Mars (Fritz Zorn)

For other uses, see Mars (disambiguation).

Mars is an autobiographical essay written by Fritz Angst under the pseudonym Fritz Zorn. Adolf Muschg wrote its long and engaged foreword.

In the book, written by the author after he was diagnosed with cancer, Zorn describes and criticizes his environment and entourage, and his upbringing in one of the wealthiest lakeshore neighborhoods of Zurich, Switzerland, where he claims to have been “educated to death.” The book mainly contains the theory that cancer can be caused by a neurosis. Zorn laments his “unlived life”: though he apparently became successful in the eyes of the bourgeoisie (he attended university and became a teacher), his whole life was "wrong." He suffered from depression and never had friends or a girlfriend. The book was published in 1976, and it has been translated into several languages. Alex and Daniel Varenne developed a comic book based on the book in 1988, and Darius Peyamiras wrote and directed a play drawn from it in 2001.

Film reference

In Claire Denis' 35 rhums, Julieth Mars Toussaint's character Rene returns this book to his friend, Alex Descas' character Lionel. In the film, Rene is despondent after his recent retirement and believes he does not have the life in himself to live the rest of his years.

References

• Fritz Zorn: "Mars". 226 Pages, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 22. Edition 2000 ISBN 3-596-22202-8