It's hard to overstate how beloved comedian Hape Kerkeling is in Germany, and with this new book, he adds a second part to his autobiographical projecIt's hard to overstate how beloved comedian Hape Kerkeling is in Germany, and with this new book, he adds a second part to his autobiographical project that launched with Der Junge muss an die frische Luft: Meine Kindheit und ich about his mother's suicide. "Gebt mir etwas Zeit" is a memoir about his coming-of-age as a gay man - he was prominently outed against his will on live television by Rosa von Praunheim in 1991 - and the death of his Dutch boyfriend who suffered from AIDS during the height of the crisis, this being a part of Kerkeling's life he has never spoken of before. These narrative arcs are intertwined with genealogical research findings the entertainer has dug up during COVID, and he enriches these episodes with his imaginings of how his ancestors behaved, talked, what they felt and experienced.
This is a good concept, although personally, I have to admit that the parts linked directly to Hape were way more interesting to me. But still, as I listened to the audio book read by the author, I enjoyed every minute of the book, as I love listening to Kerkeling, an upright guy who has seen quite a lot and is a German national treasure for a reason....more
Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 Already heard an excerpt at the Döblin Prize, let's see how the whole thing plays out!
NOTES: - geboren 1983, sLonglisted for the German Book Prize 2024 Already heard an excerpt at the Döblin Prize, let's see how the whole thing plays out!
NOTES: - geboren 1983, studierte Experimentalfilm und am Deutschen Literaturinstitut in Leipzig - zweiter Roman - Döblin-Preis - Sohn von Friedrich Liechtenstein (Musiker, Schauspieler, Edeka "Supergeil"-Kampagne)
- 340.000 Menschen in der Phase der großen Evakuierung werden dorthin in Raumschiffen gerettet, die am Lauf der Zeit ohnehin nichts geändert hätten - müssen sich an neue Zeit gewöhnen können, die meisten also aus dem 20. und 21. Jahrhundert - Menschen, die in ihrer Zeit bedroht oder verfolgt werden (z.b. Bauernkriege oder Hexenverfolgung) oder an Krankheiten sterben würden, die in der Zukunft geheilt werden können - Migrationsdebatte: Evakuierungen eingestellt: Es können nicht alle gerettet werden, deshalb Schuldgefühle bei den Evakuierten (survivor's guilt) - Sanatorium (100 Jahre Der Zauberberg) "Kolchis": https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolchis ( Ziel Iasons und der Argonauten auf der Suche nach dem Goldenen Vlies)
- Idee is also, dass Zeitalter aufeinander treffen - Heather, geboren 1983 aus DDR (Friedrich!!) wurde als Teenagerin aus den späten 90ern nach Kolchis evakuiert, evakuierte dann selbst Menschen und kehrt zurück, Sanatorium verfallen, weil Sanatorium eingestellt - Schamanin in Gruppensitzungen spricht über individuelle Schicksale, Heather will über Phantomerinnerungen sprechen - trifft auf Landsknecht Mathias aus Bauernkriegen: andere Haltung - Zeiten fallen ineinander, verschobene Lebenszeiten, Korridore durch Epochen: Individuen gerettet aus Wirren der Epochen - Friedrich trug bei Lesung T-Shirt mit Klees "Angelus Novus", dem Engel der Geschichte / Walter Benjamin
- bessere Welt der Zukunft wird nicht ausgeschmückt, Gedankenexperiment und Kammerspiel - Unrealistisch deshalb falsch gedacht: Kein Sozialrealismus, kein SciFi - Philosophisch: Engel der Geschichte: Rückblick auf Versagen von Gesellschaften, individuelle Schuld derer, die gerettet wurden - Neue Sicht auf Geschichte durch verschiedene historische Linsen...more
I LOVED Arbeit, Nagelschmidt's last novel that showed people working in Berlin at night, allowing others to party - with "Soledad", the author turns tI LOVED Arbeit, Nagelschmidt's last novel that showed people working in Berlin at night, allowing others to party - with "Soledad", the author turns to a completely different subject: He shows a young, queer artist who immigrated to Germany and an old white man who emigrated from Germany wrestling their specific forms of loneliness (Spanish: Soleded). At the beginning of the text, photographer Alena gets dumped by her girlfriend while both are on a job in South America, because Alena struggles with anger management issues. She decides to nevertheless travel to the last stop of their route alone: Tortuga Lodge, a small hotel in Soledad, a small, remote settlement close to Capurganá in the Columbian jungle. The lodge is run by 70-year-old German expat Rainer Nack and his much younger Black Columbian wife with whom he has a small child. After her arrival, Alena acquires a serious benzo addiction (mainly Lorazepam) and spends her evenings listening to Rainer telling her his life stories, while we also get flashbacks that illuminate Alena's life as the daughter of poor Russian immigrants to Germany, with an unemployed alcoholic dad and a mother who keeps the family afloat as a cleaning lady.
