Peperoni Books 2014 /80 pages /44 images / 19,5 x 27,5 cm / Softcover /edition 300
let us be happy when the sun rises and its beautiful light is here. gas light may go out, electric light, too. people get up when the alarm clock rattles, a new day has begun. if it was april 8th yesterday, it is the 9th today, if it was sunday, it is now monday. the year has not changed, nor the month, but a change has occured nevertheless. the world has rolled ahead. the sun has risen. it is not certain what this sun is. astronomers concern themselves a great deal with this body. according to them, it is the central body of our planetary system; for our earth is only a small planet, and what, indeed are we? when the sun rises like that and we are glad, we should really be sad, for what are we, anyway; the sun is 300,000 times greater than the earth; and what a host of numbers and zeros there still are, and all they have to say is this: we are but a zero, nothing at all, just nothing. simply ridiculous, isn‘t it, to be happy over that. and yet, we are glad when the beautiful light is here, white and strong, and when it comes into the streets; and in the rooms all the colors awaken, and faces are there, human features. it is agreeable to touch shapes with one‘s hands, but it is a joy to see, to see, to see, to see colors and lines. and we are glad, now we can show what we are, we act, we live. we are also glad in april for that bit of warmth, how glad the flowers are that they can grow! surely that must be an error, a mistake, those terrible numbers with all the zeros.
/ Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz