A long-awaited trio: author, critic, publisher

An acrobat of integration

BY POUL BAGER

Thomas Thurah
So What is Man?
Samleren. DK

In 2001 Thomas Thurah (former editor of art and culture at the Danish newspapers "Information" and "Weekendavisen") published an impressive book of interviews containing 36 European portraits entitled Historien er ikke slut (The Story Isn't Over) . Impressive not only because Thomas Thurah asked a number of perceptive, well-prepared, situational questions in many dimensions and languages, but also because the physical energy demonstrated in the book was on a par with its intellectual energy. One day he interviewed (if my memory serves me well) Christoph Ransmayr in Vienna, and the next day he interviewed Claudio Magris in Trieste. As anyone familiar with these two gentlemen will know, successful discussions with them require more than just a good working knowledge of German and a good grammar book - even the best of language experts have to keep their ears thoroughly attuned to understand what they are saying. And Thomas Thurah managed this two days running!

In Historien er ikke slut Thomas Thurah interviewed a number of Scandinavian authors, including P.O. Enquist, Peer Hultberg and Jan Kjærstad. And he also focuses on these three authors in a new book entitled Så hvad er et menneske? (So What is Man?) . But this time he does so in the form of analysis. This is probably not because the three authors answer the typically Kjærstad-like question in the title (which author does not seek to do so?), but because of their position in the spectrum of modernism. This is also what has determined the order in which they are presented: first P.O. Enquist as a relatively traditional storyteller, then Hultberg as a classical modernist, and finally Kjærstad as a postmodernist (although this is modified in the analytical section). Ultimately, however, Thurah's choice was probably based on the feeling that he could see these three authors from one specific viewpoint.

In his preface Thurah underlines that he does not wish to entertain the reader with theoretical issues, but prefers to go straight to the heart of the matter: their books. If only he had done so! Even in the preface Thurah makes the mistake of introducing the speculative and much-laboured categories of Villy Sørensen, which unfortunately prove decisive for the author's viewpoint and language. The latter is (as promised) not only idiomatic but also rapid and journalistic to the point of weariness. Unfortunately, the result is not purely informative, mixed as it is with Villy Sørensen's philosophy. Here is an example of the kind of bombastic statement that will probably make more than one reader a trifle dizzy: "The other viewpoint, expressed very briefly and again in extension of Villy Sørensen, is that the recurrent story or myth of loss is part of the interpretation of the Fall in artistic language. Turning it into an object. And that in all this there is a challenge of (using yet another loan word) the un-interpretable. In other words, the Fall, trauma, loss".

The author quite simply fails to fulfil his contract with the reader - he promises to be the reader's guide and to express himself clearly. Instead, he plays with marked cards that repeatedly have an impact on his analysis. This is why the words "loss, trauma, Fall, schism and original sin" are used throughout like a universal key that must be made to fit; like the words "vacuum, scripture and healing" - markers of the opposite, positively charged tendency in the Sørensen circus. This is a pity, because Thurah is an observant, energetic and knowledgeable reader dealing with three major Scandinavian authors - the kind of authors that require an interpreter with precisely these abilities. So I feel certain that Peer Hultberg at least, as in the book of interviews, will have more than one complaint to make about Thurah's analyses of his works. Using one of his own expressions, Thomas Thurah turns out to be rather too much of an "acrobat of integration". He has tried to gather too much under the same roof, thereby ruining the variety expressed by or (if you prefer) the differences between the three authors.

Poul Bager is a Senior Teacher at Randers Statsskole

Translated by Nick Wrigley