The Text "Super-8" Polarized the Jury

Angelika Reitzer was the first female Austrian to present a text. The jury members had various opinions of "Super-8," ranging from total rejection (Ijoma Mangold) to total enthusiasm (Andre Vladimir Heiz).

Mangold Spoke of Insurmountable Ditches

Andre Vladimir Heiz held a passionate plea in defence of "his" text: he is totally in love with it - in the last few years he had read "nothing comparable in its nature." Ijoma Mangold, however, was not able to share this opinion. "I just don't know how to surmount this ditch."

Burkhart Spinnen said that he was in love with the "future potential of the text," qualifying his statement: "If this were the beginning of a longer text, then I'm for it. But if it's just a tale, then I'm against it."

An Allegory of Being an Insider and an Outsider

Ursula März described the text as being "complex" and "contemporary." It's an attempt to explain what happens "when somebody falls out of the system" and thus represents an "allegory of being an insider and an outsider." It is a very cool text, in which the author has the aim of letting the text derail itself. "Now, that's ambitious!!

Daniela Strigl also said that the dreary atmosphere of this depressing text drew her into "its unpleasant mood in a pleasant manner."

"I need to wake myself and my colleagues up."

But Klaus Nüchtern could not agree at all with these opinions, "Now I need to wake myself up again and my other colleagues." Their "cosy lolling" on the cushions of vagueness, for him. is too tea-time like. "I don't know what's gotten into all of you!" He found the lack of any type of extremes "enervating."

Alain Claude Sulzer too was unable to find any merit in the text. "Even when the rhythm is right and the sentences are nice, the reader gets a sense that the author is straining herself -it's all just too vague for me." Sulzer then went on to say that even if it did become a longer text, he still would not read it.

Mangold Seemed Annoyed by the Text

Ijoma Mangold said that the text was getting on his nerves the more he read it. For him, it has no "aesthetic value" and its language is "conventional." Heiz contradicted him. "It has amazing style and is musical," "highly thrilling" and "brilliantly economical in its language." To which Mangold replied, "Your own language in defence of Ms. Reitzer's text is much more exciting than that of the text itself!"

Spinnen reprimanded Mangold for his objection about the "text getting on his nerves." "I don't want to hear things like that. Kafka still gets on my nerves and Bachmann even much more so. I don't want to read any texts that don't get on my nerves!"

Text by Angelika Reitzer