Books on Berlin XVII

Parker, J. (2016). Tales of Berlin in American Literature up to the 21st Century. Brill.

“Of all European cities, Americans today are perhaps most curious about Berlin, whose position in the American imagination is an essential component of nineteenth-century, postwar and contemporary transatlantic imagology. Over various periods, Berlin has been a tenuous space for American claims to cultural heritage and to real geographic space in Europe, symbolizing the ultimate evil and the power of redemption. This volume offers a comprehensive examination of the city’s image in American literature from 1840 to the present. Tracing both a history of Berlin and of American culture through the ways the city has been narrated across three centuries by some 100 authors through 145 novels, short stories, plays and poems, Tales of Berlin presents a composite landscape not only of the German capital, but of shifting subtexts in American society which have contextualized its meaning for Americans in the past, and continue to do so today.”  — from Brill


Large, D. C. (2007). Berlin. Basic Books.

“In the political history of the past century, no city has played a more prominent-though often disastrous-role than Berlin. At the same time, Berlin has also been a dynamic center of artistic and intellectual innovation. If Paris was the “Capital of the Nineteenth Century,” Berlin was to become the signature city for the next hundred years. Once a symbol of modernity, in the Thirties it became associated with injustice and the abuse of power. After 1945, it became the iconic City of the Cold War. Since the fall of the Wall, Berlin has again come to represent humanity’s aspirations for a new beginning, tempered by caution deriving from the traumas of the recent past. David Clay Large’s definitive history of Berlin is framed by the two German unifications of 1871 and 1990. Between these two events several themes run like a thread through the city’s history: a persistent inferiority complex; a distrust among many ordinary Germans, and the national leadership of the “unloved city’s” electric atmosphere, fast tempo, and tradition of unruliness; its status as a magnet for immigrants, artists, intellectuals, and the young; the opening up of social, economic, and ethnic divisions as sharp as the one created by the Wall.”  — from Amazon


Beck, G. & Heibert, F. (1999). An underground life: memoirs of a gay Jew in Nazi Berlin. The University of Wisconsin Press.

“Gad Beck, a half-Jewish German, managed to evade the Nazis and live illegally, underground, in Berlin throughout the duration of World War II. While that in itself was notable, Beck didn’t simply exist in some nocturnal world of hiding. Coming of age as a gay man during the war, he also helped organize a Jewish youth group, free friends from the Gestapo, and maintain a series of romantic relationships. The result is An Underground Life: a Holocaust memoir that conveys the surreal horror of the times but also focuses more on living than dying, and captures a life that was fueled as much by a sense of romance, adventure, and humor, as it was by suffering.”  — from The University of Wisconsin Press


Ewing, K. P. (2008). Stolen honor: stigmatizing Muslim men in Berlin. Stanford University Press.

“The covered Muslim woman is a common spectacle in Western media–a victim of male brutality, the oppressed and suffering wife or daughter. And the resulting negative stereotypes of Muslim men, stereotypes reinforced by the post-9/11 climate in which he is seen as a potential terrorist, have become so prominent that they influence and shape public policy, citizenship legislation, and the course of elections across Europe and throughout the Western world. In this book, Katherine Pratt Ewing asks why and how these stereotypes–what she terms stigmatized masculinity–largely go unrecognized, and examines how Muslim men manage their masculine identities in the face of such discrimination. The author focuses her analysis and develops an ethnographic portrait of the Turkish Muslim immigrant community in Germany, a population increasingly framed in the media and public discourse as in crisis because of a perceived refusal of Muslim men to assimilate. Interrogating this sense of crisis, Ewing examines a series of controversies–including honor killings, headscarf debates, and Muslim stereotypes in cinema and the media–to reveal how the Muslim man is ultimately depicted as the abjected other in German society.” — from thriftbooks


Taberner, S. (Ed.). (2007). Contemporary German fiction: writing in the Berlin republic. Cambridge University Press.

“The profound political and social changes Germany has undergone since 1989 have been reflected in an extraordinarily rich range of contemporary writing. Contemporary German Fiction focuses on the debates that have shaped the politics and culture of the new Germany that has emerged from the second half of the 1990s onwards and offers the first comprehensive account of key developments in German literary fiction within their social and historical context. Each chapter begins with an overview of a central theme, such as East German writing, West German writing, writing on the Nazi past, writing by women and writing by ethnic minorities. The authors discussed include Günter Grass, Ingo Schulze, Judith Hermann, Christa Wolf, Christian Kracht and Zafer Senocak. These informative and accessible readings build up a clear picture of the central themes and stylistic concerns of the best writers working in Germany today.” — from Cambridge

Berlin Chamissoplatz (1980) | Notes

Berlin Chamissoplatz, with an overt word-play reference to Döblin’s novel, was made interestingly in the same year Fassbinder adopted the novel to the TV series. 1980, a cinematic year for Berlin’s famous squares… It was the first film I saw from Rudolf Thome. Der Philosoph (1989) and Tagebuch (1975) are mentioned first on his director page on IMDb. He has a pretty low profile on the website where many of his films have less than 100 votes, which makes it more interesting.

