Krautgarden 2008
In the continuing story of my beautiful friendship with German literary culture, I am happy and honored to report my participation in the 2008 Krautgarden literary series, comprising two sets of readings by young German and American writers, on March 7 at the “Krautgarden Loft” in Chinatown (New York), and on March 14 at Leipzig’s Baumwollspinnerei, former site of the Continent’s largest cotton mill.
You will be interested to learn that, in the century before its conversion into some kind of artists’ spaces, the Baumwollspinnerei housed what sounds like a particularly lively community of mill workers:
The closer environment of the cotton mill was called “Piependorf”… In the morning, after a number of fist fights, there were sick persons and casualties which served as a good reason for playing truant. Everything was so inexpensive anyway. During lunch break there was often dancing going on at Pfeifer-Louis, and after closing time there were hawkers standing at the cotton mill entrance offering oranges, bloater, but also plaster sculptures and textiles…
The Piependorf natives lived like a large family… They proliferated, sometimes tussled and were under the influence of alcohol from Friday to Sunday… In Thueringer Strasse a thousand eyes lurked, from the daunting company health insurance fund man Scheer to the smallest housewife… It was a poor world. Romance barely happened, poetry was wimpy. Yet the attentive saw and heard as much as he might need for a whole novel.
Given my unusually high level of attentiveness, I personally expect to see and hear as much as I need for at least one novel. And although the Piependorf natives are clearly going to be a tough act to follow—particularly that daunting health-insurance rep—just take a look at the amazing lineup they have booked for such venues as “Pierogi Leipzig,” “Archiv / Massiv,” and “Überwensch (sic.)!.”
I’m going to be there representing the literary magazine n+1, together with n+1 co-founding co-editor Marco Roth. Now look over the roster… notice any other familiar names? Maybe, in the “Pierogi Leipzig” area? That’s right: Kevin Vennemann, the German novelist who translated my article about Franco Moretti for the n+1 anthology!
I’m particularly excited about this trip because, unless you count some long hours of quality time in the Frankfurt International Airport, I have never been to Germany at all. I hear Leipzig is an amazing city, populated by large numbers of Bach impersonators.
Incidentally, if you Google “Bach impersonator,” you will find an interesting “Non-Cognitive Theory of Necessity” by a Swedish philosopher called Staffan Angere:
If I were to begin this paper with a section where I state that, with “bachelor,” I henceforth will mean “Bach-impersonator,” that by itself creates a context in which only frameworks where “bachelor” and “Bach-impersonator” are equivalent are acceptable. “A bachelor is a kind of impersonator” would then be a necessary truth, but only relative to the context created. The “absolutely necessary” never appears on the scene.
Not only is the city full of Bach impersonators… but they’re all single! QED!
Franz Schuchart – Gästeführer Leipzig
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Krautgarden 2008 reading venues:
March 7, “Krautgarden Loft”
8pm, $5
319 Grand Street (at Orchard Street), 4th floor
New York, NY 10002
14. März, Leipziger Baumwollsprinnerei
20h, Eintritt frei
Spinnereistraße 7
04179 Leipzig
Tags: Bach impersonators, comparative literature, cotton mills, d-list, events, Germany, n+1, w00t!
March 18th, 2008 at 11:59 am
So how was it for you?