A Hunger Artist | Page 4

more time with him, to
see whether he could still re-discover the old interest here and there. It
was all futile. It was as if a secret agreement against the fasting
performances had developed everywhere. Naturally, it couldn't really
have happened all at once, and people later remembered some things
which in the days of intoxicating success they hadn't paid sufficient
attention to, some inadequately suppressed indications, but now it was
too late to do anything to counter them. Of course, it was certain that
the popularity of fasting would return once more someday, but for
those now alive that was no consolation. What was the hunger artist to

do now? A man whom thousands of people had cheered on could not
display himself in show booths at small fun fairs. The hunger artist was
not only too old to take up a different profession, but was fanatically
devoted to fasting more than anything else. So he said farewell to the
impresario, an incomparable companion on his life's road, and let
himself be hired by a large circus. In order to spare his own feelings, he
didn't even look at the terms of his contract at all.
A large circus with its huge number of men, animals, and gimmicks,
which are constantly being let go and replenished, can use anyone at
any time, even a hunger artist, provided, of course, his demands are
modest. Moreover, in this particular case it was not only the hunger
artist himself who was engaged, but also his old and famous name. In
fact, given the characteristic nature of his art, which was not diminished
by his advancing age, one could never claim that a worn out artist, who
no longer stood at the pinnacle of his ability, wanted to escape to a
quiet position in the circus. On the contrary, the hunger artist declared
that he could fast just as well as in earlier times -- something that was
entirely credible. Indeed, he even affirmed that if people would let him
do what he wanted -- and he was promised this without further ado --
he would really now legitimately amaze the world for the first time, an
assertion which, however, given the mood of the time, which the
hunger artist in his enthusiasm easily overlooked, only brought smiles
from the experts.
However, basically the hunger artist had not forgotten his sense of the
way things really were, and he took it as self-evident that people would
not set him and his cage up as the star attraction somewhere in the
middle of the arena, but would move him outside in some other readily
accessible spot near the animal stalls. Huge brightly painted signs
surrounded the cage and announced what there was to look at there.
During the intervals in the main performance, when the general public
pushed out towards the menagerie in order to see the animals, they
could hardly avoid moving past the hunger artist and stopping there a
moment. They would perhaps have remained with him longer, if those
pushing up behind them in the narrow passage way, who did not
understand this pause on the way to the animal stalls they wanted to see,

had not made a longer peaceful observation impossible. This was also
the reason why the hunger artist began to tremble at these visiting hours,
which he naturally used to long for as the main purpose of his life. In
the early days he could hardly wait for the pauses in the performances.
He had looked forward with delight to the crowd pouring around him,
until he became convinced only too quickly -- and even the most
stubborn, almost deliberate self-deception could not hold out against
the experience -- that, judging by their intentions, most of these people
were, again and again without exception, only visiting the menagerie.
And this view from a distance still remained his most beautiful moment.
For when they had come right up to him, he immediately got an earful
from the shouting of the two steadily increasing groups, the ones who
wanted to take their time looking at the hunger artist, not with any
understanding but on a whim or from mere defiance -- for him these
ones were soon the more painful -- and a second group of people whose
only demand was to go straight to the animal stalls.
Once the large crowds had passed, the late comers would arrive, and
although there was nothing preventing these people any more from
sticking around for as long as they wanted, they rushed past with long
strides, almost without a sideways glance, to get to the animals in time.
And it was an all-too-rare stroke of luck when the father of a family
came by with his children, pointed his finger at the hunger