On Writing in German

My copy of Arcana 25 is now on my bookshelves. It is time to explain why I consider this first German-language publication of my Angerhuber article appearing in this issue so important to me. I started learning German as my fifth language at the age of nineteen. At this point, my knowledge of the language was very meager, but I remember having high hopes of learning it up to the point where I could easily read some of the more difficult classics. The same year I joined the Thomas Ligotti Online message board where I got acquainted with many friendly and intelligent members. One such member was Eddie M. Angerhuber herself, who I recall was an extremely kind soul. I remember mentioning to her my attempts at learning German. She was the one who encouraged me to read her and her partner's articles that she and Thomas Wagner were posting on their AngWa Factory website. In fact reading the language  at this stage was still quite a challenge. And here I am, twelve years later, writing (with the encouraged and help from Robert N. Bloch) an essay on Angerhuber's mesmerizing works in German! A really memorable moment.

Some time ago I've mentioned on CL that my goal is to learn to read in nine languages by the time I get forty. Time will tell if I will still be able to perform such a translingual feat in another language as the one with Angerhuber and the Arcana article in German.

Die seltsamen Visionen einer Einzelgängerin – Eddie M. Angerhuber und ihre Experimente mit der Phantastik

 

My next publication is already available for order. It is one that holds a special place for me, for it consists of an essay I wrote directly in German. I feel this is a real milestone in my translingual journeys, which I will be documenting in my next entry on CL.

Arcana - Magazin für klassische und moderne phantastik

And here is some more from Robert N. Bloch: Arcana (Verlag Lindenstruth) - a magazine of modern German fantastic literature. I first mentioned this journal in my post Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can (2) - Notebook of the Night. If you read German and would like to stay up-to-date with German-language genre publications, this is the right place to start.

Bibliographie der Utopie und Phantastik 1650 - 1950 (2)

I am returning to Bibliographie der Utopie und Phantastik 1650 - 1950 mentioned last year so that I can finally do this opus magnum some justice. This magnificent compendium of German-language  fantastic and utopian literature was compiled by the connoisseur of the genre who has spent over 30 years researching the subject in question. In Germany he is known under the nom de plume of Robert N. Bloch.

Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can (2) - Notebook of the Night

I just came across the following short text by Thomas Ligotti printed with Ligotti's permission in an interview with Angerhuber and her partner Thomas Wagner. This interview was conducted by Uwe Voehl and was published in Arcana no. 1 (the German magazine of classic and modern speculative fiction). Ligotti is sharing his thoughts on Notebook of the Night: Exzerpte aus "Noctuary" - the German-language audio recording of eleven vignettes from Noctuary performed by both of the above mentioned authors (also in my Angerhuber bibliography).

Why Germans Can Say Things No One Else Can

In relation to Ruinenlust and the German language.

This is what Mark Twain used to think about ...

The Awful German Language

This is what Sylvia Plath used to think about the language:

“What I didn't say was that each time I picked up a German dictionary or a German book, the very sight of those dense, black, barbed-wire letters made my mind shut like a clam.”

The hidden guise of decay...

"Finally my way leads me to the vast and abandoned area of the former freight depot which has been thoroughly destroyed during the war. My longing for these crumbling ruins lets me feel my way through the torn-out railways, the wooden sleepers and multicoloured broken glass that garnishes the floor like a sheet of lost jewels. And the fading light of the day surrendering to night glitters upon these hidden jewels just as my quarter has surrendered to dilapidation. They can be encountered everywhere if one has the right vision for this sort of things: the jewels of decay, the real gems of the city, melancholy and ponderous as the viscous rain and the wailing of the wind in chimney stumps.

Bibliographie der Utopie und Phantastik 1650 - 1950

With no time for documenting new discoveries, I am posting this photo as a placeholder and incentive for further explorations. This huge bibliographic compendium by Robert N. Bloch is a real treasure trove of visionary literature available in German. I hope to contribute more about this comprehensive volume and its author next month.

The bibliography is now online!

BIBLIOGRAPHY, n. The literary tribute that a little man pays to a big one.

 -- The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce

Here ends my series of posts with sections of "Eddie" M. Angerhuber online bibliography. Productive browsing to all of those who come across this small literary tribute of mine.

