Sebald mania

With the tenth anniversary of Sebald's death approaching in December 2011, it seems as if almost everybody is in on the act. For good measure, the frenzy began in January.

A walk arranged by Aldeburgh art events brought throngs to the paths where Sebald's narrator pursued his solitary way:

http://www.artevents.info/latest/2010-2011/an-artevents-weekend

The above walk took place in the sinister region of Orfordness, where the narrator visits the site from which bomber planes heading for Germany took off from Britain during WW II.

Also in January, Grant Gee and Stuart Jeffries retraced the route of Sebald's ramble through Suffolk as recounted in The Rings of Saturn. Actually, they did it at a different time of year (winter, instead of the dog days of summer), but despite or because of the weather, they were able to take some appropriately somber shots for a film Grant Gee is making based on Sebald's book. There were some deviations from the walk in The Rings of Saturn, among them a decision not to visit Dunwich. That was because they were hungry and needed to get a sandwich somewhere else. So much for the famous place that was host to so many nineteenth-century British poets in need of a health cure (notably Swinburne with his red hair and enormous hat size). Originally, the fimmakers had hoped to hear the spooky bells that sometimes ring--as legend has it--from Eccles Church Tower on Dunwich beach. Well, never mind. Titled Patience (After Sebald), the film is featured in the British newspaper The Guardian, where you can also see some video from it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/25/wg-sebald-suffolk-walk?intcmp=239

Unfortunately I narrowly missed another Sebald-related event, this one in Aix-en Provence on July 19-20, and will miss a second event on August 28 at the Edinburgh Books Festival. Here is some information from http://sebald.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/late-summer-2011-sebald-events/ writing just before the first of these events:

On July 19 and 20, you could be in Aix-en-Provence to see the world premiere of Jérôme Combier’s  Austerlitz: Eine Kindheitsreise – Un voyage d’enfance.  Described as a musical and theatrical work based on W.G. Sebald’s novel  Austerlitz, the performances will take place in the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume.  

More information here:

http://ictus.be/Documents4/sebald2.html

And here's what wordpress says about the event at the Edinburgh Books Festival (http://sebald.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/late-summer-2011-sebald-events/):

Three different writers will explore Writing, Landscape and Memory in W.G. Sebald: Jo Catling, who worked with Sebald in East Anglia and has translated several of his works from German; Daniel Medin, who has written a book on Sebald’s debt to the work of Kafka; and Geoff Dyer, who compares Sebald with Thomas Bernhard.

By then, you'd think we'd be all Sebalded out. But there will still be a few months until December, when things should get really frenetic. Will there be Sebald souvenirs? Herrings with his name on the can, perhaps?

Hang in there to find out more about this proliferation of Sebaldiana!

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