Enthymesis or LIKE

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Enthymesis or WIEH is a story written from 1944 onwards by Arno Schmidt and written down in February 1946. It was first published in 1949 in the anthology Leviathan in third place after "Gadir" and the later title story. The abbreviation "WIEH" remains unexplained - probably how I hate you . It can be classified as a bridging narrative between Schmidt's youthful works,called Juvenilia in the Bargfeld edition , and the works created after 1945.

It essentially consists of a diary of Philostratus, a pupil of the ancient geographer Eratosthenes (around 276 - 194 BC), who cannot accept his teacher's thesis about the spherical shape of the earth. This is formally embedded in a frame narrative that is not included in the narration by a narrator who remains anonymous and only reproduces the source and a closing note by Eratosthenes.

The diary writer leads an expedition to survey the unknown south from the Mediterranean coast to the Sahara. He murders his mutinous representative, who turns back with the small caravan, with an arrow shot from a distance and then appears to have disappeared among mythical creatures in the south.

The narrative core plot is the - often spiteful - observations of Philostratos, to whom, despite his excellent scientific and land surveying knowledge, an endless flat earth makes more sense than its spherical shape (which was already proven at the time) - because then one can always discover new things and never have to 'return'. Literary and historical references result from the main characters: Philostratus' second husband, the Roman Aemilianus, drawn after the model of a Prussian surveyor officer of the 19th century, represents the militaristic predatory state of Rome during the Punic Wars and spies on the still free diadochian state of Egypt . The caravan guide and interpreter Mabsut, who was the first to see through Philostratros' madness, does not interfere, he is just a serving 'native'. Even the storyteller Tarfan, who entertains the participants in the evening, only observes, incidentally more than anyone else, but remains silent and collects material for future stories. The youth Deinokrates, full of student thirst for knowledge and observation, could, as a mature man, be the narrator of the whole thing (that would be a popular construction, cf. previously e.g. Wilhelm Raabe's Stopfkuchen or later Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose ).

expenditure

  • Arno Schmidt: Enthymesis or AS H . In: Arno Schmidt: Leviathan . Rowohlt, Hamburg et al. 1949, pp. 77–116 (first edition).
  • Arno Schmidt: Enthymesis or WIEH In: Arno Schmidt: Enthymesis. Leviathan. Gadir. Alexander. Brand's Haide. Black mirrors. Resettlers. Faun. Pocahontas. Cosmas . An edition of the Arno Schmidt Foundation published by Haffmans Verlag, Zurich 1987, pp. 7–31 (= Bargfeld edition. Work group I: Novels, Stories, Poems, Juvenilia. Volume I [BA I, 1]; currently authoritative edition).

literature

  • Peter Habermehl : ›Rare shooters in the sand sea‹. Notes on Arno Schmidt's first story, »Enthymesis or WIEH«. In: The ancient language teaching. Volume 37, 1994, No. 2, pp. 69-79.
  • Dieter Kuhn: Today we read “Enthymesis” . In: Bargfelder Bote . Delivery 296, February 2006, pp. 3-14.
  • Ernst-Dieter Steinwender: Arno Schmidt's “Enthymesis”, a fantasy piece in Hoffmann's manner . In: Michael Matthias Schardt (Ed.): Arno Schmidt. The early work I. Stories. Interpretations from ›Gadir‹ to ›Kosmas‹ . Rader, Aachen 1987, p. 56 ff.

Remarks

  1. ↑ This is suggested by the subtitle of the later radio essay Belphegor, or How I Hate You from 1959. - Confirmed by Alice Schmidt's diary, entry from November 26, 1949 (cf. "Wake up with a smelly mood", FAZ from February 24, 2018).