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography: Interviews, translations (by others), works about and dedicated to "Eddie" M. Angerhuber

>>Bibliography: Non-fiction and miscellanea

Note: The last section, containing interviews with Angerhuber, articles about Angerhuber and reviews of her works as well as works that were dedicated to her. This section also provides information on translations of Angerhuber's works by others - a list  that will hopefully grow in the future!

Interviews:

(with Angerhuber)

"Eddie M. Angerhuber: Sommergewitter"

[Review and interview]

Solar-X, no. 91 (Edition Solar-X, September 1997)

"Interview mit Eddie M. Angerhuber"

[Conducted by Michael Siefener]

Daedalos, no. 10 (Verlag Hubert Katzmarz, March 2001)

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography: Non-fiction and miscellanea

>>Bibliography: Audio recordings

Note: This section of the bibliography provides information on non-fiction, poetry, illustrations, websites (designed by Angerhuber), special editions of magazines and unpublished works. Included is Angerhuber’s and Thomas Wagner’s unpublished collaboration Lamia Und Die Schatten, which was to be released from Abendstern-Verlag.[1]

Non-fiction:

"Auf Cthulhus Fährte"

[Article]

Solar-X, no. 73 (Edition Solar-X, April 1996)

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography: Audio recordings

>>Bibliography: Translations


Note: This section is dedicated to audio publications featuring stories and translations read by “Eddie” M. Angerhuber. Eddie/Monika is an accomplished narrator who has worked on four audio productions. Three of them were published by Bärenklau Verlag whilst “Das Nachtbuch” – a collaboration with her partner Thomas Wagner – was self-published.

Nocturne Produkte. 3 phantastische Erzählungen von E. M. Angerhuber

[Berlin: Bärenklau Verlag, April/May 2001]

[Audio book recording of 74 minutes, contains three stories by Angerhuber read by the author and by Thomas Wagner, accompanied by electronic soundtrack by Wagner: "Der blaue Stern"; "Das Produkt der Nacht"; "Die Zweite Treppe".]

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography: Translations

>>Bibliography: Short Stories


Note: The purpose of this section is to compile a list of Angerhuber’s translations, all of which were published under the author's real name Monika Angerhuber. Monika has translated into German several titles for the publisher Edition Metzengerstein, including three books from their series Edgar Allan Poes phantastische Bibliothek, among them: The White Hands by Mark Samuels, My Work is Not Yet Done by Thomas Ligotti and a collection of stories by Quentin S. Crisp (Dunkler Gestade – Aufgesang) that assembled texts from various sources.[1]

In 2002 Angerhuber won the first place in the German Phantastik-Preis for In einer fremden Stadt, in einem fremden Land featuring her translation of numerous stories by Thomas Ligotti. The same year, she was awarded the fourth place in the internet-based contest "Supreme TerrorScribe" for the story "The Skull" published online in her own translation.

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography: Short Stories

>>Bibliography: Novels, novellas, short story collections and chapbooks

Note: This section presents a list of stories by Angerhuber with their original and subsequent appearances. In his entry on “Eddie” M. Angerhuber in Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia, Marco Frenschkowski states that the writer “has published about one hundred tales of weird and supernatural fiction”. Out of those one hundred pieces, many of which were published in obscure fanzines and magazines, I have managed to identify ninety (titles of two stories still need to be identified). In many cases the first publications were identified based on reviews, which are still available online, plus those that were published in Solar-X. Please note that the story collections do not provide the source of the original publications (except for Die darbenden Schatten), it was therefore a challenge to track down some of the original appearances.[1]

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography: Novels, novellas, short story collections and chapbooks

The first section of the bibliography: novels, novellas, short story collections and chapbooks

Back to the main bibliography page

Note: Angerhuber’s book-length publications include one short novel, five short story collections and three chapbooks. Two of these chapbooks, Visionen von Eden – und andere Geschichten vom Tag danach and Karaits Kuss und andere Vampirgeschichten, were self-published. This section also includes two novellas: “Das Netz” and “Die darbenden Schatten”.

