Correction: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

older brother never once made any attempt to leave Altensam, his development took the course characteristic for Altensam, from the first he had given himself up without a murmur to that process of dying a slow death in Altensam, the place is nothing but a process of slow death, he never tried to break away from Altensam, to give up Altensam, he simply could not muster the minimum of necessary energy, qualities such as courage, decisiveness, adding up to a spiritual power of decision, were altogether lacking in this elder brother, whom I knew from early childhood, as I knew Roithamer’s younger brother, he simply accepted this order-in-the-guise-of-disorder which always prevailed in Altensam, quietly put up with the inexorable processes of the dying-off of a huge country estate, because this was what his parents expected of him, and he grew up in Altensam as they all grew up in Altensam, and what became of him is what became of them all, a typical Altensamer is what he became, a man who basically knows nothing else and also accepts nothing else than Altensam, who has awakened with Altensam and who, having lived through Altensam, is going to die with Altensam. And Roithamer’s younger brother was always the older brother’s willing slave, he was even weaker and feebler than the older brother and both of them together actually formed a lifelong death club in Altensam, nothing else, even though they did outlive Roithamer, their middle brother, and their sister too, who died in the Cone, of course, they did out-exist, out-vegetate their sister and their middle brother, Roithamer; if I were to go to Altensam, which I have no desire to do, I could see for myself how they keep on vegetating there, I could see them, the two remaining Altensamers, being exactly what they have always been and nothing else, being Altensam through-and-through, and it was precisely this Altensam through-and-through that Roithamer always resisted, as he said, his whole life, his whole existence, his whole effort to survive had basically been nothing more than resistance to Altensam, anything but surrender to Altensam, anything but getting stuck in Altensam is what he must have been thinking always and in every way, I think that this reflection must have been part of every slightest thought, every least idea in his head: anything but becoming Altensam, becoming Altensam through-and-through like my brothers, because actually Roithamer would never have been capable of accomplishing his intellectually demanding work otherwise, work such as he has left us as his legacy, all these papers of his, even the least significant of them, testify to Roithamer’s lifelong concern with not getting stuck in Altensam, throughout all of his life, all of his difficult existence, there was nothing of greater urgency in his head than he need to loosen his ties to Altensam, because to disengage himself from Altensam, consciously and radically, meant the freedom to think, to be freed of Altensam to do his own thinking, because he had finally freed his thinking from Altensam even though it would not have been possible without Altensam, because actually Altensam and his coming from Altensam and the constant connection between his person and his personality and his scientific work and Altensam were necessary, to enable him to think as he had thought and worked, away from Altensam, beyond Altensam, never again back to Altensam. His brothers had been destined from the first to remain in Altensam, to accommodate themselves in Altensam to their fated decline in Altensam, no one expected anything else from them, in fact, and no one noticed that these two men, by staying in Altensam, were gradually and with increasing intensity being annihilated by Altensam, even though they still exist, they have long since been annihilated by Altensam as Roithamer was never annihilated by Altensam, although he was always debilitated by Altensam, by all but his sister, who was an exception. To her