The book Jorgy’s Shorts has recently been released. In our opinion, the book succeeds in its aim, but perhaps you’d like to judge for yourself. This is possible, because this preview gives you the chance to read the first short story.
1. Dark Brown Coffee
Still sleepy from the intense night, Jorgy walks into the kitchen, turns on the coffee machine, and then turns on the radio in the living room. When he returns to the kitchen, he looks into the garden and sees a stranger crouching there. What is that? He runs into the garden and asks the loudly groaning pooper what he is doing. “Well, if your dog shits in my garden, I’ll do the same in yours.” “Don’t be ridiculous, man, my dog doesn’t shit on gravel. What idiotic behavior.” “What, are you calling me crazy?” “Certainly not, I’m trying to place your work in a broader context of art movements. I’d rather not waste too many words on your behavior. Wait, I’ll get you a bag so you can clean up right away.” This makes the moaner so angry that he poops in his own pants. “Who do you think you are?” he yells. “The resident?” Jorgy asks calmly. “Should I throw it at your house?” “That’s an option,” says Jorgy as he hands the moaner a bag and some toilet paper. He walks back inside, off to get some coffee. What madness.
He drinks his cup of coffee and, while listening to the radio, sees that the moaner is cleaning up and leaving his garden after all. Partly because of the music, his thoughts return to the salon. This is what he calls the gathering of people who do not know each other in his living room. It was a good start, still a little shy with a bit of spice here and there. The participants got to know each other, just as he had intended, and had enjoyed themselves immensely. Jorgy had not ventured to hope that everyone would participate so quickly and easily.
The game is well designed, now it’s time to see it grow and find new people who want to join in. It deserves to be emulated. Jorgy is the type who likes to emphasize the positive aspects and sometimes turns a blind eye to any shortcomings. As he himself says, “hope springs eternal.” We all make mistakes; we must learn from them, not just to serve as a basis for criticism. And making mistakes is something Jorgy is good at. His enthusiasm and, above all, his expectation that everyone shares it with him have often gotten in his way. And then it’s time to cry it out, start over, and keep going, especially keep going.It is getting warmer outside, and Jorgy opts to take a short walk along the river and then across the old bridge into the city. The river water flows rapidly through the old arches, and Jorgy enjoys the sounds from the city. As he walks, he gathers inspiration for the next salon. When will he organize it, what will they work on, and how will they do it? He tries to temper his own impatience and decides not to organize anything for the time being.
There are plenty of other things that demand his attention, although this is difficult for him right now. He is now at the library, preparing a stack of newspapers to pore over. He orders a coffee and, as usual, strikes up a conversation with the coffee lady. “Yes, I’m doing well, and I enjoy working here. The coffee corner has made the library much more pleasant.” For a moment, Jorgy sits alone at the reading table and has time to go through the newspapers. As always, he is looking for that one interesting article. The harvest is meager today, and he is quickly finished.
MusikRoel music recommendation: Schubert — Trout Quintet (Forellen-Quintett)
Because the story is like the music: light-footed, conversational, full of movement and rippling flow, playful, lyrical, optimistic, and driven by motion rather than conflict, even when it reflects on darker tones, it never becomes heavy. It keeps swimming forward. Most people know the fourth movement (“Die Forelle”), which builds on variation, circular motion, repetition with change, and a feeling of life flowing on. It’s music about moving through life, not dominating it.
Jorgy is a Forellen-Quintet character, he behaves like a Schubert protagonist. Because he is: slightly naïve, curious, fundamentally optimistic, socially open, easily distracted, always moving toward the next idea, tolerant of absurdity, and forgiving of human nonsense. Even when encountering literal madness in the garden, he reacts not with rage but with calm irony, generosity, and absurd politeness. This is pure Schubert energy. The Forellen-Quintet never dramatizes conflict. It absorbs it into the flow of life. So does Jorgy.
