Monika Maron with Volker Weidermann at the premiere of the new SPIEGEL talk "Top Title"
Photo: DER SPIEGELOne never got used to the term "anti-fascist protective wall", says Monika Maron. That was always "the wall". They concluded that language cannot be prescribed from above. The author believes that it is the same with gender. "I get upset when language is administered," said Maron in the new SPIEGEL literary talk "Top Title" to host Volker Weidermann.
If the language is changed, the result is partly wrong German or one that cannot be spoken like that, says Marron. They are upset when language regulations such as gender-appropriate formulations are prescribed by authorities, media and universities.
"I think that finding a new man is not over yet. He will remember his masculinity again"
On the show, the 79-year-old writer spoke about her new novel "Artur Lanz", in which she deals with post-heroic society. In it, she lets a retired editor rub against an age without heroes.
She felt sorry for the "slim boys" who were being presented in the media today, Maron said in an interview with Weidermann. Men have been pushed out of their breadwinner role, there is a downright hatred of them that they find terrible. "I think that the man-finding of the new man is not over yet. He will remember his masculinity again," said Maron.
"A society that does not want to defend itself is going under"
We lived in a world that was not particularly peaceful, the wars around us touched us, said Marron. If you think you are inviolable and don't adjust to having to defend yourself, something is wrong. "A society that doesn't want to defend itself is going under, that's for sure," says the critic of Islam.
A volume with essays by Maron was published in the spring by Susanne Dagen in the "Exil" series of the Dresden book store Loschwitz. The book series is distributed among other things by the Antaios publishing house of the new right Götz Kubitschek, whose "Institute for State Policy" is monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Weidermann said that he did not think it was correct that her texts appeared under the catchphrase "Exile". Because the term does not apply to them, but to Jews and artists who fled the Nazi regime. She wasn't happy about that either, said Marron. On the other hand, she said the title of the series was "exile from chatter into the world of art".
Maron became popular in 1981 with her debut "Flugasche" about environmental degradation in East Germany. After the book was published in the West, it came under increasing pressure. Many of her novels are about people in the GDR or at the time of reunification who rebelled against social pressure to adapt. The award-winning author has been on the right for a number of years.
Volker Weidermann presents his book show "Spitzentitel" every Thursday at 2:30 pm. The show is a mixture of talk and magazine. In addition to the writer Monika Maron, the premiere guest was also the boxer Zeina Nassar, whose autobiographical book "Dream Big" will be published in September. Next Thursday, Weidermann welcomes Mely Kiyak ("Womanhood") and David Grossman ("What Nina knew").
Icon: The mirrorevh