famous German author Nobel laureate author named Günter Grass, whom selenak's no doubt heard of and probably read but I hadn't
I can do better; I have a photo of myself with Günter Grass. ;) (Made when PEN Germany celebrated its 90th anniversary; I translated for some foreign guests who wanted to have their picture taken with him, and he said yes, so I thought I might as well.) He died a couple of years ago, controversial to the end. His big breakout novel was "The Tin Drummer" in the 1950s. He was a huge stylistic influence on Salman Rushdie, so if you've read Rushdie, that's similar to how Grass wrote in German, occasionally, but not always, venturing in magical realism. (Rushdie in Joseph Anton, his memoir about the fatwah years, is hugely complimentary about Grass as a erson, too, since when all hell broke loose after Chomenei's edict GG was one of the few international writers supporting Rushdie in word and deed throughout. He - Grass - was the instigator for publishing the German translation of The Satanic Verses via a collaboration of several publishers, for example. (This was when the Japanese translator had already been killed.)
The two main controversies linked to Günther Grass were:
- back in the days when he was a young rebel, the explicit sexuality in his writings and his relentless attacks on 1950s and 1960s cover up/complacency about the Nazi past
- the casual reveal in his memoirs decades later, that in the last year of the war when he was 17, he didn't just join the army (as had been previously assumed), he joined the Waffen SS. Cue major uproar of "Et Tu, Günther?!? Of all the people, you?!?" (I.e. if the guy most famous for his "you bourgois assholes need to be honest about your Nazi past" attitude turns out to have been, however briefly and however young, a member of one of the most vicious Nazi institutions around, well…)
There were a lot of other Grass related controversies, but these tend to come up first. He was born in Danzig, Poland (today), and thus literally was an East Prussian. In his middle age, he got very interested in Fontane and Prussian history.
Günter Grass
I can do better; I have a photo of myself with Günter Grass. ;) (Made when PEN Germany celebrated its 90th anniversary; I translated for some foreign guests who wanted to have their picture taken with him, and he said yes, so I thought I might as well.) He died a couple of years ago, controversial to the end. His big breakout novel was "The Tin Drummer" in the 1950s. He was a huge stylistic influence on Salman Rushdie, so if you've read Rushdie, that's similar to how Grass wrote in German, occasionally, but not always, venturing in magical realism. (Rushdie in Joseph Anton, his memoir about the fatwah years, is hugely complimentary about Grass as a erson, too, since when all hell broke loose after Chomenei's edict GG was one of the few international writers supporting Rushdie in word and deed throughout. He - Grass - was the instigator for publishing the German translation of The Satanic Verses via a collaboration of several publishers, for example. (This was when the Japanese translator had already been killed.)
The two main controversies linked to Günther Grass were:
- back in the days when he was a young rebel, the explicit sexuality in his writings and his relentless attacks on 1950s and 1960s cover up/complacency about the Nazi past
- the casual reveal in his memoirs decades later, that in the last year of the war when he was 17, he didn't just join the army (as had been previously assumed), he joined the Waffen SS. Cue major uproar of "Et Tu, Günther?!? Of all the people, you?!?" (I.e. if the guy most famous for his "you bourgois assholes need to be honest about your Nazi past" attitude turns out to have been, however briefly and however young, a member of one of the most vicious Nazi institutions around, well…)
There were a lot of other Grass related controversies, but these tend to come up first. He was born in Danzig, Poland (today), and thus literally was an East Prussian. In his middle age, he got very interested in Fontane and Prussian history.