Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths: Selected Aphorisms

For curmudgeons, the best part of the book -- which is largely comprised of six sections of aphorisms, 26 pages of Introduction, and three pages of bibliography -- is the last section entitled "Lord, forgive them...." The title of this section is based on the last one of Karl Kraus' aphorisms edited for this book, a reframing of, or play upon, a New Testament idea: "Lord, forgive them for they know what they do!" There are 18 pages of aphorisms here confronting that nasty creature called man. Thomas Szaz has also translated many of these same aphorisms in a different book, "Karl Kraus and the Soul-Doctors," and perhaps did a better job of capturing the wit inherent in Kraus's criticisms than has Harry Zohn, the editor and translator of this work. For instance, Zohn has Karl Kraus say "The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people meaner." This is a fine enough translation but it reads a little sterile. However, in Thomas Szasz's translation of the same aphorism, Karl Kraus says "The devil is an optimist if he thinks he can make people worse than they are." I think the latter translation has more depth, immediacy, and wit. Each of the six sections of aphorisms is neatly divided into six different discourses, subjects, or topics. There's one on man, one on woman, one on politics and war, one on journalism ("In hollow heads"), one on culture, and one on society at large. Kraus' views on war are both touchingly eloquent and highly pertinent (if sadly) to today's international scene, though the best ones are too long to cite here. The Introduction is worth the price of the book because it allows a further glimpse into the biography of the man and artist, Karl Kraus. While Thomas Szasz did a fine job on the life of Karl Kraus insofar as his views on psychoanalysis were concerned, there's only one biography of Karl Kraus in English that gives a comprehensive view of the whole man and artist, and it's not readily available. This Introduction by Harry Zohn provides an overview of the man's career and focus while also illuminating certain of Karl Kraus' artistic endeavors that just aren't generally known or appreciated. Some critics have painted Karl Kraus as a fearsome critic whose intelligence was so powerful and piercing, it didn't allow him to suffer fools gladly. While some value needs to be given to these critics' testimony, this book of selected aphorisms also reveals a thinker who is refreshingly down-to-earth and outside the class of intellectual snobbery. In the section on culture ("Riddles out of solutions"), Karl Kraus says, for example, in one among several instances regarding reading "Most writers have no other quality than the reader: taste. But the latter has the better taste, because he does not write -- and the best if he does not read." There's more to Karl Kraus and more to his writings than have been translated within this 128-page book (as the Introduction goes to some length to explain), but this