Frankfurt Blues: O ARGENTINA (Satis Shroff)

Europeans faces of Argentina in the twenties: Einwanderungsland


Book Fair Blues: O ARGENTINA! (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

Our brain is like a labyrinth with all those fissures and lobes, and memory was a big theme at the 62nd Book Fair in Frankfurt-upon-the-Main 2010. The memories of the writers and poets who haven’t forgotten the terrible upheavals in Argentina. The writers and the people who suffered under the repression, censorship and eventual escape from a country ruled by a brutal regime from 1976 to 1983 culminating in the debacle and trauma of the Falkland War in 1982 in which the underpaid Gurkhas of Nepal were also engaged in combat in Port Stanley, as regular soldiers of the British Army. The Brits have been unkind and unfair to the Gurkhas since Queen Victoria’s times.

Many of the 65 Argentinian writers who flew to Frankfurt during the Book Fair were themselves victims of the regime. Juan Gelman, the poet who spent years looking for his granddaughter. Felix Bruzzone and Laura Alcoba still miss their parents for they have disappeared. Repression is an eternal them for writers in their novels especially in the works of Martin Kohan, Guillermo Saccomano and Pablo de Santis.

Most Argentinian writers have written about the tension in the field of literature and politics, violence, savagery and so-called civilisation , as seen in the literature of the 19th century and even today. The Argentinian writers tell us their stories of the wounds that they are still licking and which time hasn’t been able to heal. Chronic wounds in the souls of the people of Argentina, a nation of off-beat writers, who prefer to produce profound literature and not kitsch.

Argentina, where Europeans migrated to en masse and where the indigenous people’s rights were brutally trampled and where these hapless people were criminally assimilated, a fact which still delivers social and political issues. A land that lived on cattle rearing and wool export and became dependent on foreign capital of the world market, where social and political reforms were interrupted by military dictators. What remained was modernisation that has failed. It resulted in a big chasm between the haves-and-have-nots, like in many societies throughout the world, and led to social imbalance and a late consolidation of the national state in the 19th century brought instability and new reforms that were enforced aggressively.

Argentina is a country that has brought literati like Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. Sousa, Che Guevara, Eva Peron and Madonna. A land which was one of the richest western states at the beginning of the 20th century. Only 100 years later followed the corralito, whereby bank accounts of the citizens were closed and the state went bankrupt. In recent years we’ve seen the cases of Iceland and Greece. Argentina is also a land where 30,000 people were arrested, tortured and murdered during the military dictatorship, and a hundred thousand people sought shelter and asylum as refugees in neighbouring countries.

In Spain the book consumption is ten books per person per annum. In Argentina, which is the second largest Spanish language market, it is three books per person per year. In 2009 Argentina published 20,300 new titles and reached a total of 75 million copies sold. Argentina has an Act to promote books and reading, a law that provides subsidies to promote publishing and reading. Books are exempted from taxes, the shipping rates are reduced and there’s a network of 600 booksellers that help to support the market.

Are Argentinian writer and poets pretentious? Yes indeed, this is due to writers like Borges, Bioy, Silvina Ocampo who write not to make a living but as artists who write literature of longstanding value, and not commercial writing in the Spanish-speaking world.

However, it must be mentioned that Guillermo Martinez (and not Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortazar or even Juan Jose Saer) has sold more books in foreign countries. His novel ‘The Oxford Murders’ (Crimenes de Oxford) is written in an Agatha Christie manner, a whodunit which was long on the bestseller list.

In the past three decades Buenos Aires has been the venue of the largest Book Fair in South America with an average of a million visitors each year. According to Fuentes, there’s nothing more Argentine in Borges than his necessity to fill the ‘blank book’ of both his country and the Latin American literature, which makes him one of the founders of the new prose in the region. At the sight of a herd of horses in Puente Alsina at dawn, Borges is said to have cried out: ‘Hot damn! That’s homeland.’ A passionate man and a lover of night.

