Bernhard’s own attackers were right in calling him Nestbeschmutzer – one who dirties his nest. […] Bernhard fouled his nest only to draw attention to the fact that his nest, their nest, was already a sewer. He dirtied Austria, but in dirtying it showed how much dirt was already there to be found. He dirtied Austria by demolishing the moral high ground of his key protagonists. His ugly complainers undermine the ground upon which they stand. […] Gordon dirtied his nest in a similar way, I decided. I could see that quite clearly. He lamented the obliterators and killers, as Gordon underlined, who were everywhere killing and obliterating the landscape of education, whilst being a killer himself. Gordon underlined these points in Extinction, and saw aspects of his university (my university) in Bernhard’s description of Wolfsegg. It’s highest occupant, the father (our professoriate), did not think any more. Only reacted. 

Ansgar Allen: The Sick List, Boiler House Press 2021, S. 70.