tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post4333475827165349763..comments2024-03-20T19:40:58.078-05:00Comments on The OF Blog: Karl Way, WinnetouLarry Nolenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-56623555145686097912012-08-16T13:27:11.559-05:002012-08-16T13:27:11.559-05:00Cool. I wonder if he's as popular today, thou...Cool. I wonder if he's as popular today, though, now that videos/film are even more widespread.Larry Nolenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-68970141184232882382012-08-16T06:51:14.808-05:002012-08-16T06:51:14.808-05:00May was also quite popular in the Netherlands, and...May was also quite popular in the Netherlands, and I did read a lot of his work growing up in the 80's. <br />Joris Mnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-84375904758461436652012-08-06T18:04:31.151-05:002012-08-06T18:04:31.151-05:00Same here, for over 15 years (ever since I encount...Same here, for over 15 years (ever since I encountered references to May in some of Hitler's off-the-cuff comments that were recorded). Having now read part of his work, I think of it as a "mostly harmless" type of work - some questionable choices that today would land him in hot water, but generally with more good than bad elements.<br /><br />Later tonight, I'm going to write an essay on Salgari. His pirate stories are interesting in their messages and also for those that they influenced.Larry Nolenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-80728527269813336172012-08-06T16:44:55.961-05:002012-08-06T16:44:55.961-05:00Interesting, indeed.
I knew of May but have never...Interesting, indeed.<br /><br />I knew of May but have never felt the need to track down any of his works, other than glances via google books.Foxessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06754083123669916994noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-23549982917380279012012-08-05T11:17:24.703-05:002012-08-05T11:17:24.703-05:00Yeah, it's a tricky issue regarding the cultur...Yeah, it's a tricky issue regarding the cultural appropriations taking place. Even a distorted "Teutonic" image of the indigenous nations, problematic as it is at times, to me is at least better than having Amerindians as little more than an extension of a threatening natural force. I've been bothered by that for a long time, especially after I realized that beyond talk of my family (both sides) having Cherokee and Chickasaw ancestry, there was nothing said about their cultures. It was as though I were a white and an absence and that has colored my impressions on these sort of issues.<br /><br />In regards to adventure stories as a whole, outside of the "cowboys and Indians" tales, I really can't think of any American adventure tales of the late 19th century. Certainly very little from Europe stayed in popularity here for long. Maybe the closest would be the original <i>Tom Swift</i> novels of the early 20th century.Larry Nolenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-14537072671748866192012-08-05T10:23:39.803-05:002012-08-05T10:23:39.803-05:00Forgot to mention: The only book by an American au...Forgot to mention: The only book by an American author I've ever come across that has a similar feel to that kind of literature, is John Reynolds Gardiner's <i>Stone Fox</i>.Murilegus rexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08705192064646504148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-24167566145221916612012-08-05T10:19:53.345-05:002012-08-05T10:19:53.345-05:00"It is easy to picture youth and adults in Ce..."It is easy to picture youth and adults in Central Europe reading this and dreaming of a West that is not to be tamed but instead to be marveled over."<br /><br />Nicely said. Indeed, there are several widely-read writers in Austria and Germany who set their works (mostly young adult and children's books) in the American West and depict Native Americans as sympathetic—sometimes with a rather moralistic "just cause", sometimes with an explicit political message. Other than Karl May, I'd count Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich, Ludwig Renn and Käthe Recheis among them.<br /><br />I used to read a lot of that stuff as a kid and even then I wondered why the portrayal of Native Americans in US western movies was so different from the one I knew from those books. Of course, there's no denying that the German fascination for everything "Indian" contains a strong element of cultural appropriation and "seeing oneself in the other". Still, an even though I believe they should be re-examined in a critical way, reading those books gave me an idea that the Native American peoples have a history of their own.Anubishttp://hermanstadt.blogspot.denoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-49546883538695965292012-08-05T08:40:37.369-05:002012-08-05T08:40:37.369-05:00I get the impression that Karl May is less popular...I get the impression that Karl May is less popular with younger readers these days. After all, he has to compete with Rowling and other, faster paced writers. <br /><br />On the other hand, there's a university research project about Karl May here in Göttingen. So he finally made it into the Literature with a capital L. :)Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-44317231700522530592012-08-04T23:41:30.506-05:002012-08-04T23:41:30.506-05:00Yeah, it was in this abridged edition of the first...Yeah, it was in this abridged edition of the first volume, but Charles/Charley is what I noticed when reading excerpts from the other volumes (in translation) and in German. The self-insert was quite obvious in the fourth volume, but not in the first three, so I purposely didn't highlight that much.