/lit/ - Literature

>not reading everything, Zweites Buch, Kubizek's Young Hitler, and Table Talk

On Adolf's opinion of Italian operas and Wagner
>"For him, the plots of Italian operas lad too much emphasis upon theatrical effect. He objected to trickery, knavery and deception as the basic elements of a dramatic situation. He said to me once, 'What would these Italians do if they had no daggers?'"
p.187

>"When he listened to Wagner's music he was a changed man: his violence left him, he became quiet, yielding and tractable. His gaze lost its restlessness; his own destiny, however heavily it may have weighed upon him, became unimportant. He no longer felt lonely and outlawed, misjudged by society. [...] From the stale, musty prison of his back room, he was transported into the blissful regions of Germanic antiquity, that ideal world which was the lofty goal for all his endeavours."
p.188

More on Adolf's literary ambitions
>"In those weeks, Adolf wrote a lot, mainly plays, but also a few stories. He sat at his table and worked until dawn, without telling me very much about what he was doing. Only now and then would he throw on to my bed some closely written sheets of paper or would read out to me a few pages of his work, written in a strangely exalted style."
p.189

On Adolf's behaviour when writing
>"Oblivious to his surroundings, he never tired, he never slept. He ate nothing, he hardly drank. At the most he would occasionally grab a milk bottle and take a hasty gulp, certainly without being aware of it, for he was too completely wrapped up in his work. Never before had I been so directly impressed by this ecstatic creativeness. Where was it leading him? He squandered his strength and talents on something that had no practical value. How long would his weakened, delicate body stand this overstrain?"
p.194

On the perceived contrasts between Adolf and others his age
>"I knew the normal interests of young people of my age: flirtations, shallow pleasures, idly play and a lot of unimportant, meaningless thoughts. Adolf was the exact opposite. There was an incredible earnestness in him, a thoroughness, a true passionate interest in everything that happened and, most important, an unfailing devotion to the beauty, majesty and grandeur of art"
p.194

>"Thirty years later, when he met met again in Linz, his friend whom he had last seen as a student of the Vienna Conservatoire, he was convinced that I had become an important conductor, but when I appeared before him as a humble municipal employee, Hitler, by then Reich Chancellor, alluded to the possibility of my assuming the direction of an orchestra. I declined with thanks. I no longer felt up to the task. When he realised that he could not help his friend with this generous offer, he recalled our common experiences at the Linz theatre and the Vienna Hof Opera, which had elevated our friendship from the commonplace to the sacred sphere of his own world, and invited me to come to Bayreuth."
p.188