ND Das Literarische Quartett

[Nika Bertram]

On Fri, 14 Dec 2001, Otto wrote:

> The last episode of Germany's most famous literary show will start in about
> half an hour.
> 
> http://www.zdf.de/wissen/quartett/55806/index.html

never mind if you didn't catch it. you didn't miss much.

the only sad thing about the end of this show is that now people will
even be less aware of what literature could do, how it could matter. not
that this show spurned out anything more than merely populistic
approaches to literature, but at least it was something. to remind
people that there's more to life than television. i can't even express
how much i'm sick of those "cultural administrators" in this country
here, germany. don't know much about the situation in other countries,
but i don't really see many writers that really *matter* here, people
like pynchon, stephenson, gibson, gaddis... come on, all we get is to
suffer from the umpteenth reincarnations of the german
"bildungsbürgertum", most recently offered with
toppings of nice/young/female faces, who even proudly admit that they
haven't got anything to say. of course there are better writers, even in
this country, but they just don't get through. and in a way, the
"literarisches quartett" embodied all there is to hate about this
"phoney-ness" of those highbrow intellectuals who believe they know
everything, not realising how dead they actually are, and who'd openly
admit they never heard of postmodernism - and feel not
ashamed to say so. they are the ones that keep interesting people from
getting interested in literature ('cause no clever kid really would want
to end up like them ;), and this is what upsets me.
so, maybe there's hope for better things to come, still.

sorry for ranting (shouldn't watch Marcel Reich-Ranicki on beer ;),
best,

Nika