{"id":8715,"date":"2015-05-12T21:08:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T01:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=8715"},"modified":"2015-05-12T21:08:06","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T01:08:06","slug":"episode-118-table-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-118-table-talk","title":{"rendered":"Episode 118 – Table Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show LIVE:
\nTimur Vermes, Gavriel Rosenfeld and Liesl Schillinger – Table Talk<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_118_-_Table_Talk.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“[Reading Mein Kampf] I expected to find something totally crazy and full of poison, so disgusting you couldn’t stand reading it. And what I found was something you could bear: sometimes pragmatic, sometimes logical. I was expecting a “wrong Hitler”, as most people in Germany would expect: a monster, yelling at the reader. Not someone it would be easy to follow. That’s what I found out: it was easy to go along with him.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"look-whos-backc\"<\/a>Is it okay to make fun of Hitler? On May 6, 2015,\u00a0the Goethe-Institut New York and the German Book Office brought in Timur Vermes, Gavriel Rosenfeld<\/a> and Liesl Schillinger<\/a> to discuss “Satirical Representations of Hitler in Contemporary Culture,” and they invited me<\/em> to moderate the panel! Timur Vermes’ new satiric novel,\u00a0Look Who’s Back<\/a>\"\" (Maclehose Press), imagines Hitler mysteriously awakening in modern Berlin and trying to make sense of the world since 1945, and prompts us to explore what it means to laugh at Hitler (and laugh with<\/em> him)! Give it a listen!<\/a><\/p>\n

“If you have too<\/strong>\u00a0many funny Hitlers, you don’t think there’s anything to be afraid of.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The panel\u00a0discusses whether Germany will ever be “normal”, the perils of using Hitler as the symbol of anything we don’t like, whether it’s okay for some ethnic groups (okay, Jews) to make fun of Hitler but not for other ethnic groups to do so, what Timur Vermes learned in the process of writing a novel in Hitler’s voice, whether Mein Kampf<\/em> should be published freely in Germany, and more!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/virtualmemories\/Episode_118_-_Table_Talk.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From left: me, Timur Vermes, Gavriel Rosenfeld, Liesl Schillinger.<\/em>
\nPhoto \u00a9 Goethe-Institut New York \/ Jacobia Dahm<\/em><\/p>\n

Enjoy the conversation!<\/a>\u00a0Then check out\u00a0the archives<\/a>\u00a0for more great episodes! You might like:<\/p>\n