Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff - Works

Works

In his earliest published literature, Erwin Neutzsky-Wulff builds up his own literary universe. The Dialog om det 21. århundredes to vigtigste verdenssystemer, (1971), is a philosophical dialogue modelled on the classical style of Galileo Galilei's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. The plot is set in a not too distant future, where a Danish civil war has broken out. The reader is witnessing a debate between three persons, one representing a new humanistic view on mankind and its new ideology (or anti-ideology), called Wulffianism. Wulffianism is anarchic in the word's real sense, entailing an accept of violence as a mean and denial of modern civilization. This, as expected, caused severe public controversy. Other books from this early period of the authorship are anthologies of essays and poems, and mainly appear as supplements to the mentioned dialogues. All of Neutzsky-Wulff's poetry is in rhyme, metrical with a touch of subtle pastiche.

With the episodic novel Adam Harts Opdagelser <5> (1972), Neutzsky-Wulff began to find his style and obtained henceforth crowds of fans. The book's protagonists are Adam Hart and his partner Victor Janis, both working as "occult detectives". An ironically rendered Neutzsky-Wulff himself also appears in a more secondary role. The series continues with the episodic Adam Hart og sjælemaskinen <6> (1977) Victor Janis og søn <7> (1977), both representing a more conventional novel structure, and ends with an experimental novel, Oiufael (1977), mainly written on verse. An episode from Adam Hart og sjælemaskinen was adapted as the short film Adam Hart i Sahara (1990), based on his own screenplay.

Though sometimes he breaks the traditional conventions of the genre, Neutzsky-Wulff sees himself as an author of science fiction. He emphasizes the genre as the most prominent stage of artistic interpretations of the mythology of our time. Anno Domini (1975) tells the story of an astronaut on a strange planet, experiencing a macrohistorical version of the evolution of humankind. In Gud <8> (1976), the classical form of science fiction itself, is challenged: A group of people are, by means of an alien vessel, heading towards the planet of God. With Den 33. marts <9> (1977), the plot is altered from outer to "inner space", a platform resembling that of an American author of science fiction, Philip K. Dick. A person living in the 1970s Copenhagen discovers effects of society as mere stage equipment. Library books are empty and he is trapped within city borders. In a sanitarium, this person "hallucinates" about another world where he features as an awaited Messiah. Havet <10> (1978) is, like Anno Domini and Gud, a novel about space travel. The supernatural setting pivots around the cards of Tarok. In Menneske <11> (1982), a computer independently achieves consciousness and decides to find out what existence as a human being is like. Consequently, it embarks on a stone age odyssey, following the history of man, ending in a parody of the 1970s of Denmark.