Author Cornelia Funke launched the Book Fair and said: ‘After my last novel ‘Ink Death,’ I was longing to write in a more lean and modern way’. Now she has written ‘Reckless’ in tandem with the film producer Lionel Wigram, who’s known for his movie versions of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter stories. Indian writer Mita Kapur presented her book ‘The F-Word’ which I haven’t read as yet. The Indian sweet meat at the discussion was delicious. I just couldn’t resist them and Mita looked rather tired of the fuss at the fair.

This year’s Book Fair cast a spotlight on storytelling in multifarious ways: in video games, on film and in digital and print books for, as we know, the contents of stories know no borders. What Gutenberg started as a printing revolution 500 years ago has gone digital and 3-D (starting with ‘Avatar’) today, which in itself is a revolution. In Germany most reading is still done from printed books. The e-books represent only 1 %. Kindle and Oyo haven’t caught on as yet. In China and USA e-books are growing exponentially. This goes to show that digital is no longer the scary space it was many years back. To understand media you have to understand how it works. In the media cosmos the computers play the role of the sun, and digital has come to stay and is growing all the time.

Do European authors have the same publishing rights? Far from it. In UK the duration of a contract can vary from 70 years after the death of the author. In Spain it’s 15 years. Economic rights and moral rights are separate in France. And in Germany? The rights are indivisible. In UK the book market was deregulated in 1995. The UK royalties for authors are greater but the market is tougher and books are discounted. If you want to n read it in French on: www.Leitmotif.fr.


What do smart and savvy young people want from media? The Millinium Generation can surf on YouTube, download two-minute shots they prefer which is actually a short-attention-span entertainment, the ones we upload on FB. If the hook in the story you’re telling doesn’t work, the young people zap to another story. This is an age where parents are regarded as peers, who really don’t show the kids how to navigate the world. Do the young people understand the world? No, they don’t. They’re even scared of the world. The last time I went to the Fair there were a lot of schoolkids in Manga look, with coloured hair and fantasy costumes and this time it was CosPlay (‘cos’ is costume and ‘play’ is acting or Schauspielern) and the younger generation of Germans were a part of the book scene as they strutted about in their gaudy costumes from another epoche and world and having a good time posing for the paparazzi.


The Frankfurter Buchmesse, like all fairs, can be a tiring experience and so I took time out and went to Beata, a Polish blonde who gave me a great massage (see pic). She and other physiotherapists were promoting an Austrian wellness shop. I even chanced to meet a publisher from Catmandu: Siddhartha Maharajan of Mandala Book Point) and a Nepali poet who was selling black and white photos & poems. I always make it a point to speak in as many languages as I can at the book-fair, and I must say it was as always a great experience chatting with so many interesting people from all over the world. Jonathan Franzen, Artur Becker and Günter Grass were together at the 3Sat stand in Hall 4.1 Q561. It was a case of: Glasses (Frenzen) meet Vodka (Becker) and Pipe (Grass).



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(Two of the seven Triberger waterfalls gushing and roaring down over the green, mossy boulders)
Triberg and Schönwald (Satis Shroff)

Triberg, with its hamlets Nussbach and Grammelsbach, is a lovely spa-town and has the highest waterfalls in Germany, surrounded by wild and untamed nature.

The town of Triberg is associated with four other townships: Schonach, Schönwald, Furtwangen and St. Georgen, and this area in the Southern Black Forest has a healthy invigorating climate, unspoiled nature and was also the place where Ernest Hemingway did a bit of angling. Schonach also was a spa and is known for its wellness facilities, and lovers of winter sports will like it here. Schönwald, which means ‘beautiful forest,’ is located on a sunny, high-altitude plateau and has beautiful picture-book Black Forest landscape with languidly grazing brown cows, lush green meadows, alpine character with dark pine trees, which is the trademark of the Schwarzwald.

As you drive along the picturesque Schwarzwald strasse towards Triberg, you go past Furtwangen with its villages Linach, Rohnbach and Schönenbach and the health resort Neukirch, a small bustling town in the headwater region of the blue Danube River, which is surrounded by a natural landscape of breathtaking beauty. Another town is St. Georgen where you can witness tradition and progress existing side by side.

