The story of my typewriter

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The story of my typewriter is a book by the American author Paul Auster and the painter Samuel Messer, who also lives in Brooklyn , published in 2005 by Rowohlt Verlag in Reinbek . It was translated into German by Werner Schmitz , like many other works by Auster. The original edition was published in 2002 under the title The Story of My Typewriter by Distributed Art Publishers in New York City . Katja Iken writes in the Spiegel that Auster created a “literary monument” for his typewriter with this little book.

In addition to the collaboration with Sophie Calle , which is described in her book Double Game , the template for the graphic novel Paul Auster's City of Glass by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli , and various people in the production of several films, the book is another one Example of the close collaboration between Oyster and artists from other genres .

content

In the book Auster describes the history of his typewriter , an Olympia travel typewriter (to the knowledge of a reader, an Olympia SM9 ). Auster bought it from a friend in 1974 for $ 40 after returning from a long stay in France. From that day until (at least) July 2, 2000, the day the text published in the book was written, Auster wrote every word , every letter of his already extensive work with this typewriter, as shown in the book. The book contains numerous pictures by Sam Messer printed in four colors, with the motifs typewriter, oyster and both together. The text says that Sam Messer “came into my house one day and fell in love with the machine”. Christian A. Bachmann describes some of these images very clearly in the text mentioned under Reception.

Auster writes about the typewriter: “Everything breaks, everything wears out, everything becomes unusable at some point, but the typewriter is still with me. It's the only thing in my possession that I owned twenty-six years ago. A few more months and it will have been with me for half of my life. ”According to a report in the Spiegel , Auster worked with this typewriter in 2017 for his latest novel 4 3 2 1 .

Reception and reviews

Christian Alexander Bachmann writes: "In places, Messer's pictures are reminiscent of David Cronenberg's film adaptation of William S. Burroughs ' 1959 ... novel Naked Lunch , in which living typewriter monsters appear prominently." He points out that the pictures are comparative short text occupy a dominant part in the book and overall considerable value is attached to the design. This is also due to the selection of the original American publisher, which mainly publishes art books.

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  • Review in Publishers Weekly, published July 10, 2002
  • Klaus Birnstiel's review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 25, 2006, tends to be a slap , is summarized in Die Berliner Literaturkritik of January 25, 2006: “Even the most hardened oyster fan must put the book aside. It could have fallen into his hands in a 'doctor's office' or a 'literary junk shop'. ”Birnstiel's review is available in full on Buecher.de.
  • Maik Söhler on Literaturkritik.de from November 1, 2005: “You can tell Auster that at first he must have been quite embarrassed to philosophize on his typewriter. His short accompanying text is sparse and simple in a pleasant way. "
  • Daniel Haas in Der Spiegel : “Messer’s machine portraits convey something of the voracity of the text that overwhelms its author. They look like monsters of creativity that can hardly be tamed. "
  • Karin Istel on Die Berliner Literaturkritik , in it about Messer's pictures: “Anger, anger, anger, but also a little smile: the moods of Auster's mechanical typewriter seem to be extremely human. The keys bared wildly in attack or twisted into a broad grin - Auster's typewriter is alive. "
  • Sebastian Fasthuber in the Falter : “If you can't get enough of Auster and have the necessary purse - of course, the thin volume can also be easily leafed through in the bookstore - the publisher even has a book on the author's beloved writing instrument in its range. "The story of my typewriter" is a hymn of Oyster to his old Olympia, illustrated by Sam Messer , on which he has written all the texts since 1974. "

expenditure

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brian on July 6, 2013 on goodreads.com.
  2. ↑ The blurb of the German edition
  3. ↑ page 42 of the German edition
  4. ↑ Katja Iken: The Typewriter Myth. Clack-clack-clack-clack-bing! In: Der Spiegel. 5th May 2017
  5. ↑ Christian A. Bachmann, Ruhr University Bochum: Keynote lecture on the book on March 9, 2011 at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal, conference The artist's book as an aesthetic experiment there, p. 2.
  6. ^ The Story of My Typewriter
  7. ^ The Berlin literary criticism
  8. ↑ Klaus Birnstiel: Oh, Olympia! Rather listless: Paul Auster on his beloved typewriter , SZ from January 25, 2006, on Buecher.de, accessed on March 24, 2019
  9. ↑ Perlentaucher.de, accessed on March 22, 2019
  10. ↑ Maik Söhler: Auster writes in German. The New York author presents his typewriter on Literaturkritik.de, November 1, 2005
  11. ↑ Daniel Haas in: Der Spiegel November 24, 2005: US author Paul Auster. The typewriter and body machine
  12. ↑ Karin Istel: In love with a typewriter. Paul Auster's Ode to his typewriter , on Die Berliner Literaturkritik from December 8, 2005
  13. ↑ Sebastian Fasthuber: "The story of my typewriter" by Paul Auster, Sam Messer in Falter 18/2006