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Jens-Christian Rabe
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What is it about a voice? In writing, that is. A tone, a freshness, the originality of youth, a need to stick out, the impertinence of the newcomer. You read something and remember that you read it only after you read something like that again. Then you realize, there is a voice. You have to hear it twice, maybe more often, maybe much more often, before you figure that out. It has to become a memory to be discovered, rediscovered. And at the moment that I figured out that Christian’s voice was a voice I liked, he informed me that he had been hired by the Süddeutsche Zeitung where he now writes about music and thinking. I felt a little sad. I was working at Die Zeit at the time, as a literary editor, and I had given Christian some books to review and thought that it might be fun to work together for a while. See where he might be headed. And he just headed off. Did not need any advice I had never actually given him. This is how things go. I don’t remember how I noticed him which is probably unusual or not in that context, I don’t know, it was just that he was there all of a sudden and I liked that. But what is it in a voice, a voice like Christian’s for example? Do you have to recognize yourself to like it? Is there really always narcissism involved? Is it again about one self? Or is it about community? Or confusion? Do you like what you know? Or do you look for what surprises you? The foreign? The strange? The challenging? Is there a conformism of the like-minded? And why would that be a conformism? Is conformism the right word, at all? Writing, so goes the cliché, is self-expression. Which is not true. Who would be that self, anyway? Writing is a long process in which you either define the role better that you want to play, on paper, less so in life. Writing is trial and error and the words are the tools that you use for this experiment and at the same time the words themselves are the experiment. Writing is a way to challenge yourself because you know that you are not alone. The loneliness of the writer is a myth in that sense that he or she realizes always that there is a reader, that there will be a reader. What is the point of solitude then? Well, to think, to get things done. But the aim is understanding. Which comes from: Disagreement. So welcome, Christian, to this dissonant chorus of 60pages.

Theresia Enzensberger
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I met Theresia at a party during Berlin fashion week two years ago. Basically by accident. I was just in town visiting some friends. In Munich a couple of days before Ayzit (Bostan) had told me that she’ll be at the Bar Tausend that evening and encouraged me to stop by. Even without an invitation. She’ll take care of it. So I got my first fashion week lesson: You don’t need to be invited anywhere if Ayzit’s taking care of you. Why? Because she’s not only the coolest and smartest but the kindest person in german fashion. Even the grumpiest bouncer and the most relentless guest list guard couldn’t resist her charm. But unbelievably it’s even better as there’s not just Ayzit. Around her are usually a bunch of the kindest, coolest and smartest German woman you won’t even dare to dream of meeting at a place like the Bar Tausend during fashion week. They are artists, product designers, writers or – no kidding – brain scientists. And Theresia was one of them. Born and raised in Munich only 25 years before she just got back from the US – she graduated from Bard College – and was stunningly determined to establish her own literary magazine. Why don’t we have any interesting literary magazines over here she said. „I mean: real good ones, new ones, ones that I would like to read?“ And what can I say? She could talk the talk. But as it turned out: She could walk the walk as well. A few month later she published the impressing first issue of Block. Just like this. Especially in writing there are a lot of people in Germany who have lots of ideas but very few of them are passionate, persistent, confident and brave enough to put them into action. Theresia is one of them. It’s undeniably a very good thing to have her with us now.

* Picture by Rosanna Graf

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Jens-Christian Rabe