Saturday, November 01, 2008

In Brief: Peter Handke's The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick

Brief notes on Peter Handke's early novel, The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (translated by Michael Roloff):

I've always liked the title of this book. It's suggested to me the excitement of a tension-filled moment. I've recalled those few times when I played goalie. At the ready. Alert. Alive. I wondered what a book with such a title would be like, and it remains suggestive. Certainly, I didn't imagine a novel about a soccer game! Indeed not. But we do have a former goalie, more or less wandering about, it seems aimlessly. Suddenly, he kills a woman. Why? Who knows? Least of all him. His struggle seems to be with being alive in the world, feeling authentic.

I've mentioned problems I've had with reading Handke in the past. Here, too, there is resistance. His fairly simple sentences seem unsteady; I have trouble moving from one to the other, though eventually I read on. I've read with interest Edmond Caldwell's two posts describing what he calls "the Handke Effekt". I haven't read either of the novels under discussion in those posts, but his observations seems relevant to my experience. Perhaps I hold on to expectations of a different kind of narrative, one that Handke refuses to offer, refuses because it is unjustified.

Not nearly as good as Across, it seems to me, but a worthy read.

3 comments:

SUMMA POLITICO said...

well this is the translator of goalie leaving a comment. the question is what state of mind does the first page the first few sentences put you into? what does it DO to you. Once you have described that and not resisted the effect, the book will be much clearer. Yes of course ACROSS and, say, ONE DARK NIGHT, are far more normal, GOALIE IS FAR MORE DARING

HANDKE LINKS + BLOGS
SCRIPTMANIA PROJECT MAIN SITE: http://www.handke.scriptmania.com
and 12 sub-sites

http://www.handkelectures.freeservers.com [the drama lecture]

http://www.handke.scriptmania.com/realblog.html
[pertaining to scriptmania matters]


http://www.kultur.at/see/roloff.htm

[dem handke auf die schliche/ prosa, a book of mine about Handke]

http://begleitschreiben.twoday.net/topics/Peter+Handke/


http://handke-discussion.blogspot.com/
[the American Scholar caused controversy about Handke, reviews, detailed of Coury/Pilipp's THE WORKS OF PETER HANDKE]


http://www.artscritic.blogspot.com
[some handke material, too, the Milosevic controversy summarized]

MICHAEL ROLOFF
Member Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute and Society
this LYNX will LEAP you to all my HANDKE project sites and BLOG
S:

http://www.roloff.freeservers.com/about.html

"MAY THE FOGGY DEW BEDIAMONDIZE YOUR HOOSPRINGS!" {J. Joyce}

"Sryde Lyde Myde Vorworde Vorhorde Vorborde" [von Alvenslebe n]



--
MICHAEL ROLOFF
714-660-4445
Member Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute and Society
this LYNX will LEAP you to all my HANDKE project sites and BLOGS:
http://www.roloff.freehosting.net/index.html

"MAY THE FOGGY DEW BEDIAMONDIZE YOUR HOOSPRINGS!" {J. Joyce}

"Sryde Lyde Myde Vorworde Vorhorde Vorborde" [von Alvensleben]

Richard said...

Hm, well I meant that the resistance was something for me to overcome, and I mostly did. Same was true with Across.

I don't agree that Goalie is more daring.... though I should re-read both and think them through.

thanks for the comment.

SUMMA POLITICO said...

Everyone but the goalie is afraid at that moment. Handke himself just pointed this out in his interview with Weinzierl

http://www.welt.de/kultur/article5110963/Als-Peter-Handke-den-Selbstmord-der-Mutter-erlebte.html


confirming my thesis yet again that all of Handke's writing, fanatical, obsessive compulsive as of puberty, serves to conquer anxiety, an inversion of Breuer/ Freud's original theory of hysteria, and once you have become the master of conquering fear.... what's to stop you. Der Hausierer and Radio Play I are the most elaborate
demonstrations of it. I once showed how Handke did this in the instance of the poem "Singular and Plural". The requirements are: a libidinal nature, a threat to it, and in this instance writing, control; genius too has to be trained, In a week or so a long piece on KALI, our man's Tristan & Iseult.

A good Sunday to all from Seattle where the elements have conspired to bring us the 31st day of rain!
LINK OF LYNXES TO MOST HANDKE MATERIAL ON THE WEB:

http://www.handke.scriptmania.com/favorite_links_1.html

HANDKE LINKS + BLOGS SCRIPTMANIA PROJECT MAIN SITE:

http://www.handke.scriptmania.com
and 13 sub-sites
e.g.

http://www.handkeromance.scriptmania.com/index.html

http://www.handkelectures.freeservers.com/

http://www.handkedrama.scriptmania.com/

http://www.handkescholar.scriptmania.com/

http://www.handkebild.scriptmania.com/

http://handke-photo.scriptmania.com/

http://www.handke-nobel.scriptmania.com/

http://www.handkeprose.scriptmania.com/

http://www.handkefilm.scriptmania.com/


http://handke-watch.blogspot.com/
[moravian nights discussion]

the newest:
http://handke-photo.scriptmania.com/

contains the psychoanalytic monograph

The Morawian Night Essay + Handke trivia

http://www.handkelectures.freeservers.com [the drama lecture]

http://www.van.at/see/mike/index.htm

[dem handke auf die schliche/besuch auf dem moenchsberg, a book of mine about Handke]

http://begleitschreiben.twoday.net/topics/Peter+Handke/

http://handke-discussion.blogspot.com/
[the American Scholar caused controversy about Handke, reviews, detailed of Coury/ Pilipp's THE WORKS OF PETER HANDKE, the psycho-biological monograph/ a note on Velica Hoca/ ]
with three photo albums, to wit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikerol

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikerol/HANDKE3ONLINE#

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikerol/HANDKE2ONLINE#

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikerol/POSTED?authkey=YeKkFSE3-Js#

http://www.handke-trivia.blogspot.com

http://www.artscritic.blogspot.com


[some handke material, too, the Milosevic controversy summarized]

MICHAEL ROLOFF

Member Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute and Society
this LYNX will LEAP you to all my HANDKE project sites and BLOGS:
http://www.roloff.freehosting.net/index.html

"MAY THE FOGGY DEW BEDIAMONDIZE YOUR HOOSPRINGS!" + MAY THE FIREPLUG OF FILIALITY REINSURE YOUR BUNGHOLE!"" {J. Joyce}
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