The Tin Drum, Gunter Grass

Book one, Chapter seven
Rasputin and the Alphabet

Two phrases caught my attention in this chapter:

"Even bad books are books and therefore holy" Grass seems to take a sideways cheap shot at Goethe then launches his analysis of Rasputin.

"(regarding Rasputin) Women believed in him, while officers had to remove him from their path before they could again believe in themselves." That statement makes claims about woman's belief systems and man's egos.

Grass gets points for both profoundness and brevity.

Although I am not sure which book on Rasputin is refferenced in Drum, I have added a little info about him.

This is a little info about "The Elective Affinities", by Goethe which is mentioned by name in Drum.



http://www.amazon.com/Elective-Affiniti ... 0140442421




http://www.alexanderpalace.com/2006rasputin/

What I think is very clever is how Oskar combines both of these books, "Rasputing" and "The Elective Affinities".

Oskar would tear out pages from both, then shuffle them together creating one story.

"He would settle down to read this remarkable work and look on with intense though smiling wonderment as Ottilie strolled demurely through the gardens of Central Germany on Rasputin's arm while Goethe, seated beside a dissolutely aristcaratic Olga, went sleighing through wintry St. Petersburg from orgy to orgy", (page 93).

This is really funny! Grass's humor is coming out more and more. I am also feeling more and more sympathy towards Oskar. Someone mentioned that they could not feel sympathy at all for Oskar.

What do you think, is it impossible to feel sypmathy for Oskar?

Yes, Suzanne, I think is is possible to feel sympathy for Oskar. So much of what he dislikes is easy to dislike with him. He is not a "good guy" by any measure but this is "theater of the absurd" so we can be sympathetic and still be wary.

Gary, I find it interesting that you have compared Drum to Theatre of the Absurd. This is something I have never thought about, thank you for this observation. Although, yes, I do see some aspects of the book as being, "absurd", most of the novel is pretty tangible. The drum itself and the frequent tense changes do present themselves in the absurd technique. Of course I had to do a little research and I found this:



http://www.bookrags.com/notes/ttd/BIO.html

There is a Goethe connection. The Goethe novel Grass chooses to incorporate into Drum is based on marriage and adultery. I think this is a very appropriate book to mention because Oskar is facing this, but it also enables Grass to pick on Goethe a little more.

He is very witty, that Grass!

Okay, I understand this chapter okay, but man, I am like addicted to Ibuprofen! Can't understand some of the sentencing in this book, but I'm still reading it, slowly, but getting there.

I'm glad you are hanging in there NY.

The frequent changes in tense, oftentimes within the same sentence is an obstacle. But what I am finding is there is a seperation between "Oskar" and "I". And this seperation is becoming more and more apparent. When the narrator mentions Oskar, then goes on to speak of himself in the first person makes me truly think that there are two different entities.

I am finding that I like Oskar better than the first person I. If that makes any sense. When the narrator speaks of Oskar, Oskar is a child, he gets picked on at school, he is starting to notice problems with his parents, and I do care for him. When the narrator switches to the first person, more mature feelings and qualities come out, qualities such as conceit, and hate. I sense that the narrator may not want to coropt Oskar the child, but the man in the institution comes out when the narrator uses the first person tense.