Research Wrap Up

Done.

Done and done.

With a final visit to the Literaturhaus, I finished my research on Monday. "Finished" used in the loosest sense, because my work in the last three weeks is just the beginning of (hopefully) a lot more research in the form of a Fulbright.

Some highlights from the Literaturarchivs:

1. THE REVIEW. As in, the one that Bäcker wrote before the war, that, after the war, caused him to devote his entire life to the Epitaph project, and change literary history forever (I mean, in my opinion).
2. Complete and extensive nachschrift 2 mark-ups.
3. A draft of Bäcker's dissertation.
4. A correspondence regarding designing a gypsy memorial at Mauthausen.
5. Manuscript for the stage version of nachschrift, which contains extensive source material NOT included in the poem.

Some highlights from the Literaturhaus:

1. An interview with Bäcker, wherein he describes what it was like growing up in Nazi Austria, including how the Hitler Youth was the first place he felt accepted and included (later, he described it as teenage her-worship), and how he developed his ideas for nachschrift.
2. Press release from radio show, entitled "Are We Really Going to our Deaths?" (English translation, taken from the very first page of nachschrift)
3. Article by Bäcker about Salman Rushdie...sort of unrelated, but I love me some Salman Rushdie.

I'm so happy.

So that is finished. I have a day and a half left in Vienna, and I'm completely broke, so it's about time to go home. Today I am going to attempt another walk, like the Ottakring walk Dr. Kling and I got lost during, only down by the Prater (amusement park).

I will see you stateside, Internet.

I'd like to hire a plane,
I'd see you in the morning.
When the day is fresh,
I'm coming home again.

smashed to pieces (in the still of the night)

That quotation is installed on the side of an air defense tower in Vienna, built during one of the World Wars. There are a couple scattered throughout the city, supposedly indestructible. The experts say that if the city tried to demolish them, it would destroy the surrounding neighborhoods. The quotation wasn't originally there (after all, it's not the type of sentiment one wants to hear during wartime), but was added as installation art a few years ago. It's written on one side in English and on the other side in German: "Zerschmettert in Stücke (Im Frieden der Nacht)." The remaining two sides repeat "In the still of the night" in both languages. I don't know why, but I love it.

I've done a lot in the last week, Internet, although I haven't been posting. Actually, I had trouble loading my pictures onto my computer. My harddrive filled up (something like 5 MB available...yikes!) and I messed up iPhoto trying to empty it. Anyway, I have photos now, and a super update of my adventures.



Secession Museum
Before World War One, a couple of artists (most notably Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele) decided they didn't like the way art worked in Vienna. So they succeeded from the prominent artist group and formed their own club. The Secession Museum was created to display modern, experimental art. Right now there's an exhibit called "The Death of the Audience" that examines art which involves the viewer...is asks the question, when the viewer is part of the artistic process, who is the audience? Who is the artist? It was super interesting. The large gallery had golden tinfoil and balls of red paper on the floor, that visitors could accidently or purposefully kick or play with...changing and recreating the display as artists, not just audience. Neat.



Ottakring Hike
Vienna has trails like the one shown above all over the city. They take you from very urban areas to very rural areas and back again, in an average of two-and-a-half, three hours. They also all combine to be one superhike that takes you all over the city in seven days. Anyway, Dr. Kling and I attempted to follow the route shown above, which begins right near my apartment, at the Ottarking U3 station (where the map says "Start"). I say attempted because about an hour into it, we made a wrong turn and got hopelessly lost for about two hours. See that star-shaped mark on the top left-hand corner of the map? Yeah, that's about the last thing we saw. We wandered around a suburban neighborhood (100% downhill, blegh) until we found a busstop. We took the bus to the train station, the train to the subway, and finally the subway to our respective apartments.



Schönbrunn Tiergarten
"Tiergarten" = Animal Garden = ZOO! Remember how much I love dinosaurs? That's how much I love zoos. I get a huge kick out of seeing the animals. The elephant shone above was my favorite animal of the day because (1) I love elephants and (2) he was chewing on a stick, like a puppy. Aww. I saw lots of baby animals, including a baby flamingo, which looks nothing like a grown up flamingo. They're little white fuzzballs. The Schönbrunn Zoo isn't big, but it's very comprehensive. Right now they're installing a South America exhibit. But they had a reptile house, and an insect house, and a rainforest house, plus African animals and polar animals (including Polar Bears! They're called "Eisbaren" in German, which translates to "Ice Bears," which I find to be very to-the-point).



Prunksaal at the ÖNB
Ohhh...pretty. This is the "Prunksaal," or State Hall, of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (the ÖNB). I'm not completely sure if you can still check books out of here, although by the looks of it, you can (unless that person is on the ladder for funsies). Basically, it's beautiful and filled with books and I can't think of a better combination.

