Event Highlights: European Voices: A Reading & Conversation with Ilija Trojanow
On Tuesday, April 26, the Center for the Study of Europe, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston and the literary journal AGNI, hosted a reading and conversation with Bulgarian-German author Ilija Trojanow. Moderating the event was editor, teacher, and translator Aaron Kerner. The topic of discussion was Trojanow’s latest novel, The Lamentations of Zeno (Verso Books, April 2016), a literary fiction about climate disaster and a scientist imploding on a journey to the Antarctic.
Trojanow, born in Bulgaria in 1965 and brought up in East Africa, established his name as an international writer with the novel Der Weltensammler or The Collector of Worlds (2006), about the cross-cultural Victorian adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton. Since the mid-1990s Trojanow has been prolific in a number of genres, including travel, ethnography and science fiction. He has also become a major public intellectual in Austria and Germany with provocative interventions on topics such as Islam and the West, civil rights in the age of cyber-surveillance and climate change. His imaginative writing sits at the centre of a number of defining contemporary concerns, in particular the relationship between identity, language and culture.
Trojanow is the author of more than 20 books, including Angriff auf die Freiheit (Attack on Freedom), a polemic on surveillance that he co-wrote with fellow writer Juli Zeh and published in 2009. In July, he and Zeh penned an open letter calling on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to respond to the NSA’s surveillance program. – See more at: http://www.pen.org/press-release/2013/11/08/third-attempt-pen-member-ilija-trojanow-permitted-us#sthash.CGMLZ0lk.dpuf
The event began with Kerner giving a brief introduction of the book, describing how society has accepted the “new normal” of climate change, and how Trojanow’s character Zeno displayed an intimate relationship with glaciers as well as his emotional experience in the face of global warming. Trojanow described how the process of forming his character Zeno started with a bag dream about an elderly gentleman in a landscape devoid of greenery, snow, or ice who was mourning something unknown to Trojanow. The author explained how the figure stood out to him, and how his continual fascination with glaciers as a majestic representation of destruction as a near living being prompted him to determine that the man from the dream could be a glaciologist who lost his glacier. At this time, Trojanow said, he knew nothing about glaciers, and he described the process of beginning research by contacting a Swiss glaciologist who showed him the splendid beauty of a “majestic white entity” slowly graying and disintegrating, and who claimed that he felt exactly like Trojanow’s imagined character. Trojanow outlined the frustrations many scientists face today, understanding the truth of climate change in the face of a society refusing to accept the necessary changes. Kerner questioned whether Trojanow viewed the world as his character Zeno does, with disgust and despair, leading to a loss of faith in humanity. Trojanow said that Zeno is more of a skeptical and sad character, and how, as an author describing a landscape rarely ever discussed, he was challenged to find the language to capture the essence of purity in these few locations untouched by the ravaging of mankind. areas.
After a brief discussion of the hierarchy of eco-tourism and the hierarchy of cruise ships in the Antarctic, as well as a brief synopsis of the structure of the novel, Kerner asked the author about forming the accurate language to describe the landscapes featured in the story through Zeno’s perspective. Trojanow explained how while scientists generally speak quite formulaically, he wanted Zeno to be a contrarian and accentuate the emotional connection the man feels toward the natural world. Continuing, Trojanow explained how scientists are in love, and how they converse in both sensitive and intimate ways in discussing their specific fields of study because of their deeply rooted passion. Kerner then made a deduction the author had never considered, regarding Zeno’s interpretation of his glacier as a “paradise lost” but being drawn toward to the mortality and inevitable melting of all glaciers.
The conversation then shifted to a discussion of Trojanow’s experience researching and visiting the Antarctic. Initially, his primary trip consisted of overwhelming observation of the raw landscape while the second occurred after the first draft of the book had been finished. The speakers then discussed the relationship between the crew and the passengers, and Trojanow described the primarily Philippino workers enjoying his attention and questions about their lives. The author explained that the workers are generally detached from the impressive landscape, caring more about making money than understanding the bizarre Western fascination with traveling to such an unappealing isolated location to merely take pictures. Kerner then followed up with several questions regarding the environment and extreme weather in Antarctica, and whether Trojanow considered the accounts and experiences shared by early explorers to venture to the final and untouched continent. Trojanow agreed that the last pure exploration was to the Antarctic and then delved into a description of the dichotomy between the North and South, comparing the preservation of the Antarctic by the global community as a demonstration of cooperation and respect, while the Arctic is slowly being divided by the nations driving toward the extrapolation of natural resources. Kerner questioned the authors hope for humanity, and Trojanow gave a deeply meaningful explanation of how “despair is a luxury of privilege,” and that he wishes to contribute something to change the world for the better, similar to Zeno in the novel.
After briefly discussing the importance of Thoreau in emphasizing the preservation and purity of the natural world, Trojanow read several excerpts from his novel, first in English then in German. The event ended with an open questions and answer portion, when members of the audience asked the author the process of research and writing such an in-depth novel, the difference between accurately illustrating either historical and contemporary themes, and the reality of climate activism and ecotourism. Kerner answered a question regarding his opinion of the novel, explaining how he admires Trojanow’s ability to turn the tragic reality of many global issues into a piece of art. The concluding statements by Trojanow addressed the reaction to his book in Germany, reflecting upon the frustration and desperation many readers feel regarding the pressing threat of climate change and how he expects a similar reaction from American readers once the English version is sold across the U.S.
This year’s European Voices events are organized in collaboration with the literary journal AGNI and the Goethe-Institut Boston and are taking place as part of EU Futures, a series of initiatives exploring the emerging future in Europe. The EU Futures project is supported by a Getting to Know Europe Grant from the European Commission Delegation in Washington, DC to the Center for the Study of Europe at Boston University.
Watch the event on BUniverse!