Gerard Reve

Infobox Writer
name = Gerard Reve


imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym = Simon van het Reve Darger Taveherven
birthdate = December 14, 1923
birthplace = Amsterdam, Netherlands
deathdate = April 8, 2006
deathplace = Zulte, Belgium
occupation = Writer
nationality = Dutch
period =
genre = novels, short stories, poems, letters, speeches
subject =
movement =
influences =
influenced =


website = Refimprove|date=March 2008

Gerard Kornelis van het Reve (born December 14, 1923 in Amsterdam, Netherlands – died April 8, 2006 in Zulte, Belgium) was a Dutch writer. He adopted a shortened version of his name, Gerard Reve in 1973, and that is how he is known today. Together with W.F. Hermans and Harry Mulisch, he is considered one of the "Great Three" of Dutch post-war literature. His 1981 novel "De vierde man" was the basis for Paul Verhoeven's 1983 film.

Reve was one of the first homosexuals to have come out in the Netherlands.citation |last=Wood |first=Robert |title=Reve, Gerard |url=http://www.glbtq.com/literature/reve_g.html |periodical=glbtq.com |year=2002 |accessdate=2007-10-24] He often wrote explicitly about intercourse between men, which many readers considered to be shocking. However, he did this in an ironic, humorous and recognizable way, that did something to make homosexuality acceptable for many of his readers. Another main theme, often in combination with eroticism, was religion. Reve himself declared that the primary message in all of his work was salvation from the material world we live in.

Themes

He often insisted that homosexuality was merely a motive in his work, the deeper theme being the inadequacy of human love (as opposed to divine love). Since the publication of "Op weg naar het einde" (Towards the end) (1963) and "Nader tot U" (Nearer to Thee) (1966). marking his breakthrough to a large audience, he articulated his views on God's creation and the human fate, especially in the many collections of letters that he published. These writings stress symbolic understanding of religious texts as the only intellectually acceptable one, and the irrelevance of the gospel's historical truth. Religion, according to Reve, has nothing to do with the literal, the factual, the moral or the political. It has no quarrel with modern science, because religious truths and empirical facts are in different realms. The observable world has no meaning beyond comparing facts, and, while revelation may not make sense, it has meaning, and it is this meaning that Reve is after in everything he writes.

Reve's erotic prose deals partly with his own sexuality, but aims at something more universal. Reve's work often depicts sexuality as ritual. Many scenes bear a sadistic character, but this is never meant as a purpose in itself. 'Revism', term coined by him, can roughly be described as consecrating sexual acts of punishment, dedicating these acts to revered others, and, ultimately, to higher entities (God). This is again a quest for higher significance in a human act (sex) that is devoid of meaning in its material form.

Style

His style combines the formal with the colloquial, in a highly recognisable way. Similarly, his humour and often paradoxical view of the world relied on the contrast between exalted mysticism and common sense. The irony that pervades his work, together with his tendency towards extreme statements, have caused confusion among readers. Many doubted the sincerity of his conversion to the Catholic faith, although Reve remained adamant about the truthfulness of his faith, claiming his right to individual notions about religion and his personal experience of it.

Controversies

Reve's literary career was marked by many controversies. Early on, the Dutch ministry of culture intervened when Reve was to receive a grant, on grounds of the obscene nature of his work.

A member of the Dutch senate, the calvinist senator Hendrik Algra, spoke on the same subject in a plenary debate. That was the beginning of a string of scandals that didn't stop until the Belgian king Albert refused to hand out a literary prize to Reve when his partner had been charged with indecencies with minors. Reve sometimes welcomed the publicity, but also complained about his continuous struggle with authorities, public opinion and the press.

Gerard Reve was prosecuted in 1966 for allegedly breaking a law against blasphemy. In "Nader tot U" he describes the narrator's love-making to God, incarnated in a three year old mouse gray donkey. In April 1968 he was acquitted by the High Council.

He converted to Roman Catholicism and was a very liberal Roman Catholic. His performances and ridiculisations of Catholicism led to tensions in the Dutch Roman Catholic community in the 1960s. Nevertheless, he contributed as a literary advisor to a new catholic bible translation, the 'Willibrord' translation.

