So have you heard yet about the big brouhaha flaring up in the German blogosphere? I just heard about it for the first time myself this weekend; and here's what I've been able to cobble together so far, based on the limited amount of English blog posts I've been able to find...

It all started last month, apparently, when the German government officially began its new massive Du Bist Deutschland public-relations campaign (or DBD, as I'll be referring to it for the remainder of today's entry). And what is DBD? Well, it is in fact a controversial new initiative by the German government to try to encourage "greater self-esteem" among its country's citizens, using all the different forms of media that exist to convince Germans that, no, really, it's okay to be proud of being a German! And part of the reason the DBD campaign is so controversial is because of its sheer scope - over 30 million Euros are being spent on it, in fact, making it the largest so-called "image" campaign in human history. (There are lots of other reasons why it's controversial, of course, but I'll be getting into that in a bit. Oh, and for those who don't know, "Du bist Deutschland" translates into "You Are Germany.")

Anyway, so it turns out that the entire campaign is being headed by this guy named Jean-Remy von Matt, who heads a famous PR company there called Jung von Matt. And I guess the campaign's been running for a month or two now, and there has already been an outpouring of critical comments from Germany's bloggers - about what a waste of resources such a campaign is, of how Germany shouldn't be trying to mimic America's habit of spending billions of dollars trying to make ourselves feel better about ourselves, of how insulting it is that one of the ads features Albert Einstein, who in fact was chased out of Europe by the Germans, back when that whole little Nazi thing happened 75 years ago. (Those interested in learning more, by the way, can start at this English-language post by Thomas Nephews; he gives further information about the campaign there, and links to the various satire campaigns German bloggers have invented over the last month.) And in most cases, that would pretty much be that - the government keeps unwisely spending money, its citizens keep rightly making fun of the effort, and the world keeps ticking along like it always does.

But it turns out, see, that von Matt wrote an internal memo a couple of weeks ago to everyone on the DBD team, telling them how the first month of the campaign was going, and complaining about the various groups that were being critical of it. And number two on his list was bloggers, of course, of whom he had this to say (translated into English in this post by Jens Scholz):

"Weblogs, the toilet walls of the internet. What on earth gives every computer owner the right to exude their opinion, unasked for? And most bloggers really just exude. This new, lowest level of opinion-forming becomes evident when you search for 'Du bist Deutschland' on Technorati.com."

Which of course has gotten the German blogosphere worked up into a frenzy, which apparently is just getting worser and worser over there by the day. But of course when I myself read this comment, the first thing I thought of was this - "Gee, a German intellectual who doesn't feel like everyone has the right to be a writer? What a fuckin' surprise!" Because this exact issue, in fact, is a critical one among the German intelligentsia these days, first because of the rise of poetry slams there and now the rise of bloggers - of just who does have the right to be a writer in Germany, and to express their opinion through literary means? Because man, I've spent time in Germany twice now myself, both of those times hanging out mostly with intellectuals and writers, and it is this very issue that I find one of the most frustrating things of all about dealing with many German intellectuals.

The simple fact of the matter is that there are many Germans who feel the exact same way that von Matt does - that to be a published writer is a privilege, not a right, a privilege that you have to earn, not just receive by going to Blogger.com and signing up for a new account. And this goes into the entire national culture of Germany, of course, which is quite different than the US's when it comes to the arts, to philosophy, to intellectual thought, which can basically all be boiled down to this: "Don't shoot your mouth off in public until you have perfected your opinion in your own head first, and then have run that opinion by someone even smarter than you, to see what they think." I mean, I saw this attitude all the time among German writers, both times I've now been over there - how you can't even discuss the idea of self-publishing with certain intellectuals there, because they can't even fathom the idea of releasing one's work to the public unless a team of professional editors have gone over it first. And this, by the way, certainly isn't a bad attitude to have about life, and is one I actually kind of grew to enjoy in certain situations while over there; because believe me, you have not experienced a late-night drunken conversation about the arts until you've had one with a roomful of Germans, and hear them spout these often perfectly-formed opinions about what they believe, while you on the other hand are so drunk and stoned that all you can manage is an occasional, "Chapbooks good! Time Warner bad! Me go pee now!"

