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The Egghead Republic

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The Egghead Republic
AuthorArno Schmidt
Original titleDie Gelehrtenrepublik
TranslatorMichael Horovitz
LanguageGerman
PublisherStahlberg Verlag [de]
Publication date
1957
Publication placeWest Germany
Published in English
1979
Pages225

The Egghead Republic (German: Die Gelehrtenrepublik), also published as Republica Intelligentsia,[1] is a 1957 novel by the German writer Arno Schmidt.

Plot[edit]

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.[2][3]

Reception[edit]

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".[2]

Adaptations[edit]

The Swedish film The Egghead Republic was shot in 2023. The film is loosely based on the novel and set in Kazakhstan.[4]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Adler, Jeremy (8 January 1995). "Time, Space and Pocahontas". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b West, Paul (16 August 1980). "Bawdy Romps with a German Clown Prince". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  3. ^ Adams, Robert M. (5 March 1981). "Devil's Brew". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  4. ^ 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[edit]

  • 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.
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