I don’t know whether or not in non-german speaking countries the Helene-Hegemann-debate has been in the news. What happened? A rich brat of 17 years has published a book (“axolotl roadkill”) last year. Upon release, the book has seen enormous praise by some of the most potent papers and critics in germany, making it a huge success. A new, “authentic” voice of the hedonistic new generation has been found, so they triumphed, and how it writes! So unique, so fresh, so good! The book had it all: Gang bangs, drugs and night life in trendy clubs, all written by a young woman who allegedly had written down her own experiences. No wonder especially the male 50+ literature critics couldn’t hold back neither ink nor cum and so a new star was born.
Long story made short: As it soon appeared, large portions of the book were actually stolen from the autobiographical blogs of an anonymous male clubber from Berlin, almost twice her age. What turned out to be a shock to most, didn’t surprise others. Apart from the dubious sexual adventures of a not-too-pretty young woman (sorry to mention, but c’mon …., thinking of it, I seem to remember having seen only half-way okay pix of hers prior to the scandal and only afterwards, the full ugly truth was shown – I tend to believe that this played an important role itself in the built-up of hers as star writer in the public opinion): “Axolotl Roadkill” was also highly spiced up with names such as Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault and others: How on earth would a youngster of 17 have read that stuff? I once tried to read “Axolotl Roadkill” but after a few pages I thought it was dung, obviously put-on and rather dull and harmless.
The funny thing is, that now that the critics have been openly duped by praising a piece of stolen junk, most of them can’t crawl back into their holes. Although the debate has long since turned into one highly interesting one about intellectual property, the downloading and copy & paste mentality of the young generation., these critics stand by their judgment and keep defending the book. Imagine somebody had stolen their work ……
As if stealing the intellectual property of others and selling it as your own was something new. When one Punk band steals from another (the NIHILISTICS from SUSPENSE), it’s rather dull in comparison, but nonetheless just as funny. A while ago, I had posted what I called “Punk Rock Scam”. Then, after the whole thing had reached its first comical climax, I followed up by posting the SUSPENSE EP, calling to attention the bizarre comments I kept receiving in the issue.
Now it’s time to point out to this incredibly ludicrous story again. Work your way through the comments section in the punk rock scam thing, it’s well worth it. A couple days ago, somebody (who I believe to be Ron Rancid, by the way, although I can’t prove it) has really pulled off a feat by writing a comment in what I thought was written in dutch language. After a first glimpse (dutch ain’t that different from german), I thought I had understood that the comment came from an ex-SUSPENSE band member I asked Jos (ex-LÄRM Jos, btw and for what it’s worth) if he could translate the dutch comment into proper english for all the non-dutch speaking readers and also because I was very curious to see what the comment really said. As it turned out, what seemed like dutch was in fact the result of some other language being translated by probably a translation machine in the net. When I checked the comments IP-adress, I realized that it came from NY in the USA and the same adress had before commented in proper english. Wonderful!!!
In one comment, Thomas (Tomasso of Trust-fanzine, that is) asks: “Why would a HC band from NYC cover a song by a Dutch punk band and then cover it up – and then go to such lengths 20 yrs later to prove the world otherwise by posting stuff in fake Dutch?” I don’t know, Thomas, but I do know that that’s exactly what happened, as bizarre as it sounds.
Enjoy!
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Fuckshitupism deluxe.
BREAKER were formed in Cleveland in 1982 and released this very rare 7″ in 1983. In the following year, they recorded a full album which didn’t get released until years later and that’s pretty much all I can tell you right now.
