Between heaven & earth

An All Souls’ Day text for all creative artists

Do art and literature still have an influence on society?

(Bild: EPA/RONALD WITTEK)

Last week, the "Krone" newspaper published a swan song by writer Robert Schneider on today's cultural scene. "Krone" science expert Dr. Christian Mähr was not left untouched by the text - and so he responds with a reply:

"We touch and we simply no longer outrage" was the headline. It quickly becomes clear that by "we", Robert Schneider is referring to the cultural scene, which is "primarily beaming at itself and losing more and more of its social relevance". Restless, I read on and am confronted with a deeply autumnal, disturbing image of a group of cultural heroes who have become meaningless and are standing before the ruins of their existence, now obsolete. Well, that's perhaps a little exaggerated; it's not as if the colleagues have to queue up at a monastery for a soup for the poor. It would be better to say that, according to Schneider, they all suffer from "lost significance". And, as he describes in a beautiful picture, they are walking hand in hand in the colorful autumn forest towards the final sunset.

Are things really that bad for culture?
The text - brilliantly written as always - left me shaken. I reached for my handkerchief. Are things really that bad? "It's not a shame to be forgotten, but it's sad that we no longer touch people ... that we no longer play any role at all, except on milestone birthdays", the article ends.

Is Schneider right? Of course he's right! But does he have to write it so explicitly in the newspaper? What worries me the most is that I often don't laugh all week until his comment in the "Samstag-Krone" - how does the cheerful Robert Schneider come to such a gloomy conclusion? And not me?

In his "Krone" series "Between Heaven and Earth", Christian Mähr takes on the big problems of humanity - and usually finds answers.

(Bild: mathis.studio)

Perhaps there are biographical reasons for this. For example, the Vorarlberg writers' association "Literatur Vorarlberg" has around 180 members. I haven't looked through them all, but I suspect that none of them, myself included, will be saying anything to anyone in 40 years' time - with one or two exceptions.

Devastating! But let's take a look at the list of those who have "made it" - the list of Nobel Prize winners for literature. That's 121 people. Of these, 56 were known to me by name, and I've read something about just under a dozen. One, Herta Müller, even sat one row in front of me at an event at the Frankfurt Book Fair. I don't know how representative this result is for the vast majority of our fellow citizens, but I suspect: not very. I've always had to read a lot for work.

Peter Handke at the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature award ceremony. 121 people have received this honor so far, most of whom you won't know. So has the influence of literature always been overestimated?

(Bild: Jonas Ekstromer)

But perhaps we should look at something closer to home: the German Book Prize. It's only been around since 2005, and I even know two of the 20 winners personally, again due to my job, of course. I also became acquainted with some publishers - although I have to admit that, looking back, I would have liked to have done without the majority of these acquaintances.

The influence has always been limited
What does this teach us? One thing above all: the influence of literature on politics, social trends and HISTORY is limited and always has been. The admired colleagues of the 1960s may have overestimated their influence a little. The major trends of the time are driven by completely different forces. Not by the written word. The opposite impression is created by the media and their close relationship with literature. After all, a harsh definition of journalists is: people who have always wanted to write a book.

Today there is a lot of talk of bubbles, of echo chambers on the Internet and so on. The literary-media bubble has existed since the invention of the rotary printing press; it doesn't need sophisticated electronics.

Conclusion: we were never as important as we thought we were. That's no consolation, I admit. Perhaps the following is consoling: it is said that no one comes out of the intermediate realm of "Limbo" into the real paradise as long as their name is still familiar to any living person. Only being completely forgotten opens the gates of heaven. So do artists really want to sit around in this limbo with Thomas Bernhard and his ilk for decades, perhaps centuries? And talk? About literature, of course. And who should have received the Book Prize 2024... The sheer horror! Wouldn't it be better to be forgotten? And to play no role at all - even on memorial days when nobody thinks of us.

Okay, that was getting a bit elegiac. But what can I do? Today is All Souls' Day...