CCB Magazine

Good­bye to the old, hello to the new

Photo: © Schirin Moaiyeri

Digitalisation is becoming a buzzword for fear­based superlatives. Personally, I don’t happen to believe that digitalisation is the death knell for literature. On the contrary: It offers storytellers and poets completely new playgrounds, new rules of the game, new types of games – and not least of all, new sales opportunities. This my personal plea for new openness.

BY TOM BRESEMANN (author and co-director of Lettrétage in Berlin-Kreuzberg)

Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Tom Bresemann and I love literature. And mainly for one good reason: It can do anything and everything! And it’s everywhere: Storytell­ing is one of the basic elements of human existence; lan­guage is the simplest aesthetic tool, is available to everyone and costs nothing at all. Literature has the potential to thrive in a wide variety of situations and media: Films and series function over and through their means, videogames resort to narrative means, songs borrow their hooklines from poetic approaches, etc. And against all odds: Literature flourishes and thrives splendidly! There are still around 80,000 book ti­tles published annually in Germany. Even the reading habits of young people who use their mobile phones are still “sta­ble” – according to the JIM study, it has remained constant at around 40 per cent for 20 years. Literature has always pro­vided the best fake news because it invents the truth. The post­fact era can’t do damage to it because it’s not only pre­fectural, but also super­fabulous.

So what does any of this have to do with digitalisation? Everything! For I personally don’t believe that digitalisation is a threat to literature; on the contrary, it offers storytelling and poetry new playgrounds, new rules, new ways of playing – and, last but not least, new sales opportunities. Digitalisation is of course a challenge for publishers, who have been asked to arm­wrestle Amazon at the table. On the other hand, publishers have to come up with something new: Only 0.5 per cent of all submitted man­uscripts are still published by the publishers, and the num­ber is even lower among the large popular publishers – ac­cording to a survey by Buchtalent conducted in 2013. That is why the digitalisation of literature is opening up new spaces for development. It also viralises the ongoing search and the invention and testing of new means of design and forms of reception. And of course whatever is new presents opportu­nities as well as risks, both aesthetically and economically. The literary digital revolution is happening, and it’s not be­ing televised. It’s out there, even and especially in Berlin. In the hearts and minds of a literary scene that is brimming with ideas, that feeds from the most diverse cultural back­grounds and helps them to be mutually enriching. A scene that is trying out new forms of publishing and togetherness. Be it through selfpublisher associations, some of which now exist, or through the network of independent literary scenes in Berlin. And in this respect, digital tools are important and helpful allies that we can utilise. 

The literary digital revolution is happening, and is not being televised. It’s out there, even and especially in Berlin. Above all, digital tools are important and helpful allies that we can utilise in the process

As a writer and organiser, one of my professional responsibil­ities consists of being contstructive, open and curious, and to follow current developments in political, media and social life. I marvel at the scepticism of the book scene with respect to digitalisation. Are people afraid of having to find new an­swers to new questions? Isn’t the constant asking and con­stant answering of new questions genuinely inherently a part of every literary creation and reception? 

Reads, because he can: author Tom Bresemann. In this issue, no less. Photo © Schirin Moaiyeri

We all know that new solutions are needed, also in econom­ic terms, in terms of attention and sales. We all know that new solutions are not about publishers trying to sell PDFs and epub files. I don’t want to create the impression that I am an enemy of booksellers and publishers. However, I can’t ignore the fact that many of my author friends are down­grading the possibilities of social media into endless genres in commentaries, leaving digital potential largely unexploit­ed. Among my thousands of Facebook friends, only a hand­ful post texts or literary content, let alone using digital tools for their literary production or even trying to make their own breakthroughs as self­publishers. 

How can literary authors and multipliers approach these new solutions? 

Step 1: Don’t be afraid of change! On the contrary, curiosity and openness are needed

Step 1: Don’t be afraid of change! On the contrary, curiosity and openness are needed. The reason why I referred above to the book scene and not to the literary scene is that there are a large number of literary artists who, apart from the book, deal with digital processes in their aesthetic practic­es in the most entertaining, clever and aesthetically profit­able way. For example: Jazra Khaleed is a political poet and activist who sometimes creates and explores new, unusual reading situations in live performances with the help of so­cial media (Twitter, interactive via hashtags, the audience can design the text live), database software (databases with personal and antique poems), one’s own voice as well as one’s own body. When you witness one of his performances, you have a literary experience that goes far beyond the usual practice of reading as a product presentation. Non­repeata­bility, performance and interaction are only seemingly new themes. For in his performances I also find the very classi­cal functions of literature (for example the archive function, which is updated). Access to these func tions is the new, the other. So it’s not about eventing, it’s  about always being able to do justice to what makes up the fascination of literature. Digital literature can do so much more than digitalised litera­ture if you are open to it – in production and reception. 

Step 2: Welcome to the great wide open! Good­bye to the old, hello to the new: Nothing has to be taught or learned. This also means not being afraid of failure. We have to cheerful­ly bid adieu to these stodgy, eternal old school know­it­alls and search for new ideas in literary production and media­tion

Step 2: Welcome to the great wide open! Good­bye to the old, hello to the new: Nothing has to be taught or learned. This also means not being afraid of failure. We have to cheerful­ly bid adieu to these stodgy, eternal old school know­it­alls and search for new ideas in literary production and media­tion. Can’t each of us plant much stronger seeds through a shared fascination and awakening of curiosity, through the liking and sharing of open exchanges as equals rather than going about it like those who try to consolidate power and le­gitimation through gestures of superiority and emulating the behaviour of the world’s elites? Can’t every organiser achieve completely different goals openly and together, integratively, with the many activists of the city’s independent scene, com­pared to those who think that literature should be pre­pack­aged and made commercially viable?I believe in digital processes and tools as companions to­ward greater openness! Openness is what makes “good” lite­rature and “good” mediation of literature, not the educational canon, the reputation of a publishing house or the sales of wood fibres. 

Step 3: Just do it, eyes wide open and go right through! There’s a world out there waiting to be discovered and em­braced

Step 3: Just do it, eyes wide open and go right through! There’s a world out there waiting to be discovered and em­braced. An exciting and stimulating component of this undis­covered world is the digital landscape that lies just around the corner or can be seen on screens in every hand: blogs, Insta feeds, Soundcloud files,  literary magazine apps such as “OR” – and why not recognise the smartphone and its apps as a reading tool – why not start with the obvious? This isn’t about patriarchal acquisition of some sacred land, not about the colonisation of bodies and ghosts, not about seiz­ing power and space! It’s about taking in the view, careful­ly roaming the landscape, making it fruitful without cutting back its flora and fauna. Let’s strike out on new roads, take new ways! But please remember to leave the walkways and commentary paths as you would like to find them again, la­dies and gentlemen!

Profile of Tom Bresemann on Creative City Berlin

Category: Specials