And the whole thing keeps on sprawling in all directions without any clear focus: Alena has anger issues because she has tried to conform and succeed in Germany at the expense of her authentic self, and now, in Soledad, she exchanges her job of freezing moments in stills for numbness. But let's face it: The young woman is the minor character anyway, this novel is more about Rainer, the old white man who doesn't know that he's in fact famous all over the world for a photo an American photographer took of him as a young, flamboyant hippie man. We learn about his depressive father who killed himself, his sexless first marriage and his pressure to conform instead of becoming a sailor, how he then broke free from his office job to fulfill his dreams by first becoming a traveling salesman, then starting different enterprises in South American cities. Rainer serves as a narrative device that illuminates (West) Germany history after WW II, from toxic masculinity in the 50's to the sexual revolution until the prosperous 90's, when Rainer left for South America, where he now, in his 70's, ponders how to create a suitable environment for his young daughter.
Sure, one could try to search for bonds between the characters, who of course are not opposites, have both faced adversities, have both overcome obstacles, but both paid a price and are both haunted by what they experienced, in short: what connects them is mainly the universal experience that life is suffering. It's not like there is some intricate web of connections between those two, or an oscillation of similar of themes. These are the lives of two people who meet in a chamber play, and their narrative arcs are insufficiently connected, meaning that the set-up (old white man, young queer immigrant woman) leads nowhere in particular.
This text does not come together and doesn't arrive at a conclusion, and it pains me to write this, because Thorsten Nagelschmidt is an awesome, amazing dude, it's just that this novel ain't it, IMHO. Also, writing a novel mainly set in the home country of magical realism and deciding to randomly add some magical realism in the last two pages that then do not match the vibe of the 446 pages before that should be forbidden, someone call the plot police. :-)
Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 Historic research meagerly disguised as a hardcore midcult novel: Our protagonist Durga is a fifty-ish journaLonglisted for the German Book Prize 2024 Historic research meagerly disguised as a hardcore midcult novel: Our protagonist Durga is a fifty-ish journalist with Indian roots (hello, Mithu Sanyal) who travels to London to partake in a workshop at Florin Court in which the participants aim to de-colonize the work of Agatha Christie. Elizabeth II. has just died, now Belgian (even more colonialism!!) detective Hercule Poirot shall become, ähem, woke. But then, Durga, who has written some Doctor Who episodes, suddenly wakes up as a man in 1906, and she witnesses the goings-on in India House, where she meets Vinayak Savarkar, the antagonist of Mahatma Gandhi.
Sanyal lets people with different backgrounds meet, and it's the relationships between the characters that create some intrigue: Durga's German mother Lila, her Indian father Dinesh, her Scottish husband Jack, her German best friend Nena, as well as Hindu nationalist Savarkar who suddenly appears as a sexy love interest. And then, Sherlock Holmes shows up to find out who assassinated Curzon Wyllie (the murder being a real historic event), cue to The Sign of the Four.
The big trouble is that the ideas do not come together to form a coherent novel: It reads like an author researched the events at India House at the beginning of the 20th century, and then lets some characters utter her research findings. Sure, the text tries to show how attitudes and interpretations change over time, but there is not enough stringency, there are too many moving parts, and in the end, the whole novel leads nowhere. Sherlock Holmes is a stock character, Poirot is basically non-existent as a character and becomes a discursive joke in a pointless endeavor, and Savarkar also doesn't develop a three-dimensional force.
This is a bunch of ideas put together in a very long book, and I really wish I could be more excited about the text, because Mithu is amazing.
Joshi just knows his shit: His new novel deals with the faltering love between painter Helen and seismologist Lenell, and of course it's an experimentJoshi just knows his shit: His new novel deals with the faltering love between painter Helen and seismologist Lenell, and of course it's an experimental extravaganza in which it remains unclear what exactly Helen paints and what instruments Lenell would need to detect the exact tectonic rifts between him and his partner and within his severely depressed psyche. Moving from country to country while making random connections in a Rachel Cusk-like manner, Helen tries to overcome alienation and feel alive, having sex with other men and using the title-giving "drops of plasma" that allow her to keep her eyes open without blinking. Meanwhile, Lenell, her partner of eleven years, stays in Aigio, Greece, a city constantly threatened by earthquakes, haunted by suicidial depression and his struggle with prescription drugs.
