#dutch literature

[beljar]

This tremendous world I have inside of me. How to free myself, and this world, without tearing myself to pieces. And rather tear myself to a thousand pieces than be buried with this world within me.

Franz Kafka, Diaries, 1910-1923

#franz kafka #german literature #kafkaesque #dutch literature #quotes #books and libraries #literary text #world literature #dark acadamia aesthetic #classic literature #kafka diaries #torments

[bones-ivy-breath]

Psyche by Louis Couperus

#psyche #louis couperus #quote #typography #literature #dark academia #light academia #dead academia #classic academia #original post #fairy tales #dark things #dutch literature #dutch authors #european literature #fairy tale retelling

[teenageascetic]

"Oh, whatever the season, Oh, whatever the season, in all the wide world there is nothing that can give me joy but true Love. Oh My Love, for my faithfulness (for You are the only joy of my soul, (the only) desire of my heart) I have mercy on my need; see how I fight; hearken to the complaint of my heart.

Alas, no matter how much I cry and complain about my woes, Love does with me what pleases Her; I want to give Her praise and honor all my days. Oh my love, would you please take my loyalty into account! For it gives me courage to mention it, since Your (own) fragrance first attracted me to Your highest peaks.

Oh my love, you who have never deceived me: since you showed me in my youth what I longed for, (since you can do it), be my salvation. Oh yes, Minne, you who control everything, give me the love that pleases me most; for You are the mother of all virtue, Lady and queen.

Oh noble Love, pure one, oh see how I hold out and be a relief for my bitter pain. O I wander too much in perilous fate, I abhor all other things, give me, Love, the whole (sweet) mystery of Your noble nature.

Oh, if I make progress or suffer damage, everything will happen, My Love, according to Your counsel: Your strokes help me greatly (on the road to) the Minne. Oh, if I travel through the depths (of misery), if I climb until I am hungry or satisfied, the top (of joy), if I could fully satisfy You, Love, and die because of it. Amen, Amen."

-Hadewijch of Brabant.

#books #history #literature #religion #theology #mysticism #esotericism #religious #christian #christianity #female mystic #medieval #medieval mystic #dutch #dutch writer #dutch literature #nederlands #medieval literature #christian mysticism

[readingtostaysane]

What I'd Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma - review

rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4.25)

What I’d rather not think about follows the story of an unnamed female narrator whose twin brother has committed suicide. It spans over their childhood until two years after the death of the brother. It sets to deal with themes such as self discovery and complex relationships, both as siblings but also as individuals.

I’ll start with the critics:

The dynamics between the twins are odd at best, but I’ve also never had a twin, I only have a sibling and maybe they’re a kind of a different bond. Still I wished the novel had more bantering between siblings, to show an accurate depiction of family bonds. We do get the sense they love each other, but the brother is unlikable, which usually doesn’t bother me, and it didn’t bother me here, but I wish I had something more.

However, The novel deals with codependency and detachment in a very balanced way which I enjoyed.

The book includes facts about a lot of horrible historic people that harmed innocents. I found those references irrelevant and didn’t add much to the overall plot, nor for the development of characters. They served one purpose: to show that our narrator lived in the early 2000 and could google things, still I think it could’ve been shown without tragic holocaust facts.

Your gift isn’t a gift, it’s a defect, said my brother. You can’t keep your distance.

Eventually people grow out of their childhood and need to learn how to land on both of their feet alone, but what happens when you’ve never spent a second alone? Not even in the uterus? That’s why this book exists.

Our main character is very dependent on her older brother, and it becomes toxic and self-destructive very fast. This behavior causes the twins to have fights and disagreements and adding to the depression both of them have, they grow apart.

The novel explores self identity, forgiveness and personal boundaries within sibling relationships, however it never forgets to address the love that exists in that special bond.

Both of the siblings travel solo, have love relationships and different goals in life, we as readers follow their growth into their own selves, for better or for worse.

I can never get it right with you, said my brother. Why are you always so pushy? I’m trying to reach out to you, I said. Hello! Hello, said my brother. Here I am. He closed his eyes to concentrate on tasting the meat.

As the mental health of the brother deteriorates we see the author address a complex and sour topic: how do you help someone with depression. It’s the best part of the book and why it earned its rating for me.

Seeing someone you love succumb to depression is not easy, and you don’t always have to patience to deal with it. It most definitely not always end with a happy ending, in the end the brother still killed himself. I loved how the sister tried to reach out to him and he wouldn’t let her, because sometimes that’s what happens, people feel alone and they don’t want to be helped. This book does an excellent job at showing that without blaming the person who commits suicide. It also shows the flaws os someone trying to reach out, the sister could’ve done more, she could’ve paid more attention, and yet she didn’t but no one can say it’s her fault her brother is dead.

The author deals with this topic with such delicacy but at the same time such ease it really pulls you inside the story.

I’m trying to understand him. When someone says they love you but still ends up leaving, I can’t understand it. I don’t believe in that kind of love

This leaves us with the aftermath of mourning the death of a person who took their own life. It truly amazed me to see how the narrator went through different stages of grief in such curt pages. The anger and sadness both contrast each other in this part of the novel and yet none wins.

