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Iliya Troyanov: Der Eistau (The Lamentations of Zeno)
Let’s start with the title. The German title, as you can probably see does not mean Lamentations of Zeno it means Thaw. The English title seems to have a biblical overtones and I immediately thought that it was something to do with the Greek philosopher of that name. It is not. Zeno is the name of our narrator, Zeno Hintermeier, while he is known by his colleagues asMr Iceberg.
TZeno works on Antarctic cruise ships. He is a geologist, specialising in glaciology and had been working in teaching in an institute. On the advice of a colleague he changed professions when he was going through a bad patch, which included a divorce. Initially he was one of the lecturers but has just been appointed expedition leader as the previous expedition leader has fallen ill, possibly with swine flu.
Much of the crew are from the Philippines, including Paulina, his girlfriend. The Antarctica cruises last six months in the year and during that six month the couple share a cabin and have a passionate relationship. In the other six months they return to their respective homes. He lives in Germany and she lives in the Philippines. Initially they each visit the home of the other but the visits did not turn out very well so they have this half on half off affair. When they get together she has all sorts of colourful tales to tell him and all he has to tell her is about his aging father who is becoming increasingly difficult. I feel about Paulina the way old Amundsen felt about the sun, I look forward to seeing her again but do not suffer terribly by her absence,
We see Zeno’s character straightaway as he seems to be lacking in much humour and very serious about what he does. For example when they go on a tour before the cruise the guide tells them a critical account of the indigenous people , but Zeno interjects telling them how the immigrants slaughtered the indigenous people.
Much of the book is about Zeno’s concern for the human impact on the natural environment, including global warming but not just that. When he was studying geology, his doctoral supervisor recommended a specific glacier to him and suggested that he adopt it, which he has done. He frequently goes there and explores it, measures various aspects of it and even goes down into the glacier on ropes. When he himself becomes a teacher, he has his students an assist him. However, as we know this glacier is melting and we follow its course.
He clearly loves his glacier more than anything or anyone. At one time he becomes seriously ill with a life-threatening condition and has to have an operation. He takes a few weeks to recover and when he does he heads home and immediately sets off for the glacier, virtually ignoring his wife, Helene. When he gets there – after a gap of time- the owner of the property where he stays warns him that things have got much worse and that the glacier is probably dying or as Zeno puts it an emaciated glacier was emitting its death rattle.
There are other stories of human impact on the environment. While in the Antarctic they visit an abandoned whaling station and he tells the tourists about how many whales, seals, and even penguins were slaughtered there to make oil for consumption in the developed world. Now it is global warming. There’s hardly any region in the world warming up as quickly as the Antarctic peninsula, before long we’ll see heather growing, and potatoes being planted, and sheep grazing.
His colleagues on the ship are a bit fed up with his pontificating.The lecturers all start to sigh—here he goes again, they’re all expecting one of my diatribes, I’ve subjected them to an avalanche of rage on more than one occasion.
We see this again in the Falklands, which they visit. There is a beach there which has Danger! signs, Penguins can walk on the beach without a problem as the mines only detonate with heavier animals such as humans. He comments on the FalklandsWar that this was probably the first war in human history where more humans were killed than animals. He clearly seems to think this is a good thing. Why is it that everything we do leaves an imprint (it takes a hundred years for a footprint in the Antarctic to disappear), why can’t we simply glide through moments without a trace, like birds through the air?
His relationships are often difficult. His marriage seems to be something of a disaster and while he and Paulina are together, as we have seen, he does not feel any need to be with her all year round. He occasionally clashes with one or two of his colleagues. For example with Jeremy known as El Aalbatros the ornithologist, he has a desire to mock him by pointing out that he has just seen a sooty albatross diving into the sea. This is apparently a very rare bird and all the birdwatchers rushed to look for it. Of course it is not there. He also mocks the English pianist – for all his British chauvinism, which gets freshly creased and ironed every day, he is secretly afraid of English provincial life. The pianist gets his revenge by recounting theGraf Spee incident.
As we jump backwards and forwards in time, we gradually see that he is going down the slippery slope or, in a more appropriate metaphor he is heading to the precipice. One key feature is Dan Quentin. Dan is a sort of Christo a character who does massive art works and is an eager publicity hound. His latest project is to do an SOS in Antarctica using people standing on some Antarctic island spelling out the three letters of SOS. The cruise company is happy to oblige because it is good publicity for them and the passengers are happy to participate. One person is not happy Making nature visible by covering it up, over. That’s an old whore’s trick.
There are a couple of incidents on shore when Zeno who is meant to be the team leader does not exactly cover himself in glory, so much so that the captain warns him that his continued employment by the cruise company is in jeopardy. It is almost inevitable that he is going to do something that tips him over the edge and sure enough he does.
Having done this trip myself, I found it quite interesting but of course the book works particularly well covering the two themes: a man on the edge slowly tipping over, and of course the major issue of the negative influence of human beings on nature in any part of the world.
Publishing history
First published in 20011 by Carl Hanser
First English translation in 2016 byVerso
Translated by Philip Boehm