There’s an old German saying: ‘Brigach and Breg get Danube on its way.’ The main headwater rivers of the River Danube, the Brigach (St.Georgen) and the Breg (Furtwangen) have their source in Ferienland alias Holiday Land. From the source of the Breg in the Martin’s Chapel region, near Furtwangen, the blue Danube flows exactly 2,888 km to the mouth of the Danube in the Black Sea.

As you drive along you’re greeted by the roaring and thundering Gutach River 163 metres down the mountain. The seven waterfalls of Triberg can be reached on foot, and you can walk along the paths. Squirrels come by and birds fly from the branches and aren’t afraid of humans. You discern the spider webs between the vegetation, an ancient ritual place and a field of boulders with moss clinging to them. The waterfalls are floodlit at dusk giving the landscape a romantic touch.

The highest point in Ferienland is the Rohrhardsberg-Brend area. From here you can peer to Feldberg, the highest mountain of the Black Forest (1,493 metres), and even see the Swiss Alps. The Rohrhardsberg is a 1,300 hectare nature protection area for flora and fauna, and a well-known hiking and skiing region. The official spa-towns of Triberg and Schönwald offer in-patient and out-patient treatment and rehabilitation for chronic disorders of the respiratory system, cardiovascular disorders, metabolic and oncological diseases.

In Triberg there’s a Black Forest Museum dating back to 1873 and shows the cultural and economic life of the Black Forest people in the past and present. On exhibit are: historical collections, local costumes, wood carvings, straw plaitings, the history of the Black Forest railway and one of Europe’s biggest collection of barrel organs. On Carnival Thursday, Triberg is possessed by devils and demons that move through the brightly lit streets of the town in an eerie torch-light procession which begins at 7pm.


(The cuckoo clocks galore of the Black Forest Mountains)
The craft of clock- and watch-making is one of the mainstays of the Black Forest industries. All you have to do is simply follow the sound of the music instruments or the call of the cuckoo clock. The world’s largest cuckoo clock is located in Schonach and is 3,60m in width, 3,10m high and 1m in depth. The house itself is the clock in the landscape with pine trees in the background.

From Triberg you can drive to Villingen-Schwenningen, an ancient town founded by the Dukes of Zäringen, which is only 20 km away. Strasbourg (France) and the Alsace region are 90km and the old university town of Freiburg is 60km to the south. Freiburg has 850 years of history and a youthful charm. Titisee, one of the most beautiful glacial lakes of the Schwarzwald, is only 60km away.




About the Author:
Satish Shroff versteht sich als ein Vermittler zwischen westliche und östliche Kulturen und sieht da seine Zukunft als Dozent, Dichter und Schriftsteller. Er ist auch ein aktives Mitglied in der Vorstand von der Männergesangsverein (MGV) Kappel.
Er hat sechs Bücher geschrieben: Im Schatten des Himalaya (Gedichte und Prosa), Through Nepalese Eyes (Reisebericht), Katmandu, Katmandu (Gedichte und Prosa mit Nepali autoren) Glacial Whispers (Gedichtesammlung zwischen 1997-2010). Er hat zwei Sprachführer im Auftrag von Horlemannverlag und Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst (DSE) für Auslandsmitarbeiter der GTZ, sowie Goethe Institut, DAAD, Carl Duisburg Gesellschaft etc. geschrieben. Satish Shroff hat mehrere Artikel in seiner ehemaligen Zeitung „The Rising Nepal“ über verschiedene Aspekte von Leben und Entwicklungen in Deutschland und Europa veröffentlicht. Er schreibt regelmäßig in The American Chronicle (www.americanchronicle.com/authors/view/1207 und www.blogs.boloji.com/satisshroff und viele andere Zeitschriften. Außerdem drei Artikeln über die Gurkhas, Achtausender und Nepals Symbolen für Nelles Verlags ‚Nepal’ und über Hinduismus in „Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India). Sein Gedicht „Mental Molotovs“ wurde im epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt) veröffentlicht. Seine Lyrik sind in Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry publiziert worden. Er ist ein Mitglied von Writers of Peace, poets, essayists, novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS) usw. Bei Google und Yahoo kann man ihm auch finden unter: satis shroff.

