Read and Appreciated in 2003
A Year’s Best List
The Street Of Crocodiles, Bruno Schulz, Celina Wieniewski (translator)
I haven’t actually read this in years, but seeing the Brothers Quay film reminded me of its dense creepy gothic imagery. Happily it’s remained in print; I shall have to get a copy post-haste as it’s a book I need to have in my permanent library. Kafkaesque, although apparently Schulz didn’t cite Kafka as an influence.
Schulz, writing about Rilke’s poems, might well be describing his own book: “The existence of his book is a pledge that the tangled, mute masses of things unformulated within us may yet emerge to the surface miraculously distilled.”
Of Schulz, Robert Fulford wrote: “On the landscape of literature, Schulz occupies a small valley, somewhere between Borges Peak and Mt. Kafka. A maker of myths, he’s now a myth himself.” He has been hugely influential on such contemporary writers as Philip Roth and Cynthia Ozick, even though his output was small: two author-illustrated collections of short stories. The Street of Crocodiles is also called Cinnamon Shops; the second work is titled Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass.
While the Fulford essay is excellent, discussing among other things the Theatre de Complicite production of The Street, I much prefer Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s fiercely affectionate tone: “He found beauty in darkness because there is beauty in darkness; what in Kafka is a plaint in Schulz is a celebration.”
Bruno himself should have the last words: “The most fundamental function of the spirit is inventing fables, creating tales.” Indeed. “Poetry happens,” he said, “when short-circuits of sense occur.”
Street Of Crocodiles, The Brothers Quay
Stellar beside the banal releases of the American market; this animated film is more original and more disturbing than any number of Hollywood horror films. Each frame abounds with a superfluity of creepy images, much like the pages of Schulz’s book. An homage, and worth seeing even if you haven’t read The Street of Crocodiles.
The Eye, The Pang Brothers
A young Hong Kong woman who has been blind since early childhood undergoes a corneal transplant; regaining her vision she discovers she has learned to see not just what’s in front of her but queasy images of unknown origin. Going on a long quest to Northern Thailand with her psychotherapist turned friend, Mun learns the story and troubled fate of her donor. Gifted/cursed by two kinds of sight since her operation, Mun makes the brave choice to attempt to heal the ghost/donor. The Eye owes a lot to The Sixth Sense, and like that film which it in many ways supersedes, it isn’t a cheesy Hollywood style horror/supernatural film but a genuinely creepy and beautifully shot dissertation upon serious themes of suicide, the nature of the afterlife or spirit world, and the moral necessity, at times, of believing in the impossible. Great score, too, and watch for the American remake as Tom Cruise has bought the rights. Apparently the Pang Brothers’ first film, Bangkok Dangerous is likewise remarkable.
