Tim Krabbe wrote an incredibly chilling story in 1984 called The Golden Egg that ended up as movie in 1988 called The Vanishing. So strong was the story that it was remade by Hollywood in 1993 and was still a pretty good movie – even though Sandra Bullock and Kiefer Sutherland were in it. Ergo Tim Krabbe must be a pretty strong writer.
In 1978 he wrote a cycling story called The Rider, and if you haven’t read it, it’s short and most definitely worth reading. This quote surfaces from time to time:
“The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you.’ Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.”
Kind of an eloquent HTFU, no?