So that's basically what I've been up to, besides hanging out in the archives, looking at old stuff. I'll probably post again soon (within the next day or two) to describe what we've found in the Archives and discuss this amazing, wacky theatre piece we saw last night.

As usual, more photos can be found on my Facebook. Click here if you're not registered, but still want to see (Mom and Dad).

Comment, and then check back and comment again!

Give your feet a chance, they'll do all the thinking

I made it to Vienna! I've been here for five days so far...and it's been wonderful. This city is gorgeous, and not just the "historic" parts or the "nice" parts. Everything is pretty. I'll be walking around, see a fancy building, and assume it's a museum or government building, go towards it, and discover that it's just another apartment building/office/shop. An overview, in pictures, of what I've done so far:



Flying Into Vienna
First of all, this was the worst six and a half hours in my life. Why? No in-flight entertainment. Luckily, I was seated between two people close to my age, who were just as completely bored as me. The girl to my left was Canadian, attends FIT, and was going to Croatia for vacation with her Viennese boyfriend and his European friends. The boy on my right was Israeli, coming home from three months in South America. He talked about how he had done his three years in the army, and now was traveling before he started school. Overall, very interesting people with which to be stuck in one place for hours on end.



My Apartment
It's actually bigger than I thought it would be! The picture on the left is of my entryway/kitchen/shower, and the right is my bedroom/living room. I also have my own WC, but it's down the hall. I'm on the fourth floor, with no elevator, so I'm getting a workout walking up and down steps. I really like it, except when it comes to sleeping. They don't have air conditioning in Vienna (except in really public, tourist-y places), so I keep my windows open all day and night. This would be fine, except that I live down the street from the U-bahn (subway), which is above-ground at this end. At night, when the train passes, it echoes down the street and sounds like it's going by right outside my window. The light also comes directly into my apartment in the morning, so it usually wakes me up at least an hour earlier than I set my alarm for. Other than that, I really like it. It still kind of feels more like a hotel than a "home," but I've got time.



My Neighborhood
I live at the corner of Lornezmendlgasse and Thaliastrasse. I took this photo halfway to the U-bahnhof (subway station), looking back towards my street. I'm in the 16th district, near the Ottakring station, which is about as far from the city center as La Salle is from City Hall. Dr. Kling said that this neighborhood, while it was never a "hood" (his word), has traditionally been very working class, although it been getting nicer recently. I've got lots of food options in the area: a Schnitzelhaus, which is sort of a fast food chain schnitzel place; a Billa, which is a grocery store chain; a Frühk, bakery chain; and a Wurstelstand (sausage stand) right by the subway. There's also a few internet cafes and playgrounds. Sunday night I took my work to the park and sat and wrote for a little while. It was very nice.



Stephansdom
I'm pretty sure I've been here every day, even if it's just for ten minutes to meet Dr. Kling. It makes me think of Travel Study 2008 (actually, most things in Vienna to...wonder why...). They're doing restoration work on one of the towers, or something. I went inside the first day that I was here, and took some pictures. But mostly I just meet Dr. Kling or wander around the pedestrian zone.



Museums Quartier
I haven't explored the actual museums too much, although I did walk around the neighborhood, and visited the Kunsthalle (Art Hall). There's an exhibit right now called Porträt, about different photographers that specialize in portraiture. It was neat. There were a lot of naked people. Today I'm going to go to the Natural History Museum, which isn't in the Museums Quartier, but right across the street.



Schönbrunn Palace
I had forgotten how big and beautiful and yellow it was! Absolutely amazing. I actually didn't go inside this time, rather, I walked around the gardens in the back. I wish he had been able to explore them on Travel Study, because they're absolutely amazing and perfectly symmetrical. They had a maze and a labyrinth. I did both. The maze was frustrating because you had to choose your path, so if you didn't get to the lookout terrace in the middle, it was your own fault. The labyrinth was frustrating because they're weren't any options, and you were just at the mercy of the path, so it took a long time to get the middle anyway, but you couldn't do anything about it.



National Library
Cue harps and trumpets. This is the reason I'm here. I actually didn't get there until yesterday, although Dr. Kling took me to the Literaturhaus on Monday (Literature House, a public library that specializes in literary studies. Awesome). We spent a few hours in the reading room, which is not as pretty and much more modern than the room we visited on Travel Study. Tomorrow we're visiting the archives, finally.

I've taken many more pictures that this, so check my Facebook for the impending album.

I'll write tomorrow about my actual work and more details about living in a foreign city.

If you're reading this, I probably miss you. Leave comments!