Blechtrommel Project:

Christian Carlson

Blechtrommel Project:

"spiritual development is complete at birth and only needs to affirm itself”

So claims Oskar Matzarath in Günter Grass’ Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum). But Oskar has two presumptive fathers: Alfred, his mother’s husband, and Jan his mother’s cousin and lover. Subsequently Oskar and the same Alfred are each presumptive fathers to Kurt.

Grass’ spiritual completeness stands in high contrast to his folding tautology of the temporal condition. The cascading of generations, and the knowing of lineage is a legitimate knowing, which the author’s provisional unfolding and refolding does not share. To know is to have legitimacy and with it authority.

When the simple unfolding and refolding of parts cannot be convincingly subsumed by a whole, the parts haven’t the legitimacy to be taken seriously, haven’t the authority to be art.

The Tin Drum was written in 1959, the year I was born.