Virtual Memories Show 626:
Martin Mittelmeier
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“I always had the feeling that if I understood Adorno’s texts, then everything would be clear . . . I would understand how society works, how fascism came into being, how we can get to a better society.”
With NAPLES 1925: Adorno, Benjamin, and the Summer That Made Critical Theory (Yale University Press, tr. Shelley Frisch), Martin Mittelmeier traces the roots of the Frankfurt School in southern Italy. We talk about the epiphany on the lip of a volcano in Lanzerote that brought this book to life, the years he spent poring over Theodor Adorno’s writing (and the temptation to mimic Adorno’s style), how Walter Benjamin’s principle of porosity arose from both the tuff stone & the way of living of Naples, and the challenge of evoking the Naples of a century ago and how it led to a theory of society. We get into Critical Theory’s attempts at understanding populism and oligarchic takeovers and why Adorno is having A Moment in Germany, the fun of speculating about meetings among great thinkers — yeah, I get into George Orwell, Henry Miller, and Inside the Whale —, the utopian aspect of local life in Naples and Capri, the complexities of reputation and destiny, and whether Critical Theory can hold up during the hyper-internet era. We also discuss the difficulties of translation with critical theory’s associative language and how translation is only the first interpretation of a text, why I need to read Hernán Diaz’ Trust, his new work about Thomas Mann working with Adorno on Doctor Faustus in Pacific Palisades (a.k.a. Weimar Under The Palm Trees), how he’s changed in the decade-plus since writing the book, and more. Give it a listen! And go read Naples 1925!
“The interesting challenge is to reconstruct what could have happened at this meeting, only with what they did before and what they did after.”
“Like everyone who tries to read Adorno, the fascination was that I didn’t understand him, really.”
“I find it cool that critical theory could give you techniques or instruments to have categories to think about what’s happening at this moment, and perhaps to fight against it.”
“There are no boundaries anymore; there is nothing that is fixed; there is always something else that you can imagine. That was the social utopia of Naples.”
Enjoy the conversation! Then check out the archives for more great episodes!
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About our Guest
Martin Mittelmeier, an editor and author, is honorary professor at the Institute for German Language and Literature at the University of Cologne. His books include Dada: A Century’s Tale, and Freedom and Darkness. He lives in Cologne, Germany.
His translator Shelley Frisch’s acclaimed translations from German include biographies of Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Albert Einstein, and Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl. She lives in Princeton, NJ.
Credits: This episode’s music is Fella by Hal Mayforth, used with permission from the artist. The conversation was recorded remotely via Zencastr. I used a Heil PR-40 Dynamic Studio Recording Microphone feeding into a Zoom PodTrak P4. All processing and editing done in Adobe Audition CC. Photo of Martin by Marie Kallenberg. It’s on my instagram.