{"id":205,"date":"2017-02-17T18:43:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T18:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/?p=205"},"modified":"2017-02-18T20:08:33","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T20:08:33","slug":"doomed-to-be-a-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/doomed-to-be-a-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Doomed to be a writer’"},"content":{"rendered":"
David Grossman appears in the first of a series of talks \u2013 The Cassandra Phenomenon \u2013 during the Munich Security Conference<\/h5>\n
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Israeli author David Grossman speaking at the Munich Security Conference. Photograph: Christine Madden<\/p><\/div>\n

‘WE CAN ALL IDENTIFY\u00a0with the horrible experience of Cassandra,\u201d says\u00a0Israeli writer David Grossman<\/a> at Munich\u2019s Literaturhaus on 16 February. You come to feel that you\u2019re in a dream, and it would be so easy for you to believe that you are the insane one. What, he asks, can literature do in such a chaotic world? \u201cI\u2019m afraid, very little.\u201d He pauses, then continues: \u201cYet, quite a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

This inaugural inclusion of literature in series of talks at the 2017 Munich Security Conference<\/a> was suggested by Dr J\u00fcrgen Wertheimer<\/a>, professor of contemporary German and international literature at the University of T\u00fcbingen. A welcome and prescient addition \u2013 particularly under the aegis of Cassandra, who didn\u2019t fare particularly well as the harbinger of bad but accurate predictions in a world gone mad. In introducing the writers of this series \u2013 Grossman at the start, with Wole Soyinka and Hertha M\u00fcller to follow \u2013 Wertheimer contributes to the discussion with his broad knowledge of literature, quoting Ingeborg Bachmann \u2013 \u201cWriting with my burnt hand about the nature of fire\u201d \u2013 as well as Turkish prime minister Erdo\u011fan \u2013 \u201cSome books are more dangerous than bombs\u201d. Grossman, like Soyinka, M\u00fcller and other wise voices in the dark, is “doomed to be a writer,” says Wertheimer, “doomed to truth and reality, doomed to observe something other than the mainstream”.<\/p>\n

Grossman \u2013 who, as Wertheimer says, share\u2019s Kafka\u2019s fate of being recognised worldwide but shunned in his own country \u2013 spoke movingly of the current political chaos in the world today. He vividly exemplifies the image of writing about fire with a singed, even still smoking hand as a voice calling out in Israel for a two-state solution when the current political wind is blowing against him \u2013 fanning the flames. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute has gone on for so long that people are acting against their existential ideal, he reasons. \u201cWe are limiting our ability to free ourselves from the trap of the conflict.\u201d Without the two-state solution, \u201cPalestinians will never get sovereignty; Israelis will ruin with our own hands the miracle that created their country.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Maybe we can write a new story for ourselves’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The tragedy of this perpetual conflict is rendered particularly poignant because of the \u201cexistential foreignness, existential homelessness\u201d of the Jewish people. They had succeeded in creating one place in the world that will be a home for them. But, he says, \u201cI don\u2019t have such certainty that Israel will continue to exist. The feeling that you don\u2019t have a future is a terrible thing for a society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing, however, including his own, can be a liberating influence. \u201cLiterature can connect us to a place inside us that recognises truth, what is light, what is darkness, the primal conditions of emotions.\u201d In all his years of observing the often disheartening political process and corrosive conflict, he remains hopeful. \u201cMaybe we don\u2019t have to be stuck in this story,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe we can write a new story for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly there doesn\u2019t seem to be any mention whatsoever of this outstanding programme on the MSC website. Maybe the hosts and participants agree with Erdo\u011fan. Which is perhaps not a bad thing. Perhaps they, too, realise literature has an explosive power to wield. There\u2019s hope for us all yet.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Grossman appears in the first of a series of talks \u2013 The Cassandra Phenomenon \u2013 during the Munich Security Conference ‘WE CAN ALL IDENTIFY\u00a0with the horrible experience of Cassandra,\u201d says\u00a0Israeli writer David Grossman at Munich\u2019s Literaturhaus on 16 February. You come to feel that you\u2019re in a dream, and it would be so easy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212,"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christine-madden.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}