11.
PAPERBACK WRITER
A reading of texts of the Liverpool authors Sean Hignett, Adrian Henri,
John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Malcolm Lowry and Brian Patten in the
joint exhibition by Susan Leask (Liverpool) and Anna E. Strengthening
(Cologne
)
There was this time when almost all the young people had a paperback
in your pocket, always ready to read and to cite. All kinds of important
words stood in it. What words are important? And change the words
that are important, from time to time? Sean Hignett for example, wrote
in the 1960s, a novel about the art scene in Liverpool 8th Liverpool
8 is a district in Liverpool, where the Academy is located on the
John Lennon also studied. And other young rebels who wanted to invent
in the years of the great cultural changes between anger and Weltekel,
lust and love life once again. "Liverpool 8" is a wonderful
novel, supported by the language facility of the 1960s, in which the
rebellious life experiences of young people and a social situation
of upheaval came together. Hignetts book at that time was important
for young people in search of new life forms. "Counterculture"
was the key word that is still in use any more. Hignetts novel nowadays
nobody knows, let alone the author. In Germany, certainly not. Although
the novel at the time in a translation and was present as a bound
book in paperback. Even the name Liverpool in the title was then promise
enough, also, Adrian Henri, who until his death in 2000 in Liverpool
8 lived in Mount Street knows, no one in Germany, although some of
his poems in England are in the textbook. "Love Is" for
example, a poem about love or the desire for love. Adrian Henri was
with Roger McGough and Brian Patten, to a group of cunning poets,
under the name "The Liverpool Scene" brought the momentum
of the beat and Popbewegung in rhythmic poems. These form a "snotty"
literature, which was promoted in Germany by Rolf-Dieter Brinkmann
was embodied in Liverpool especially by Adrian Henri. With ruthless
criticism of the consumer society and full of freedom and love ideals.
Henri's poetry books have been translated even while "Little
Johnny's Confessions" by his poet friend Brian Patten from the
Liverpool Scene least in a German edition available.
In fact, there is the well-known authors from Liverpool in the second
half of the 20th Alan Bleasedale century, Willy Russell, Jimmy McGovern
no German translations. Books young Liverpudlian authors were and
are certainly not translated into the German language. Especially
in contemporary literature only find sellers the chance to translation
and attention in other countries. The spectrum for a reading of texts
by authors from Liverpool in the German language is so limited in
advance already strong. Fortunate, then, that was published in the
wake of Jack Kerouac's novels and the Beat Generation Sean Hignetts
"Liverpool 8". And a fortune to have a lover in a small
German publisher interest for Brian Patten's poetry developed. That
Malcolm Lowry, who is known as an American writer who was once born
on Merseyside, little is known. In Birkenhead just said that Liverpool
is on the other side of the Merseyflusses opposite. For several years,
Lowry lovers seek in Liverpool so that this chapter is perceived in
the life of the author adequately. Most books by Lowry - short stories,
novels, letters - are available in German language.
They
are all influenced by that mixture of loneliness and longing, wanderlust
and sentimentality that often occur in places of a large port. Of
course characterizes the place of its origin a writer all his life.
The same goes for musicians. Especially for those four so-called Fab
Four, from Liverpool who conquered the world with their music. Words
and Music by John Lennon's "Imagine" has become a classic.
But hardly
anyone remembers that John Lennon published two literary books: "In
his own Write" and "A Spaniard in the work." That Paul
McCartney sees his songs as well as poems, the latest known since
she appeared in a collected form in a beautiful book edition in German
translation. "Yesterday," "Blackbird," "Live
and Let Die" - the lyrics of pop songs from the 1960s have succeeded
as a mass phenomenon, the magic and power of traditional poems. The
Beatles as a contemporary "poet" in the middle. The song
"A day in the life" for example, appeared in 1967 on the
legendary album "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band":
everyday poetry, surrealism and beat as one. Or the legendary "No
revolution. 9. "On the white album as a perfect combination of
Dadaist poetry, concrete poetry and experimental rock music Many young
people had in the seventies, the paperback edition of the Beatles
songs, the "Beatles songbook" in your pocket. At least more
than one edition of Goethe or Shakespeare's poems.
A potpourri of the texts of these authors Liverpool will be presented
at a reading.
Atelier Anna E. Strengthening
Volksgartenstraße 14, 50667 Cologne
Tel: 0221-319258 0221-27 and 74,866
13th. October 2012, 8pm
