Doing a bit of cultural research. It has me following twisting paths and turning into blind alleys. I sure miss the days when there were a lot of Wikipedia "disambiguation" entries; so handy when, as happened to me all this week, I run into books, movies, or people called the same thing, and/or one thing called by more than one name. Since Wikipedia offers less sorting out of one thing from another, that leaves me to do the job in the next couple of weeks.
I begin with this early jazz dance band number, popular around 1930. I bumped into the 78 rpm record of this song playing on the internet while working on an ongoing project based on 20th century history. It's a catchy little number!
The German-language title translates to "Mr. Lehmann, Mr. Lehmann, What Was Your Wife Doing in Marienbad?" Marienbad, as you may know, is a resort town in the country I grew up calling Czechoslovakia, but which is now called the Czech Republic.
The natural springs in the area became part of many spas and health resorts. As you might guess from the mocking title of the song above, all those tourists visiting Marienbad are getting massages and sunning themselves and soaking in the hot springs. Health resorts or not, the three spa towns in this part of the Czech Republic had a racy reputation, perhaps a bit like the French Riviera.
If you've ever lived somewhere that had art cinemas which showed foreign films, then you know the film title "Last Year in Mairenbad." This 1961 movie has ambiguous characters within a floating plot line, and is famous for its striking visuals.
The website Bright Lights Film Journal notes in this article that in 1953, "Marienbad" screenwriter Alain Robbe-Grillet , "asked his editor at Critique magazine if he could write about an interesting Argentinean novel." Bright Lights goes on to describe the script of "Last Year at Marienbad" as "theft."
Curious about The Invention of Morel? I am, especially because Argentina just won the World Cup. Also, the plot of Morel has been compared to the TV series "Lost," which was such a cultural phenomenon when it was on television. There's a book review for The Invention of Morel on YouTube:
A film adaptation of Morel was released in 1967, six years after "Last Year at Marienbad."
See what I meant about the need for disambiguation? Already, things are getting a bit complex. Also, you may be noting that "Herr Lehmann, Herr Lehmann," the song which mentions the town of Marienbad, has German lyrics and was popular around 1930. Surely there was stuff here around politics and culture, right? Yes, there was.
To help us sort it out, we have a number of books -- um, wait, some of these have the same title. Argh. It's all getting more ambiguous, not less so. We'll revisit this next week.
Next week: An attempt to untangle it all
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