Reve grew up in a communist family. A main theme, along with religion and love, is his intense hatred of communism, its regimes and the tolerance toward it in leftist circles in the western world.

In 1975, he appeared at a Dutch poetry festival, wearing a swastika as well as a hammer and sickle symbol on his clothes, and read a poem that speaks of immigration in racist terms, in a quasi-solemn language that insulted many people, especially creoles from Surinam; many of them had arrived recently, on the eve of the decolonization of Surinam that was to take place in november 1975. This event led to a lot of controversy, and many people have since wondered if Reve had lost his mind, or or had been alluding to something else. In the face of a wave of criticism Reve did not move an inch, and his claims of being 'too intelligent to be a racist' and never wanting to inflict any harm on any racial ground, partly got lost in the confusion inherent to his ever-present irony.

During the last years of his life, he began to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, and he succumbed to it on April 8, 2006 at the age of 82.

Gerard Reve was the brother of the slavist and essayist Karel van het Reve, who became a staunch anti-communist in his own way; however, the personal rapport between the brothers was not good. They broke up altogether in the 1980's.

Bibliography

* "De avonden" ("The evenings", 1947)
* "Werther Nieland" (1949)
* "De ondergang van de familie Boslowits" ("The fall of the Boslowits family", 1950)
* "Tien vrolijke verhalen" ("Ten happy stories", 1961)
* "Vier Wintervertellingen" ("Four Winter Tales", 1963)
* "Op weg naar het einde" ("Approaching the end", 1963)
* "Nader tot U" ("Nearer to Thee", 1966)
* "De taal der liefde" ("The language of love", 1972)
* "Lieve jongens" ("Dear boys", 1973)
* "Een circusjongen" ("A circus boy", 1975)
* "Brieven aan kandidaat katholiek A. 1962-1969" ("Letters to candidate Catholic A. 1962-1969, 1976)
* " Oud en eenzaam" ("Old and lonely", 1978)
* "Brieven aan Wimie" ("Letters to Wimie", 1980)
* "Moeder en zoon" ("Mother and son", 1980)
* "Brieven aan Bernard S." ("Letters to Bernard S.", 1981)
* "De vierde man" ("The Fourth Man", 1981)
* "Brieven aan Josine M." ("Letters to Josine M.", 1981)
* "Brieven aan Simon C. 1971-1975" ("Letters to Simon C. 1971-1975", 1982)
* "Brieven aan Wim B. 1968-1975" ("Letters to Wim B. 1968-1975", 1983)
* "Brieven aan Frans P. 1965-1969" ("Letters to Frans P. 1965-1969, 1984)
* "De stille vriend" ("The silent friend", 1984)
* "Brieven aan geschoolde arbeiders" ("Letters to educated workers", 1985)
* "Zelf schrijver worden" ("Becoming a writer yourself", 1985)
* "Brieven aan Ludo P. 1962-1980" ("Letters to Ludo P. 1962-1980", 1986)
* "Bezorgde ouders" ("Parents Worry", 1988)
* "Brieven aan mijn lijfarts 1963-1980" ("Letters to my personal physician 1963-1980", 1991)
* "Brieven aan een aardappeleter" ("Letters to a potato eater", 1993)
* "Op zoek" ("Searching", 1995)
* "Het boek van violet en dood" ("The book of violet and death", 1996)
* "Ik bak ze bruiner" ("I bake them browner", 1996)
* "Brieven aan Matroos Vosch" ("Letters to Matroos Vosch", 1997)
* "Het hijgend hert" ("The panting deer", 1998)

In English

* "The Acrobat" (Written in English, 1956)
* "Parents Worry" ("Bezorgde ouders", 1990)

References

External links

* http://www.nadertotreve.nl/ (Dutch website)
* http://www.erikweijers.nl/pages/translations/literature/reves-raleigh.php (analysis and quotes, in English, of "Old and lonely" - the not yet translated 1978 book)
*http://www.klaaskoppe.nl/overzichtreve.htm (Photos)