Who's Luc Bondy? would have been my question...And I admit I probably have no clue what most of my favourite writers look like...
Are you on the way back then?

Arnon

What a nice setting, i hope and think you often have these occasions with interesting celebreties. Do you sometimes hand a copy of your work to the noticed person then, and before you do so read him or her your favourite passage?

Nicolas

On the way back to New York?

Yes, I meant back to New York but I saw afterwards the schedule of the Parisian festivités and apparently you're not being rescued any time soon...
Café des Flores? What next, dinner at la Coupole? Do these Parisians have any imagination or do they just stream people according to their jobs?
Sometimes I am surprisingly reminded that you are also officially a famous writer and not just a great neighbour and a web guru..
PS: but still, please, steal for me a French copy of Tirza when they're not looking...

I was quite astonished that none of my friends knows Cees Nooteboom when I asked for someone to accompany me to his reading last Thursday. One of them preferred a Tom Jones concert.

Juliane

Mr. Nooteboom is a star in Germany isn't he?
What kind of friends do you have and/or what is happening with my good old friend Cees in Germany?

Arnon

So, you recognised them, but did they recognise you?

Arnon

He's quite famous here, yes, and I don't think he is suffering any loss of popularity since, thanks to him, the auditorium was quite full that evening. Two thirds of the audience left after he had finished reading a passage out of „Roads to Santiago“ and an essay on Don Quixote even though there was still another author, Rafael Chirbes, to come at that point (the reading was part of the 8th Cervantists Congress which took place in Münster this year).

So I must have the wrong kind of friends. They either don't read at all (besides technical literature) or they prefer Fantasy. I'm aware of the fact that they regard me as a bit snobbish but that doesn't keep me from sharing their dirty humour. One of them more or less secretely dreams about getting laid by DieMutti and me and regularly informs us when he is masturbating wildly. I find it quite hard to find interesting, funny friends interested in fiction, since most of the students with an affinity for literature are incredibly boring. And it's better to be deemed snobbish than to be thought dim.

Recognition etc

@ Mieke
You're a quite nice piece of a woman, aren't you?
'Did they recognize you?' If I recognized you somewhere (haven't got the faintest what you look like, don't worry....) I would immediately kiss you on the cheek - carefully - for such a comment!
Ok, AG, Thank you for reminding me of his great 'Das Gewicht der Welt', and its Dutch version in a beautiful publication (collector's item) by AP (Arbeiderspers) Privé Domein: "De last van de wereld".
And indeed, let's do some more name-dropping,
who the hell is the other one?
bert h

Is all that skin for me? Really?

OK, I accept.

Kisses,

bert

(collector's item!) X

those last lines

Please Mieke, don't take them seriously:
I really don't understand how the hell these last three lines got there!!
I sent them earlier today to an entirely different person, in what was meant to be a very private email....
bhe / bert h / bert hesper
========================
Please after this line: anything else has nothing to do with me!!
============================================

Juliane

I'm very pleased to hear this. Cees deserves lots of love and other sorts of benign attention.

Hesper

You are one of my favorite name-droppers. The next time I throw a party I will hire you, just to mingle with the guests and to drop as many names as possible. Please, don't forget astronauts and baseball players and at the end of the eving I count on you to drop the names of some porn stars.

@Arnon Grunberg

I didn't know who Handke was until you mentioned him and I looked him up. What interests me is that the people you were with felt comfortable enough to reveal this. If I was at your table, I'd bluff like nobody's business. And if you were then to suddenly discuss Handke's works, I'd excuse myself and go to the toilet. Perhaps even the men's, hoping to bump into Handke there and ask him who he was. Maybe something like that was the real story behind Julianne's visit to the men's (was it Julianne?).

Name dropping at parties

Thank you for your willingness to hire me at one of your parties!
It will be quite an honour!
Alas, I'm afraid I don't know the names of any baseball players or porn stars (besides a certain Linda Lovelace...)
But I could easily prepare myself for those kind of people as well....
bhe

Arnon

When he got introduced by a funny man from the Spanish department with rolling eyes and ondulating body movements Mr Nooteboom nearly fell asleep over his glass of water. I mistook it for arrogance, after his reading I thought fatigue more plausible. But now, after you've pointed out his need for love, I'd say it must have been a mélange of "Altersmilde" and sadness. The poor man.

aliefka

No, it wasn't me.

Aliefka

Great to have you back.
It was Andrea Jarasova who had a little encounter with Arnon in the restroom, but she's very silent for the moment.

Bert

I felt honored by your charming request.

Arnon

When you went for a drink to café Flore, you must have had dinner
chez Les deux Magots. After visiting La Hune. Non?