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Fw: Fw: Wer erfand "Lolita"? ... and Schnitzler and Catch-22?
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Howell" <fanshaw@123mail.org>
) ------------------
> I agree with Don's verdict on this; it reminds me too of a Lolita-like
> episode in Schnitzler's _Traumnovelle_ (glancingly alluded to in
> Kubrick's movie, Eyes Wides Shut).
>
> And - this may not be news - but I can't help thinking of the case of an
> Ur-Catch-22. I picked this up on Google, and it sqaures with what I read
> at the time:
>
> It began in April with a reader's letter to the Sunday Times in London,
> pointing out the many similarities between Catch-22 and a book called The
> Sky is a Lonely Place published in England and written by Louis Falstein.
>
> "I'm amused that there'd be such a fuss or that much interest in it,"
> Heller said. "It's irritating because of the implied insinuations."
>
> The points of similarity begin with the authors themselves, both Air
> Force veterans from Russian Jewish families in Brooklyn who served in
> Italy during the war. Both novels are set at the Mediterranean base of an
> American bomber squadron in World War II. Both focus on terrified airmen
> forced by bureaucratic muddling to fly an excessive number of dangerous
> missions over Nazi-occupied Italy.
>
> Each writer used the powerful and evocative image of a wounded soldier
> whose body is encased, mummylike, in a white cast. Falstein's book was
> published in 1951; the first chapter of Catch-22 was written in 1953,
> shortly after Heller completed his studies at Oxford University.
>
> "In World War II there were LOTS of soldiers, sometimes drunk and firing
> their weapons and sometimes stuck in white body casts, and there were
> outbreaks of both diarrhea and idiotic censorship," said a spokesman for
> Simon & Schuster, Heller's publisher. "Saying that two writers can't
> cover this ground completely independent of each other is absurd and
> maybe more absurd than what Heller can dream up."
>
> Falstein's daughterinlaw, Gail Falstein, agreed, recalling that she had
> never heard Falstein speak about Heller or Catch-22 or say that another
> writer had used his ideas. "If he had, I'm sure he would have brought a
> lawsuit."
>
>
> Bria Howell
>
> http://www.windriverpress.com/titles/studyofsleep.html
> http://www.tobypress.com/books/dance_geometry.htm
> http://www.elasticpress.com/sound_of_white_ants.htm
>
> --
> http://www.fastmail.fm - The way an email service should be
From: "Brian Howell" <fanshaw@123mail.org>
) ------------------
> I agree with Don's verdict on this; it reminds me too of a Lolita-like
> episode in Schnitzler's _Traumnovelle_ (glancingly alluded to in
> Kubrick's movie, Eyes Wides Shut).
>
> And - this may not be news - but I can't help thinking of the case of an
> Ur-Catch-22. I picked this up on Google, and it sqaures with what I read
> at the time:
>
> It began in April with a reader's letter to the Sunday Times in London,
> pointing out the many similarities between Catch-22 and a book called The
> Sky is a Lonely Place published in England and written by Louis Falstein.
>
> "I'm amused that there'd be such a fuss or that much interest in it,"
> Heller said. "It's irritating because of the implied insinuations."
>
> The points of similarity begin with the authors themselves, both Air
> Force veterans from Russian Jewish families in Brooklyn who served in
> Italy during the war. Both novels are set at the Mediterranean base of an
> American bomber squadron in World War II. Both focus on terrified airmen
> forced by bureaucratic muddling to fly an excessive number of dangerous
> missions over Nazi-occupied Italy.
>
> Each writer used the powerful and evocative image of a wounded soldier
> whose body is encased, mummylike, in a white cast. Falstein's book was
> published in 1951; the first chapter of Catch-22 was written in 1953,
> shortly after Heller completed his studies at Oxford University.
>
> "In World War II there were LOTS of soldiers, sometimes drunk and firing
> their weapons and sometimes stuck in white body casts, and there were
> outbreaks of both diarrhea and idiotic censorship," said a spokesman for
> Simon & Schuster, Heller's publisher. "Saying that two writers can't
> cover this ground completely independent of each other is absurd and
> maybe more absurd than what Heller can dream up."
>
> Falstein's daughterinlaw, Gail Falstein, agreed, recalling that she had
> never heard Falstein speak about Heller or Catch-22 or say that another
> writer had used his ideas. "If he had, I'm sure he would have brought a
> lawsuit."
>
>
> Bria Howell
>
> http://www.windriverpress.com/titles/studyofsleep.html
> http://www.tobypress.com/books/dance_geometry.htm
> http://www.elasticpress.com/sound_of_white_ants.htm
>
> --
> http://www.fastmail.fm - The way an email service should be