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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Bruno Schulz

 
 
nutella23
16:26 / 14.10.02
Anyone familiar with "Street of Crocodiles"/"The Cinnamon Shops"? This man's writing is amazing; very pre-war Eastern Europe magic realist/surrealist and dark dark dark. Like Kafka on LSD. I know the Brothers Quay took alot of inspiration from his work for their animations ("Street of Crocodiles"), which is how I found out about his writing in the first place.

He also did a few drawings (included in some translated editions) that are profoundly eerie in a Hans Bellmer kind of way.

I believe he was killed by the Nazis during the invasion of Poland...Not much info available on him though.

Comments on his work? Trivia? Anything?
 
 
HCE
22:01 / 14.10.02
His work is wonderful. I first heard of him through Cynthia Ozick, who wrote a book called "The Messiah of Stockholm" about a young man who learns of Schulz's (real) missing work, "The Messiah", and decides that he is Schulz's lost son. It contains the wonderful line, "What a fright your mother got. When she was pregnant with you, I mean. An assault by the higher forms of literature."

I can understand the Kafka comparisons but for me Schulz is unique: his work is totally self-contained and lushly beautiful. I don't really find it dark.

Excellent stuff.