Culture

Peter Handke’s Tale of the Telling of the Tale

Published

2 years ago

March 15, 2022

Peter Handke’s Tale of the Telling of the Tale

By this level within the assessment, the reader is completely justified in demanding a solution to a key query: What’s the story? Nicely, it’s a narrative of two halves, or slightly two distinct phases of unequal size. (There are not any chapter breaks, though in contrast to his extra misanthropic compatriot Thomas Bernhard, Handke a minimum of lets us pause for breath between paragraphs.) Because the novel begins, a author who, like Handke, lives in a village exterior Paris units out one August afternoon throughout the capital and into the Picardy area. Observing his environs as he goes, he sporadically refers to a younger girl he calls “the fruit thief” who additionally appears to have gone on an identical journey into the nation’s northern provinces. This “fruit thief” — we later be taught her title is Alexia — appears at first to be his psychological picture of the protagonist in a novel he intends to write down, or slightly, is writing. It turns into obvious that in tracing her steps, actual or imagined, throughout inland France, he’s writing his approach into her and thus conjuring the novel into being. Briefly, Handke doesn’t simply give us the story, but in addition, as was the vogue within the days of Milan Kundera and literary postmodernism, the imagining of the story and the circumstances from which it emerged.

The France that the narrator travels by means of is recognizably one of many current previous, nonetheless in shock after the jihadist atrocities — a nation at conflict, but “silent and paralyzed with terror.” As his practice exits Paris, a noise startles the narrator and his fellow passengers: “Concern was in all our bones. … If nothing else, we contemporaries had one thing in frequent now.”

I’d have gotten on higher with this ebook if Handke had continued together with his first-person peregrination, putting off the fictive conceit in favor of one thing akin to his 1996 Serbian travelogue, “A Journey to the Rivers” (the form of ebook that, in his Nobel Prize speech, Handke referred to as “my narrative excursions or one-man expeditions”). Nevertheless, a unidirectional shift happens some 75 pages in: Instantly the wanderer is now not considering intermittently of Alexia, however has eliminated himself from the stage with a view to inform her story. The phantom limb ache of anticipating that we are going to revert to the “I” perspective fades into an acceptance that we’re caught with Alexia for the rest. The younger girl is roaming by means of Picardy searching for her mom, having lately returned from an impromptu voyage to Siberia. Whereas there isn’t any scarcity of descriptive colour and incident, albeit of a low-voltage selection (a dance with an innkeeper, some dialogues with a dismal boy named Valter, and so forth), this lengthy stretch — the majority of the novel — is, frankly, arduous going.

As an avant-garde firebrand within the Sixties, Handke wrote an “anti-play” titled “Offending the Viewers,” however now his technique has shifted perilously near Boring the Viewers to Tears. Very similar to the narrator imagining the character of the fruit thief, I stored making an attempt to examine a subset of readers who genuinely discover these things pleasant. Missing a lot of the parts that draw individuals to fiction — perception, suspense and so forth — it falls to both the language or the narrative materials itself to make the novel definitely worth the reader’s whereas. Though each have their moments — a mad speech within the last pages, an interlude at an inn that takes on the lighting and environment of previous European people tales — the meal served up by this deeply eccentric novelist is spare and saltless, with no wine and no dessert. I think it’s the future of such an uncompromising author as Peter Handke to finish up writing principally for an viewers of 1. His most loyal readers, maybe, undertake an angle of veneration, hushed and solemn and kind of bored, the way in which many individuals attend Mass.

Culture

Marchand wins gold in 200M butterfly and 200M breaststroke

Published

7 hours ago

August 1, 2024

Press Room

Marchand wins gold in 200M butterfly and 200M breaststroke

NANTERRE, France — French sensation Léon Marchand continued his spectacular run at the Paris Olympics by becoming the first swimmer in history to win the 200-meter butterfly and the 200-meter breaststroke at the same Games. And he did it on the same night.

Marchand earned his first gold medal of the day in the 200-meter butterfly and set an Olympic record with a time of 1:51.21 in an incredible come-from-behind win over Hungary’s Kristóf Milák, who finished second in 1:51.75.

UNREAL. LEON MARCHAND WITH AN INCREDIBLE COMEBACK TO IGNITE THE CROWD IN PARIS. 🇫🇷#ParisOlympics | 📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/oErY1zMUvu
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2024

About two hours later, Marchand set another Olympic record by swimming the 200-meter breaststroke in 2:05.85. It was arguably the greatest one-night swimming performance in Olympic history.

“I knew it was possible for me to do — to finish the races, but maybe not win them,” Marchand said. “I never knew (if I could win both).”

Earlier in the week, Marchand won a gold medal in the 400-meter individual medley. So, he’s three-for-three in gold, with one event left in his program.

He is just the fourth male swimmer in Olympic history to win more than two individual gold medals at the same Games.

“Marchand’s march to greatness CONTINUES!” 🇫🇷
Leon Marchand just can’t be stopped in his home country. He wins gold in the men’s 200m breaststroke. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/DEAEFeIxG4
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2024

The 22-year-old Frenchman, competing in his home Olympics, has been under a microscope all meet, carrying the pressure and hope of his countrymen and women in each of his swims. And he’s absolutely delivered.

Marchand’s time of 4:02.95 in the 400 IM also set an Olympic record, breaking the mark set by Michael Phelps in 2008. It was Marchand’s first Olympic gold medal and a moment that gave him goosebumps. Marchand said he was proud of himself and also his country.

Wednesday was always going to be a highlight of Marchand’s program in Paris, with him hoping to swim in the finals of the 200 fly and the 200-meter breaststroke in a span of two hours. It’s an ambitious double with two grueling races, but a schedule that Marchand said he’d been prepared for because of his NCAA experience at Arizona State. He’s used to doubles and short turnarounds between races and felt confident he could handle this schedule here.

