Tristesse Royale: Das Popkulturelle Quintett

by Christian Kracht, Joachim Bessing, Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre

Im Auftrag des Ullstein Verlags verbringen fünf Jungstars der Popliteratur drei Tage im Kaminzimmer des Hotel Adlon - bei Champagner und mit freiem Blick auf das Brandenburger Tor und Berlins neue Mitte. Ihre Mission ist es, bei kultiviertem Gespräch ein Sittenbild ihrer Generation zu entwerfen. Es geht um Markenartikel und Ästhetik. Und es geht um Selbstinszenierung und Lifestyle. Das Buch wurde ein Bestsellererfolg und machte Furore in allen maßgeblichen Feuilletons.

Genres: German Literature, Fiction

201 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Christian Kracht is a Swiss writer and journalist.
Kracht was born in Saanen. His father, Christian Kracht Sr., was chief representative for the Axel Springer publishing company in the 1960s. Kracht attended Schule Schloss Salem in Baden and Lakefield College School in Ontario, Canada. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, New York, in 1989.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey, lovers of literary history! This book is an important document of the movement referred to as "Pop-Literatur" in German-language lit, and two of the contributors are by now among the most important contemporary writers: Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre and Christian Kracht. In 1999, those two met with three other young authors in Berlin's legendary Hotel Adlon to discuss the state of affairs, and what they said, documented in "Tristesse Royale", is probably more interesting in retrospect than it was 20 years ago. The other three authors were Eckhart Nickel (whose latest novel Hysteria was just nominated for the German Book Prize 2018), Alexander von Schönburg (who has lately mostly written about manners, style and the nobility - he is the brother of Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, the T&T dynasty still being the biggest land owners in Germany and worth over 1 billion euro), and Joachim Bessing (unfortunately, "Tristesse Royale" was kind of the high point of Bessing's literary output).

The fact that in this book, Stuckrad-Barre can almost be called the voice of reason speaks volumes, but good literature is not about liking the personality of or agreeing with writers - it's of course preposterous to say that these people stand for a whole generation, post-reunification and pre-millenium, as the marketing campaign for the book claimed. They never did, and I don't feel they ever truly aimed to do that. And although it remains programmatically unclear how much of this conversation is a stage play, a sheer proposition of opinions, it's interesting to read their arguments and see where they went from there: They talked a lot about emptiness and weariness, and how to survive hardcore consumerism and the philosophy of anything-goes (not that they didn't take part in it, and on a big scale - a classic contradiction typical for these authors). They talked about a possible future of terrorism (in 1999, folks). They talked about "rock" and "disappearance" as lifestyles.

And that's exactly what Stuckrad and Kracht did over the next decade: Stuckrad threw himself into the celebrity grind, became a massive star, read at the biggest rock festival in Europe (Rock am Ring), became addicted to alcohol and cocaine, had bulimia, ultimately went into rehab and then wrote a highly praised bestseller with his fantastic memoir Panikherz. Kracht disappeared, roaming the world, hardly giving any interviews and becoming an elusive and mysterious character of Houellebecq-like dimensions. To read what Kracht says about vanishing, religion and direction in "Tristesse Royale" is extremely illuminating if you project it on his later novels, especially 1979.

And that's I guess the conclusion here: If you don't know nothing about the authors talking here, to read the book is pretty much pointless - the debates they are having only become intriguing if you know about their artistry, especially the stuff they wrote much later. Otherwise it's just a bunch of blasé guys saying (often outrageous and silly) stuff, interspersed with made-up descriptions. I would love to know how these people feel today about the things they said 20 years ago.

[Kathie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fünf verzogene sozusagen Literaten sitzen im Adlon herum und sprechen über "ihre" Generation. Ich kann mich leider zu dieser Wohlstandsgenaration leider nicht dazu zählen. Mein Interesse diesen Leuten, die mehr durch familiäre Kontakte und Geld bestechen als durch Talent, zuzuhören wie sie über Koks und Hotels und Champagner und teure Markenkleidung schwadronierenhält sich in Grenzen.

[Streunendekatze · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pfui. Dass die Autoren bei Springer arbeiten (oder da herausgeflogen sind) ist noch die Krönung bei diesem Trottelquintett.

[Luis Alv · Rating 3 out of 5]

Para nada es mi libro favorito, pero vaya vistazo en las inquietudes de la generación nacida entre el 65 y los 80:
miedo a la cercanía, no saber cómo construir una identidad, el colonialismo y la identidad europea, la disolución de la identidad política, la superficialidad, etc.
Me encantó cómo todo el libro es una gran puesta en escena: desde el trailer del libro a la llamada de que bajen los créditos por parte del director, pasando por la persona que encarna cada uno de los autores. Como todo manifiesto, es incendiario y profundamente absurdo, y este manifiesto lo sabe y lo lleva al límite hasta la irreconocibilidad.