I write novels, stories, poems, magazine articles, film scripts and plays. I write what I want to read myself. If you happen to have the same taste... Welcome to our world!
I write in Swiss German, English and the Swiss form of written German. In my head I think (when I think) probably half of the time in Swiss German and half of the time in (broken) English.
In a Voice interview (1984) James Baldwin said:
[Richard] GOLDSTEIN: What advice would you give a gay man who's about to come out?
[James] BALDWIN: Coming out means to publicly say?
GOLDSTEIN: I guess I'm imposing these terms on you.
BALDWIN: Yeah, they're not my terms. But what advice can you possibly give? Best advice I ever got was an old friend of mine, a black friend, who said you have to go the way your blood beats. If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life, you won't live any life at all. That's the only advice you can give anybody. And it's not advice, it's an observation.
Among Swiss poets (artists who write poems) Maria Lauber is the one whom I admire most. She wrote in a language she herself called Frutigtütsch which is so different from most of Swiss German that it could be considered another language. Different grammar, different vocabulary... like Catalan to Castilian, or Spanish to Portuguese.
Am 5. April 2018 habe ich bei der Buchvernissage von Dominic Oppligers acht schtumpfo züri empfernt eine Ansprache gehalten. Ansprachen liegen mir nicht besser als ich Klavier oder Gitarre oder Flöte oder Geige spiele.
Ort war der Helsinki Club an der Geroldstrasse 35, 8005 Zürich. Der Club sah schlimm aus, die Leute vom Club sahen ebenso schlimm aus, doch sie waren freundlich und fröhlich und das Publikum auch. Was mich an dieser Szene beeindruckt ist, dass viele (einschliesslich Dominic Oppliger) schon viel mehr geleistet haben, als sie aussehen.
CALLING
the heaviness of the sighs on the endless nights
i'm in pain from missing you
i can no longer see anything
don't let me go, don't leave me
only you i believe in
ah, to warm my lips
CALLING IN THE NIGHT
my emotions make my heart pound
NIGHT AFTER NIGHT
An ass as beautiful but more sexy than Leonardo's Mona Lisa, dark faithful eyes and the whitest of Colgate smiles, plus lips so sensual that you'd rather begin missing meals than stop kissing them? Age barely legal, smooth brown skin, a waist you can girdle with your two hands, and a little brother so big the boy needs a cricket bag to bring him along? Honest, hard working, clean, intelligent, polite, and fun? A modest shopper in Central Store but a beast in bed, sucking like a Dairy Master and coming like a plastic milk bottle run over by a lorry?
To be a young woman is difficult, particularly if you are in love with Akira who is in love with your girl-friend Yuki and having sex with Dai, the shy boy in your High-School class. But then Dai drowns and Akira tells you, "Yuki broke up with me."
Will Dai's ghost come back to drag us all into hell... or paradise?
KLEINES SALONSTÜCK
Personen
Rechtsanwalt Dr. iur. Robert Altweg, 40, ledig
Dr. med. Peter Zehnder, 45, Arzt, verheiratet mit
Rechtsanwältin Lic. phil. Verena Zehnder-Altweg, 42, Kunstgeschichtlerin / Hausfrau, Roberts ältere Schwester
Marc Zehnder, 15, Gymnasiast, Sohn von Peter und Verena
Dr. iur. Alex Zehnder, Generaldirektor einer Grossbank, 48, Peters älterer Bruder, verheiratet mit
Frau Lic. iur. Claudia Zehnder-Corrodi, 45, Bezirksanwältin.
