"And so : 'The mummers, quacks, jugglers, prestidigitators, bawds, cut-purses, and swashbucklers divided the world among them; - the sheep stretched out their muttonheads and let themselves be shorn; - while the fools gamboled and somersaulted. And the clever ones, if they could, went forth and became hermits : the history of the world in nuce, in usum Delphini.'"

Syntactically not quite like anything I have read, Schmidt arranges his narrative in relatively short bursts of ideas and action. Freedom of pure poetic expression feels more closely realized in this format, chaotic and feverish. The prose, especially in the first novella, Scenes from the Life of a Faun: A Short Novel, is enchanting, makes one really regret not knowing German to read the original text.

Story-wise, nothing too spectacular, post-war struggle, post-war sentiments. The latter two novellas are almost love stories set to the backdrop of post WWII and post WWIII, respectively. Schmidt's protagonists constantly pontificate on the nature of man, specifically that most everyone is too stupid to create or correctly consume culture, frothing at the mouth in misanthropic throes. Maybe it felt tired, but nothing grating. To me, the story was just a necessary vessel for the writing.I did start writing down descriptions of the moon while reading this, Schmidt was borderline obsessed with moon descriptions... also cloud descriptions. The list goes as follows:THE DEATH MASK OF THE MOONWEDGEDCHITINOUSA FIERY BRUNETTE OF A MOON WITH CLOUD RUCHINGLACONICA PALE WHITE FISH BELLY (MOONFISH)BULL’S-EYEMIDDLINGDARKLINGTHE SHARP HIPPOCRATIC FACE OF THE MOON LAY TIPPED ON HIGHBUXOM RUSTIC MOONJAGGEDSBIRRO-FACEDINSECTILETHE PICKAX OF THE MOON WAS TOILING IN THE INERT CLOUD GRAVELTHE SHINY CURVE OF THE MOON’S PLOWSHARESOLID SAUCYCURTACHILLEAN FELLOW, THE MOON : DRAGGED A STIFF CLOUD CORPSE BEHIND HIM AROUND OUR EARTHENWARE TROY (BLUSTERY).THE MOON’S BALD MONGOL SKULLMOON : AS A SILENT STONE HUMP IN THE BLEAK MOOR OF CLOUDS