"The general becomes visible in the most individual things,” Adorno tells us. He would have appreciated, possibly used, Inge Buck's handcrafted armor against an invisible foe."
It is almost expected of authors who are alive, their contribution to the pandemic that determines our present. It is not surprising that Inge Buck has also pricked up her ears, since she has long been crossing borders with her texts and offers approaches for understanding.
Corona Diary is also about Inge Buck's most recent work, and its title, quoted from the French, already reveals something of her personal attitude:
I'd rather die than not kiss.
The title may not have come to Inge Buck until she was at work, as she only started the diary entries for herself in February, collecting scraps of words, moods, observations on the pandemic, for all of us to hear and see during this time came. When she becomes unsure about the meaning and quality, she lets a friend read along, and he encourages her - fortunately! - to keep going.
Committed to this, the author includes more sources, makes phone calls, researches, shares the people she (still!) meets regularly in her adopted city of Bremen. places in the diary sheet. Discover hypochondriac traits in yourself. Annoyed by waiting in vain for the Leipzig Book Fair. Strengthened by rediscovered or already present literary like-minded people, such as Doris Lessing.
Inge Buck's diary pages end "already" around Easter, which for us is actually a celebration that is close to people and joyful in singing. Actually just a small bundle of leaves, next to which you have to imagine a growing mountain whose summit nobody knows. Maybe that's why Inge Buck's thoughts and observations, with their certain balance of spring-like everyday life and inherently vulnerable Corona reports, become something of a helpful gesture
"The general becomes visible in the most individual' Adorno tells us. He would have appreciated, if possible used, Inge Buck's personally made armor against an invisible enemy.
Incidentally, the congenial vignettes by Gunther Gerlach, symbols of time that flowed from his brush and long for the calm of Asian forms.
"There is nothing worth doing,” says Inge Buck at the end against the backdrop of a city that has gone silent. I mean, for once she contradicts herself!
In: KULTUR.NETZ – magazine of verdi. (Cultural magazine of the VS Lower Saxony/ Bremen) 2020 Issue 3.
Eva Korhammer
