Constructio II

 The year is 2009. And I should slowly think about ending this series of fragments that hopefully have been an enjoyable, maybe even inspring read, especially for those that are somehow familiar with the German literary scene as it presented itself in the last decades. Of course I haven't even mentoined a couple of good or interesting books and authors. My idea was to just sketch the direction of my own - largely unpublished - writing at a time that bore some significance, culturally and also politically, not only in Germany. Fictional Schroeder is a writer that may come quite close to what my career possibly would have been like if the circumstances would have been a bit different, especially if I would have had German parents, that means, if I would have been accepted as a writer and, most importantly, as a citizen. But, no, I had to leave the country where I was born, where I grew up, where I was educated, went to university, graduated with a PhD and whatnot. I spent 2008 not ju...

 It was Franz Dobler who wrote the book that the youngsters couldn't write ( Aufraeumen , 2008) which proves once again that a writer should wait for the right time to realise a project (given that there are no exterior obstacles). When reflecting upon the very often anaemic quality of new literature at that time, I frequently came back to a phenomenon that could be called the novel syndrome . It was no mystery that the big publishing companies wanted novels, not short story collections, let alone essays. But what if a writer, especially a young writer, is not yet ready to produce a proper novel? Then, instead of letting her develop in a natural way, the PC uses the Procrustes method, or, as they say in German: Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht .  * Further chapters of Grunge: Ein Sumpfroman Chapter 6: Schrader decides that he wants to have an affair with the busty chatterbox from North Rhine Westphalia and starts to talk to her regularly at the kitchen table. Chapter 7: S...

 First, though, we have to take a step back and consider the social and political changes in Germany in the Noughties, because otherwise the particular way in which literary history (as the official representation and interpretation of the mass of literary production) developed at that time cannot be understood. By the middle of the decade the chimera of a new buergerlichkeit  (I think there is no proper English translation, it's not exactly being posh or belonging to the middle-class) had cast its treacherous shadow over German society. Post 9/11 in Germany meant not only more rigid social control, it also meant the gradual introduction of certain policies and regulations that were very often based on models in anglophone countries. Regarding the cultural and the academic sphere, this meant that these sectors of production and education had to establish certain tools that served efficiency and the simplification of selection processes. I have already mentioned the "Bologna Re...

 There are some more things that we need to know about Schroeder. By far the most important one is that he suffers from chronic migraine which is an inheritance from his mother's side of the family. When he will embark on his first book tour, it will become his trademark introduction to say things like "I am reading under the influence of 512 mg of Ibuprofen" or "I am reading under the influence of 1000 mg of Paracetamol and one third of a litre of Warsteiner pils". (At some point it will become his habit to check out the local beer in the cities where he is reading and to comment on its specific quality during the introduction. He is quite diplomatic in this respect, but his hermetic comment on Beck's in Bremen almost causes a riot.) Another thing is that he is wearing ridiculous sweaters, like members of the Green party and schoolteachers used to do in the 1980s. This is another trademark that will help secure his pop star status. (One day he sees aggro ra...

 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...