my thoughts on the piano teacher (the book)
(beware of spoilers)
i'm angry with myself. i just finished the piano teacher and had the dumbest idea — to read some of its reviews on goodreads. i regretted it within the first ten seconds.
i've been obsessing over this book throughout the past week. erika kohut is in trouble. repressed by her mother, erika mistakes love for submission. she can't tell the difference. she lived thirty years like this, so it's a hard pattern to break. she sneaks out, buys clothes that she'll never wear, watches people having the kind of sex she never had. she's a beautifully flawed character with an inflated sense of superiority. she was born to serve the arts. she was born to be great. and she has failed.
and then comes walter klemmer, her student. a man (not unlike many men) who sees women only as a means to an end. he wants to fuck his piano teacher. he wants her really bad.
sometimes we read books that teach us about patriarchy, feminism, violence. theory is important. but few books can make you feel what it's like to be on the receiving end of male hatred. i think the piano teacher does this in the most exciting way. the metaphors are dry and weird. the style is disconnected, almost clinical. we invade erika k's privacy. we become privy to her thoughts. we get to be little voyeurs watching her expose the most vicious and dirty parts of herself in painfully slow detail. we know there's no happy ending for erika k because we live in the same world that she does.
i was waiting for things to go wrong, and they did. that's what happens when you read a freaky little book: freaky little things happen. if you don't like freaky little things, go read whatever slop hank green has churned out. i wouldn't recommend this read to my mum, or to most of my friends. but that doesn't mean i haven't enjoyed every disturbed second i spent reading it.
walter klemmer is a good reminder that some men don't love women. they love controlling us. they love when we make them feel good about themselves. they love telling us what to do. they love our holes and ejaculating inside them. they want us the same way they want their dogs. obedient. hygienic. presentable. they don't want us to embarrass them with our ideas. and, most importantly, they hate when we desire for more. it makes them feel small and pathetic. it makes them feel like they lack control. it makes them want to hurt us. walter klemmer hated erika kohut because she wanted to be controlled by him, and that made him feel like she was controlling him. walter klemmer can't have an "old" lady (she's not even 40!!!) making him feel inferior.
that's similar in sentiment to a lot of these goodreads reviews. except elfriede jelinek can actually write. here are some screenshots.
for a much better commentary on the piano teacher, check out this article.