About satirical prophecies and the invention of reality: Paavo Matsin and Baret Magarian - Video

Reading und Writer Q&A "About satirical prophecies and the invention of reality:" (EN)
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Paavo Matsin's novel "Gogol's Disko" is set in the near future - the newly formed Tsarist Empire of Russia forcibly annexes the entire Baltic region, erasing every trace of Estonian culture in the process. Then Nikolai Gogol emerges, risen from the dead after 170 years, and a crazy round dance begins. With anarchic humor, Matsin manages to make fear and inner conflict tangible and at the same time to lead them ad absurdum. A nightmarish, bizarre dystopia, a bizarre view of the present.

Baret Magarian's "Invention of Reality" is a poignant satire on omnipotence fantasies and the absurdity of today's media world. What the main character of the novel writes gradually becomes reality, he falls into the clutches of a spin doctor and becomes the center of a huge media hype. The real and the invented are mixed up.

Do we need drastic forms of comedy and exaggeration in order to still be able to design social panoramas of our globalized present? Can dreams and traumas of our present be presented in comedy?

Paavo Matsin
Born 1970, is an Estonian writer and literary critic. He is legendary for his readings and has won numerous awards, including the European Union Literature Prize and the Estonian Cultural Capital Prize. Published in German: Gogols Disko, 2021.

Paavo Matsin is already considered a master of classic postmodern stylization.
Ilmārs Šlāpins, Rīgas Laiks, Latvia

Baret Magarian
is a British-Armenian writer. He has i.a. written for the Times and the Guardian and worked as a lecturer, theater director, translator, musician and nude model. Published in German: The invention of reality, 2022.

Bold, entertaining, Faustian - a novel about the absurdity of contemporary culture and society.
The New Statesman