The walk along the river is crucial, the river is the music. “The river water flows rapidly through the old arches, and Jorgy enjoys the sounds from the city.” This reflects the quintet’s constant motion, the arpeggios flowing like water, the piano lines bubbling just like the current, and the strings moving in gentle counterpoint. The Forellen-Quintet is built like a river: always moving, constantly changing, and never stopping to judge. Jorgy doesn’t stop to judge either. He moves on.
The salon is the heart of the story and will return in other short stories. The quintet and salon are chamber music: intimate, social, cooperative, conversational, and playful. Just like Jorgy’s salon, where people meet, interact, experiment, learn, and appreciate each other’s presence. Schubert wrote the Forellen-Quintet for friends, not concert halls. It is music for rooms, not stages. Jorgy is building exactly that: a living room of ideas.
Coffee appears repeatedly in this story: morning coffee, library coffee, coffee lady, café culture. This is important. The quintet is not heroic music. It is daily-life music. It belongs with: walking, thinking, conversing, working, and reflecting. Coffee becomes the modern equivalent of Schubert’s Vienna cafés, places where art and life mix naturally.
The Forellen-Quintet’s theme-and-variations movement takes a simple melody and runs it through strange, playful transformations. The pooping stranger is a grotesque variation on human behavior. It is: absurd, confrontational, ridiculous, and tragicomic. And Jorgy responds like Schubert’s music would: calm with humor and patience. The music never attacks. It flows around obstacles.
The quintet expresses a worldview: Life is strange, sometimes ridiculous, often beautiful, and always moving. So does this story. Where Jorgy: accepts chaos, continues dreaming, reflects but doesn’t freeze, keeps walking and organizing, and keeps hoping. That final line seals it: “And then it’s time to cry it out, start over, and keep going, especially keep going.” That is the Forellen-Quintet in words.
Both story and music embody optimism without blindness, movement free of aggression, reflection without paralysis, sociability without pretension, and humor without cruelty. They are works about living gently but persistently.
How Aristotle would analyze the situation
First, how does he think about the situation itself? For Aristotle, this is not a “strange anecdote” but a moral test embedded in everyday life. Ethics happens not in grand decisions but in how one responds to the unexpected, the base, and the unreasonable. The garden scene is a clash between rational order (like Jorgy’s household, property, speech) and akratic disorder (loss of self-control, impulsive retaliation) invoked by the uninvited guest’s behavior. The question is not who is right, but who acts in accordance with reason under pressure.
Second, what does he say about the stranger (the pooper)? Aristotle would see him as a textbook case of akrasia (weakness of will): while he acts from anger and imagined grievance, not from deliberation. And he has is an instrumental but false reasoning: “If your dog does X, I may do X.” He mistakes retaliation for justice, a common ethical error Aristotle warns against. Aristotle would say: This man is not evil by calculation, but morally immature, ruled by passion.
Third, how does he look at Jorgy’s behavior? He’d find him more interesting without simply praising him. He would compliment Joirgy on maintaining rational speech in the face of insult, for not escalating conflict, and trying to find a solution, not victory.
However, Aristotle would notice a subtle excess because Jorgy’s calm borders on irony rather than moral seriousness, and his aesthetic reframing (“art movements”) risks detachment from the moral weight of the act. Offering the bag is virtuous, but also slightly didactic; Jorgy instructs rather than meets the other at his level. This places Jorgy close to virtue and, guided by reason. But still learning when and how much reason to display. Aristotle would say: Jorgy possesses practical wisdom in action, but not yet in timing (kairos).
Aristotle would see continuity of character in the larger pattern (salon, hope, walking, library. Jorgy is a man of initiative and hope, valuable, but risky. And his tendency to “turn a blind eye to shortcomings” suggests a habitual leaning toward optimism beyond measure. This is not a vice yet, but it needs education by experience.
Practical wisdom is not a rule, but a trained sensitivity to situations. The river walk and postponement of action would be praised: Jorgy restrains his impulse and he allows thought to mature before action. That is phronēsis at work.
