The Bread-Roll’s Path into Socialism

June 17, 2019 8:45 AM

The LA Review of Books revisits the life and writing of Ronald M. Schernikau

i am afraid. am female, am male, double. feel my body departing from my body, see my white hands, my eyes in the mirror, i don’t want to be double who am I? want to be me, male, female, see only white. i am facing myself, want to reach myself, stretch my arms out towards myself where am i? i see, kiss, hug and intermingle. at some point lea appears, then reappears, and at last he is aware of her. b. senses: he’s lying in bed, it’s morning, his room is blurry, he tries to take it in, feels the movement of his head, doesn’t try to steer it. no hope for a good day today, fuckingettingup, fuckingschool, fuckinglife.

posted by frimble (1 comment total)

Wow, I'm extra disappointed I never learned enough German to actually read it now. I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for any of Schernikau's stuff in the future.

I particularly liked
Schernikau launches an attack on the idea that the critique of society’s ills constitutes the sole purpose of art, arguing that it should instead create change by identifying and preserving glimpses of utopia, fragments of the good life potentially accessible even within a bad and broken world.

I'm no literary type, so I don't know if this is actually the same concept, but it reminds me of Mark Fisher and the concept of hauntology, in a way that I liked.

I certainly think it's better to be thinking of the future, of possibility, opportunity and mandate for change, than it is to be negatively focused only on error and failure, broadly speaking.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 10:23 AM on June 17, 2019 [1 favorite]