After Prana Extrem, an autofictional love story, this new novel shows the end of a couple as they are torn apart by Lenell's depression that Helen can't heal, not even with her psychic powers (it's Joshua Groß, don't ask). Helen states that she is not interested in her paintings as the end of the process, but in the process itself, in moving, thinking, and creating. Lenell, who grew up in an abusive household, is trying to find stability in order not to drown in his thoughts, so much so that he even puts on an exoskeleton that is supposed to keep him from crumbling. And of course there are colorful minor characters, especially a formerly popular elderly singer and, get this, the woodpecker man, who is... *check notes* ... an outlaw with a beak?
While I have to admit that I struggled to get into this story and that I find some aspects underdeveloped (those psychic powers, e.g.), I am still in awe that Groß keeps delivering truly inventive and surprising psychological writing, how he masters the de-automatisation of perception by rendering the common in uncommon terms and adding sheer narrative insanity. It's just so daring and fun and fresh, the ultimate antidote to the lazy midcult writing that has a strong hold on contemporary literature.
The German-language literary scene can be proud to produce innovative writers like that. Groß is more and more becoming the Jesse Ball from Hildesheim, and I love it. You can listen to our podcast discussion (in German) here: https://papierstaupodcast.de/podcast/......more
When a pirated VHS library suddenly starts playing over your own childhood memories, a whole new level of meaning opens up for small-town dramas: RomaWhen a pirated VHS library suddenly starts playing over your own childhood memories, a whole new level of meaning opens up for small-town dramas: Roman Ehrlich's novel “Videotime” shows the construction of the past in the context of media staging. The protagonist returns to the small Bavarian town of his childhood to visit his father, who is suffering from dementia. Places such as the abandoned video store allow him to relive in his mind the stages of growing up in the 1990s, while the reconstruction of the past is repeatedly overlaid by the films he saw back then: his father illegally copied borrowed tapes onto VHS and amassed a considerable collection. The novel's protagonist decides to hold on to the films as an anchor of memory.
Inspired by film editing, Ehrlich employs narrative montage: In the narrated present, the protagonist delays meeting his father, with whom he has always had a difficult relationship, and instead walks to the abandoned video store of his childhood; friends and family, places and experiences from the past enter the novel via the memory of the films, the meaning of which he reinterprets from his adult perspective and through the lens of the film fictions. At the same time, the childhood scenes vividly evoke West Germany in the 1990s. An important aspect is the treatment of women and the kind of masculinity exemplified by the father, a failed soldier who drills the protagonist's brother on the tennis court. Friends from different classes create a social topography, their families illustrate different models of life in the small town at the end of the last millennium, and they too are steeped in media narratives.
The skillful montage and elegant language give the text a character all of its own, combining content and form in an innovative and convincing way. This is the kind of novel that would be deserving of the German Book Prize.
EDIT: The complete work, "The Projectors", now nominated for the German Book Prize 2024 A preview into Meyer's new 1,000-page-novel Die Projektoren, "NEDIT: The complete work, "The Projectors", now nominated for the German Book Prize 2024 A preview into Meyer's new 1,000-page-novel Die Projektoren, "Night at the Bioscope" blends the horror of the Novi Sad massacre, a war crime carried out by the Hungarian army during WW II after the occupation and annexation of former Yugoslav territories, with the fantastical images shown in movies at the time - a concept not unlike Sjón's Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was, that blends the Spanish flu with silent film imagery.
While the laments about literary midcult (so over-explained, highly accessible novels that ostentatiously deal with "important" topics) rise - and make no mistake, I'm also sick of this self-important, aesthetically lazy nonsense -, Meyer indulges in highly complex cut-up orgies, full of historic, philosophical and literary references, and frankly, I'm not yet sure whether a) Meyer, my favorite living German author, has jumped the shark, or b) I have to amp up my efforts to really digest all the things he is doing here.
Pray for me while I'm doing this level of complexity over 1,000+ pages. And pray for the German Book Prize 2024, because if they fail to nominate a daring, outrageous feat like Die Projektoren, they'll fail German-language literature....more
Now Winner of the Lessing Prize 2025 (yes, already) Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 In German, there's a saying that there's a thin line betwNow Winner of the Lessing Prize 2025 (yes, already) Shortlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 In German, there's a saying that there's a thin line between genius and insanity -and Clemens Meyer stands with one foot on each side of that line. "The Projectors" talks about war in Europe, and how the narratives that incite hate between people(s) are crafted: Who are the ones projecting their framed stories to us, and what do we make of them? But while the 1,000 page tome has a focus on WW II, the Yugoslav wars and German neo-Nazis, don't expect a social-realist text documenting history - this is Clemens Meyer doing his extravagant tried and true collage-style experimental this-is-art-deal-with-it uncompromising radical thing, and I love him for it.
