During the 25 years of Solitude’s existence, an impressive number of writers have passed through Akademie Schloss Solitude, some spending more time at this special place, some less. Some Solituders selected their favorite book from the large amount of literature that has been produced at Solitude and then left behind by fellows. Listen to them reading a few lines from their personal favorites, which they’ve dug out of the library’s bookshelves, and read about the memories and feelings influenced their choice.
Paula Kohlmann reading Doug Rice’s Das Heilige Buch der Stille.
Notes is the subtitle of Doug Rice’s book Das Heilige Buch der Stille (English title: The Sacred Book of Silence) that he wrote during his fellowship at Solitude between 2011 and 2013. His modest attitude combined with his lack of fear of becoming emotional or sentimental is what caught my attention while reading it. The language does not try to be something bigger than it is. And that’s why it is a lot. Precisely and gently, Doug Rice explores how words can be used to remember a body, or rather two bodies; he remembers two women, the active process of which you can follow via the words. It is a physical process that goes through his body on the pages. Oscillating between the conflict of body and language, feelings and words, presence and memory, silence and defiance, appearance and disappearance, his notes open space for possibilities. »Wenn Mai und ich miteinander sprachen, sprachen wir trotz der Wörter, trotz der Stille.«
(Paula Kohlmann, art coordination fellow, on Doug Rice’s Das heilige Buch der Stille)
The German translation Das heilige Buch der Stille was published within the Edition Solitude in 2013.
