Admittedly - the title "Schlachtensee" is misleading. And also the title of this text. Because it's neither about the local recreation area in the middle of Berlin nor about Helene Hegemann's fantasies about the pipit. Hegemann's world is that of language and it can be hard, funny, exciting, arousing, brutal.
Helene Hegemann has also gotten older. For those who still associate her with the excitement of "Axolotl Roadkill", let me tell you: A lot has happened since then. The author is now 30, has completed at least one Max Ophüls Prize and participated in the Sundance Film Festival, and has other books to her credit. She directs, directs and knows a lot about Patti Smith. However, when you hear or see her read, you still get the feeling that there is a very young girl sitting in front of you. A young girl with an old soul, if you like, but so curious, so unconventional, that's what I associate with young. Other 30-plus-year-olds marry federal finance ministers and have to read about themselves that the majority of the people do not like this marriage at all because a lot of tax money is wasted that could also be used in other areas. It doesn't matter, as long as we're jealous of the Brits and their Queen, who always celebrates with a lot of pomp and taxpayers' money and almost nobody complains about it, as long as we can't complain that others sometimes want to behave like sun gods.
And actually, this is supposed to be about Helene Hegemann. And her new book "Schlachtensee", a wild collection of short stories, some of which you might like and others might not. I like that you can have the feeling of being right in the head of the respective protagonist of a short story. Maybe that corresponds to my erratic nature, my head is rattling, it just thinks I have to make the beds, go shopping, finish writing the text and in the middle of it the same head thinks about the fact that one really likes to fiddle the opinion of the neighbor across the street would. "Fiddle the opinion" - I beg you! Helene Hegemann could express it better, cooler, more elegantly and cruelly, she would probably say that she just wants to kill the old woman. At least hurt her. And also know how. Just scare to death would do, for example. This neighbor is old and a pain in the ass, sometimes yelling half the street at night because someone is parking in front of her house, and I've been way past the point of pity and asking if she's just a grumpy lonely old woman since she called me a capitalist pig just because I had three cars. And no, I don't want to talk about it, it's private.
What I like about "Schlachtensee" is that the cover of the book is great. That I love the Schlachtensee per se. I walk around it, walk the dog (but only on one side), that I can swim in it or standup paddle on it and have had quite a few parties in the local restaurants. Well, that works, dear Mitte-Schnitte, Prenzelberger, Neuköllner and KreuzbergerIn, there is often more going on in the southwest of Berlin than you think. But that's not what the book is about either, which only bears the name because the author of the 15 short stories wrote them near this more or less stagnant body of water.
Somewhere online I read in a customer review of the book that this book was "typical Helene Hegemann". I had to think about that. And I came to the conclusion that I don't know what is typical for Helene Hegemann and that I also find that presumptuous. I'm not in her head. I only read what she writes. Maybe she's laughing, scared or crying, maybe she's neutral, who knows. And what is "typical" anyway?
What's true is that thinking of her is fascinating. Evil tongues would claim that it might sometimes seem a little intentional. I think she's just exaggerating. And that's cool. You could almost make three out of one short story, so much is happening there. And then let's not forget the animals: from a cow drifting on the Volga to a slain peacock, there's a lot going on, a few cats, dogs and birds are more or less almost irrelevant. It's always a bit disgusting, but also attractive, there's sex and death and love and friendship and family and indifference, travel and home. It's about the body and body fluids and what you can do with this body or what it does to you.
Hegemann is awesome. So her way of writing. This is a word that can be used both positively and negatively, just as you wish. I think it suits her, without wanting to be pretentious. And: The good thing about short stories is that they are short. You can read them, but you don't have to, and you can just skip to the next one if you don't like, say, a love triangle that escalates into a polygon. Or a person's circling around himself takes over, you don't want to read all that crap about drugs and world pain anymore. Then you could just get up in the middle of the night and ambush the witch from across the street. For example.
