I still haven't been to the Buchmesse, but I might go to the London Book Fair.

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Goodbye, Auf Wiedersehen

 Ich beende dieses Blog, das den Sinn hatte, von meinen Erlebnissen und Erfahrungen in der britischen Kultursphaere zu berichten. Der einfache Grund ist, dass ich wieder in Deutschland lebe. Ich gehe davon aus, dass ich bald ein neues deutschsprachiges Blog (Thematik steht noch in den Sternen) beginnen werde. Ein entsprechender Link wird hier zu finden sein. I will call it a day on this blog that served the purpose of sharing my experiences in the British cultural sphere. The reason is that I moved back to Germany. Thank you to everyone who made my often very difficult time in London easier and also *no thanks* to those who consciously didn't. I will maintain the connections that turned out to be fruitful to this day. I miss a lot of things in London and I miss quite a few people. There is a part of me that will forever look up to the light shining through the trees on Tavistock and Brunswick Square. Goodbye for now and Auf Wiedersehen.
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Looking back, pt. 2

  "Die 'Universitaeten' als 'Staetten der wissenschaftlichen Forschung und Lehre' (solcher Art sind sie Gebilde des 19. Jahrhunderts) werden zu reinen und immer 'wirklichkeitsnaeheren' Betriebsanstalten, in denen nichts zur Entscheidung kommt. Den letzten Rest einer Kulturdekoration werden sie nur so lange behalten, als sie vorerst noch zugleich Mittel zur 'kulturpolitischen' Propaganda bleiben muessen." (Martin Heidegger, Beitraege zur Philosophie, c. 1937) It's already November and I haven't posted anything here since June. There was no interesting event I've been to and of which I could have given an account. After last year's disappointment (see April post) I didn't feel like attending Translation Day, all the more, since there hasn't been any notable sign of interest in my work as a translator into English for the last two years, i.e. since I arrived in the UK. This concerns mainly my translation of Yiannis Ritsos, ...
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Goetz, Meyer, Schroeder: A fragmentary tale from the German literary scene (Part 3)

 Schroeder and Gilbner are sitting in a bobo cafe on the Lister Meile sipping on two big latte macchiatos. (Later, Schroeder will take a stroll, find a record shop and purchase an old Tocotronic CD.) Gilbner likes Schroeder, who is able to cite Marcuse and refer to repressive entsublimierung . He is surprised that such a relatively young person seems to have the same revolutionary spirit that dominated his own youth.  They talk about the novel, and after five minutes Gilbner says Wir machen das Buch . Schroeder has that strange feeling of mixed emotions that sets in when a goal is achieved in a way that wasn't forseeable. Another thing is, he doesn't quite know what to make of Gilbner who owns a farm in Dithmarschen where he conducts obscure workshops and teaches Alexander Lowen's bioenergetics. (A few years later Schroeder will hear that Gilbner is suspected of trying to merge eco radicalism with neo-nationalist thinking.) But this is what he wanted, after all. His book to...
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