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PAI~
T ISAN R EVI EW
th e jukebox across the geography o f its o ri gins and glory.
His
(A tt empt A bollt ) Th e S I/ ccessfl/I
Day
co nstitut es ano th e r
homecomin g o f so rts, to Pari s, wh ere H andke has lived o n and o ff
througho ut hi s adult life. A few yea rs ago th e fifty-two yea r- old writer
se ttl ed th ere o nce aga in , on its outskirts, just beyond th e city limits, with
hi s second wife, a French actress, and th eir small daughter.
Th e repetiti o n o f ac tiviti es embedded in th e fa mili ar geograph y of
home all ows fo r an almost se rene di still ati on o f fo rms. What emerges is a
large r, literall y "mo vin g" pi cture o f the tangenti al " line o f beauty and
grace" between th e o utlands and th e city, a wide curve alo ng whi ch th e
ra ilroad passe nge r o n hi s way downtown embraces th e metro po li s
below. T he lin e was first encountered in a se lf-po rtrait by Willi am
Hogarth . an "eighteenth-century moment. "
It
reappea rs in a sto ne fo und
at Lake Constance w hi ch the writer keeps on hi s des k. And it se rves as
th e blu eprint, as it were, fo r th e balanced curve that would charac teri ze
the progress io n (as distin ct from "progress") of a "successful " day.
H ere it is necessary to o nce again contempl ate signifi ca ntl y di ffe rent
nuances in language. Th ere is no wo rd in En glish fo r th e "geglu ckten
T ag" as o pposed to the "e rfo lgre icher T ag," th at is "success ful ,"
indi ca tin g an accompli shment as th e result o f a clearl y targe ted effo rt.
"GeglLi ckt " co nn o tes exactl y th e opp os ite. Impl yin g an clement of
chance, such a day wo uld fall into place effo rtl ess ly, with no o th er
signifi cance beyond th e full awareness o f its presence and gentle mo ti o n ,
no t affec ted by personal interferences. From the writer's pervas ive, calmly
comfo rting sense o f being in th e ri ght place o r, in his terms, o f "fitting
into th e pi cture," ari ses th e next challenge, that is, li ving thi s pi cture,
balanced o n the line o f grace and beauty. All he can do is, o nce aga in ,
write it as a pi cture, if onl y in fragments. In hi s fin al exc hange with his
probing alter-ego, the writer tells himself:
Go home to writing and reading. T o th e ori ginal texts, in whi ch
for exampl e it is said: " Let th e wo rd reso und, stand by it - wheth er
the moment be fa vorable o r no t. " Have you ever experi enced a
successful day? With whi ch for one a successful moment, a successful
life, perhaps even a successful eternity might co incide?"
" N ot yet. Obviously."
"Obviously'"
" If I had experi enced anythin g eve n remotely resembling that,
imagin e, I sho uld have to fea r no t o nl y a ni ghtmare fo r th e
fo ll owing night but cold swea ts."
"Then your successful day is not eve n an idea, but only a dream?"
"Yes, except that instead of
having
it, I' ve
made
it in this essay."
