Three stories

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Three Stories is a collection of short stories published by Diogenes Verlag in 1995 , written by the author Patrick Süskind in the 1980s.

content

The book includes three short stories and a "contemplation":

  • The compulsion to go deep
  • A fight
  • The legacy of Maître Mussard
  • ... and a reflection (amnesia in litteris)

The compulsion to go deep

A young woman, whose name is never mentioned in the short story, is thrown off the beaten track after a critic at her first art exhibition told her that her work was lacking in depth. At first motivated to find depth for her pictures, she later drops more and more and gradually degenerates in her apartment until the tragic end comes and she kills herself.

A fight

In a pavilion of the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, two men are sitting opposite each other during a game of chess, which is closely watched by a good dozen spectators. On the one hand, there is Jean, an elderly gentleman who plays a calm, defensive and non-risking game that has not let him lose a single game in years. On the other hand, an unknown stranger plays, who, in contrast, attracts attention with his bold style, his self-assured demeanor and his vigor and impresses all bystanders. His personality impresses the bystanders more and more, and even after he has already lost more and more important chess pieces than Jean, the spectators are still sure of a victory for the stranger. After a surprising end to the game, after the stranger gives up, gets up and leaves the pavilion without saying a word, Jean is left alone, which gives him the opportunity to reflect on himself and his personality. This makes him decide to stop playing chess.

The legacy of Maître Mussard

The dying Mr. Mussard writes with the greatest effort and with his last strength a legacy, which informs about his knowledge of the last years. His discovery began in his garden when he noticed that the stones under the ground were clinging to shells that hardly differed from the stone itself. He later discovered that stones and shells are made of the same substance, and he began research outside of his garden as well. In addition, he studied all major works on this topic and increased his imagination to an all-encompassing, universal 'shell-out' of the universe and life.

... and a reflection (amnesia in litteris)

In conclusion, Patrick Süskind describes the situation in which one can often only vaguely remember books that have been read and even of works that have been read several times, only the most elementary passages remain in memory, which are in a few lines of the entire book to reduce. Even when he picks up a book that is full of notes, underlines and the like, both the content and the notes on the content seem extremely interesting, but unknown to him. Only when he recognizes his handwriting in a note at the end of the book does he become aware of the fact that he has read the book before and was just as enthusiastic about it. He summarizes this knowledge of the “literary amnesia” in this consideration.