Read Online Kaspar and Other Plays by Peter Handke - Free Book Online

authorization. I failed to use emergency exits. I pushed. I trampled. I failed to break the window with the hammer. I blocked the way. I put up unauthorized resistance. I did not stop when challenged. I did not raise my hands above my head. I did not aim at the legs. I played with the trigger of a cocked gun. I failed to save women and children
first. I approached the drowning from behind. I kept my hands in my pockets. I took no evasive action. I did not let myself be blindfolded. I did not look for cover. I offered an easy target. I was too slow. I was too fast. I moved.
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    I did not regard the movement of my shadow as proof of the movement of the earth. I did not regard my fear of the dark as proof of my existence. I did not regard the demands of reason for immortality as proof of life after death. I did not regard my nausea at the thought of the future as proof of my nonexistence after death. I did not regard subsiding pain as proof of the passage of time. I did not regard my lust for life as proof that time stands still.
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    I am not what I was. I was not what I should have been. I did not become what I should have become. I did not keep what I should have kept.
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    I went to the theater. I heard this piece. I spoke this piece. I wrote this piece.

KASPAR

    1 phase
Can Kaspar, the owner of one sentence, begin and begin to do something with this sentence?
2 phase
Can Kaspar do something against other sentences with his sentence?
3 phase
Can Kaspar at least hold his own against other sentences with his sentence?
4 phase
Can Kaspar defend himself from other sentences and keep quiet even though other sentences prod him to speak?
5 phase
Can Kaspar only become aware of what he speaks through speaking?
6 phase
Can Kaspar, the owner of sentences, do something with these sentences, not only to other sentences but also to the objects of the other sentences?
7 phase
Can Kaspar bring himself into order with sentences about order, or rather, with ordered sentences?
8 phase
Can Kaspar, from the order of a single sentence, derive a whole series of sentences, a series that represents a comprehensive order?
9 phase
Can Kaspar learn what, in each instance, is the model upon which an infinite number of sentences about order can be based?
10 phase
Can Kaspar, with the sentence model he has learned, make the objects accessible to himself or become himself accessible to the objects?
11 phase
Can Kaspar, by means of sentences, make his contribution to the great community of sentences?
12 phase
Can Kaspar be brought to the point where, with rhyming sentences, he will find rhyme and reason in the objects?
13 phase
Can Kaspar put questions to himself?
14 phase
Can Kaspar, with uninhibited sentences which he applies to his old inhibited sentences, reverse the inverted world of these sentences?
15 phase
Can Kaspar defend himself at least with an inverted world of sentences against inverted sentences about the world? Or: Can Kaspar, by inverting inverted sentences, at least avoid the false appearance of rightness?
16 phase
Who is Kaspar now? Kaspar, who is now Kaspar? What is now, Kaspar? What is now Kaspar, Kaspar?

    thixtheen years
thoutheast station
whath thould
whath thould
he do
thoutheast station
thixtheen years
whath thould
the fellow
whath thould
he do
thixtheen years
thoutheast station
what thould
he do
the fellow
with hith
thixtheen years
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    Ernst Jandl

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    The play Kaspar does not show how IT REALLY IS or REALLY WAS with Kaspar Hauser. It shows what is POSSIBLE with someone. It shows how someone can be made to speak through speaking. The play could also be called speech torture. To formalize this torture it is suggested that a kind of magic eye be constructed above the ramp. This eye, without however diverting the audience’s attention from the events on stage, indicates, by blinking, the degree of vehemence with which the PROTAGONIST is addressed. The more vehemently he defends himself, the more vehemently he is