132
PARTISAN REVIEW
But it is hard
to
imagine tha t a writer of Handke's ta lenL cann ot master
this style; he is more successful with it in a few, la ter stanzas. The point
is, would he want to? Would it serve hi s needs? Such a chan ge wo uld
mean a return to a more traditi ona l poeti c style and would constitute a
different shaping, a different type, of experi ence as well. Certainl y it
would be something very different from the
We ltanschauung
of
"Sugges ti ons for Running Amok":
"In other words, you u se the first fri ghtful moment to make sure th at
there will be a second moment of fri ght, and the second frightful
moment to make sure of a furth er moment of fright , so th at you ,
since you yourself are free of fri ght, will always be one moment of
fri ght ahead of them wh en they a re just beginning LO recover from
their last fri ghtful moment for whi ch you were responsibl e, whil e
they were still recoverin g from th e initi a l moment of fri ght so tha t
fin all y the moments of fri ght become legion ."
And how?
Make short shrift. Don 't fu ck around. Kill 'em off.
Finish it up. Get it over w ith .
" Don 't let an yon e count, no t even to th ree."
And to LOp it all off?
And LO top it all off I spare someone LO ca rryon th e traditi on.
I wo uld rather Handke continued to expl o re the drama tic poss ibilities
he plays with in thi s and o ther poems-tha t he let someone else carry
on with traditi onal meth ods. But whil e we 'Nait
to
see what Handke
will turn to next, we can be gra teful th a t Mi chael Ro lo ff had the good
sense to transla te these books. For the reader, a t any ra te, it was a case of
sense and happiness.
KATHLEEN AGENA