Because here, Meyer blends brutal scenes of war and devastation with movies and Karl May. Why, you ask? Well: Meyer and May both hail from Saxony (unfortunately nowadays a hot spot of far-right ideology, which Meyer naturally despises), and the movie sets where the Karl-May-films were made are in former Yugoslavia and became a real-life war zone. Meyer himself is of course also a movie aficionado, and has written quite some screenplays with Thomas Stuber (the duo even won the German Screenplay Prize for "In the Aisles", based on Meyer's short story of the same name, contained in All the Lights). Several other literary texts by Meyer were turned into films as well, among them "Of Dogs and Horses" (also from All the Lights), which won the Silver Medal for Best Foreign Film at the Student Academy Awards.
"The Projectors" gives us a vast mosaic of characters in a multitude of scenes, all pieced together in a style adjacent to movie montage. One character that haunts the whole book is a guy only referred to as Cowboy, whom we meet during WW II, later becomes an extra at a Karl May movie set, then fights in the Balkans, drifting through European bloodbaths fueled by ideology and lies. His trauma casts a shadow over his experience of reality and the construction of his past, as it is increasingly mixed with various texts, narratives, images that more and more fail to provide contexts or explanations. The psychiatry in Meyer's hometown of Leipzig, the Irren-Heil- und Pflege-Anstalt Thonberg to which real Karl May was supposedly admitted, plays a crucial role here for a reason: Europe at war, it's a spectacle of people who lost their minds to projections.
And there are many more layers to this. For non-Germans, the fact that May, one of the best-selling authors ever in the language, has never been accepted as high culture is important to know (Germany with its historic Geniekult traditionally draws a very strict line between high and low culture). Now, May has also become controversial in the context of cultural appropriation and alleged racism. Last year, Meyer pondered May's legacy in his speech "Indians in Saxony: Myths and Nightmares". Apparently, this speech had many connections to the novel, and it was highly celebrated by the press (see here and here). It's the narrativization of reality, not the description of reality, that Meyer is working through in "The Projectors" - the distortion is the whole point.
Parts of "The Projectors" were already published in the novella Nacht im Bioskop about the Novi Sad massacre, a war crime carried out by Hungary during WW II after the Hungarian occupation and annexation of former Yugoslav territories. The text gives a small glimpse into the huge, ambitious project that is this monumental, crazy novel that has no fucks to give about being easily digestible or widely salable. I have the highest respect for Meyer because he is a passionate, radical storyteller, and he knows his craft like few others - not only in Germany, but in the world. What a novel.
Now Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 Bossong tells the story of how Magda Goebbels slept her way up to the first row of the Nazi state: The stNow Longlisted for the German Book Prize 2024 Bossong tells the story of how Magda Goebbels slept her way up to the first row of the Nazi state: The stepdaughter of a Jewish merchant who would later be murdered in Buchenwald, she was first engaged to Jewish socialist politician Chaim Arlosoroff before marrying industrial tycoon Günther Quandt who was a massive supporter and profiteer of the Nazis (currently, the two richest Germans are members of the Quandt dynasty). When Magda got bored from Quandt, who was double her age, she started an affair with a friend of her stepson, which led to her divorce. Two years later, she became the wife of Joseph Goebbels. You can’t make this shit up.
What Nora Bossong does make up though is the perspective of Magda’s young lover, whose true identity has remained contested. Here, his name is Hans, and he is gay and in love with Magda’s stepson, who died aged 19. To hide his homosexuality, Hans starts an affair with Magda, and we only see her through his eyes, so the eyes of an unreliable narrator who becomes a soldier and later a state worker at the Ministry of Economics. While he knows that the Nazi ideology is wrong and that he himself could be deported any time due to his sexual orientation, he is the most common type of citizen during the German Reich, part of the class that kept the slaughter running: A Mitläufer, a person who follows the pack while trying to remain in the background of history.
Hans remains directly connected to Magda in different capacities, also during her marriage to Goebbels, and as a soldier turned state official who sees Jewish people and queers around him disappear in concentration camps, he actively works for a state that aims to destroy him. He is a minor player in the grand scheme of things, but he is definitely a player, a small wheel in a big machine that is made up of millions of such small wheels.
And weak Hans and his reasonings are well-rendered, as is the social situation at the time that is illustrated in individual vignettes and destinies that stand pars pro toto. Bossong's language is once more very traditional, but also elegant and evocative. It’s super readable and interesting, BUT: A book about Magda Goebbels this is not. Not really. The only attempt to explain her allure is the statement made by Hans that the men saw themselves reflected in her, but the text does not at all tell that story, it’s just a statement that comes out of the blue. Rather, Magda appears horrible, ignorant, power-hungry and vain throughout. It’s a mystery how she became a Nazi icon, at least judging from this novel.
