282. The Last Days of Humanity

The Last Days of Humanity 

Karl Kraus

1918
Around 300 pages

I had taken a break from my husbandly duties with the List to read A Song of Ice and Fire series. It was a fun gentleman's intermission, but now I am ready to meekly return to my duty. And unfortunately, my duty was to read an expressionist play. 

First of all, what gives? If the List permits plays among its entries, it's made some gut-wrenching snubs over the past 1600 years. I suppose the List doesn't consider this a truly a play, because it's not the sort of thing you could ever imagine being performed. But do the author's intentions dictate how a text should be consumed, even if the form tells quite a different story? I'm not sure, but I am grateful that nobody's taken a stab at adapting this creature yet.

Much of the content of the play is drawn from documentary sources. Often, he has two characters, The Optimist and The Grumbler, converse with each other and draw the predicted conclusions. Krause expressed dismay that Austria, and the rest of the world, was hurtling toward self-destruction. This is in sharp contrast to many other works being peddled at the time, which conveyed patriotic fervor or dutiful resignation. So in that sense, it was rather interesting. 

Still, that wasn't enough to make me reconcile with the style and while his pessimism is well founded, it does get a bit wearing after awhile. 

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

Kraus was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature three times.

UP NEXT: Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair. Haven't heard of this one before.