Monstrous events

Written by:Stephen Mitchelmore.

This morning’s Guardian features an extract from WG Sebald’s forthcoming collection of lectures On the Natural History of Destruction. (See my entry for January 31st for more). The headline for the piece is Obliteration. I wonder if the person who chose this word knows that it could be the translation of Ausl�schung, the title of the valedictory novel by Sebald’s literary forebear Thomas Bernhard? It’s a good choice anyway. Today is also the day of the demo in London against the planned obliteration of Iraq.

Sebald explains that he grew up in an area spared the direct effects of the air raids on Germany cities, so at school he searched “hoping to glean more information about the monstrous events in the background of my own life”.

Elsewhere Geoff Dyer refers to the “strangely posthumous quality” of Sebald�s prose. This is perhaps the necessary evocation of buried memories. But monstrous events are very close to happening all over again; right now, if not right here. I hope today’s demo goes in some way to affirm life � the life of a democracy whose veneer is fast fading � and the life of a nation to which, even though it is barely even in “the background” of their lives, the demonstrators have developed an imaginative empathy, something Sebald wrought so well in his books. If there’s an ethical dimension that defines great literature - rather than just one’s “personal opinion” - then perhaps this is it. Let’s roll.

Posted on February 15th, 2003.

• A Scottish enlightenment
• WG Sebald killed in car crash Terrible news fr…
• WG Sebald If anyone’s reading this anymore, her…
• Destruction: Silence
• Payback