Ingo Schulze - New Lives

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369. Contrary to his previous claims, T. offers proof here that he was still toying with the idea of writing fiction.

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370. This claim is false. It can be proved that N. H. was not in Altenburg on this date.

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371. Even N. H. has her doubts about this, as she herself revealed in a conversation with me.

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372. It is rather remarkable that T.’s presence at this meeting of the “media committee” was met with such surprise. The Prophet and T. had, after all, encountered each other before and after T.’s speech at the church. The Prophet could have thanked him on that occasion.

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373. That is to say: “We’re all taking a leap into the unknown, none of us know what lies ahead.”

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374. Until this letter T. never commented on the fact that there were prose texts on the reverse side of his letters. If one is to believe T.’s logic, one must presume that he already had a correspondent like N. H. in mind. It should be expressly noted yet again that his “works” are to be found only on the reverse side of his letters to N. H.

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375. Apparently this refers to the Barrista entourage.

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376. Johann Ziehlke presumably did not welcome this reference to his course of studies.

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377. Beyond T.’s own article in the Sunday Bulletin, no. 2, and a more general summary in the Bonifatiusbote [Boniface messenger], no. 1, no other written accounts of this episode have been located. Eyewitnesses, however, are unanimous in reporting that the effect of the performance was indeed “tremendous.”

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378. On July 8, 2002—twelve years later to the day — the rebuilt St. Boniface Church, which stands above the St. Boniface crypt, was dedicated in Altenburg. It now serves as the starting and end point of the many branches of a path laid out for Boniface pilgrims.

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379. T. mentioned Aunt Trockel to N. H. in his letter of May 31, 1990.

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380. T. quite wisely neglected to mention to N. H. that Aunt Trockel died only a few weeks later. Cf. his letter of Feb. 6, 1990.

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381. In comparison to the previous pages, both the careless handwriting as well as numerous cross-outs on the last page would seem to indicate that T. regarded this passage as a rough draft, which he then did not copy out again.

Crossed out: “Suddenly I was freed of the curse of having to describe the world, liberated from the bedazzlement of believing I should become a famous man, redeemed from the mad obsession of wanting to live eternally.”

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382. These things are not mutually exclusive.

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383. Crossed out: “I had in fact felt sorry for anyone who lacked artistic talent, who had no possibility of creating fame and opening up eternity for himself. Now I pitied those who held fast to such an ambition. Did they not realize that the age of art, the age of words, had passed and the age of deeds had irrevocably begun? I at least no longer had to cast about day and night for the stuff of a novel!”

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384. Translator’s note: This piece of concrete poetry is an example of how certain texts defy translation. The poem’s subject is the carnations (German: “Nelken” ) distributed to all citizens of the GDR on May Day and worn in the lapel or otherwise publicly displayed. The poem ends, as it began, with the letters of the word “Nelken.” But the final five letters likewise spell “ekeln,” which is German for “to disgust, repulse, nauseate.”

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