Local Anaesthetic

Starusch, a bachelor aged forty teaching "German and history" (two inseparable subjects), undergoes protracted treatment by a dentist who uses TV to distract his patients. Gagged in his chair, the patient projects onto the screen his past and present with the fluidiy and visual quality of the moveis. Reality and fantasy, the actual and the repressed, overrun the screen in a mirror image of German history. Thus among other episodes we see Krings, one of Hitler's most ferocious "fight-to-the-finish" generals, return from Russian captivity and engage in sandbox reconstructions of German's battles, determined to win them this time. In a casual throwaway, the author reveals his true identity - Field Marshal Schoener.