City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

The world goes on, László Krasznahorkai ; translated from the Hungarian by John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet, and George Szirtes

eng

no index present

fiction

The world goes on

László Krasznahorkai ; translated from the Hungarian by John Batki, Ottilie Mulzet, and George Szirtes

A Hungarian interpreter obsessed with waterfalls, at the edge of the abyss in his own mind, wanders the chaotic streets of Shanghai. A traveller, reeling from the sights and sounds of Varanasi, encounters a giant of a man on the banks of the Ganges ranting on the nature of a single drop of water. A child labourer in a Portuguese marble quarry wanders off from work one day into a surreal realm utterly alien from his daily toils. In The World Goes On, a narrator first speaks directly, then tells twenty-one unforgettable stories, and then bids farewell ('for here I would leave this earth and these stars, because I would take nothing with me'). As Laszlo Krasznahorkai himself explains: 'Each text is about drawing our attention away from this world, speeding our body toward annihilation, and immersing ourselves in a current of thought or a narrative..

He speaks: Wandering-Standing -- On velocity -- He wants to forget -- How lovely -- At the latest, in Turin -- World goes on -- Universal Theseus -- One hunderd people all told -- Not on the Heraclitean path -- He narrates: Nine dragons crossing -- One time on 381 -- Gyorgy Feher's Henrik Molnar -- Bankers -- Drop of water -- Downhill on a forest road -- The bill -- That Gagarin -- Obstacle theory -- Journey in a place without blessings -- He bids farewell: I don't need anything from here