Canetti’s Blendung is lying next to me, page 420 is open. In fact, I have almost finished it in its entirety, rather fought through it and I am somewhat surprised since I would describe myself as a line gourmet rather than a heavy novel reader. ›Fought through‹ because I am a little scared of the woman’s image of the heroes in the novel and thus perhaps also partially of the author. Should this make its way into your library now? On the other hand, the language is so concise that it is lots of fun to read entire chapters out loud. I think it may be related to Joyce' Ulysses, which would build the bridge to my collaboration in Die Toten.

Completely different, but also on my bedside table: Kamikaze by Andreas Schertenleib, recently published in a very limited edition (222 units!). It is a booklet in Berne German on hies piece about friendship and money. Will the Ruhrtriennale guests be able to understand it? It is such an exotic, valuable but also very hard to understand for Germans in the local dialect – a bulky tiny thing as a valuable contribution to the evolving collection? It contains just a few very necessary translations, such as: Gäut = Geld = money.

Jürg Kienberger, St.Louis, 12 March 2021
Music and Acting Die Toten