Marchand’s coach, Bob Bowman, told him he thought he could complete Wednesday’s double after the 400 IM final because of how strong his breaststroke looked.

Marchand said the last few days have felt “kind of like a marathon,” but he thought he had enough time to recover and prepare in between. Winning two gold medals in one night was a dream of his.

“I had two gold medals in two hours, and that is quite incredible,” he said.

Marchand has been confident in pretty much every setting he’s been in at his home Games. Paris La Défense Arena has embraced him with both arms, the crowd loud and rollicking each time he steps up to the starting block that a competitor compared the environment to the feel of a soccer match.

STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND LISTEN. 🔉
Leon Marchand had the Paris fans in an absolute frenzy during his comeback win. #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/3a5tdktQ0a
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) July 31, 2024

But Marchand had been preparing for this moment, and he knew coming into the meet just how hard he’d been working to succeed on this stage. Bowman has been through similar experiences with his former protege — Phelps. He’s tried to keep Marchand in his routine, avoiding as many potential distractions as possible.

“The main thing is just getting prepared in the water — the main thing is just swimming as fast as possible,” Marchand told The Athletic this spring. “But it’s also not only about swimming when it’s a home Olympics.”

A home Olympics also means that his smile is a bit bigger after he touches the walls and the cheers are even louder than he could ever have imagined.

Marchand has another opportunity to medal in the men’s 200-meter individual medley. He’ll swim in the prelims for that event Thursday morning.

For more on swimming at the Olympics, follow The Athletic‘s live blog.

Required reading

(Photo: Bradley Kanaris / Getty Images)

Culture

Mbappe becomes majority owner of Ligue 2 club Caen as takeover approved

Published

14 hours ago

August 1, 2024

Press Room

Mbappe becomes majority owner of Ligue 2 club Caen as takeover approved

Real Madrid striker Kylian Mbappe has become the majority owner at Ligue 2 club Caen via his Coalition Capital investment fund.

Coalition Capital has bought the 80 per cent of the club’s shares which had been owned by asset management company Oaktree Capital Management, which also owns 99.6 per cent of Italian club Inter Milan.

Coalition Capital is the investment fund of Interconnected Ventures, founded by Mbappe and “committed to driving continuous innovation in sports, media, and investments”.

Caen — based in the city located in Normandy, 240 km west of Paris — confirmed the transfer of funds from Oaktree to Coalition Capital on Wednesday.

Ziad Hammoud, CEO of Interconnected Ventures, will become Caen president.

Coalition Capital annonce la reprise des parts d’Oaktree dans le @SMCaen aux côtés de PAC Invest. #SMCaen #TeamSMC
— Stade Malherbe Caen (@SMCaen) July 31, 2024

“As the lead investor in this project, we are very excited to continue the development of Caen, alongside PAC Invest (Pierre-Antoine Capton’s investment company, which remains a minority shareholder of the club),” Hammoud said.

“Our shared vision with the club of sporting excellence and community engagement is at the heart of our approach. We are determined to create an environment where young talents can flourish and where the club can defend its identity with strength and ambition.”

Caen have played in Ligue 2 since 2019 (JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/AFP via Getty Images)

When he was 13, Mbappe came close to joining the youth academy of Caen, who tracked him for three years and held talks with his family over a move. However, the striker joined Monaco.

Caen finished sixth in Ligue 2 in the 2023-24 season, missing out on the promotion play-offs to Ligue 1 by one point, having finished fifth the previous term.

The club spent five seasons in the French top flight until relegation in 2019 and gave senior breakthroughs to players including N’Golo Kante, Raphael Guerreiro and William Gallas.

(Aurelien Meunier – PSG/PSG via Getty Images)

Culture

North and South Korea table tennis Olympic medalists pose for shared selfie

Published

22 hours ago

July 31, 2024

Press Room

North and South Korea table tennis Olympic medalists pose for shared selfie

Olympic medalists from North Korea, South Korea and China posed for a selfie following the table tennis mixed doubles medal’s ceremony.

China’s Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin beat North Korea’s Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong in the final to win gold, as South Korea won bronze with pair Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin defeating Hong Kong.

South Korea’s Lim Jong-hoon took the photo of all the medalists together in which they were all smiling broadly. The picture was taken with a South Korean-made Samsung phone.

“I congratulated them when they were introduced as silver medalists,” Lim said after the photo, in quotes carried by Korean media.

South Korea and North Korea both claim to be the sole legitimate government of all of Korea — which has been partitioned since September 1945 — with military tensions between the two states and a heavily fortified border.

Prior to this Olympics, all individual items including mobile phones were banned from medal ceremonies, with photos only being allowed to be taken by official media.

All six mixed double medal winners posed for the selfie (Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

However, an agreement between Samsung and the IOC allows their products to be used in ceremonies. “Athletes can take creative selfies with the Galaxy Z Flip6 in various angles due to its foldable nature,” Samsung said in a press release this week.

The Athlete 365 app is preloaded on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip6, which was given to competing athletes prior to its official launch earlier this month, into which the “victory selfies” of competitors can be added.

The shared photo comes just days after 143 South Korean athletes were incorrectly introduced as North Korean during the Olympics opening ceremony.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was forced to issue a “deep apology” for the incident which saw the South Korean delegation announced as the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” the full official name of North Korea, as their boat passed down the Seine. The formal name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea.

North Korea, which has 16 athletes as part of its first delegation since 2016 (it was not represented at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic), was properly introduced later in the program in French and English.

(Top photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)