Goethe: A Writer of the First Rank (Satis Shroff, Freiburg)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, who was lifted to nobility as J. W.von Goethe in 1782, was born on August 28, 1749 in the town of Frankfurt. The Goethes lived in a large, comfortable house in the Hirschgasse, now called Goethe Haus. Besides practical, scientific and autobiographical writings, he left behind more than 15,000 letters, diaries relating to the 52 years of his life and also countless conversational writings of people he’d met.
Even though Goethe’s work is fragmentary in general, it reveals the essence of his literary genius. Goethe himself said: ‘Alle meine Werke sind Bruchstücke einer großen Konfession.’
He remains to date one of the most original and powerful German lyric poets and his Faust is no doubt a work of inexhaustible ambiguity and wonderful poetry.
The atmosphere that was evident in his parent’s home was that of the educated and their lifestyle in those days, and through his writings we get an exact idea of the Zeitgeist of Goethe’s days. He held the town of his birth in high esteem for it was the environment and intellectual background of his youthful development. Young Goethe loved to lose himself in the crowd around the Dome or in the Roman hill (Römerberg), which he always remembered as a fine place to go for a walk.
The closest relationship of his youth was his sister Cornelia, who sadly enough died at the age of 27. Asked about the influence of his parents on him, Goethe summed it this way:
From father I have the stature,
To lead an earnest life.
From mother the good nature,
And the joy of story-telling.
Goethe was taught by house-teachers. After learning the old languages, he started learning French, English and Hebrew. At the age of 10 he read Aesop, Homer, Vergil, Ovid and also the German folks-books. Besides education in humanities and science, he was also taught religion, which was determined by the dominating explanatory issue of Lutherdom in Frankfurt.
The big earthquake in Lissabon in 1755 was important for the development of Goethe’s mind, as it went into history as one of the greatest natural catastrophies of the century. Besides these natural calamities there were also religious and historical movements which left a deep impression in Goethe’s mind, for example the Seven-Years War between Prussia and Austria wherein he saw the consequences of the general political situation in his own life. Another important event during the occupation of Frankfurt by Napoleon’s troops was his fascination for a troupe of French actors, who’s shows he was allowed to visit regularly. That was the awakening in Goethe of his interest for theatre, and which had been sparked earlier in his life through a puppet-stage (Puppenbühne) and which can be seen in some scenes from ‘Wilhelm Meister’s Theaterical Shows.’
At the age of 16 Goethe was prepared for his academic studies. His father wanted him to study law in Leipzig. This was a city known for its trade, commerce, rich people in a wealthy epoche, and was filled with the spirit of Rokoko. Although Leipzig made a lasting impression on Goethe, he found the lectures on law rather boring. Nevertheless, the town of Leipzig brought to Goethe his passion for Anna Katherina, the daughter of a man who owned an inn, where he used to eat lunch since 1766.
In his first completed play ‘The Whims of a Lover’ (Laune des Verliebten) which is based on the times of the Rokoko (Schäferstücke), he drew his own glowing passion. It was his inner desire to put into poetry the themes that were burning within him. In March 1770 Goethe arrived in Strassburg to complete his university studies in law.
Like in Leipzig, Goethe found friends in Strassburg. One of the most important events was his meeting with Herder, who due to his eye-disease was obliged to stay in Strassburg for a couple of months. Here’s what Goethe said about Herder: “Since his conversations were important at all times, he used to ask, reply or express himself in another way, and in this manner I had to express myself in new ways and new views, almost every hour.” It was Herder who brought Goethe to the immeasureability of Shakespeare, told him about Ossian and Pindar, and opened his vision for Volkspoetry. Influenced by Herder’s appreciation of Shakespeare’s genius, he wrote at speed a pseudo-Shakespearean tragedy called: “Geschichte Gottfrieds von Berlichingen.” This was so ill-received by Herder that he put it aside.
Shortly after his return from Strassburg, he turned 22 and started working as a lawyer at the Frankfurter Schöffengericht. Goethe couldn’t care less about the traditions of the citizens in Leipzig and his relatives, his parents’ home. As a lawyer in the courtrooms he had to suffer a bit due to his strange way of putting proceedings to paper, and gradually he began to write farces and parodies about well-known authors of his times and railed upon his own friends, took interest in Alchemy experiments and sought out open-minded literary circles of Frankfurt and in his neighbourhood.
