The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch: A Grotesque RomanettoKl'ma believed that philosophy cannot be limited to speaking or writing; it must be lived. This led him to embark on a lifelong pursuit of becoming God, which he equated with Absolute Will. Drawing his greatest inspiration from Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, he developed his conceps of will and radical subjectivism in numerous essays, aphorisms, prose works and plays. In Kl'ma's only full-length work of fiction, and his only work translated into English, a series of journal entries chronicles Prince Sternenhoch's descent into madness. The German empire's top aristocrat and the Kaiser's favorite, Sternenhoch become the "lowliest worm" at the hands of his wife, Helga, the Queen of Hells, yet eventually attains an ultimate state of bliss and salvation. Kl'ma explores here the paradoxical nature of pure spirituality with dark absurdist humor and comically grotesque, often obscene episodes. |
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absolutely afraid Aldebaran alive August beautiful become beneath Berlin body Bohemia castle Cisleithania cried Daemoness dark dead dear death delight divine Domažlice door dream dungeon Dvořák earth Elephant emperor eternity everything Excellency eyes face fear feel felt forest frightening German emperor German Empire ghost glass trap Gloriole hallucination happened happy hatred head heard Helga hell hocus pocus horrible horror human idiot jumped kick killed kiss Klíma Kuhmist LADISLAV KLÍMA lady laughed least legs light Lion live longer look lunatic never night once perhaps Podex romanus Prague district Prince Sternenhoch pulled Radiance ragpicker revolting revulsion roared Saustein sitting sleeping Smíchov someone soul stupid suddenly Sufferings of Prince tears terrible thing thought thrash tomorrow tower Twisted Spoon Press Vavrečka voice Vršovice Vysočany walked whole woman wretched yesterday Zbraslav