.
  3. ↑ Manuel Montesinos Caperos: The different characters in "Actually, Mrs. Blum wants to get to know the milkman" . In: Ofelia Martí Peña: Peter Bichsel. A meeting with the writer about his work . Universidad de Salamanca, 1994, ISBN 84-7481-763-3 , p. 46.
  4. ↑ Katrin Heise: Everyday life writes the most beautiful stories. In conversation with the author Peter Bichsel . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur from March 24, 2005.
  5. ↑ Peter Rusterholz: A new generation . In: Peter Rusterholz, Andreas Solbach: Swiss literary history . Metzler, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-476-01736-9 , p. 319.
  6. ↑ Peter Hamm : The questionable. Praise to the popular writer Peter Bichsel . In: From the counter-story. Eulogies and declarations of love . Hanser, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-446-18933-5 , p. 95.