Author | Arno Schmidt |
---|---|
Original title | Die Gelehrtenrepublik |
Translator | Michael Horovitz |
Language | German |
Publisher | Stahlberg Verlag [de] |
Publication date | 1957 |
Publication place | West Germany |
Published in English | 1979 |
Pages | 225 |
The Egghead Republic (German: Die Gelehrtenrepublik), also published as Republica Intelligentsia, is a 1957 novel by the German writer Arno Schmidt.
Plot
It is the year 2008 and Earth has suffered a devastating nuclear war. The American journalist Charles Henry Winer is sent to report from the Western United States and visits two major locations. In a desert of Arizona, he encounters mutants and experimental hybrid creatures. He has a love affair with a female centaur named Thalia. On a floating island at the Pacific Ocean, he visits the International Republic of Artists and Scientists, where residents tell him about how they preserve and transplant human brains.
Reception
Paul West of The Washington Post wrote that the novel is "sheer, complex fun" and offers "Schmidt as his feistiest, his most ingenious, and his most captivating".
Adaptations
The Swedish film The Egghead Republic was shot in 2023. The film is loosely based on the novel and set in Kazakhstan.
See also
References
- Adler, Jeremy (8 January 1995). "Time, Space and Pocahontas". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
- ^ West, Paul (16 August 1980). "Bawdy Romps with a German Clown Prince". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
- Adams, Robert M. (5 March 1981). "Devil's Brew". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
- Ntim, Zac (18 May 2023). "Pella Kågerman And Hugo Lilja's 'Egghead Republic' Casts Tyler Labine, Ella Rae Rappaport & Arvin Kananian; Production Begins In Sweden". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
Further reading
- Helmes, Günter (1988). "Von 'Formindalls' und anderen 'Hominiden'. Überlegungen zu Arno Schmidts 'Die Gelehrtenrepublik'". In Schardt, Michael Matthias (ed.). Arno Schmidt. Das Frühwerk II (in German). Aachen: Rader Verlag. pp. 216–255. ISBN 3-924007-44-6.
- 1957 German novels
- German science fiction novels
- Novels by Arno Schmidt
- German post-apocalyptic novels
- Novels about nuclear war and weapons
- German novels adapted into films
- Novels set in Arizona
- Novels set in the Western United States
- Fiction set in 2008
- Novels set in the 2000s
- Novels about journalists
- Novels set on fictional islands
- Fictional floating islands
- 1957 science fiction novels