At 24 Goethe was already a well-known author of Germany. No other time in Goethe’s life was filled with prolific poetic works than in this period in Frankfurt. The time before and after his work ‘Werther’ was not only a time of multiple literary production, but also a period in which he spent a lot of time on seeking answers for questions on religion.
The last Frankfurter year (1775) brought Goethe another year of passionate love in the form of Lili Schönemann, a 16 year old daughter of a Frankfurter trader. He experienced one of the most exciting and happiest times in his life. Alas, Goethe drifted between his love for Lili and the feeling that he’d settled for a happiness at home wouldn’t be enough for him. An episode from outside helped him to bear and make the separation from Lili possible.
On November 7, 1775 Goethe came to Weimar, which was in those days a town with a population of 6000. In July 1776 Goethe joined the state service formally as its Secret Legislations Council. Goethe’s new position in the Geheim Konsil brought him soon enough in contact with almost all the pre-commissions of the state-administration.
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In 1779 he was appointed the War Commissioner and was responsible for the 500 soldiers of the state. Three years later he had the Chamber under him and became the highest financial administrator. Through his participation in the reading-evenings, redouts and other functions at the court and its high and snobbish society, the events became rather extravagant. And through Goethe’s presence and mediation Weimar gained importance.
However, it was the serene, tempered lady-in-waiting (Hofdame) Charlotte von Stein, a cold beauty, who was unhappily married, who gained more influence on Goethe. From the first moment they met, she reminded Goethe of his sister Cornelia, and he felt drawn to her. In the years to come Goethe couldn’t do without her clear, mature way of doing things. He called her ‘the serene,’ an angel, even a Madonna. A friendship of kindred souls began, which was a puzzle to Goethe himself. It was in these Weimar years that Goethe wrote poems such as: Harzreise im Winter, An den Mond, Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, Wanderer, Nachtlied and so forth. Moreover, many of his songs and poems were set to music by composers ranging from Mozart and Frederik Schubert to Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957). Under the influence of Charlotte von Stein began a decisive change within Goethe. It was during this period in the months of February and March 1779, when he had to go to different places of the Dukedom to recruit soldiers, to keep an eye on them, to inspect the conditions of the roads, that he wrote the first edition of ‘Iphigenie and Taurus.’ This drama became the mirror of his search for purity. The period after ‘Iphigenie’ was penned in 1779 was a phase in the inner development of Goethe’s life, till he travelled to Italy. Goethe became not only confident as an administrator but also improved the purity and quality of his verses.
The more prosaic he became in his daily duties, the more he endeavoured to bring a sense of order and system in all what he did. In addition to the completion of Iphigenie, he also started ‘Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre,’ wrote the concept for ‘Tasso’ and some parts of his ‘Faust.’ These were the fruits of lyrical productions. And just before his Italian journey, he did extensive studies in the natural sciences. His activities at the University of Jena brought him in intensive contact with comparative anatomy. In those days there was a conception regarding the original form and relationship between all living beings, and he proved the existence of the ‘Zwischenkieferknochen’ in humans, which was thought to be known only in the animal world. Goethe showed the biological development of living beings almost 100 years ahead of Charles Darwin.
Goethe’s interest in natural science showed him how his career in the state service brought him away from things he most cherished to do. So he decided on the tenth year of his period in Weimar that he had to break up his service. After arranging his farewell from the state service and personal matters, he asked the Duke for a prolonged leave. He left abruptly, like in 1772 in Wetzlar and 1775 in Frankfurt, as though he was fleeing from something. Even in the presence of Duke and Charlotte von Stein he didn’t utter a word about his concrete plans. He embarked upon the biggest journey to Italy after a short spa sojourn in Böhmen (Bohemia).