The opening shot might be the best one in the film. Starting on a high distance shot of the roofs, the camera pans continuously making a couple of turns while descending slowly and gives an overview of the neighbourhood. Once the camera focuses on the street, there’s a live music performance next to a gathering against the urban transformation. It’s mostly the children who are watching the performance. The protagonist, Anna, who’s recording the event, appears in the audience, and then starts doing an interview with the architect, Martin, who’s working on the transformation project. Anna is one of the residents who is trying to struggle against the transformation and renovation of the old buildings, gentrification of the area. After the interview, she goes to Martin’s office to learn more about the status of the project and the state of affairs about her own flat. Then they fall in love. The urban transformation story starts to become a backdrop or a minor political tension in the film as it focuses more into their relationship.

Some trivia:

  • “Bleibt nicht einsam, motzt gemeinsam”
  • Music credits mention Ohpsst, but I couldn’t find their songs online. I only saw an album called Ohpsst from 1977 by Klaus Henrichs, Ludolf Kuchenbuch, and Mikro Rilling.
  • The punk piece played on the street in the opening is Mein Typ, by Evi + die Evidrins, from 1980.
  • During the first scene shot in her flat, Anna opens the window next to her desk. Her window looks directly to a wall, just after 3-4 meters, same as my old flat. It’s really convenient to open the window any time in this kind of flats, despite the claustrophobic feeling in general. When she opens the second one, a music is heard from the street, the Eurovision piece of Ajda Pekkan, Aman Petrol, from 1980.
  • To build up the relationship between Anna and Martin, both characters are portrayed with their lovers in dull situations. Both of them lack passion, but the scenes are a bit boring.
  • “Did you see that film with Cary Grant yesterday,” Anna is having a chat with a flatmate while the annoying neighbour is playing with the TV transmitter, what was his purpose in the film?
  • Chamissoplatz 8 and 3, Arndtstraße 15.
  • Godot’s, right down the road in the Willibald-Alexis-Straße (more addresses)
  • Wannsee trip: wow they really preserved that beach for more than 40 years
  • Dinner at Fidicinstraße, and then cinema. They watch Céline et Julie vont en bateau: Phantom Ladies Over Paris (1974) and the selected scene is “Oh, the sun!”, another thing that hasn’t been changed at all in the city.

on youtube III

I have a YouTube playlist called “let’s see” where I gather videos that I encounter at some point in YouTube suggestions or in related videos. I add them to a list when I’m not able to or not in a mood to watch at that moment. Most of the time, I don’t actually watch these videos at all. Still, I keep them in a list, maybe for an afterlife procrastination moment. I’ll list the first page here. A sad list, powered by some recommendation algorithms.

cinema, food, music, pop culture, quick tutorial, software development, AI hype, intro-level philosophy

  • Önder Focan – Aubergine / Patlıcan (2022 – Album) | 2666 – The Art Of Listening
  • Secret Food Commercial Styling Tricks Revealed By Culinary Expert | Vanity Fair
  • 3 ways to make one pan egg toast! 5 minutes quick breakfast! Easy, Delicious and Healthy! | Qiong Cooking
  • The Valor of the Misfit: Experimental Art in Late East Germany | Deutsches Haus
  • You’re doing home organization WRONG. | Caroline
  • Classical Composer Analyzes Kendrick Lamar | David Bruce Composer
  • Lars Eidinger und die Aldi Tüte | FFCGN
  • Genderneutrale Sprache? So einfach geht’s (Thomas Kronschläger – Science Slam) | ScienceSlam
  • 16 Personalities Through the Eyes of the ESTP | dear kristin
  • WE CALL IT TECHNO! A documentary about Germany’s early Techno scene and culture | Telekom Electronic Beats
  • What was Coding like 40 years ago? | The Coding Train
  • We Should Be Willing to Go to the End – Symposium on Slavoj Žižek (Day Two) | Study Groups on Psychoanalysis and Politics
  • How to Motivate Yourself to Read (20 Tips & Mindsets) | Benjamin McEvoy
  • My Students Edit Their First Feature Film | This Guy Edits
  • Julian Radlmaier zu Gast im Filmhaus Nürnberg – Blutsauger | Filmhaus Nürnberg
  • Corporate Lawyer Breaks Down Succession Business Deals | WIRED
  • This trick can LEVEL UP your film look. | Colorist Factory
  • 02 Inhuman Symposium – Rosi Braidotti | Fridericianum
  • I made a music video in Stable Diffusion AI… and it’s amazing! | Olivio Sarikas
  • What is “Nothing”? | Sabine Hossenfelder
  • Grandmaster and BIG LIAR? Hans Niemann Chess Cheating Scandal – Expert REACTION Video | The Behavior Panel
  • Building a neural network FROM SCRATCH (no Tensorflow/Pytorch, just numpy & math) | Samson Zhang
  • The Fastest Way to Learn a New Language: The Solar System Theory | Nathaniel Drew
  • The Map of Engineering | Domain of Science
  • Did Content Kill Culture? | Wisecrack
  • Random walks in 2D and 3D are fundamentally different (Markov chains approach) | Mathemaniac
  • Im Techno Rausch 60 Stunden Dauerparty -1995- (ARD-Doku) | Mimo Zehnvierzig
  • Music festivals: a high-risk business | FT Film | Financial Times
  • Why All Educational Videos Are the Same| Faultline
  • Donna Haraway: “From Cyborgs to Companion Species” | UC Berkeley Events
  • Kraftwerk ‘The Man Machine’ Full Analysis | Doctor Mix
  • Werner Herzog: Vom einsamen Leben als Regisseur | Sternstunde Philosophie | SRF Kultur Sternstunden
  • Hans Magnus Enzensberger Interview: A Closer Look | Louisiana Channel
  • Top 10 Lighting Mistakes Beginners Make | Parker Walbeck
  • Top 10 Supporting Roles That Stole The Show | CineFix – IGN Movies and TV
    • some top 10 time here, weird that I didn’t add a Messi video
  • How I Learn To Speak Foreign Languages Without Talking To People | Polyglot Language Learning Tips | Robin MacPherson
  • The Aesthetic of Madness | The Cinema Cartography
  • I remastered Adam Ragusea’s Crispy Oven Fries. | Ethan Chlebowski

