After building him up this morning, I now have to let you know how Pedro Lenz got on. Until today I didn't know him as an author, only as a person, as in Switzerland he read in Swiss German.

The audience confirmed to me that it was a great text

In Klagenfurt today he read the very beautiful story "Inland", which really captivated me as a reader and as a listener, and which didn't let go of me until the very last line. All of the people in the audience that I talked to afterwards confirmed my impression.

Embarrassment for the jury

Obviously it is not only the readers who can embarrass themselves at the Bachmann Prize, but also the jury, and that is exactly what happened here in my opinion. Rarely has there been a debate that was so incommensurate with the preceding text. The jury spent the entire discussion talking about trivial questions of narrative technique without once coming to the essence, to the very soul of the story. Soul is exactly what this story has, just like all great, simple, exemplary texts in the history of literature.

Mangold could have saved himself the trouble of coming to Klagenfurt

When I think that Pedro Lenz travelled 12 hours by train from Berne, and the juror Ijoma Mangold also travelled the twelve hours from the similarly distant (by 999km) Berlin, and that the pair of them travelled for a total of 24 hours, just for the juror to hurl the adjectives "inconsequential" and "insignificant" at Lenz, I reckon the juror could have saved himself the bother of coming. Two unfounded adjectives don't justify the effort.

Jury discussions arbitrary and interchangeable

There was nothing remarkable about the jury discussions. They appear pretty arbitrary and interchangeable. The impression remains that depending on your mood and taste you can claim absolutely anything and the opposite about each individual text.The jurors may reject everything that they perceive to be anecdotal, for their part, however, they are happy to use an endless stream of anecdotes from their own youths as literary descriptive instruments. They are also happy that the search engine Karl Corino is not here this year although they seem desperate to emulate him.

An incomparable text by Rammstedt

Tilman Rammstedt read from his very funny text about a dying grandfather who wants to visit China before he dies, despite never even having been in Austria. In the text, China serves as a metaphor for death, Austria for life, the text was actually very serious, a radicalisation for the Petz family and a possible winner of this year's Bachmann Prize. The unique nature of this text renders it almost impossible to compare with others, but nevertheless that is what will happen in a couple of hours.

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