Mister X is on vacation
Mister X macht Ferien is a fragmentary short story by the Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt , written in 1953 and first published in 1978.
content
Mister X asks his supervisor, Mister U, to go on vacation so that he can "do good" in the dental pen . His boss complies with this request for the first time in 6000 years. In Zäzilienstift is Mister X only as a squire Soederbloem known, which can get by mail the pen monthly for Thirteenth a considerable sum. Now the postman is also supposed to deliver the news of the supposed landlord's visit. Before the letter was delivered, however, it fell into the hands of the town's gangsters. They then decide to raid the zezzilienstift and kidnap the rich Soederbloem . Mister X is happily received in the monastery . The attack fails after the gangster king Pipi le Lis starts playing with children and the second gangster Bébé la Rose falls in love for a short time. In addition, the old order is falling and the "good" paralyzes the course of the world. Mister U then decides to end Mister X's vacation early. The evil returns. Only the lovers Bébé la Rose and sister Röschen walk untouched.
It can be assumed that behind Mister U there is God (the good) and behind Mister X there is the person of the devil (the evil). This is not said by Dürrenmatt, but it is clear from the descriptions of the respective activities as well as the places of residence and work.
people
The main characters of the text remain nameless. On the one hand, these are the main person Mister X and his superior Mister U , but Dürrenmatt also does not use a name for senior employee Y. In contrast, the 45-year-old mail carrier Emilio is named . Furthermore, the gangster kings Pipi le Lis and Bébé la Rose , the beautiful gangster bride May McMay and several other gangsters live in the city "Ck ..." . The journalist JP Whiteblacke and the blind innkeeper Celio are briefly mentioned . In addition to the dominatrix, there are other sisters living in the dental pen , such as Röschen from the ten thousand mothers and Eugenia from the gruesome apocalypse .
expenditure
The fragment Mister X is on vacation was created from April to June 1953. It was first published in 1978 in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's reading book by Verlag der Arche (Zurich) . In 1980 a French translation was published under the name Mister X prend des vacances . In the same year the text was published by Diogenes Verlag together with the prose piece Greek seeks Greek . In 2004 the text was published independently by Maximilian Dietrich Verlag (Memmingen), illustrated with pictures by Thomas Löhning .
Web links
- Greek is looking for Greek / Mister X is on vacation with Diogenes
- Mister X is on vacation in the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Diogenes paperback 23062: Greek seeks Greek woman - Mister X is on vacation . Diogenes, Zurich 1998, p. 197