LOS (narrative)

LOS is a short story published in 2005 by the Swiss author Klaus Merz .

The main character

The main character in this story is Thaler, a 50-year-old unemployed teacher. He's frustrated, or not even that. He describes how he lived “behind glass” and never really got into life. His father and brother died early. What remains is his mother, whose death he deals with in the course of the book. The action takes place in Switzerland , probably in the Central Plateau , in an insignificant street town. The Jura is mentioned, the “Hauptbahnhof” is mentioned (probably Zurich ), but Thaler will crash on the fictional “Krogpass”. The reader receives hardly any information or names from other figures, at most a fleeting picture.

The topics

The shortest words often trigger the greatest stories. Like the title "LOS". Three letters, all capitalized. What's happening? Is it about a raffle, rivets and prizes? Do you mean fate , fate ? Or is it even a mysterious abbreviation? Somehow everything is in the book, just no answers. I interpret it like this: it's about death and love. Or to put it another way: about limitation and enthusiasm. Or, to include the title: letting go and getting started. "The short story by Klaus Merz is a sad farewell to a life that did not want to succeed," is how one critic describes it. Thaler is a kind of anti-hero, one who was doomed to death from the start.

The plot

In “LOS” not much happens consciously. Thaler sets out on a mountain tour, crashes and loses his life. Thaler's hike describes life itself: you can go up or down, look at the landscape or just run through it. From behind, when Thaler has already disappeared and died, his life rolls up in light but angular sentences.

“'My Thaler has changed.' We clung to this sentence from your wife, together with your big, silent children, and after all the unsuccessful investigations we began our everyday life without your being there slowly back to its usual path. "(Page 7f.)

You can read that on the first page. The narrative links memories to each other. Thaler remembers a traffic accident from childhood:

“In mid-September, two cars collided a few meters below the garage. One of the two drivers got away with a few injuries, the other is still different at the scene of the accident. Since then, fresh flowers on the roadside have been a reminder of the man’s quick, senseless death. ”(Page 12f.)

Here Thaler ties in the picture of his dead father, at the thought node branch off other graphic stories, of teachers who do not read but still encourage the desire to read, of characters who like to flee into the mountains. Thaler does just that and falls - trying to save his hat. He falls, slips and is not immediately dead. He gets time to let go:

“Thaler heard his bones break, lies on his back in a gentle hollow in the snow, dazed with pain - and with a strange feeling of satisfaction in his head: something like this was always intended for him, he must think. His previous life was nothing but deferment, postponement, banter. Now it's serious. Finally. "(Page 74)

This is the second motive: inaccessibility, the inability to connect with the environment, coldness of feeling that can make life impossible. Reflected by the thick fog and later by the snow. Thaler will freeze to death. Soon after the fall, Thaler realized the actual message of the story:

“In general, he would like to be barefoot, he fiddles with wet shoes and hot, twisted feet with clammy fingers, lets it stay that way and at the same time realizes that 'letting go' means getting started. Beginning. New beginning: His fingers on his right hand twitch Morse code: SOS. "(Page 75)

Now it's serious. Thaler begins to fight, but only weakly, and soon drops into the snow and gives up.

Structure and style

Klaus Merz '"LOS" is a short story or novella . The structure is handled very freely by the author. He loosely strings together fragments of thought, which do not reveal a three-act structure or the like. Merz tells on several levels. On the one hand there is the linear story of Thaler, who goes on his wandering, on the other hand there are memories of his not chronologically ordered. This is told by an omniscient narrator in the present ("When Thaler steps outside, he jerks himself under the door. The children all around have long been involved in after-school care centers and schools. Or they already have an apprenticeship to become like us . ”Page 11f.) There is also a kind of framework plot, which, strictly speaking, is just an introduction in the form of a dedication. A good friend of the main character briefly describes the view from outside at the very beginning. This is kept in the past tense:

“We were looking for you, called, dug. But all the rescue teams returned to the valley without having achieved anything. [...] You only returned to us in dreams [...] Until we secretly asked you to stay where you are now. "(Page 7f.)

A special stylistic device are the six texts thrown in about the death of the mother, which the main character writes during his own demise ( first-person narrator : "In shorts I stood nicely at the edge of the school garden, a bent sunflower in my hand. The black and white picture was on for years Mother's kitchen locker inserted. ”Page 85) . With these three narrative forms, the author achieves a detachment from the otherwise very concentrated storyline and also an increasingly strong identification with Thaler (first-person narrator texts are getting longer, less rambling memories). Klaus Merz kept the story even shorter and tighter than the little word “LOS” suggests. The language is very scarce, but never seems like that because his pictures open up worlds. Whether he lets the reader associate songs (" Taler, Taler, you have to wander ..."), literature ("Help comes from Bregenz") or simply pictures ("The black gravity pushes forward stoically from the depths of the room") - there is not a word too many on these few pages.

The author

Klaus Merz , born in Aarau in 1945 , now lives as a narrator and poet in Unterkulm. As a trained secondary school teacher, he worked for a long time in adult education. He won several prizes, including the Hermann Hesse Literature Prize in 1997, the Gottfried Keller Prize in 2004, and the Works Prize of the Swiss Schiller Foundation in 2005. He has published numerous stories, such as “Adam's Costume” or the short novel "Jacob is sleeping". Merz has also written poetry (“short announcement”) - his works are never particularly long. But the titles already show Merz's special ability. He manages to juxtapose two or three banal words, whereupon it immediately begins to "spark" in between - and if the reader enters his head as well.

review

Almost any of the sentences would be a good quote; nothing seems to be written carelessly. "LOS" tells the sad story of a man who never came out of his glass house, who was never able to reconcile his personal life with reality. He only feels a connection with his family, because he wastes his completely unromantic final thoughts on them. The only point of criticism of the narrative is the fact that it soon “caught up” and from then on hardly offers any surprises. The extraordinary descriptions by Klaus Merz offer enough variety and food. One reviewer wrote “As if by yourself one reads more slowly”. The style takes getting used to and is sometimes exhausting. Nevertheless, you can find your way around immediately, the language is never lifted. What does the title "LOS" mean? At the end of this book you won't be any smarter - but you will have a few more questions.

Virtual reality

LOS - Virtual Reality Film based on the book by Klaus Merz. With Niramy Pathmanathan, Regula Stüssi, Robert Vital and Klaus Merz. Direction: Sandro Zollinger and Roman Vital . Production Montezuma Film, 2020. Premiere on January 24th, 2020 at the Sundance Film Festival .