Anniversaries Readalong: September 4 – 10, 1967

31 thoughts on “<em>Anniversaries</em> Readalong: September 4 – 10, 1967”

1. Oops, I wrote about September 4th in the previous week. Copied here now.

2. September 4th – Labor Day, so Gesine will not be working. I have to guess that the incredulousness about the Czech writers article is Gesine’s, though I don’t understand why she feels that way. “We don’t want to believe it”. As if it is an afront?

3. September 5th – this entry had me wondering what technology was around to fill half a floor of the bank. Other than pneumatic tubes and credit cards, there wasn’t much existing yet. The UK had opened an ATM by this time, but it would be 1969 before one was opened in the US. I also wonder what is meant by the bank’s memory.

   https://independentbanker.org/2017/10/timeline-180-years-of-banking-technology/

   At the end of the entry, we get someone pronouncing Gesine’s name incorrectly. I guess that would be pretty common, with a name unrecognised by her American colleagues. You have to wonder whether she has given up correcting them or never tried.

4. Colette, I can’t resist responding to your post because this was one of the translation puzzles I encountered. The German word is “Maschinenbuchung” which I couldn’t find in any dictionary, but compound words are normal in German even when not in a dictionary. Buchung is accounting, bookkeeping, record-keeping, while Maschinen means machine, computer, automated. But what does that mean in 1967? And these are large numbers of young women, lower status and on a lower floor than secretaries, doing the work, so it wouldn’t be “accounting” or “account management” or anything that sounds advanced.

   I spent quite a while looking online and in books, and asking older people, German and American, but no one knew what this meant. I assumed Gesine was working as a “calculator” (which used to be a job title, before it was a device or an app), but that would be confusing to English readers and so a bad translation even if it was the right term. I ended up imagining Gesine and everyone else using those clattery desktop addition machines with a roll of paper spooling out the top, though I don’t know what exactly she would have been doing. I went with “data entry” as the translation: a vague enough term but with the right implication of endless, low-level drudge work.

   If anyone knows what Gesine’s Maschinenbuchung is, let me know!

5. I have really enjoyed the last couple of days’ reading. Yesterday’s about Riverside Drive and today’s about the bank aren’t chapters I remembered from my first time reading, but I know they become part of the book’s texture. I think both are finely written, interesting even though not a lot is happening in the story of Gesine, Marie, or their past.

   I don’t know just what might be meant by bank’s memory, but I assumed it was a large floor with thousands and thousands of Banker’s Boxes stacked up. I used to work in New York and, at times — shudder! — I had to go through these rooms of boxes!

6. Yes, that’s probably it, archival as memory.

7. Damion, I think calling Gesine a calculator would have been okay. This goes along with when computers were people.

8. Damion,

   “I ended up imagining Gesine and everyone else using those clattery desktop addition machines with a roll of paper spooling out the top, though I don’t know what exactly she would have been doing. I went with “data entry” as the translation: a vague enough term but with the right implication of endless, low-level drudge work.”

   As someone old enough for the command “DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, OR MUTILATE” to be instantly meaningful, I had imagined by “data entry” that it meant working with machines that created punch cards. Punch cards were pretty commonly used in that era as ways of storing and transmitting information, and entering the data into the machine that would spit out a card with a bunch of holes in it to record that data seems a lot lower than accounting work.

9. Damion, I appreciate your participation here! The tip about internal dialogue in quotes is particularly helpful. I worked in an office for an amusement park in the early 70s where we processed the money taken in each day. Adding machines were our technology, so I can definitely see a room full of them processing away. We would have to add up the money from each cashier booth in the park to make sure the individual booths(which would be tellers in a bank) balanced and then we would have to balance the total money with the totals of the booths. Perhaps Gesine was doing something like that. David, the punch cards are a good possibility, too. I’m still enjoying the reading and all of the comments.

