Three of Andrzej Krauze’s illustrations for John Simmons’ Berliners.
Tom Lynham, 26 co-founder and “corporate psychotherapist,” takes a look at John Simmons’ Live Canon-shortlisted pamphlet.
Before diving into Berliners suspend your belief in time, space and common sense because they are symmetric constructs designed to tame the asymmetry of chaos. Abandon your preconceptions about poetic structure and narrative arc. And remember that in the world according to president elect Trump, history is slippery, truth is subjective, and nothing is what it seems.
To experience Berlin’s feverish zeitgeist, sneak into some paintings by George Grosz, howl along with Lotte Lenya’s haunting voice, and become an extra in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. If you’re in Berlin, grab a Weisswürste and Weizenbier from a Schnellimbisse and embark on John’s exhilarating odyssey that unravels through four thrilling shapeshifting episodes illustrated by Andrzej Krauze.
The Fire of Books invites us to morph into tour guides organising excursions to the invisible past. John scrutinises a crystal ball glimpsing shards of Berlin exploding like broken glass. We hover over The Bunker where the future never arrives and book burnings on Bebelplatz. As the words are put to death they burst into life, soaring like birds with blazing wings.
Above and Below is typographically centred because we are digging tunnels into and out of trouble. The engineered words act as loadbearing joists to prop up subsiding ambitions politic and economic, because entropy is endemic in Berlin. The Soviets think that a wall in the mind will be more insurmountable than any concrete barrier, but even ideologies come tumbling down.
The Air of Deception evokes utopian visions crumbling into dystopian catastrophes. The Kaiser launches an industrial war machine which flounders in ignominious surrender and unleashes Hitler. Every army marches on its belly so we meet the chemist Fritz Haber who makes bread from air by converting nitrogen into ammonia to fertilise wheat, mustard gas to neutralise conscripts in the trenches, and becomes the godfather of Zyklon B.
Reflections in Water is saturated with porous mirages because Berlin floats on a swamp. Humans are lubricated by emotions, so John takes us inside the heads of shipwrecked lovers to feel the agony and ecstasy of intimacy and enmity. Then we leap into Wannsee, Berlin’s loveliest lake where crowds swim naked and socialise. As we surface for air, we spy a fairytale palace where the Final Solution is being meticulously planned and executed.
Berliners is not just about some people some-where, it’s about every-one every-where. Or to paraphrase a former president of the United States – We are all Berliners.
Find your copy of Berliners at Paekakariki Press.