And that’s not enough for a novel that proclaims to tell Magda Goebbel's story. In "Reichskanzlerplatz", she remains nothing more than a chiffre....more
Do you think your country is ruled by childless cat ladies? Do you think people with kids should get more votes in elections? Do you think it's women'Do you think your country is ruled by childless cat ladies? Do you think people with kids should get more votes in elections? Do you think it's women's destiny to have children? Congratulations, you too could become a top politician in a democratic state in 2024! So in our political climate, it's obvious that Thomae's idea to write about women and their decision to become or not become mothers is timely and relevant. Which, unfortunately, leads us directly to the argument of the great Moritz Baßler regarding literary midcult: If a novel ostentatiously points to its own topical relevance, but then has no aesthetic ambition or chops and over-explains everything to make sure the point gets hammered home, it's NOT GOOD LITERATURE. And Thomae's novel does just that to an infurating degree.
Thomae's main protagonists are a radio host/podcaster and a politician, both nearing 40 and pondering whether they should remain childless. The additional cast involves all kinds of women who made all kinds of decisions to illustrate that life choices and destinies are indeed different - but Thomae does nothing except illustrating positions. Worse, she throws around the most cringeworthy clichés, like the woman who wants to change her life and ... goes to get a new haircut. Feminsim, am I right?! *facepalm* This book has no perspective of its own and no interesting characters, because there is no three-dimensional, challenging element: Readers are spoon-fed every thought, every emotion, and there is no element of suprise or relevation.
I don't know what happened here, because the topic is great and Thomae's last novel, Brüder, was captivating. But this, this is so midcult ... let's face it: It will probably get nominated for the German Book Prize.
"This book looks at feminism's diverse past, present and future from a German perspective" - nope, it kind of doesn't, really. This is mainly a memoir"This book looks at feminism's diverse past, present and future from a German perspective" - nope, it kind of doesn't, really. This is mainly a memoir mixed with tidbits regarding larger societal developments, and unfortunately, Lohaus can't really communicate her personal experiences in an interesting way, plus the historical / theoretical parts are so superficial and partly sloppy that it's probably only enlightening if you never heard about feminism. In short: This volume has nothing to add to the conversation, plus the writing is meh, clunky and grammatically dubious (no, "überhören" does not mean "overhear" - come on, Lohaus, what in the Denglish hell is this?).
So now I've learnt about the history of Missy Magazine, which I didn't sign up for, and I heard some half-baked thoughts on feminism in almost random order. But it's a little hard to take an activist seriously who doesn't know the constitution she aims to defend ("Fraktionszwang", so to force representatives to vote along party lines, is illegal anyway, Lohaus) and sets new standards in the field of bi-erasure (the "women's and lesbians' movement" - so lesbians are no women? and / or women are either straight or lesbian?). Messy, messy, messy....more
Sociologist Steffen Mau, born in 1968 in Rostock/East Germany, writes about the persisting differences between East and West Germany, with a focus on Sociologist Steffen Mau, born in 1968 in Rostock/East Germany, writes about the persisting differences between East and West Germany, with a focus on the rise of extremism - and Mau is just one of those professors who make sharp, nuanced observations and offer intriguing arguments, but are also able to write it down in an interesting, well-worded manner. Mau looks at economic, demographic and cultural factors to point out what's behind different perceptions in different parts of the country, and also ponders how to deal with it constructively. In his positions, he starts from insights gained by Krastev / Holmes (The Light that Failed: A Reckoning, an amazing book about the rise of extremism in the former Eastern bloc) and contradicts Oschmann, who idiotically rambled on about how the East is in fact an invention by the West (Der Osten: eine westdeutsche Erfindung). Unsurprisingly, Eastern German cultural identity is more than the sum of Western resentment.
And Mau does not stick to sociology: There is a lot of history and political science here, and even literary discourse about the recent wave of stories about the so-called baseball bat years which brought a surge of violence to the former East after the wall came down. Mau ponders identity politics and inner-German postcolonial discourse (hello, Moritz von Uslar's Deutschboden: Eine teilnehmende Beobachtung) as well as possible means to defend our democracy against extremist threats - in the East and in the West.
