Neue Erschöpfungsgeschichten

"It is possible, dear reader, as you begin this book for the first time, to imagine the world as a glass vase with two distinct states: first, the intact vase, which still holds flowers, and through which light passes gently, creating a soft rainbow effect; and then, the shattered vase, its fragments scattered across the ground like the remnants of small shells on the shore. Literature that emerges from history to describe our present must answer what has happened here. Its task would be to gather the shards, while it is now in your hands to reassemble them."

Wherever we look these days, the world has long been exhausted. The vase, which once held flowers, is no more; the light has dispersed. We seem to live constantly under the shadow of an endless crisis that has become synonymous with the Anthropocene: humanity suffering under its own present. Yet, these new stories of exhaustion don't primarily recount the planetary, moral, or spiritual depletion that we commonly associate with it. Instead, they explore what it takes to tell stories about this world, a world that is no longer what it never was and will never become.

German Language Only

This book was created for TEXT MATTERS. MATTERS OF TEXT, a literary festival held annually by PRÄPOSITION and the Klingspor Museum in Offenbach am Main. The format, color palette, materiality, and strict central axis of its texts evoke both a pocket Bible and an aesthetic manifesto. These new stories of exhaustion not only offer a melancholic reflection on our turbulent times but also provide a hopeful outlook: "One day, all the consequences will be drawn from it."