She’s still alive, he’s still alive, I thought every time someone walked by. She didn’t throw herself in front of a train. Everyone who’s still alive clearly thinks life is worth living. Clearly, I think life is worth living.

In the end of the novel the narrator still feels sad, as grief never truly goes away, but she also reaches peace with what happened. I really enjoyed reading both their journey into adulthood and dealing with the anguish and the happiness of life.

Many people might think this book doesn’t go deep enough into the grief, but I found it the perfect book at the right time for me. The small references of mundane things added to the story in my opinion, they felt vital to bring the characters to life and shaping them into real people.

I’ll end my review with my favourite quote:

I thought about all the love we have inside us and how only a shred of that reaches the people we care about

#booklr #literature #book quotes #book review #books & libraries #books #reading #my reviews #book reccs #book recommendations #dutch literature #translated literature #the international booker prize

[gloryandthedream]

this week on obscure whumpy books

One of my favorite books I grew up with was a 1-volume compilation of 4 books in a series called "Journey Through The Night" by Anne de Vries. This series, released in 1951 (and translated from Dutch), followed the story of two brothers (and their family) in the Netherlands through WWII and the Nazis' invasion of Holland.

The primary narrator is the older brother John who grows from a teenager to a man in a short period during/around when their home is torched and family scattered.

John and Fritz both eventually join the Dutch Resistance, and the series details the struggles of day-to-day living in a Nazi-occupied country.

At one point John is part of a close-knit Resistance group and one of their members is shot and arrested by the S.S.; the team comes together to break into the hospital and save their friend. The run is successful, and the group speeds away to safety in their station wagon. John is the getaway driver who celebrates the win with everyone else, but he begins to feel nauseous. Crediting this and the lightheadedness to adrenaline, he persists in driving the rest of the way to the safe house. At the destination, the car bumps into a flowerbed and John passes out at the wheel. When he comes to, he learns that, in the escape, he was shot in the back through the seat and nobody noticed—including him.

This is just one of many such instances. Would recommend the book because it's also just really good and very educational and exciting.

That's it lol nobody's reading this I just had to put it down somewhere

#whump lit #whump #whump community #text post #whumpy #wwii whump #vintage whump #whump book #shot #shot in the back #getaway driver #dutch literature

[a-shard-of-ace]

A writer is vain, just like a . . . man. Speak ill of his mother or of the colour of his hair, say that he speaks with an Amsterdam accent—which fault no Amsterdammer ever admits—perhaps he will pardon you. But . . . never touch the outside of the smallest subdivision of a subordinate particle of something that has lain by the side of his writing . . . for then he will not forgive you! If, therefore, you don’t think my book beautiful, and you should meet me, pretend that we don’t know each other.

No, even a chapter “for variety” appears to me, through the magnifying-glass of my writer’s vanity, highly important and even indispensable; and if you were to skip it, and after that showed no due appreciation of my book, I should not hesitate to reproach you with this skipping as the cause of your being unable to pronounce an opinion on my work, since it was exactly the essential portion you had not read. In this way I should—for I am a man and a writer—consider as essential every chapter you had skipped with unpardonable reader-levity. I picture to myself how your wife asks: “Is there anything in that book?” And you answer, for instance—horribile auditu for me—with the wealth of words characteristic of married men: “Hm . . . well . . . I don’t know yet.” Why, then, barbarian, read on. The all-important thing is just at your gate. And I gaze at you with trembling lips, and measure the thickness of leaves turned over, and on your face I search for the reflection of the chapter that is so beautiful . . . “No,” I say, “he has not got to it yet. Presently he will jump up, in ecstasy he will embrace something, perhaps his wife . . .” But you read on. The “beautiful chapter” must be passed, I think. You have not jumped up at all, you have not embraced . . . And ever thinner grows the volume of leaves under your right thumb, and ever more meagre grows my hope of that embrace . . . yes, faith! I had even made sure of a tear! And you have read the novel through to “where they get each other,” and you say yawning—again a form of eloquence in the state of wedlock: “Why . . . well! It’s a book that . . . hm! Well, they write such a lot nowadays!” But know you not then, monster, tiger, European, reader, know you not then that you have just whiled away an hour chewing my spirit like a toothpick? Gnawing and biting flesh and bone of your own kindred? Cannibal, in it was my soul, my soul that you have chewed for the second time as a cow chews grass! It is my heart you have just swallowed as a delicacy! For in that book I had put both this heart and soul, and so many tears fell on the manuscript, and my blood oozed from my veins as I wrote on, and I gave you all this, and you bought it for a few pence . . . and you say: “hm!” The reader will understand that I am not here speaking of my book.

Multatuli, Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company (1860)

#max havelaar #multatuli #dutch literature

[morebedsidebooks]

The Cat Who Came In off the Roof by Annie M. G. Schmidt

“You have to tell me how you knew all those things about me. Who I am and where I work and what kind of article I was trying to write.”