I listened to the whole audiobook (five hours) on a longer drive today, and it was smart, fun, and insightful. A great read for everyone interested in an honest look at German-German relations....more
Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2021 Waidner pays homage (kind of) to the two great German-speaking Franz (Franzen? Franze?): Franz Kafka und soccer legWinner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2021 Waidner pays homage (kind of) to the two great German-speaking Franz (Franzen? Franze?): Franz Kafka und soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer. They both feature in this hilarious novel about state violence against queer people and othering due to gender, race, class, sexuality. Our protagonist is 37-year-old Sterling Beckenbauer who is not only a nonbinary immigrant, but also, of course, the kid of Franz Beckenbauer who, as we all know, was a famous gay soccer player who died from AIDS. Sterling and their friend Chachki Smok run a Patreon-funded anti-theater program, and performance art plays an important role throughout the text, starting with the cataclysmic event that sets the plot in motion:
Sterling gets attacked in public, the whole scuffle is described like a bullfight and is only broken up when an Iraqi-born referee named Rodney shows up. Later a man on a horse confronts the attackers: he looks like the subject of Robert H. Colescott’s painting "The End of the Trail" and is named Elesin Colescott (the painting is a remix of James Earl Fraser’s sculpture "End of the Trail", which is depicted on the Beach Boys' cover art for "Surf's Up" - the Beach Boys re-appear again and again in the novel). Later, Sterling is approached by officials during a soccer match and told she has to go on trial for the attack (hello, The Trial, where an innocent man is randomly accused of an unspecified crime). Now, naturally, Sterling, Chachki and Elesin take an UFO to search for sex-worker Elesin...
Yes, this is surreal and innovative, and it employs methods that de-familiarize and thus de-automatize our everyday use of language in order to ponder violence against gender non-conforming people. The strong, clear political message is issued in a boundary-pushing, creative way, and the outrageous fictional turns are intertwined with a montage of real issues and people, e.g. the story of Justin Fashanu, the first openly gay soccer play who killed himself, or the story of sex worker and activist Thierry Schaffhauser. There are references to Hieronymus Bosch and other paintings, the performances by Sterling and Chachki are inspired by real performance art troupes, their outfits by real designers, real soccer teams and games are remixed, etc.
This novel is A LOT, but I admire its inventiveness and daring approach to political writing.
Also, shout-out to Ann Cotton, the German translator who works with so-called Polish gendering in her translation Vielleicht ging es immer darum, dass wir Feuer spucken, meaning that the letters needed to represent all genders are added to the word ending in random order (German grammar does not allow to literally translate "they", because the pronoun is identical with "she", thus failing to represent the gender-neutral meaning of the singular "they"). Her innovative approach to gender-sensitive language earned Cotton the Internationaler Literaturpreis for this translation.
It's hard to overestimate how important it is to tell this story about how internalized racial prejudice led representatives of the German state and mIt's hard to overestimate how important it is to tell this story about how internalized racial prejudice led representatives of the German state and media to unintentionally help a neo-Nazi terrorist group: Between 2000 and 2011, the self-proclaimed National Socialist Underground (NSU) killed ten people, attempted to murder 43 more, committed three bombings and 15 robberies. The NSU was the biggest domestic terror threat after the leftist Red Army Fraction.
Kushner is here to meticulously reconstruct how the core trio, two men and a woman radicalized in the former GDR, went on a rampage and murdered nine people with immigration background, and yes, let's say their names: Enver Şimşek, Abdurrahim Özüdoğru, Süleyman Taşköprü, Habil Kılıç, Mehmet Turgut, İsmail Yaşar, Theodoros Boulgarides, Mehmet Kubaşık and Halit Yozgat. Also, they murdered policewoman Michèle Kiesewetter (her colleague barely survived being shot in head). What's particularly shocking here is that police, politics, state and media for years referred to the series as the "Dönermorde", Döner being a dish with Turkish origins that is very popular in Germany - the term insinuated that the murders were the result of some kind of feud between immigrant groups and organized crime connected to immigrants, which was exactly what the people responsible for finding the perpetrators assumed. But the killers were white bio-Germans, they were fascists.
And of course, Kushner's research is great, and I applaud that he highlights this story for English-speaking audiences, because there is A LOT to learn here, and not only for Germans and Germany. I also applaud that he reveals the destiny of the victims and their families instead of being carried away by "evil": He sees that the terrorists were three banal losers who went berserk, and that they as people are not what's interesting here. What's interesting is how the system and society failed to stop them, and what that meant and stills means for the loved ones of the victims and, ultimately, all of us in Germany.
On to my criticism, which is probably strongly influenced by the fact that I have already heard a lot about the NSU and the failed investigations, so maybe that book isn't even written for me. I think the sociological background of radicalization in East Germany and many other factors that contributed to what happened here are not discussed deeply and seriously enough. For instance, we get arguments like: "But XY democratic party didn't care", which is obviously way too simplistic and thus explains nothing. Granted, this is a huge clusterfuck of a story, but the attempt to explain the multi-layered causes is where the lessons lie.
