Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull)
The Labyrinth of Tender Force / Das Labyrinth der zärtlichen Kraft
166 Love Stories
»The handsome philosopher did not consider love between the sexes to be a republican virtue.«
There is no human quality that is older and more vital to survival than love. He who loves, it is said, loves with every fiber of his being. At the same time, as Bizet's Carmen proclaims, love is »free as a bird«. How different it is from other good things, from simple friendliness, lasting peace, un-breached contracts and balanced accounts!
It is an »attractor«, undeniable as the gravity that sets the stars in their dance. Yet it is also so similar to that dark...
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There is no human quality that is older and more vital to survival than love. He who loves, it is said, loves with every fiber of his being. At the same time, as Bizet's Carmen proclaims, love is »free as a bird«. How different it is from other good things, from simple friendliness, lasting peace, un-breached contracts and balanced accounts!
It is an »attractor«, undeniable as the gravity that sets the stars in their dance. Yet it is also so similar to that dark force that propels us into the unknown future. In this labyrinth of contradictions, one can lose his bearings. In times of emergency and financial crisis, the power of tenderness wields its full opposing force in its telling. There it possesses its own economy.
Most of the 166 love stories collected here were written long ago. They were hiding within Alexander Kluge's 2000 texts. Basisgeschichten was one of their names. Now they are reassembled by theme, brought into the company of new stories and reflections and sent on a flight across the topography of love. The flight ends on a high plateau, at the heart of the most beautiful love saga from an unsentimental tradition and a canonical text of the modern era on the economics of interpersonal relationships: Princesse de Clèves by Madame de La Fayette.
»More than a few of Kluge’s many books are essential, brilliant achievements. None are without great interest.« Susan Sontag
»More than a few of Kluge’s many books are essential, brilliant achievements. None are without great interest.« Susan Sontag
2009, 607 pages
Persons
Alexander Kluge
Author
Alexander Kluge, born in 1932, is the director of numerous films and countless TV broadcasts as well as an author, but: »My books are my most important work.« He has received numerous awards for his oeuvre.
Alexander Kluge
Author
Alexander Kluge, born in 1932, is the director of numerous films and countless TV broadcasts as well as an author, but: »My books are my...
© Markus Kirchgessner
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Latest first
Year of Publication: 2023
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2023
War Primer 2023
»War is back.« Alexander Kluge begins his latest book with this first of six stations, prompted by a war of aggression that is initially being waged in a European setting, but...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull)
Year of Publication: 2022
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2022
The Book of Comments
Published to mark his 90th birthday, this is perhaps Alexander Kluge’s most personal book. The Book of Comments follows hot on the heels of its playful sibling Circus /...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull)
Year of Publication: 2022
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2022
Circus / Commentary
The circus has fascinated Alexander Kluge since his earliest childhood and it is a phenomenon of his devotion that is preserved throughout his cinematic work (Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel,...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull)
Year of Publication: 2020
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2020
Russia Container
Not just in light of a currently contested pipeline but also after centuries of both exchange and rejection, Russia and Germany were and are as far away from each other as they are connected. The...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), Russia (Garage)
Year of Publication: 2017
Georg Baselitz, Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2017
World-Changing Rage
Rage and obstinacy are closely related. In the work of Georg Baselitz and Alexander Kluge they are fundamental categories. Rage is dynamic: it can grow and suddenly erupt into flaming protests,...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull)
Year of Publication: 2015
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2015
Kong’s Finest Hour
To dissolve theory in concrete stories has been Alexander Kluge’s lifelong approach. To him, there is music in the texture of thoughts, and so with this book, Chronicle of...
Rights sold to:
English World rights (Seagull)
Year of Publication: 2014
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2014
30 April 1945
The thirtieth of April 1945, a Monday, was the last working day observed in the Third Reich. It is followed by a national holiday and the transfer of what remained of the state to powers which had no...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), France (P.O.L.), Poland (W.A.B.)
Year of Publication: 2013
Alexander Kluge, Gerhard RichterYear of Publication: 2013
Dispatches from Moments of Calm
The international artist and the most eminent chronicler of our time: 60 images by Gerhard Richter in dialogue with new texts by Alexander Kluge.
In the golden autumn of 2012...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture)
Year of Publication: 2013
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2013
Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor
»Alexander Kluge's work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, and the extermination of the Jews forms its gravitational center. Kluge is forever reminding us to keep...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), Serbia (Kulturni Centar Novog Sada)
Year of Publication: 2011
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2011
Drilling through Hard Boards
Politics, says Kluge, is an exceptional aggregate state of everyday feelings. It’s everywhere. It sets private and public biographies in motion.
It was Max Weber who said...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), Arabic world rights (Sefsafa)
Year of Publication: 2010
Alexander Kluge, Gerhard RichterYear of Publication: 2010
December
»In the historic tradition of calendar stories and calendar illustrations, author and film director Alexander Kluge and celebrated visual artist Gerhard Richter have composed December,...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), Chinese simplex rights (Beijing Imaginist Time Culture), France (Diaphanes), Turkey (Everest)
Year of Publication: 2008
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2008
Air Raid
Alexander Kluge’s account The Air Raid on Halberstadt on 8 April 1945 first appeared in 1977. Exactly twenty years later, it became one of the most important points of reference...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (Seagull), France (Diaphanes), Italy (Meltemi), Netherlands (Cossee), Korea (Moonji), Poland (Ossolineum), Turkey (Ketebe), Israel (Pitom)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Machado)
Year of Publication: 2007
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2007
Cinema Stories
The 120 stories of this volume are literary essays told in Alexander Kluge's customary short and laconic style. At the same time, they also expose director Kluge's deep fondness for...
Rights sold to:
Spanish rights Latin America (Caja negra), France (Diaphanes)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Italy (L'Orma), Turkey (Lemis)
Year of Publication: 2003
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2003
The Devil's Blindspot
With a collection of 500 stories, Alexander Kluge picks up the thread of his Chronicle of Feelings, which had been published in 2000. Catchphrases such as Revolution, Holocaust, World War,...
Rights sold to:
English world rights (New Directions), France (P.O.L.), Israel (Pitom)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Spanish world rights (Anagrama)
Year of Publication: 2000
Alexander KlugeYear of Publication: 2000
Chronicle of Feelings
Rights sold to:
Russia (NLO), France (P.O.L.)
Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: English world rights (New Directions), Sweden (Brutus Östling)DISCOVER
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