on meute

I’m listening to Meute, the brass band who covers electronic music pieces, recently producing original records. I’ll try to share a spotify link in wordpress:

Wow, it works. I gathered their covers together with the original versions. It’s not complete, I’m adding as I listen to the new songs, still discovering. They contributed to the OST of Babylon Berlin in its fourth season. They had played in Görlitzer Park. My current favourites are Slip, Hey Hey, Kerberos, and Araya. Their consistency on making better versions of the original ones is amazing. I asked a question about how they live-record their sessions, but no one replied.

p.s. also Places

Bernhard, on the observer

I was copying quotes about the observer from the novels I read, here, in Turkish. This one is the first attempt in English. The friend here is Paul, Wittgenstein’s Nephew, the one in the psychiatric hospital. As Bernhard informs, he’s a restless observer, like Thomas. I hadn’t noticed that the accusations were the integral part of the observer. That makes the figure less naive than I imagined.

Finally, toward the end of his life, when he was under extreme pressure as a writer and obviously found that verse came more easily to him than prose, he wrote a number of poems—with the left hand, as it were— which were really amusing, full of madness and wit. Just before being readmitted to one of his madness and wit. Just before being readmitted to one of his madhouses, he would read out the longest of them to anyone willing to listen. There is a tape recording of this poem, which centers upon himself and Goethe’s Faust; listening to it, one is highly amused and at the same time deeply disturbed. I could recount not just hundreds, but thousands of Paul’s anecdotes in which he is the central figure; they are famous in the so-called upper reaches of Viennese society, to which he belonged and which, as everybody knows, have lived on such anecdotes for centuries; but I will refrain from doing so. He was a restless character who always lived on his nerves and was perpetually out of control. He was a brooder, endlessly philosophizing and endlessly accusing. He was also an incredibly well-trained observer, and over the years he developed his gift for observation to a fine art. He was the most ruthless observer and constantly found occasion to accuse. Nothing escaped his accusing tongue. Those who came under his scrutiny survived only a very short time before being savaged; once they had drawn suspicion upon themselves and become guilty of some crime, or at least of some misdemeanor, he would lambaste them with the same words that I myself employ when I am roused to indignation, when I am forced to defend myself and take action against the insolence of the world in order not to be put down and annilihilated by it. In the summer we had our regular places on the terrace of the Sacher, where we spent most of our time in accusations. Whatever came within range became a target for fresh accusations. We would sit on the terrace for hourse over a cup of coffee, accusing the whole world, root and branch. Having taken our places on the terrace of the Sacher, we would switch on our well-tried accusation mechanism behind what Pau, called the arse of the opera. (If one sits on the terrace in front of the Sacher and looks straight ahead, one has a rear view of the opera house.) He took pleasure in such formulations as the arse of the opera, even though this one denoted the rear elevation of the house on the Ring which he loved more than anything else in the world and from which he had for so many decades drawn virtually everything requisite to his existence. We would sit on the terrace for hours and watch the passerby. I still know of no greater pleasure—in Vienna—than to sit on the terrace of the Sacher in summer, watching the world go by. Indeed, I know no greater pleasure than observing people, and to observe them while sitting in front of the Sacher is a particular delight that Paul and I often shared.

Thomas Bernhard, Wittgenstein’s Nephew, translated by David McLintock, Faber & Faber, 2013 [1982], p. 60-1.