Arnon Grunberg
Words Without Borders

2007 Is Going To Be Even Better

Finally, the date of the Nexus Conference had arrived. From the Amsterdam airport to the hotel, I shared a taxi with the philosopher Alexander Nehamas, and even the driver was so kind as to share his thoughts on cultural pessimism with us. This fact slightly undermined the position I was about to take, namely, that we very much want Western culture to remain a members-only society. That we would be shocked if the taxi driver could recite a poem by Goethe or Heine. That we wanted the taxi driver to be obnoxious and racist, at least in Amsterdam, because that’s what we expected him to be.
I have to admit that I wasn’t too familiar with the work of my fellow speakers.
The only relief was that I knew that a great majority of them had no clue about my work, as well. Ignorance can be a blessing. At least you don’t have to fake admiration, you fake only a certain politeness and that is morally defensible.
A friend of mine had informed me that Roger Scruton and I were going to be on the same panel, and that Scruton was a devoted fox hunter.
So during lunch, I tried to keep the conversation going by asking questions like, “Is it still possible to hunt a fox in the UK?” His answer: “Yes, they could come and arrest me, but it would be very good for my cause if they would send me to prison for it.” Unfortunately, there was no time for me to get more information from him about his beautiful pastime, because Mr. Scruton finished his cheese sandwich rather quickly.
From being on the panel, I remember foremost the painter Marlene Dumas nervously giggling as if we were waiting to to take a high school exam. And I remember the chairman asking if there was a crisis in Western culture.
I tried to say, and hopefully I managed to say, that of course Western culture was in crisis. What else do we expect? Western culture is in great shape. 2006 was our best year in history and 2007 is going to be even better.
What kind of culture would that be? Definitely not Western.
Give us a crisis and we give you a panel with Roger Scruton and cheese sandwiches.


200520062007200820092010

JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember

19152229