“The Comet” of Hannes Stein

The next example of the essay on “The Comet of Hannes Stein” is a literary review of the work of art. Hannes Stein, a wonderful book, controlled this conviction around, although, of course, it is a lot of components that make history, just Wegblendet. A more exciting effect would be easy, but it was not the author. He just wanted to play with history.

Everything that went wrong in the 20th century, Hannes Stein repaired with a tiny stroke of the pen.

After a bomb explosion has the Archduke Franz Ferdinand fell just short in his car, he does not drive around on, gives a speech and returns on the same path (where his assassins waiting) but leaves Sarajevo stante pede ” I’m ned Deppat, fohr i z’Haus again. ” Consequently, it is not shot, the first world war does not ignite, all its devastating repercussions and side effects are eliminated.

As our world might look like today if the momentous shots of Sarajevo would not like painting the author knowledgeable in his clever and charming novel “The comet”, imaginative, amusing and clearly off.

Plots, as they tell other utopias (social movements, rival conceptions of disputes between their representatives) are missing; Stein attention is the general philosophy of the state and condition of the company.

Europe’s monarchies have survived fascism and communism remain whimsical ideological fringes. The nonsense of armed conflicts has long recognized cities and landscapes bloom intact.

The politically and culturally leading nation is the empire of Austria-Hungary, a world model in miniature.

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Between Lake Constance and Ukraine, Bohemia and Herzegovina fidelity to the double-headed eagle of the Habsburgs united by a variety unterschiedlichster ethnicities, temperaments and languages. Not E pluribus unum it requires to stand together, but Suum cuique is assured them. The German Empire ( “vulgo: Prussia” de facto is also a multi-ethnic state of Bavaria, Hesse, Saxony, Swabia, Prussia …) leaves delicate regions such as Alsace generous autonomy on a foundation of education, Bible and civic virtues has the company developed moderate, tolerant and concerned about social equality.

Nothing could illustrate better than the international and mixture of languages ​​in Vienna. is clearly already be seen in the streets, that Judaism in economy and culture plays the leading role. Moreover, the Jews are “rooted for centuries in the province … normal average people and at the Since 1871” just in Germany largely unaffected “by wars, is the Christian West of the cultural and moral navel . world films from the Rosenhügel studios in Vienna, by and with Georgy Lukasz, Szczepan Szpilberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Christoph Waltz, celebrating worldwide success; Almdudler is about around the globe, the cult drink; the world language is German.

The economic and technological leadership power, not loved but respected, Germany is once considered as empty with its innovative, expensive peak products. at the competition for overseas possessions as the Austrians, the Germans Antarctica and since 1944 was thanks to their advantage through technology now the moon . colonize technique is the way further developed only for noble purposes: Although you can more older European airports travel by scheduled flight to the moon, but discard that people from aircraft bombs – “how would that work technically?”

Austria-Hungary is a country that could all live in “good … which was made of rules of origin and a bit of progress … reactionary, progressive and humane “. Other world regions and cultures can not match. Shaking his head, the flourishing Europe takes note of how the Japanese ( “barbarians”) suppress their Chinese neighbors cruel. The Russians and the Americans escaped the opportunity to distinguish themselves as superpowers; both bob in the middle; the provincial USA practice “strict neutrality”.

stone world seems to have come to rest. The idyllic retro Utopia is so consolidated in reason that danger can threaten only from the outside. And in fact, a huge comet approaches from space. Its impact, one has calculated well in advance, will be held on September 11, 2001 at 9:03 “a bit west of Vienna” and bring the apocalypse. Is humanity still be saved? David ( “Dudu”) Gottlieb, imperial astronomer from Vienna is appointed to the German research station on the moon.

Meanwhile, his wife Barbara are at home towards the delights of a love affair. The subtle, yet completely non licked Student Alexei Repin from dilapidated Russian noble family falls in love with the mature beauty ( “warm Mediterranean eyes … Grecian nose … gently arched woman’s belly”) and is introduced by it in some secrets.

But the two storylines are progressing slowly, diving at all, only occasionally on the surface. In between, many loosely connected episodes fill the chapter (cardinal, a rabbi and psychiatrist at the tarot in the coffee house and the emperor in his office, the anarchist “TV philosopher” when expediency kidney on chance and violence …), and each provides starting points for discussions and arabesque reflections that explain the states and their new for us development history.

the contrast of what could have been, with what was, unfortunately, the author likes drives thereby to the extreme that he a real date low point repurposing a triumph event ‘his’ history. The first moon landing around, the Germans on March 27, 1944. as have been nice’s it! Instead, a hit that day V2 rockets in London. . Such details can often learns from the glossary, whose explanations, biographies and real historical abstracts get a bitter taste

The fact that a history of futility, absurdity and stupidity is not unrealistic, however, only a few worries: the engineer August Biehlolawek about tormenting nightmares, “from the Old world was not even a memory remained” after one or two wars have destroyed them with tanks, bombs and millionfold cruelty. Psychoanalysis is a loss in the face of absurd death drive of the patient …

All this portrays a finely educated narrator, a smiling, discreet and frank talker that keeps us with countless delicacies in a good mood. His language is maintained as the atmosphere, which she describes with a sense of meaning and aesthetics of rhythm and measure. In reading itself sets a nostalgic confident mood as they come up when reading Jules Verne novels or leafing through yellowed encyclopedias. It is supported by archaisms ( “Bureau”, “Caveat”), unusual technical terms ( “folding machine”, “Düsenzug”, “electric Post”), descriptions (in fracture lettered signs on the Moon) and hearted Austriacisms ( “plums”, “at a quarter to seven,” “Tschapperlwasser”, “owidraht”).