newspaper. ‘Cochem on the Moselle–the Austro-Hungarian Minister-President Count Beust with his family–Indians in their war-paint! I ask you, is that artistic? Is that Dreamish? Is that even interesting?’ he demanded, waving the paper around under my nose. ‘No, my dear sir, it is not!’ He thought for a moment, wiping the sweat from his brow. Suddenly he pulled out a contract, fully drawn up in a neat hand. All I had to do was sign: four hundred crowns a month, throughout the year, whatever I delivered, a lot of pictures or nothing at all. It was fantastic, I had never seen an agreement like it before and naturally I immediately appended my signature. In the Dream Realm we made up our minds just like that, no one spent a long time thinking things over. All business affairs were very uncertain, anyway. But now I had a permanent position. I was the illustrator for a highly respected journal, I could make a show . And that’s what counted in the Dream Realm, to make a show of being something , anything, even a rogue or a pickpocket or whatever.
With a jovial gesture my editor unscrewed his walking stick. It was hollow. The handle contained a glass and from the cane he poured me a good-sized schnapps. ‘More power to your elbow’, he said with a suggestive wink. ‘And make your pictures as lurid and gruesome as possible. I want to raise the tone of the paper, you see’, he said with an optimistic smile. He pocketed the contract with a sigh of satisfaction, said goodbye and sailed out in his black-and-white check suit.
III
When people first arrived in the Dream Realm they did not really notice the all-pervading fraudulence. To the casual glance, buying and bargaining went on here according to the same customs as everywhere. That, however, was mere pretence, a grotesque sham. The whole of the money economy was ‘symbolic’. You never knew how much you had. Money came and went, it was handed out and taken in; everyone practised a certain amount of sleight of hand and I myself very quickly picked up a few neat ploys. The trick was to sound plausible, to pull the wool over your adversary’s eyes.
Initially f was horrified at how susceptible the Dreamlanders were to suggestion, but I had to accept it, like it or not, and gradually I became more and more immersed in fantasies, my own and others’. The change from fortune to misfortune, from poverty to riches was was much swifter than in the rest of the world. One event was constantly being overtaken by the next. But in the midst of all this confusion, you still felt the presence of a strong hand . You could sense its power behind apparently incomprehensible situations. It was the reason, the hidden reason, why everything did not fall apart and come tumbling down. It was an immense force, which reached into the most secret recesses and dispensed justice, balancing out the effects of each and every event. If anyone was in despair and didn’t know where to turn, that was where they directed their prayers. This boundless power, full of a terrible curiosity, this eye that saw into the darkest corners, was everywhere present, nothing escaped it. It was the only thing that was taken seriously in the Dream Realm, everything else was ephemeral.
IV
I will give a couple of examples to illustrate the way business was conducted. On one of our first days in Pearl I wanted buy a street-map. I went to one of the largest stores selling bric-a-brac, Max Blumenstich’s next door to us, I think it was.
‘A street-map? The new ones haven’t arrived yet, a copy of the old edition will do just as well, I suppose?’ They looked high and low, rummaged around among mounted antlers, candelabra and old caskets, but nowhere was one to be found. Finally the assistant brought out a horrible ink-well cast in bronze.
‘Take this, I’m sure you have a use for it. You simply must have it, it’s an absolute necessity. Only seventy-two crowns!’ His voice took on melting tones as he
With a jovial gesture my editor unscrewed his walking stick. It was hollow. The handle contained a glass and from the cane he poured me a good-sized schnapps. ‘More power to your elbow’, he said with a suggestive wink. ‘And make your pictures as lurid and gruesome as possible. I want to raise the tone of the paper, you see’, he said with an optimistic smile. He pocketed the contract with a sigh of satisfaction, said goodbye and sailed out in his black-and-white check suit.
III
When people first arrived in the Dream Realm they did not really notice the all-pervading fraudulence. To the casual glance, buying and bargaining went on here according to the same customs as everywhere. That, however, was mere pretence, a grotesque sham. The whole of the money economy was ‘symbolic’. You never knew how much you had. Money came and went, it was handed out and taken in; everyone practised a certain amount of sleight of hand and I myself very quickly picked up a few neat ploys. The trick was to sound plausible, to pull the wool over your adversary’s eyes.
Initially f was horrified at how susceptible the Dreamlanders were to suggestion, but I had to accept it, like it or not, and gradually I became more and more immersed in fantasies, my own and others’. The change from fortune to misfortune, from poverty to riches was was much swifter than in the rest of the world. One event was constantly being overtaken by the next. But in the midst of all this confusion, you still felt the presence of a strong hand . You could sense its power behind apparently incomprehensible situations. It was the reason, the hidden reason, why everything did not fall apart and come tumbling down. It was an immense force, which reached into the most secret recesses and dispensed justice, balancing out the effects of each and every event. If anyone was in despair and didn’t know where to turn, that was where they directed their prayers. This boundless power, full of a terrible curiosity, this eye that saw into the darkest corners, was everywhere present, nothing escaped it. It was the only thing that was taken seriously in the Dream Realm, everything else was ephemeral.
IV
I will give a couple of examples to illustrate the way business was conducted. On one of our first days in Pearl I wanted buy a street-map. I went to one of the largest stores selling bric-a-brac, Max Blumenstich’s next door to us, I think it was.
‘A street-map? The new ones haven’t arrived yet, a copy of the old edition will do just as well, I suppose?’ They looked high and low, rummaged around among mounted antlers, candelabra and old caskets, but nowhere was one to be found. Finally the assistant brought out a horrible ink-well cast in bronze.
‘Take this, I’m sure you have a use for it. You simply must have it, it’s an absolute necessity. Only seventy-two crowns!’ His voice took on melting tones as he
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