Absinthe in the Morning???

Some people warm up with a hot cup of cocoa, but on those real chilling days, I settle down with a healthy serving of Absinthe to get my juices flowing. Absinthe, an American literary periodical that strictly features “new European” writers, attracts my attention at the library this morning. And while I’m not used to starting off my day with Absinthe, I think I can make an exception today.
Flipping through the mag, I find a story entitled, Dazzled by Bananas, by Thomas Rosenlocher (German), and the title understandably catches my eye. The story is set in Socialist West Berlin during the 1980’s and is told from the perspective of a young child. The child’s desire for a commodity as simple as bananas exemplifies the tension between scarcity and abundance in West and East Berlin. When the Wall finally falls, the child loses his insatiable appetite for bananas because he can suddenly get them whenever he wants. Was it the same once the West Berliner’s got used to freedom? Since all of the stories are translated I wonder how much is lost in translation, but I think this story still delivers a powerful message…and it makes me want to get a banana.
Absinthe features more fiction than poetry, but one poem I read seems to stand out above the rest. It is written by Ramon Gomez de la Serna (Spain) who is said to be the inventor of gregueria (brief and often humorous poetic statements). For instance, in this untitled, five-line poem he writes, “Trees know only that they exist thanks to their shade” and “The moon is the only traveler without a passport.” The simplicity of these statements is both hilarious and beautiful. I’m tempted to try to imitate it in my own writing… “Julia knows only that she exists because she could really go for that banana right now.” That might need some work. Also, I wonder why Absinthe claims to feature New European Writing when Ramon Gomez de la Serna died in 1963. I guess new is a relative term, especially when it comes to Europe. Regardless, the writing is amazing.
Britain, Norway, Madrid, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Turkey are just some of the countries the featured authors are from. Such an eclectic selection of stories and experiences makes Absinthe a great way to explore the scope of the world’s creative writing community. (And it’s cheaper than a plane ticket to Europe!) I get so caught up in trying to figure out and fit into a local writing community that I forget about all the other ones out there. Throughout the course of browsing through this periodical, I began to distinguish a different style in European writing than our own, both in subject matter and in prose. Is this an imagined difference? Is it brought about due to translation? Or is it actually there? It also makes me wonder what the rest of the world thinks of American writing…This Absinthe is really starting to get to my head. Until next time.