Who visited a few years ago, an exhibition at the Kunsthaus in Zurich, was able to meet a guard with a well-known face: the author Reto Hänny, which earned a few francs, and to be otherwise enjoyed, great works of art close to. Familiar Face? Reto Hänny was a Zurich celebrities against their will. In 1980, in the vicinity of the Opera house riots, he was the police beaten to the ground, still in the prison cell in Zurich "here, at the beginning of September," a now iconic Text about this time.

in 1994, won Hänny in Klagenfurt with "Guai" the Ingeborg-Bachmann-prize. A highlight of his literary career? "On The Contrary!", he is dismissive violently: "The total career break was!" From the price he was caught off guard already, and even more by what followed: a campaign in the tabloid press because of "violence pornography". The delivery and worked at the time, even without a Hashtag. On the road, in the Tram "because of the pig-dog squats!" – in the supermarket, he was mobbed, of course, of people who had not read the complicated Text.

"I thought, I'll never write what," says Hänny with a Cappuccino at the Kunsthaus Café. The 72-Year-old with a characteristic hair – thin, but long – told without point and comma. Sometimes, you believe in his new novel, you must also wait a long time to a point, sometimes ten pages, and more.

"Ulysses" in the back room

Because Reto Hänny is back! With "the fall", a nearly 600-page Opus, announcing his Berlin publishing house as the "Swiss Ulysses". This is like all such labels, of course, utter nonsense, but as a reference, but plausible: With James Joyce's Dublin-the epic of the small Reto has overcome once his Reading and spelling weakness: "This was Biert the idea of my teacher, of the Rhaeto-Romanic poet Cla. I was not allowed to borrow the infamous book in the library, but only for an hour each day in the back room reading." With "bloom's shadow" has Hänny paying homage to the author of his rescue once again: The book writes "Ulysses" once again, on a hundred pages and in a single sentence.

"fall" is a Rewriting, the subtitle is, appropriately,: "The third book from the flight." The first "flight" was published in 1985, the second, revised version 2007 in the library of the University of Minnesota. There is a long Hännys publishing home, Siegfried Unseld has him promoted, but that he had paid him a fixed salary and a Villa as a gift: it was just (from envious colleagues scattered?) Rumor.

The third flight, so "fall" is almost three times as long as its predecessor, but in structure and character it is similar to you. It goes back to the dream of flying, illustrated by the aviation pioneer Louis Blériot, and a small Bündner Bauer boys around circles with a toy propeller in the living room and the family gathered it, that the great-uncle shatters him the toy.

aviation pioneer Louis Blériot in 1909 with his machine, which is checked briefly before Crossing the English channel from the mechanics once again. Photo: Keystone

A Trauma, would infer a psychoanalyst; in any case, a key moment in the literature turned biography. "The big uncle in the book is made up of several great uncles together," clarified Hänny, the attaches great importance to distinguish between life and writing. Sure, "fall" consists of biographical Material, Childhood, school time, difficult youth in the verhockten province, city of "Ruch" (= Chur), musical revival experiences with Bartók and Free Jazz. But there is, now, at the third attempt, more than ever. He was much more free, since a number of models of the characters are dead, says Hänny.

Free, but even more is demanded of The Material opens the Override, more and more Details, price, request your Languaging. It is as if the author used a stronger magnifying glass to even more from the substance to get. It is special, fantastic magnifying glass, because the remembered Detail evokes associations, comes from the sticks on the sticks, swing on in distant regions, not just want to get to the point.

Reto Hännys sentences were always long. Now banks you even more. That they go over several pages is the normal case. There are phrases that fly, but never land like. Bracketed bays, parenthesis from a wide range of them, sometimes he brings between article and noun, another deep breath, and alone, this space would make the text, the heads of every journalistic medium to the axe attack.

Hänny from shares: against "gender-appropriate Bachelor's degree-literature", and critic ("vulture").

No red pencil, but a pencil used by the critics from time to time to the remuneration to be published in the set of monsters is clear. And to his Latin lessons have to think, where it was said: search the predicate, then the subject! Such a literature that is so. It has nothing to do with good consumable Plots, the hike to the top of bestseller lists. Not even with the "gender fair Bachelor's degree-literature", which "will be promoted come hell or high water", as it says in the book, in a pole attachment, mix. There are also the critics ("vulture get away") your fat, as the "patriots" ("the part of the population, of the people").

Reto Hänny is not in the least become of age or the age is mild, and "fall" is more political than the previous versions. Also harder. His Childhood, which is now clear, "was no country idyll". It is hard, Yes cruel passages in the novel, to sell about a spin on the satirical proposal by Jonathan Swift, the children of the poor as a 1-Year-old noblewoman, as a culinary delicacy.

"I invented, I remembered, and I combined." Hänny quoted Flaubert

literature arises from literature, of Reto Hänny is convinced, and in addition to his live material, by the multiple processing of literary Material, are to be found in "fall" open or hidden quotes and passages from several authors, from Joyce, whose "Ulysses" is a further attempt to effect a cure (not 100 pages, but at least 14).

"I've invented, I remembered, and I combined": In this sentence from Flaubert Reto Hänny finds his poetic concept well expressed. He "overwhelmed the inexperienced reader," is clear to him, but: "I pushed myself." Tedious work the screws, at the rates until it sounds right. In fact, he reads it aloud, and he insists that the page-long Getüme come up in readings more comprehensible over as in the case of silent reading.

Reto Hänny writes as he must write. But the result can be in a variety of ways to read, or at least "not as a message of an author-God". Rather, it is a space that brings together a variety of writing and in which the visitors freely can move. The reader Reto Hännys are free. You can get the book to the end and crash – "and we are shattered already" – start again – "quite possible" it begins. You can get off and hop on again. Of course, there are simpler readings. But who cares for literature at the Extreme of its possibilities, the comes to Reto Hänny, this intoxicated, Voice crazy Voice magician will not be around Language.

Reto Hänny: fall. The third book from the flight. Roman. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2020. 580 p., 45 Fr.

Created: 28.02.2020, 16:52 PM