The Passion Considered As An Uphill Bicycle Race
by Alfred Jarry
From The Selected Works of Alfred Jarry
(Grove Press, 1965).
Translated by Roger Shattuck.
Barabbas, slated to race, was scratched.
Pilate, the starter, pulling out his clepsydra or water clock, an
operation which wet his hands unless he had merely spit on them –
Pilate gave the send-off.
Jesus got away to a good start.
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a sampling of some books I’ve read over the years:
Part 1
“Omensetter’s Luck” by William H. Gass (1966)
Omensetter’s Luck takes place in the 1890s in the fictitious town of Gilean, Ohio. The story is bookended by the story of Brackett Omensetter who arrives with his family to settle down. The middle (and the bulk) of the novel is devoted to the spiritual and mental degradation of the town’s priest, Jethro Furber, who is jealous of Omensetter’s magnetic personality and the luck that seems to underpin Omensetter’s existence.
After a meeting to receive his monthly rent, Omensetter’s landlord, Henry Pimber, disappears and is found much later, dead. Omensetter’s luck changes soon after, forcing him to abandon Gilean, leaving the locals to question the role of Omensetter in Pimber’s death.
Gass’ first novel, and his least avant-gardeish, and his best. Basically a religious book. Very sad. Contains the immortal line “The body of Our Saviour shat but Our Saviour shat not.” Bleak but gorgeous, like light through ice.
- David Foster Wallace, Salon, 1999
End of Part 1.
Part 2.
For some strange reason reading Gass’ novel instinctually reminds me of Roxy Music’s 1969 classic Virginia Plain:
Let’s chalk this up to what Lawrence Weschler used to refer to as CONVERGENCES: the visual rhyme between seemingly disparate images.
End of Part 2.
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Faust: The Second Part of the Tragedy (Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil) is the second part of Goethe’s Faust. It was published in 1832, the year of Goethe’s death. Because of its complexity in form and content, it is usually not read in German schools, although the first part commonly is. It can be seen as one of the most difficult works of German literature, requiring an extensive knowledge of Greek mythology. Only part of Faust I is directly related to the legend, which goes back at least to the beginning of 16th century (thus is older than Marlowe’s play). The “Gretchen”-plot, although now the most widely known episode of the Faust legend, was of Goethe’s own invention. In Faust II, the legend of Johann Faust (at least in a version of the 18th century, which came to Goethe’s attention) already contained Faust’s marriage with Helen and an encounter with an Emperor. But certainly Goethe deals with the legendary material very freely in both parts.
