Alfred Kubin

What do you think of Alfred Kubin? I knew of his wonderfully eerie graphic work, and discovered Die andere Seite in a second hand bookshop in Vienna. It is a most fascinating story, completely surreal and dreamlike. It is definitely not for those who like a solidly built plot, with consistent characters and world building, where everything is made clear at the end. This is entirely fluid and ungraspable, but with the same strange coherence of a dream. If you like Bulgakov's grotesque pieces, this is for you

Not familiar with either Alfred Kubin or his work Die Andere Seite, but added touchstones here in hopes it helps me keep an eye out for either.

Here adding a second touchstone of The Other Side: Die Andere Seite. The first was for a translation that does not appear to be combined with other editions. This one also a translation but combined.

Thanks, I tried to make one, but it doesn't seem to work.

I followed link & noticed that there's a listing for Kubin's autobiography; apparently it's included in an early translation of the novel. Does anyone have that edition? if so, is the autobiography--given that it seems to have been lifted from an exhibition catalogue which in turn might simply contain an excerpt from a book-length biography--anything more than a few paragraphs?

Bit disheartening, this thread, as it set me thinking about unconventional fiction by visual artists & so reminded me that I'd forgotten that I have Hebdomeros despite my being keen to read it (and about intending to look further into Alberto Savinio for that matter) and that I ought to at least take a look at Hidden Faces even though I suspect that like Warhol's A it's no longer something I'd happily wade through. (And for what it's worth, my favourite story in The Golden Bomb was a terribly evocative & ominous little vignette by Kandinsky.)

Well, it seems too obvious to state but as it has not yet been said, Kubin reminds me of Kakfa: nothing is what it seems: a dream within a dream within a dream ...

It does share many things with Kafka, especially the feeling of vague impending doom. However, in Kubin's novel, reality is strangely fluid and grotesque. In this respect he reminds me more of Bulgakov.

I suspect that the grotesque you find in Bulgakov can be attributed to his use of the Devil in "The master and Margarita" which serves only to point up the satirical sideswipe at Stalin's USSR. There is none of that in Kubin, nor in Kafka. These last two seem unconcerned with any attempt to include political realities in their works. This is not intended as criticism. They are beyond all that. Bulgakov and the composer Shostakovich have much in common, e.g. Symphony no. 5.

5. I have a copy of the Denver Lindley translation of The Other Side published in 1967. It includes the autobiography, which is about 78 pages in length.

I don't think Kubin is like any other author. He, his art and his novel are unique.

My favorite line from "The Other Side":

"The demiurge is a hybrid".

Anyone seen this film version of 'The Other Side'?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070829/

>10 Soukesian: I hadn't even been aware of it prior to your post, but I've found the trailer on YouTube (connected to the German DVD release).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn7k5nY9WJ0

A word of caution - trailer contains nudity and a blackface minstrel.

>11 housefulofpaper: I heard of this in the twitter feed of the artist John Coulthart. His blog { feuilleton } is a great source of such esoteric finds.

Kubin is one of my favorite visual artists. I tend to file him with Redon and Beksinski. I vividly remember a drawing of a giant rocking horse with blades for rockers, with a rider on its back and a horrified expression on its face, with cut-up human bodies under it.

How does his novel compare with another outing by a glorious painter, Chirico's Hebdomeros?

I'll certainly try and track down the movie version. Although it is hard to see how the surreal atmosphere of the book can be translated into film. The trailer reminded me of Zardoz, somehow.