But as a recap, this is valuable, and I think that the book is generally aimed at non-German audiences with different needs. And people should hear this tale and think about its implications, as well as how we can stand up against neo-Nazis everywhere....more
Listen: Of course you can go through the trouble and finish law school and write a whole-ass book about the new EU platform regulation laws intended tListen: Of course you can go through the trouble and finish law school and write a whole-ass book about the new EU platform regulation laws intended to fight disinformation and hate speech, but when your conclusion is that platforms need less mandatory standards because that will lead to a "market of rules" in which users can chose the large platforms with the best regulations, you must be joking. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Insta and Pornhub will enter a competition to establish the most user-friendly terms and conditions? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???...more
Safranski (who is quite the public intellectual in Germany) gives us a brand new book about Kafka and fires up a discussion: What kind of writing abouSafranski (who is quite the public intellectual in Germany) gives us a brand new book about Kafka and fires up a discussion: What kind of writing about Kafka do we need in the year 2024, 100 years after his death? There are whole libraries worth of publications about the life, times, alleged intentions, and aesthetic principles of, IMHO, the greatest German-language writer who ever lived, why still write about Kafka, and under which framework? (Sure, the currently most obvious answer is to cash in on the centennial, but you know what I mean.)
And a lot of the criticism Safranski received stems from the lack of clarity regarding the book's aim: While some critics claim that "Writing for His Life" (the subtitle "Um sein Leben schreiben") does not add enough new insights to the canon of Kafka research, I'd maintain that it never even intended to do that. This is pop science for a broad audience that hasn't spent hundreds of hours devouring Kafka's complete works and his biographies and professorial exegesis and writing papers about the guy - and don't think I'm mocking these nerds, no, I'm in fact one of them. But there was a day when I started learning about Kafka and I found him mesmerizing but also highly enigmatic, so I needed a gateway in. Safranski does provide such a gateway in. And frankly: There is nothing worse than literary snobs who rip into more light-weight writing about complex authors in order to defend a superiority they imagine for themselves. "Keep the plebs away from Kafka!" - oh, come on, you're ridiculous. Storytelling is about sharing and connection, not your fragile egos. Congratulations that you know something about Kafka, now sit down and shut up.
As the subtitle suggests, Safranski wants to tell Kafka's story from the viewpoint of him feeling compelled to write: Kafka, the insurance lawyer, almost suffered from the all-encompassing urge to create literature, and feared that it will keep him from really living - he described himself as a man who consists of literature (I love that dude, but he was quite the heady drama king). From that general starting point, Safranski gives a short depiction of Kafka's life, heavily focused on his relationships with women, and intertwines this biography with often rather lengthy re-tellings of his major works plus the most commonly accepted interpretations. That's what Safranski does, not more, but also not less.
So yes, for well-read Kafka aficionados, this is not the book, because it's not supposed to be. This slim volume is not here to give an all-encompassing deep dive into what Kafka does. The thing with Kafka is that there are numerous ways to read his texts, so there is not the interpretation, but an unusually broad corridor of what motifs and plotting might mean. That's the fascination of Kafka, the psychological complexity of his frequently nightmarish literary visions. But before studying the four trillion ways to interpret The Metamorphosis, maybe newbies should start with a gateway in that doesn't amp up the ambiguity and thus the disorientation to the max.
And yes, Safranski's book is also dubiously paced, but oh well, I think that as a starting point, it's well done. I want more people to dare and read Kafka, without fear of "not getting it". And if you can learn one thing about Kafka from Safranski's book, it's that for him, it was not about getting literature and intellectual masturbation, it was about loving literature.
Madita Oeming does scientific research on porn movies, but she's also an activist advocating for a wider, more informed conversation and more media liMadita Oeming does scientific research on porn movies, but she's also an activist advocating for a wider, more informed conversation and more media literacy regarding pornographic material - and both aspects of her work show in this pop science book which does offer studies and research, but is also an argumentative essayistic text from the perspective of a sex-positive third-wave feminist (which I don't mind, because it's my kind of feminism, but be aware of the convictions that color Oeming's analysis). And let's face it: Pornography is such a widely consumed product, just ignoring the phenomenon is a missed opportunity to look into 21st century mores and desire. The blurbs for this book are also rather impressive: Mithu M. Sanyal, Clemens J. Setz, Ijoma Mangold - I love all of them.
And Oeming's effort really is intriguing: Kept in a conversational, easily accessible tone, she starts out with the history of pornography and then covers the infamous inter-feminist sex wars that brought about an alliance of conservative Nixonian-types and second-wave feminists, feat. the likes of Andrea Dworkin, Catharine MacKinnon, and, of course, Alice Schwarzer. I love these types of deep dives, as they illustrate the struggle to define what women's liberation actually means. After that, Oeming ponders the media panic surrounding porn, which as a media scientist myself, I found captivating, especially as she points out how media reception is still misunderstood in its complexity. And lastly, the author dissects the stats and asks: What does the use of specific porn genres say (or doesn't say) about men and women?