Short Novel:

Das Verborgene

Friedland: Klaus Bielefeld Verlag, 2000

[Softcover of 108 pages, cover design Rainer Schorm]

"Eddie" M. Angerhuber Bibliography

Following my short essay "Eddie M. Angerhuber's Strange Visions", which appeared in Cloistered by Ravelled Bones & Ruined Walls, here is an attempt at compiling the complete online bibliography of the works by this great author published in German and English. Please note that this is not an official bibliography - more of a work from an enthusiast and book collector willing to share this bibliographic information gathered while searching for Eddie's/Monika's often hard-to-find publications. Considering how obscure Angerhuber is becoming, I was compelled to prepare a bibliography of her works and share it on Confusio Linguarum so that to make it easier for others to track her works down.

Cloistered by Ravelled Bones & Ruined Walls by D. F. Lewis and Sławomir Wielhorski

I am very proud to announce the following forthcoming publication from Mount Abraxas by D. F. Lewis and myself:

Cloistered by Ravelled Bones & Ruined Walls

This volume will include eight fictions by D. F. Lewis published in a section entitled Beyond the Balcony followed by my series of articles on the pleasure of ruins and weird literature under the collective title Vistas of Ruin and Decay: A Ruinenlust Journey Through Weird Fiction. The ensemble of Ruinenlust articles will appear in this volume in a revised and expanded form with proper footnotes and a bibliography.

Georg Trakl - the harbinger of a hushed apocalypse

A collection of poems and prose poems by Georg Trakl in Polish, translated by Krzysztof Lipiński

    

There is no better time than autumn to lose oneself in the poems of the great Austrian poet Georg Trakl whose works are curiously evocative and haunting. Trakl excelled in depicting scenes of serene imagery full of contrasting colours. His blank verse, rich in adjectives, has this enchanting power of suggesting a world beyond our own. It works like a dark, ineffable charm whispered into the reader's ear. Through descriptions that at first seem ambiguous and defying logic and through his magically suggestive lyricism he has managed to grasp the fleeting impressions of a secret quietude just moments before the impending doom.

What follows is my visual tribute to Trakl and the autumnal imagery from his poems followed by a photographic journey to the garrison hospital in Cracow where Trakl committed suicide by cocaine overdose. On the wall surrounding the hospital one can find a commemorative plaque with a quote from his poem “Song of a Captured Blackbird” dedicated to Ludwig von Ficker, who was the last person to visit him before his death:

House of Leaves and The Vanishing Life and Films of Emmanuel Escobada

Source: https://dflewisreviews.wordpress.com/

“My father was a filmmaker. In the 50s, live television. Later avant-garde. Eventually he got into documentaries. (...) My father will be remembered for a lot of things but by some, TZD--as some of my friends called him--will be forever known for his passionate consideration of the art of cinema." 

Mark Z.Danielewski interviewed by Sophie Cottrell for www.randomhouse.com

"My intention had been to present this piece of writing as a gift to mY father."
Mark Z.Danielewski interviewed by Kasey Carpenter

One of my favourite pieces of fiction from Nemonymous magazine, edited by D. F. Lewis, whom I had the pleasure to interview for Confusio Linguarum last month, is "The Vanishing Life and Films of Emmanuel Escobada", which appeared in the second issue. This phenomenal story centers on a forgotten Brazilian film-maker who mysteriously disappeared while making a film entitled "Nos Olvidamos?" and whose works started falling into complete oblivion, as if they never existed in the first place. The piece is written in the form of a non-fiction article and treats Escobada as a real person. Earlier this week its author confirmed that he would like to remain anonymous forever.

Learning a language to savour great works of literature

My experience of reading books has always gone hand in hand with learning languages. I have gone through the pain of withholding from reading certain titles for years only with the purpose of reading them, once ready, in their original versions. This painful but rewarding time-killer is something I've done with works in English, Spanish, French and German and as insane as it may sound I have high ambitions of expanding this further to other five languages. Apart from sharing my experience from reading, I would also like to use Confusio Linguarum to document this translingual journey.

Exhumed archive of stories by Angerhuber - printed back in 2005

I set out to learn German over ten years ago so that to read works of Gustav Meyrink, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Philipp Mainländer and Eddie M. Angerhuber among others. Over this time I have read countless other books in German just to improve my reading skills and to be finally able to savour the works that are high on my list. 

It is high time that I delve into "Eddie" M. Angerhuber's oeuvres - Angerhuber is a writer who  seems to have been on my list almost forever.