A Wagner library is kept out of Bayreuth
mainGottfried Wagner, black-sheep son of the Wolfgang dynasty, has donated his books and papers to the Zurich public library, it was disclosed today.
Gottfried, who is 70 this week, has written extensively about the antisemitism of the Wagner family and its complicity in Hitler’s crimes.
The self-hating Wagner who’s made a lucrative career out of slandering the rest of the family, peddling a distorted view of Wagner’s operas, and playing the guilty German shtick to the hilt for the media.
Self hating? prove
A lucrative career? prove
Peddling a distorted view? prove
Playing the guilty German? prove
That means supplying proof.
Not slander. Proof.
Run along, now.
I am not the slightest bit interested in the Wagner family (which seems to believe that genius is passed along through the generations), neither do I wish to spend my summer days in some German backwater, sitting on wooden chairs and participating in a pseudo-religious opera festival – however, you only have to ask yourself one question: would Gottfried W. be of any interest to anybody if he weren’t related to Richard W.? Of course he wouldn’t.
Whether his career is lucrative is a matter of conjecture, however the only reason he has one is his name.
And yet I have had a career and my name is neither Wagner nor Brecht
nor Kennedy nor Bush nor Windsor nor Hohenzollern nor Churchill
nor Thatcher nor Tolstoy nor Dickens nor Trollope nor Habsburg nor Hindemith.. Also I am of some interest to certain people despite having no prominent family.
Have I somehow blundered onto holy ground where I have no business being?
One plays the hand one is dealt regardless, and if one’s relations are well know, what of it? We can all use a friendly hand.
Gottfried is no self-hater. He is a charming and intelligent individual who is happily free from all of the hang-ups and nastier aspects of his family’s well-known propensities. In terms of his rejection by those members of his family ensconced in Bayreuth, I would recommend Groucho Marx’s attitude to those who would accept him among their number.
Yes
“I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member.”