Dear Audience,
What would an adventure be without a helicopter? Is one story ever enough? What happens when the world keeps speeding up — can our brains still keep up? In the sixth episode of our podcast »Read, Read, Read«, we explore these questions together with one of the most important writers of the 20th century: Doris Lessing.
In 2006, Lessing appeared at the ilb in conversation with Alberto Manguel to discuss her volume »The Grandmothers«, aging, female sexuality, and speculative fiction — she was adamant that she did not want to call it science fiction. A full year before the first iPhone hit the market, she was already warning about the accelerating pace of our present. A surprisingly witty and thoughtful conversation with an author whose work extends far beyond »The Golden Notebook«.
Simone Schröder, Program Director of the ilb, hosts the episode and, in this installment, recommends Elias Canetti’s »Nachträge aus Hampstead« — a collection of observations, quotations, and reflections. An ideal book for reading in small doses. It feels especially suited to our fast-moving times, when we long for a quiet moment — for the chance to »take the noise apart«, as it says in the »Nachträgen«.
You can find the podcast episodes here | Apple and here | Spotify
In addition, you can now listen to four events from last year on the online platform DichterLesen.
Kamel Daoud »Huris«
Arundhati Roy »Mother Mary Comes to Me«
An Evening with Hertha Müller (in German)
Abdulrazak Gurnah »The Art of Writing«
We hope you enjoy listening, discovering, and revisiting!
Warm regards,
Your team at the international literature festival berlin
Doris Lessing © Elke Wetzig (elya) Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.01