But still, like I said, this is also an extremely frustrating subject to deal with among German intellectuals as well, simply because it holds back their artistic community so profoundly. Because the fact is that the German literary community right now is at its strongest point it's been since Goethe himself; there are over 90 poetry slams there right now, for example, more than even here in the US, and just thousands upon thousands of German citizens now out there reading at them and writing new work and posting regular updates at their blogs. Yet almost no one there actually self-publishes their work in a way that can be commercially released in retail bookstores; almost no small presses exist; almost nobody goes on self-organized book tours there, despite all these amazing opportunities just literally a couple of hours from where they live. (This issue, in fact, became a running joke during my own 2003 book tour there - about how amazed I was that I never had to travel more than an hour or two to get to my next appearance, and how horrified most Germans were at the idea of traveling an hour or two just to perform at a literary event.) And when you question German writers about why this is, most of them will reply that they don't feel they even have the right to do such a thing - "After all," a typical comment might go, "I don't know any professional editors who will help me. And how could I possibly release my work to the public if I haven't had a professional editor go over it first?"

This is something I think a lot of people overlook when it comes to the arts in Europe versus the arts in America, and in my opinion is the main reason the US still produces the majority of the world's indie-rock bands, small-press books, cutting-edge software and the like; because in America it's okay to be an amateur, and in fact in many cases your audience will love you even more precisely for this reason. For all its extra government money, for all its increased opportunities, the arts in Europe are still a much more regimented thing than you see here in the US; in Germany, for example, a huge section of the general populace won't even consider taking an artist seriously unless they have the official stamp of approval of a larger, more reputable arts organization first. We American intellectuals, on the other hand, I think pride ourselves on our rebellious spirit, plus of course apply the principles of free-market economics to the arts much more than Europeans do; that is, that anybody who wants to should have the right to release their work to the public, and that it's the public itself who will determine whether that artist is any good or not, based on whether they buy that artist's work or not. And not to toot our own horn too much, but I think in general that this is a much better way to think about the arts; after all, such a system has given us McSweeney's, and Matador Records, and Manic D Press, and Boing Boing, and just a million other little companies we intellectuals just adore the shit out of, none of which would've even been allowed to open for business if the founders had lived in Germany instead of here.

Like I said, though, things are rapidly changing over there - I mean, we wouldn't even be having this conversation in the first place if they weren't. Every day, in greater and greater numbers, more and more Europeans are coming to believe what we in America do as well - that it's okay to be an unproven artist and still present your work to the public, that there is a certain inate charm to amateurs who pursue the arts only as a hobby, and that such people might actually have something interesting and entertaining to say as well. And some countries in Europe, like England and Spain for example, are making this transition rather smoothly; and then some countries, like France and Germany, where this very different attitude about the arts exist, are having a lot more problems with this transition. And personally, I feel like this is one of the issues that's going to be coming to a big head in the German arts soon - as well as another issue they've actually been dealing with since the '70s, of whether you're a traitor to your culture by writing your work in English (the reason being, of course, that its shorter words and looser grammar makes it a lot easier for writing song lyrics and slam poems, versus the sometimes overwhelming Gottenschaudefrauenblahblahblah of most German words). As an admitted fan of both Germany and the German intelligentsia, I look forward to watching this debate, and seeing what will eventually emerge on the other side.

But of course there's an equally important issue to talk about when it comes to this entire subject - of whether it's a good idea to encourage Germans to take pride in their country in the first place. After all, I think you remember what happened there the last time its populace was encouraged to do this. Oh, but that's an entire essay on its own, and I'm almost out of space today, so I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow.

So is anyone else watching the new six-part adaptation of Bleak House, which just started its run last night on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre? I am, for three main reasons: 1) It's based on a novel by Charles Dickens, and I'm a fan of Dickens; 2) it was adapted by Andrew Davies, and I'm a fan of Davies; and 3) it stars Gillian Anderson, and I'm a big fan of Gillian Anderson (or, well, that is, if you define "big fan" as "want to fuck her so much that I almost taste it"). Anyway, for those of who who are also following along, I just wanted to point out that PBS actually hass this really amazing supplement to the miniseries at their website, including interviews with both Davies and the show's producers, an overview of Dickens' life and of how Bleak House came about in the first place, an examination of Victorian London, a timeline history of Masterpiece Theatre's Dickens adaptations - oh, it just goes on and on, in fact. Definitely worth checking out, if you're watching the miniseries right now like I am.

Bis spaeter, und Tschuss!