Comments on: 49 Great Ones and a Stinker

By: uoiaer

uoiaer — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 09:56:52 +0000

Goalkeeper?s Fear was probably the first movie I ever saw that didn?t care about action, plot lines, character development and just sort of did its own thing. I got so into it that it topped my personal favourites list until Kusturica came along with Underground. It was also cool in a way,
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By: RSN

RSN — Wed, 14 Jul 2004 11:29:23 +0000

As an all-American capitalist, my favorite book of Handke’s is his play [entitled in English], “They Are Dying Out”. It’s about a group of industrial capitalists who decide to fix prices, – and the single one of them who decides to betray the others by lowering his prices… not for profit, but just to experience the experience of betrayal.

I especially liked the minor, subsidiary character he developed: a minor stockholder of modest income whom all the main characters loathed because he would buy one single stock in every company in Germany, then bicycle from one stockholders’ meeting to another, just to heckle the board for the hell of it.

I’m all for shareholder activism. Handke is the first playwright I’ve found who’s actually made interesting use of this socio-economic phenomenon.

By: Trevor@Kaleboel

Trevor@Kaleboel — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 19:24:43 +0000

Er steht im Tor by Wencke Myhre is even less exciting but much more satisfying.

By: Georg

Georg — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 21:36:59 +0000

Every Austrian high-schooler is force-fed Handke’s ‘Wunschloses Ungl?ck’ (1972, smth like ‘Wishless Sorrow’, he is good at titles, although this one was translated as ‘A Sorrow Beyond Dreams’). It is a touching account of his mother’s depressing life in the southern Austrian province of Carinthia.
As a teenager I was naturally impressed by the avantgardist angry-young-man-play ‘Publikumsbeschimpfung’ (1966, smth like ‘Insult of the audience’) – funny.
Handke later transformed himself from a young avantgardist (the goalkeeper is also from that period) into a lyrical narrator writing lucid, evocative meditations in prose. I liked ‘Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers’ (1987, ‘A writer’s afternoon’) and ‘Versuch ?ber den gegl?ckten Tag’ (1991, ‘Attempt on the accomplished day’). Handke lost me with ‘Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht’ (1994, ‘My year in Nomansbay’), in which he attempted an opus magnum that would fill many hundred pages. The book became long, but it did not work.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 15:14:50 +0000

PeWi, I agree the title is great. That’s one of the things that enticed me to read it. And the last scene is also surprisingly good. So I’m not writing off Handke, and would be happy to hear which of his books are particularly worthwhile.

By: Ernst

Ernst — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 10:25:24 +0000

About 8 or 9 years ago I saw Wim Wenders’ movie based on the book. Like most others I came out of the cinema thinking, WTF was that all about? Nothing happens!
Then over the next few weeks it started growing on me – Goalkeeper’s Fear was probably the first movie I ever saw that didn’t care about action, plot lines, character development and just sort of did its own thing. I got so into it that it topped my personal favourites list until Kusturica came along with Underground. It was also cool in a way,
being able to say “my favourite movie is The Goalkeepers Fear of the Penalty” because nobody else had heard of it and that would make me feel all superior.
Anyway, about a year ago I stumbled across the book and, never having read any Handke, decided to fill this gap in my education… well I needn’t have bothered, it was one of the most boring reads ever. I have no problem with existentialist, nothing-means-anything type literature, but at least it should be interesting enough to keep me from dozing off. Camus can do that. Goalkeeper’s Fear can’t. It sucks.

By: PeWi

PeWi — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 23:34:31 +0000

after admitting that I never read the book, the title however is a classic.

And yes, it was very popular and Handke is one of the most prolific german language writer there is. He also wrote the script for the marvelous first Tom Ripley with Dennis Hoper.

Don’t give up on him, yet….