by Cecil Poole
Yes, it was the cover that attracted me first to this book. And then I picked it up, and flicked through some pages. I looked and was arrested. Each opening has three parts. The upper left is original Kraus writing, in its German. The upper right is Franzen’s English translation. And, best of all, the bottom of both pages is filled with footnotes. Not just dry explanation but luscious detail and arguement from not just the author but from two other Kraus scholars as well. This book becomes a many sided discussion exploring avenues and taking tacks that mirror the rich diversity of society.
I paid my money and took the book home and to bed with me – as is my want. Where I would luxuriate in reading the German – and understanding little. In that I think I am not alone, for the preface informs me that Kraus himself said of one of his critics “If he understands one sentence of my essay I’ll retract the whole thing.” It is dense, convoluted. I would read the English translation, with much greater comprehension, then I’d read the footnotes. Sometimes I’d get pages ahead in the footnotes, at other times it was the footnotes that would lag. It seemed to make no difference, within each of the three parts there was unexpected (and random) stimulus for my mind.
I’m a slow reader. Lying in bed early one Saturday reading, reading, I was suddenly struck by immense doubt. Surely this book, this writing titled “The Kraus Project” is just a self indulgent wank. Hmmm. Better get a second opinion. So I checked online reviews. Yes, self indulgent wanker they seemed to say. Review after review full of criticism. The Wall Street Journal’s review by Modris Eksteins seems highly critical of Kraus, Franzen and the book, suggesting towards the end that Kraus’ vitriolic analysis and criticism of popular culture helped “pave the way for victory of the vulgar.” And opening the door for Nazism and Hitler. Heavy stuff for the publisher of Passive Complicity. Review after review seemed to pour scorn over Kranzen’s work. Two stars here, two and half there. “The cranky author finds a kindred spirit in the Austrian critic Karl Kraus” writes Zsuzsi Gartner in a most amusing piece in The Globe and Mail. Gartner writes “… Jonathan Franzen may be the most discontented (and least liked) successful author in America” and “with less protective armour than a softshell crab (as a writer for The Daily Beast put it, “He makes himself a fat, juicy target”). I had to chuckle.
Then I read in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Aha, at last some-one who felt as I. (Is it not wonderful that I have time to search till I find the result I want?) The opening sentence, “the most impressive thing about Kraus as a thinker may be how early and clearly he recognised the divergence of technological progress from moral and spiritual progress.” Kraus, Franzen, and indeed Winer express concern that our society is being blinded by the medium – the iPad, the Smart Phone, the web – to the extent that it limits our ability to decipher the message.
However I’ll let Gartner have the penultimate words:
“I am delighted to have been introduced to this untiring enemy of sentimentality, false emotion, and “linguistic fraud.” ….. The Kraus Project gave me renewed respect for his (Franzen’s) commitment to challenging the techno-social orthodoxies of our day. Kraus, a century ago, nailed it: “We were complicated enough to build machines and too primitive to make them serve us.”