
W.G. Sebald and the Malthusian Tragic - samclemens
https://themillions.com/2018/03/the-malthusian-tragic.html
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bookofjoe
When I read the news that Sebald had died in an automobile accident at the age
of 57
([https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/17/guardianobituar...](https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/dec/17/guardianobituaries.books1)),
I was so sad. A magnificent author who likely would have won the Nobel Prize.

~~~
zwieback
Recently his name kept popping up so I decided to read Austerlitz. I don't
read enough books in German, which is my mother tongue, so I thought I'd give
it a try but, honestly, it's a slog. Lots of interesting bits but the language
is too pretentious and strained for my taste.

I wonder if he's better in English, will give it a try.

~~~
bookofjoe
Interesting observation. It has never occurred to me until I read your comment
that something could be better after translation than in the original.

------
leoc
> One such contraption is a teas-maid, a kind of physical portmanteau of an
> alarm clock and a tea-making machine that starts boiling the water right
> before it wakes you.

The word is 'Teasmade' ("tea's made") not 'teas-maid'.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasmade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasmade)
. They were probably never quite mainstream and fully accepted in the UK, but
they certainly did sell pretty well for decades. They seem to have fallen by
the wayside over the past roughly two decades, but they're still notable as,
effectively, one of the earliest and most successful IoT gadgets.

~~~
zwieback
I still have a Chef's Choice "TeaMate" stored in the basement. Interesting
machine - it makes a samovar-style brew where it steeps a concentrate for 5
minutes and then dumps that into the pot and dilutes it with the remaining
water in the tank.

Given that it takes about 5 minutes to make tea with an electric kettle it's
not really worth the trouble, though.