10. Today’s entry was interesting, but frustrating. It is emerging that Gesine does not seem to have a very high opinion of either her father or her mother’s family (how she feels about her mother is still more of an open question). We have gotten a bit of an idea today why she views her mother’s family as she does, and the hint we had about it seeming that her father might be complicit in Nazi war crimes gives some indication of why she is critical of him.
    .
    My frustration comes from the long italicized section. There are a lot of places where it is not only unclear what is being aid, but even who is doing the talking or how many different people are talking. It feels like making things difficult for the reader for no clear purpose. I read every entry three times (Once the day corresponding to the actual date and once more each of the next two days) so I hope it will start to read more clearly by the third reading.

11. I understand your frustration, David, but I am finding the days with large italicized sections more interesting than the days with little or none. I guess It’s because there is some human interaction in them.

12. I have downloaded the e-version. It is worth the price for me to look up things as they come up. Also when a new person comes up I can see when and where they appeared before….in today’s reading James Shuldner appeared sitting and talking with Gesine. Is he a suitor/friend, should I take note of him? I won’t spoil it for the rest of you but it really helped to glance at how much a place he plays in the future! Loving the puzzle aspect of this!

13. Colette, yes, computers as job title is what I misremembered as human calculators. But speaking from the translator’s mindset I still say that wouldn’t have worked. To suddenly start talking about a room full of computers would mislead everybody!

14. Peg,

    (1) You are a day ahead. Shuldner does not appear until the 8th.
    .
    (2) “I won’t spoil it for the rest of you but…” are words that are always followed by someone revealing information about what happens later that some readers don’t want to know. If you have to use the phrase “I won’t spoil it for the rest of you but” then delete the sentence or live with the fact that you are knowingly giving people information they might not want.

15. The entries of the 6th and 7th show a very nice progression from the news of the day being usually presented as if it were as aside from whatever other story there is that day to it becoming more integrated into the story of the day. On the 6th, we have the opening descriptions (Like we often get) of various violent events around the world. When we transition to 1920 in Germany, it starts as if it were just reporting another violent news story before we become more immersed in Gesine’s family history. It’s a nice subtle shift. On the 7th we get news about Vietnam integrated with Gesine’s thoughts about a coworker who has a son in Vietnam. Again, it’s very smoothly done and is an advancement of the use of the news of the day to inform us of Gesine’s world.

16. Damion, this snippet from google books makes me think that in the context of banking in the 60s, punch cards is what Maschinenbuchung refers to. I still think data entry is the best translation for a modern audience. Just thinking about the layers in translating this one word makes my head hurt, can’t imagine what a monumental task it was. Thank you!

    I keep returning to Colette’s question at the beginning of this week. Why are we supposed to be so skeptical of the Czechoslovak statement? Especially the bit about Steinbeck makes me think that the writers would have to be stupid to think that an American celebrity would lift a finger to help out someone behind the Iron Curtain, but it also seems to imply that we’d be naive to believe that the writers are speaking for themselves, rather than as an organization that has been co-opted by the state. Considering the dates and details in David’s post in last week’s thread, it seems like Gesine’s feelings about Czechoslovakia here are strong for reasons that have yet to be fully explored.

    This week has highlighted some of the small indignities of emigré life, from people mispronouncing your name to the forced friendliness of American customs, yet Gesine seems dedicated to using the American way of counting the floors of a building.

    All the focus on racism, Vietnam, and violence in the States paints a picture of Gesine choosing America as the least bad of all her options, and the entries from Jerichow don’t appear to have any element of nostalgia for something lost to the Nazis, communists, or the modern world. Fair enough, given what we’ve seen, but maybe not the most inspiring worldview for a 10 year old?

17. Colette, I agree that the italicized sections provide a welcome shift in narrative approach and give us something more up close with the characters than much of the narration does. In reading the entry of the 6th for the second time, I have decided that if it’s not clear who is speaking then it probably doesn’t matter. Some of the lines are more clearly marked as who is speaking, and for these ones Johnson thought it important we know. But for the others it is enough we know someone is speaking even if it’s not clear who. Besides, as Damion has told us, these sections are all imagined dialogues Gesine is having, so in a sense it is always Gesine’s voice saying these things, even if it is her imagining that they are said by others.

