Karl Tubutsch introduces himself as a man who possesses almost nothing beyond his name, yet his inner world is a vast, hollow landscape. He drifts through days that blur together, each marked only by trivial mishaps—a broken shoelace, a missing button—while he wrestles with an inexplicable sense of emptiness. Rather than succumbing to melancholy, he turns this monotony into a peculiar kind of curiosity, cataloguing the oddities he encounters.
His imagination transforms the mundane into a personal laboratory. When a city guard smells faintly of roses, Tubutsch launches an impromptu investigation, pondering whether scented officers are a new ordinance or a singular quirk. He sketches out essays on everything from the fragrance of law‑enforcement to the impossibility of a green mammal, all while searching for a spark that might disturb his static existence. The narrative follows his eccentric, almost childlike, quest to find meaning in the smallest details of everyday life.
Language
de
Duration
~1 hours (59K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Jens Sadowski
Release date
2011-07-20
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1886–1950
A restless voice of early 20th-century Expressionism, this Austrian-born writer was known for fiercely anti-bourgeois poetry and a strong fascination with Chinese culture and literature. Exile, war, and displacement shaped both his life and the sharp, searching tone of his work.
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