They heard a small flopping sound in the kitchen. It was fluff, finally back from his roof walk and coming in with wet grey fur.

“He told me,” Minou said, pointing at Fluff. “He told me all about you. And actually, I’ve spoken to lots of cats who live around here. They all said you were the nicest.”

Tibble blushed. He felt strangely flattered. “You… you talk to cats?” he asked.

“Yes.”

What nonsense, thought Tibble. The woman’s quite mad.

“And, er… how did you come to be able to talk to cats?”

“I was one myself,” she said.

Totally bonkers, thought Tibble.

Minou had sat down in front of the fire, next to fluff. They were sitting together on the rug, and Tibble could now hear two purring sounds mixed together. It sounded very peaceful. Shall I write that article about her after all? Tibble thought.

Last night I provided shelter to a purring lady who entered my apartment through the attic window and, on being asked, informed me that she had once been a cat…

 I’d be out on my ear the same day, though Tibble. Now he could hear them talking to each other, the young lady and the cat. They were making little purring, meowy kinds of noises.

“What’s Fluff saying now?” he asked as a joke.

“He says you peppermints are in a jam jar on the top shelf of the bookcase. You put them there yourself.”

Tibble stood up to have a look. She was right.

  Minoes by Dutch author Annie M.G. Schmidt is the delightful tale of a shy reporter named Mr. Tibble who loves cats and on one rainy night takes in a new one, albeit in the form of a young woman. Miss Minoes doesn’t know how she turned into a human. At a loss in the human world, she however can still communicate with cats. Revealing to a surprised Tibble the gossip network of the many cats in the pet loving town, allowing him to get the first scoop on valuable news.

Since its original publication in 1970 Minoes has been translated to English more than once under different titles such as Minnie and The Cat Who Came In off the Roof. An award-winning book that’s become a classic of Dutch children’s literature along with a likewise charming and prized 2001 film adaptation directed by Vincent Ball bringing to life the story using real animals alongside the actors.

But no matter the decades that pass Schmidt’s novel is one of community, an ode to the cats we share our streets, buildings, and homes with along with the importance of treating animals (and each other) humanly.

  The Cat Who Came In off the Roof by Annie M.G. Schmidt is available in English translated by David Colmer, in print and digital (including audio) from Yearling Books

View a US English dubbed trailer for Miss MInoes here

#children's books #dutch literature #the cat who came in off the roof #annie m.g. schmidt #international cat day #minoes #beat the backlist #wit month #cw: instances of animal cruelty a car accident and physically shaking a child

[berbelle]

Het vlugge wit van watervallen op de zwarte rots, de kleuren van de korstmos, de geur van groen inademen en voelen hoe groot en vol ineens je borst is, dat zochten we. Hoe konden we het vergeten.

#bregje hofstede #oersoep #dutch literature

[amaliathereader]

#Some Rain Must Fall #Short Stories #March Reads #Anthologies #Dutch Literature #European Literature #book bloggers #book tumblr

[sandwich2451]

POËZIE VERKOOPT NIET ★★★★☆

yeah, sick poetry anthology - i have to put together an anthology for dutch class so I'm gonna use at least four poems from this one i swear. god save the secondhand book shops for the treasures it trickles down

#dutch #dutch literature #poetry #literatuur #bloemlezing #poezie #gedichten #booklr #book review #bookblr #book recs

[beljar]

Forget everything. Open the windows. Clear the room. The wind blows through it. You see only its emptiness, you search in every corner and don’t find yourself.

Franz Kafka, Diaries, 1910-1923

#franz kafka #emptiness #kafka diaries #detachment #kafkaesque #german literature #books and libraries #dutch literature #quotes #literary text #dark acadamia aesthetic #world literature #classic literature #quotation #dark literature

[bones-ivy-breath]

Psyche by Louis Couperus

#psyche #louis couperus #quote #typography #literature #aesthetic #dark academia #light academia #classic academia #original post #fantasy #dark things #fairy tales #fairy tale retelling #dutch literature #european literature #classic literature

[sm4e86]

#dutch #Dutch literature

[annewater]

Bint - F. Bordewijk

#dutch literature #literature #art #streetart

[aspensdear]

i read this double interview in the nrc (a dutch newspaper) with Raoul de Jong and Edouard Louis which was so good, it's a really neat way of getting into the ideas that percolate in their novels. So after reading this interview, i decided to read Jaguarman and Changer: méthode and i flew through them in two days or so - they're rlly good. I esp liked Jaguarman because it is so many things at once (autofiction, quest narrative, travelogue, etc.). their approaches are very similar in some ways (autobiographically inflected novels/autofiction, very socially engaged, politically outspoken, etc.) but not completely the same ofc.

#dutch literature #lit #am i turning into a bookblr? maybe #french literature #<- ooh that's a new tag!!

[onenakedfarmer]

Currently Reading

THE TWIN [Boven is het stil]

[Literal translation: Upstairs, all is quiet]

Gerbrand Bakker

Translated by David Colmer

#David Colmer #Dutch literature #Gerbrand Bakker #reading #Dutch writers