18. Peg, I really like the enthusiasm of your first post! Didn’t spoil anything for me with your conscientiously vague comment about a character who intrigued you. Look forward to hearing more from you. Cheers!

19. Thanks SO much for your kind and sensitive comment! I have learned the hard way on social media to just quickly detach from situations like this. Happy continued reading…that part is still wonderful!

20. I’m not falling behind in the reading but have not had much time to jump on here over the last couple of days. Hopefully later I can catch up on some of my thoughts.

    David, do not concern yourself with moderating comments.

    Peg, your comment is 100% in line with the few rules I have set for this. Thank you for joining in!

21. Trevor, can you please post a reminder for me of what rules you have set about revealing information about what happens later in the book than the current date. I can’t seem to find them. Thanks.

22. David, I have always appreciated your insights, but I’ve had enough of your antagonism. You have been a guest on this site, but you have treated other guests with disrepect, and that reflects on me and the tone I try to maintain on this site. You have treated my friends poorly and have made some feel as if their comments are not welcome. You do not have that right.

    Refrain from posting further.

23. Just saw this essay by Damion on our book https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/dispatches/article/vitality-enough-translating-uwe-johnsons-anniversaries-damion-searls

    Onward we read!

24. Thanks, Peg! I will add that link to the main page’s list of resources!

25. Catching up after some time away due to work and travel is a pleasure. Yes, I too wondered about ‘the bank’s memory’ when reading that.
    A minor lovely detail: September 5th – “Sometimes the elevator in the bank building falls a short way down as it starts up, as though genuflecting.” I wonder if this is in the original German, or is Damion’s simile (I don’t expect an answer). Perfect.

26. September 9: Sparks memories of the “brown cloud” over Denver many days when I lived there. I thought then that the temperature inversion was caused by its position near mountains, but that must have been inaccurate.

    And Marie, out shopping on her own in NYC at ten years old! Surely even 50 years ago, that would seem dangerous to any sane person. Gesine seems to be fully aware as it happens every week.

27. Colette, I grew up in the Denver area and I remember that “brown cloud”, too. As I read the opening of this section, I could feel one of those “brown” days around me. Then I got to the line that put me back to my NYC visit a few weeks ago: “like her face was hitting a wall of hot water”. That is exactly how it felt! I had heard before that children growing up in NYC grew up independently using the buses and subways. I asked my daughter about this and she said she saw kids by themselves all of the time on the subway heading to city schools. It shocks me as a parent as well, but it seems it’s the way it is in NYC! I did love getting a bit more of Marie’s personality coming through in this section.

28. “This morning, justice almost reigns in New York”

    On re-reading, that line is sort of stunning. Gesine seems like such an anxious person by nature, and the idea that she is peacefully sleeping and her daughter is haggling with cashiers while a toxic cloud “blackens tea, spices food, creates more work for lung doctors…” is striking to me.

29. I’m going to catch up on some of the past days’ readings. It’s been a busy week (and will likely be a busy month), but I am always so excited for the day’s reading.

    September 7: I agree with David’s post above. I love how the news stories have a connection to the people in the chapter this time. They are not just headlines, but headlines with consequences.

30. September 8: I think this section is a beautiful meta-chapter on how this very book is structured. A bit about how Gesine’s mind works: “this mind helped her get through school exams, tests, interrogations, it gets her through her daily work, a man sees it as an ornamental trinket; what mattered most to her was one of its functions — memory, not the storage but the retrieval, the return to the past, the repetition of what was: being inside it once more, setting foot there again. There is no such thing.”

    The next paragraph shows how problematic memory is, and I love it!

31. September 9: I love Marie. I have loved her since we saw her trying to stay awake, distrusting, when they first arrived in New York. I love that she is so at ease in New York, but I love that Johnson shows us Marie in those early fearful days again, buying an ice cream, unwilling to let the outside English world in. It’s wonderful she is now so comfortable in New York, but this suggests a loss as well.

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