After a week-long ride in a coach he reached bella Italia. The first stop was in Rome, where Goethe stayed for four months. It had always been the middle point of his life to study the works of art history in Rome He went to the theatre and attended court cases, watched processions, took part in church festivals, and towards February 1788 even visited the Carnival in Rome. He expanded his knowledge of art history systematically. Goethe found it difficult to say adieu to Rome. The return to Germany was disappointing for Goethe and he felt isolated. Goethe’s record of his journey to Italy (Italienische Reise) appeared in 1816-17. Instead of the Weimar politicians and administrators, Goethe sought to fraternise with professors of the Weimar University. He met Schiller often.
Goethe found a new love: Christiane Vulpius, a handsome woman of lower rank who became his mistress, and with whom he had five children, but only one survived, his first son August, born in 1789. Goethe put his energy in the Weimar Court Theatre, founded in 1791, and developed it within a few years to one of the most famous German stages. Goethe’s loss of Rome was compensated to some extent by his meetings with Schiller, which did him good. Out of the first meeting with Schiller developed an intensive exchange of thoughts in spoken word and writing that was of mutual benefit for both. It was based on their common classicism and on their conviction of the central function of art in human affairs. Goethe’s epic poem ‘Hermann und Dorothea’ (1779) was well received.
Goethe was instrumental in changing Schiller’s tendency to go to extremes, and his habit of indulging in philosophical speculations.
On the other hand, Schiller brought back Goethe from his scientific studies to literature and poetic production. In 1797 Schiller stimulated Goethe to carry on with Faust and it preoccupied him for the next nine years. Part One appeared in 1808, Part Two in 1832. Goethe didn’t stand near Schiller since 1794 and two long journeys to Weimar took him away from his intellectual friend, and in the year 1805 Schiller passed away. Schiller’s death in 1805 coincided with the end of Goethe’s classical phase. After Schiller’s demise, Goethe saw an epoche of his life disappearing. He tried to struggle against the uncertainty of time by concentrating and delving into his own work. Without the regular intellectual argumentation that the company of Schiller brought to Goethe, he felt politically isolated through his distance towards the anti-Napoleon attitude of the public and started living like a recluse.
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In 1806 war broke out between France and Prussia and the decisive battle was fought at Jena and French soldiers who occupied Weimar broke into Goethe’s house. Goethe believed tristiane had saved his life from the French marauders. He married her a few days later. Goethe met Napoeon at Erfurt and Weimar in 1808. The Bastille was stormed when Goethe was 39. In 1809 he wrote the subtle and problematic novel: Die Wahlverwandschaften in which the interrelations of two couples are described.
Besides working for the hat Chance. Soldiers who occupied b Science Institutes of the University, he also carried forth botanical studies. The last two decades in Goethe’s life were devoted not to outer happenings but daily routine work.
A key towards understanding Goethe’s various interests was his conception of human existence as a ceaseless struggle to make use of time at one’s disposal. Despite such intensive devotion to his writings, the ageing Goethe didn’t remain so isolated from his environment as he’d done in his younger years. Since he was seldom out of Weimar, he opened his house for the world. It is interesting to note that among his many visitors were not many poets and writers but more Nature researchers and art historians, discoverers who travelled, educators and politicians. The innermost circle around Goethe was his own family.
In order to avoid the pompous celebration of his 82nd birthday, Goethe left Weimar in August 1831 for the last time.
The most meaningful work of poetry in the German language, Goethe’s tragedy Faust, took a long time to develop. Goethe wrote his Faust almost a life long, and before him were writers who worked on the material. According to his own memories Goethe played with the thought of writing a Faust-drama even during his Strassburger student days. Perhaps the most important aspect of tragedy of Goethe is that these twists and turns took place not only in the outside world but also in the soul of Doctor Faustus.
Despite the colourful scenes and the manifold happenings, Goethe’s Faust remains a drama of the soul, with a chain of inner experiences, struggles and doubts. Among his best works was Novelle, started thirty years ago. Goethe worked away at the last volume of Dichtung und Wahrheit and at Faust II which he finished before his death.
On March 22,1832 at 11:30 in the morning Goethe died at the age of 82, the last universal man and the most documented creative writer.
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Johann Peter Eckmann saw the deceased on the following day and said: “Stretched on his back, lay he like someone sleeping. Profound peace and fastness were to be seen in the eyes of his noble face. The mightiest forehead seemed still to be thinking…”