I listen to a lot of Adorno recordings currently. He spoke quite a bit on the radio. It’s different from his books. And he’s not so bitingly negative. Sometimes he is, but often he isn’t. He has wit and is charming. His voice is often the softest and most beautiful among the speakers.

So. We are sick children. Parentless children. Lonely children. We are united by a certain severity. We are strict children. Imposed on us by our parents. So our life knows a great restriction. We are restricted. Obstructed, inhibited. We don’t move forward. We also have neurotic life plans. We are performance-oriented in a bad way. At the same time we are gifted. And we are, in all of this – German.

It first struck me in Alexander Kluge’s “Farewell to Yesterday”. The streets of Frankfurt, their lights, filmed in black and white. That does something to me. It elevates me. Worlds that I know. And so it is in speaking. The familiarity of German and its violence.