<br /><br />It does intrigue me to witness (yet once again) just how beloved of a writer May is in Central and Eastern Europe. It's like an order of magnitude greater than Dickens, Austen, or Twain (although Twain is probably too caustic for full embracing outside of <i>Tom Sawyer</i>).<br /><br />When I am working regularly again and have built up some money, I might buy some of the movies (they don't seem to be on Netflix instant queue or Amazon Instant Video) to watch and compare them to the Westerns I had to endure watching growing up with my dad being such a Westerns fan.<br /><br />Currently reading another popular fin de siècle writer, the Italian writer Emilio Salgari. I'm glad I took up this reading challenge, as I needed something a bit lighter than the poetry collections I've been reading lately! I hope to finish two of Salgari's Sandokan novels by mid-week at the latest, with a dual review around that time.Larry Nolenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16001420558511460998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-4694093025473179442012-08-04T13:20:13.992-05:002012-08-04T13:20:13.992-05:00When I was young, the only reason I thought of eve...When I was young, the only reason I thought of ever wanting to learn German is to read Karl May as the available Romanian language translation were only of his major Wild West novels (Winnetou 1-3 but not the last Testament of Winnetou as that one was considered way too "religious" by the communist government, Old Surehand, The Treasure of the Silver Lake_ plus his Southa American one, The Testament of the Inca and plus whatver you could find from the 1940's when Romania alliance with the Reich led to a flurry of may translation (of which i read a couple as most pre-1947 books were burned by their owners when the communists took over since possession of such would lead to jail and the few remaining, buried or hidden in cellars were truly precious)<br /><br />Never got to it (learning German) and the US translations were mostly bad with stuff like that Jack just making one rip throw such books in the garbage(though there are a few nuggets like the rare and expensive but exhaustive translations here (got a few)<br /><br />http://www.nemsi-books.com/PubCompany/?page_id=216<br /><br />Luckily after 1989 there was a project to translate all May again in Romanian and while only some 40 odd volumes appeared I got all and finally read them including some of his romantic adventure stories like the Ulan's Love and From the Throne to the Scaffold, in addition to the Wild West and the Middle eastern books<br /><br />Great stuff for its message of universal brotherhood and while the world building is fanciful, it is not that far from the usual butchering of medieval stuff in fantasy anyway<br /><br />For English if you have the opportunity, get the Michalak translations as they are just superb; lots more Winnetou there as he is by the far the most enduring of the author's creations<br /><br />Also watched a few of the movies ranging from excellent to awful, but the Bryce Barker combo was very good overallLiviuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04615405766065227026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-75174595776750783012012-08-04T09:28:12.419-05:002012-08-04T09:28:12.419-05:00BTW, there are several Winnetou movies. Filmed mos...BTW, there are several Winnetou movies. Filmed mostly in former Yugoslavia, with an American actor (Lex Barker) as Old Shatterhand and a French one (Pierre Brice) as Winnetou, but with German dialogues. Barker also played Kara Ben Nemsi in a - even more loosely novel-based - movie, plus the lead (Dr. Sternau aka the Duke of Olsunna) in one of the Münchmeyer adventure romances.Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8068873.post-36901747587440272692012-08-04T07:02:31.662-05:002012-08-04T07:02:31.662-05:00Is Old Shatterhand's name given as 'Jack&#...Is Old Shatterhand's name given as 'Jack' in the translation? That's totally missing the point. His name is Karl - a self insert of the author - and he's refered to as Charles by English-speaking characters in the novel. The self-insert aspect is important for the Wild West novels (there are some more beside the Winnetou series like <i>Der Schatz im Silbersee</i> and <i>Unter Geiern</i>) and a series of 6 books taking place in Egypt, the Arabian peninusla, the Bakan and Turkey - dominately Muslim lands, where Karl May features as Kara Ben Nemsi and has a friend in Hadschi Halelf Omar ben Hadschi Abul Abbas ibn Hadschi Davud al Gossarah (I didn't need to look that up, I still remember tne name. lol). Halef is not so much the noble savage like Winnetou but he's genuinely devoted to Kara Ben Nemsi; a man with courage and brains, albeit small of stature. <br /><br />Those novels belong to the middle period in Karl May's career. He started out writing serial adventure romances for journals (the so-called Münchmeyer Romane) and ended up writing more spiritual works (<i>Ardistan und Dschinnistan</i>, <i>Im Reiche des silbernen Löwen</i>).<br /><br />He was also the first to use the media to further his career: he posed dressed up as Old Shatterhand or Kara Ben Nemsi and sent those postcards around, held lectures and such until it finally surfaced that he had not really lived through all those adventures in person. Shades from his past as failed teacher with a prison sentence for theft and fraud.<br /><br />I admit to still having the complete set of his 74 novels, including the unabridged versions of the Münchmeyer Romane.Gabriele Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17205770868139083575noreply@blogger.com