Gute Regie ist besser als Treue!
Wann wird es endlich wieder so, wie es nie war“Gute Regie ist besser als Treue!” is a maxim the narrator recalls while speaking with his father. Its force in the scene lies both in its confident preference for direction over fidelity and in the narrator’s immediate uncertainty about how that principle might be applied.
The Saying in Context
The narrator introduces the line as something once said by a figure he describes as a poet, a doctor, and a pig, without naming that person in this passage. He calls the sentence not bad, then hesitates over how to put it into practice. The expression therefore arrives as an attractive principle, not a settled instruction: its meaning depends on what “good direction” would require and what fidelity might be set aside.
The Bedside Scene
The maxim is spoken in an intimate exchange with the narrator’s father. After wondering how the saying should be understood, the narrator says he will turn out the light, crawls from beneath his father’s blanket, kisses his bald head, and returns to his childhood room. He stays with his father for two more days and arranges for Margret to cook. In this setting, the expression sits beside acts of tenderness and practical care; the passage does not explain whether the narrator applies it to their relationship or to any particular decision.