I fully agree with Oeming that porn needs to be researched as entertainment media, and that it can function to improve the societal conversation around sex, which is still lacking because of shame, toxic masculinity and femininity, stigma, etc. pp, but I also feel like this book would be stronger if it addressed some issues the critics of porn bring forward more seriously: Yes, the question whether a person is pro-porn or anti-porn is pointless, because porn is just a media genre. But a person can have valid reasons to be against specific depictions in porn (which Oeming partly addresses, e.g. racist fetishization), the repercussions of such visible sex work in real life, and especially some production environments. More nuance helps to strengthen arguments and find common ground.
A very valuable book which should only be a starting point when it comes to media literacy in the field of pornography, especially when it comes to gender stereotyping....more
This volume does not only contain the obituary that was published in the "Neue Rundschau" in 1924, but also a bunch of scientific texts about mostly mThis volume does not only contain the obituary that was published in the "Neue Rundschau" in 1924, but also a bunch of scientific texts about mostly more obscure or highly specific aspects of Kafka's works, which, given the HUGE amount of research available on my favorite insurance lawyer ever, is a daring idea: The collection aims to open new perspectives on one of the most read and interpreted writers on the planet.
For my taste - and I'm speaking as a Kafka completist more than willing to go down dubious rabbit holes - the book is a little too random and disparate to really read it as whole, it's more suited as a resource that can be pulled when doing research on specific aspects of Kafka's work. ...more
Because the greatest German-language author EVER has died 100 years ago, there are quite some books coming out celebrating his legacy, and this antholBecause the greatest German-language author EVER has died 100 years ago, there are quite some books coming out celebrating his legacy, and this anthology, edited by a man known to champion and publish challenging international literature, offers a collection of essays by authors like - Sjón, who investigates the tangents between Kafka, Hans Christian Andersen, and CoDex 1962: A Trilogy, - Clemens J. Setz, who dissects The Cares of a Family Man - Jon Fosse, who writes about his work as a Kafka translator - Sasha Marianna Salzmann, who reads Kafka from a queer perspective ...and many more.
Naturally, the quality of the texts differs greatly and - personal preference! - there are more than a few authors in there whose opinions don't interest me one bit, but I love the idea of letting colleagues of Kafka explain what he means to them....more
Kampf and Drepper are two of the journalists who investigated the Rammstein #metoo scandal: After Northern Irish concert goer Shelby Lynn claimed to hKampf and Drepper are two of the journalists who investigated the Rammstein #metoo scandal: After Northern Irish concert goer Shelby Lynn claimed to have been spiked and said that a crew member lured her under the stage to have oral sex with singer Till during the set, this initial report quickly developed into a tornado of accusations against the band, mainly Till and keyboarder Flake. Until now, no court of law convicted them - but with this book, the authors open another Pandora's box: Should we discuss the ethical behavior of rock stars? Do we need to talk about sex and morality in the context of musicians who we love to glamorize and admire for their artistic transgression?
And of course, the answer is yes. This is not a discussion about religion or purity or "think about the children!" or some shit, this is a discussion about what constitutes consent. Traditionally, the male-dominated music industry has only chuckled when it came to misogyny and sexual violence: Just read The Long Hard Road Out of Hell by Marilyn Manson, Motley Crue's classic The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band, Steven Tyler's "hahaha, I got custody of my minor girlfriend so she could go on tour with me" memories in Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir, or listen to Iggy Pop singing about "baby groupie" Sable Starr and extra romantic statutory rape in "Look Away". Naturally, the list goes on, until the present. Rammstein's "suck box" under the stage, the room Shelby described, is real, and that's not the only unsettling and undisputed fact that came to light. And yes, German-language rap is also a big focus of the book.
The authors present historic knowledge and have interviewed numerous contemporary sources who convey their experiences working in the music industry where things have improved, but sexism is still thriving (and needless to say, that's not the only industry). Again, the issue is not that consenting adults decide to have sex, but that misogyny, sexual favors, coercion, and the sexualized abuse of power endanger the physical and mental health of female industry professionals, artists, and fans. And while there are many clear-cut examples, other areas are more muddy, and thus more difficult to discuss - and that's where we all come in, because let's face it: Protesters screaming at Rammstein fans while the fans flip them off will not help to foster public discourse.
I enjoyed the broad approach the authors take, and how many dynamics they describe are, unfortunately, really relatable for people who don't work in music, but just exist in the world as women. So sure, a lot of what is contained in here is not new to people who have followed the discussion, but the book is an important and well-crafted contribution to a necessary debate more people need to join.
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