Exclusive Interview with Swiss Author Peter Stamm
To experience your life over again. Is that something you are supposed to wish for?
Of course, this question is not of any relevance for most of us, since it is not a real possibility. But thinking about it nonetheless gives us a different sense of our own lives, which is just what Swiss author Peter Stamm successfully shows in his novel “The Sweet Indifference of the World”.
In his newest work, Stamm has created a literary version of a Mobius strip: told through the eyes of Christoph, a writer haunted by his past, this thought-provoking novel exists on the borders of dream and reality, of memory and imagination. With Stamm’s signature style of poetic, deceptively simple prose, “The Sweet Indifference of the World” explores how history may repeat itself, not just in war or politics, but also in love and heartbreak.
The Embassy of Switzerland in the United States, in collaboration with DC bookstore Solid State Books, will be hosting a live conversation between U.S. author GD Dess and Peter Stamm, on Monday, May 11, 2020, at 4:00PM EDT. We also had the opportunity to conduct an interview with Peter Stamm himself and talk with him about life, the importance of telling stories and, of course, dealing with the coronavirus.
Enjoy!
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Mr. Stamm, what makes for a good story in your opinion? Should readers find themselves in the story, or should it help give readers an escape from life?
I think that literature is capable of a wide variety of experiences and that readers each have their own needs. A young reader who doesn’t have as much life experience might want an escape from life, as might someone who is caught in a difficult situation and would rather be somewhere else. I personally read books in order to learn something about the human condition and, in the end, about myself. For me, literature is a field of experimentation in which I can try out other lives risk-free.
You have written of yourself that you always struggled to keep a journal, but were one of the first Swiss authors to begin, in collaboration with the Literaturhaus Lenzberg, keeping a coronavirus journal. Would you say that the current situation provides inspiration for your love of experimentation and your literary work in general?
I don’t think that crises create better literature than uneventful times. Writing requires time and calm. And the coronavirus crisis is a bit too amorphous, too diffuse as a topic. A virus is not a very exciting protagonist. Fortunately, though, this crisis has brought me calm above all. After a time of disquiet and uncertainty at the start, I suddenly had much more time than usual to write. Trips and readings were cancelled and I was sitting at home with the beginning of a novel that I could not avoid. The journal, however, is not a literary work, but simply a diary.
Both your book “The Sweet Indifference of the World” and your debut novel “Agnes” are about stories and how they relate to reality, how life and literature affect each other. In your journal, though, you tell fewer fictional stories and more personal stories. Does your coronavirus journal and the personal stories that you share help you to reflect differently on your life and to process reality?
My life has always been the point of departure for my writing — though not directly. I have never written biographically, but the themes in my literature are also the themes that have shaped my life. Personal material has flown into my recent books more than previously, though I use this material just as freely as material unrelated to my personal experience.
Your characters often play a balancing act between lived and narrated life. Do you think it is possible, necessary even, to imagine beauty into our lives?
Not beauty necessarily, but just to imagine, to tell stories to ourselves and to others. I believe that humans have a strong need for stories; they help us to disentangle reality, give meaning to the events in our lives and shape our identity. Lots of stories are told within families too, and often these are the same stories over and over, which in turn help to define the family. I tell stories, therefore I am. The fact that the stories told often do not overlap with reality is the creative contribution of the storyteller.
In “The Sweet Indifference of the World” the writer, Christoph, meets his younger alter ego, Chris. If you were to meet your former self and you had the chance to do something differently, what advice would you give him? (Except, of course, for the well-meant recommendation to “Buy more toilet paper!”)
There might be a few things I would tell him to do differently; though I’ll keep those to myself. But in general, when looking back at one’s life, one often has the feeling that everything happened the way it had to. No decisions in my life had major effects and, looking back, I would say that many of the mistakes that I made helped to make me the person I am, to bring me to where I am and to achieve what I wanted to achieve.
A number of your works, including “Agnes” and “Marcia aus Vermont” take place in the United States; what type of personal connection do you have to the U.S.?
My mother worked in Washington for a few years when she was young, so the U.S. was part of our family history. Then my sister moved to New York City for a few years; I visited her there and immediately fell in love with the city. Later on, I lived and worked in New York as well and visited other parts of the country — Chicago and the East Coast and later on the West Coast as well. I experienced a lot during these stays and some of these turned into stories. At the same time, I still have the feeling that I do not entirely understand the country. Many Europeans think they know the U.S. from watching American films and TV series. But for me, it’s still a very strange country that, when it comes down to it, is impossible to fully understand. That doesn’t change the fact that I love to be there.
In one of your recent entries in your coronavirus journal, you write that the quarantine measures would not just prevent the spread of the virus; they would also limit international cooperation and mutual understanding. How do you think the world should look after the virus and how can literature contribute to further promoting mutual understanding?
Already after 9/11 when everyone wrote that the world would never be the same, I had my doubts. I don’t think that the world will be much different after the coronavirus. It would be nice, though, if we could live our lives a little more consciously after this, that it might become clearer to us during isolation what is important to us and what isn’t. And if we could notice that we have the capacity to change things, not just during acute crises such as the coronavirus but also on issues like climate change. For lots of people, though, the first focus will be to find work again and to survive economically. There is reason to fear that though the crisis might not make the rich richer, it will make the poor poorer. Literature, in my opinion, will continue to have the same role: that of helping people to understand themselves and others, and helping to bring people closer to themselves and to others.
To join the live conversation with Peter Stamm, follow Solid State Books’ Instagram Account (@solidstatedc) and watch live on May 11, 2020, at 4:00 p.m. EDT.
