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| First literary cabaret of the Wiener Gruppe, 6.12.1958: friedrich achleitner als biertrinker |
"The number friedrich achleitner als biertrinker, in which Achleitner sits on the stage drinking beer while an announcer tries to describe this occurrence, demonstrates the incompatibility of verbal description and reality, allows it to be authentically experienced and makes it understandable in its ridiculousness."
[Translated from Andrea Portenkircher's essay "kaspar ist tot" in Komik in der österreichischen Literatur (Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1996) p. 246.]
friedrich achleitner as beer-drinker
(by friedrich achleitner)
friedrich will drink a bottle of sweet gray beer. he sits on a chair from the old world of the künstlerbund. before him stands an unusual table. what stands on the unusual table. a full bottle of sweet gray beer. an unfull glass. what will friedrich do. he will take the full bottle of sweet gray beer in his excellent hand. what will he do with the full bottle of sweet gray beer. he will pour the full bottle of sweet grey beer into the unfull glass. he pours the full bottle of sweet grey beer into the unfull glass. despite sustained pouring the unfull glass is still unfull. now the unfull glass is full. we call the unfull glass full. the full glass of sweet grey beer stands on the unusual table. friedrich will place the unfull bottle in which the sweet grey beer resided on the unusual table. he places the unfull bottle on the unusual table. he will take the full glass of sweet grey beer in his excellent hand. he takes the full glass of sweet grey beer in his excellent hand. he will set the full glass of sweet grey beer against his red lips. he sets the full glass of sweet grey beer against his red lips. he will drink. he drinks. he drinks. he drinks. he drank. he takes the unfull glass of sweet grey beer from his red lips with his excellent hand. he will place the unfull glass of sweet grey beer on the unusual table. he places the unfull glass of sweet grey beer on the unusual table. the unfull glass of sweet grey beer stands next to the unfull bottle of sweet grey beer. friedrich will say scheiss schwechata. he says scheiss schwechata. he said scheiss schwechata.
[My translation from original printed in Die Wiener Gruppe, ed. Gerhard Rühm (Rowohlt, 1967), p. 422.]
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EXTRA: another Austrian avant-garde meditation on the theme of Schwechater beer:
