You Must Have Delusions of Grandeur

First and foremost, it’s remarkable how the mechanisms of power and exclusion operate within the literary world. The same figures who ignore one book after another in the media then take a position at the Dutch Foundation for Literature, where they decide the financial future of the very author they neglected to review. It’s a systematic process where the influential consolidate their power and stifle new voices before they can even be heard. It’s a total lack of decency to think you can occupy both seats: and if you don’t understand why that is, then you definitely don’t belong in the literary world.

So, let’s look at the ‘artistic arguments’ these powerful media people wield:

It’s about an individual versus the system.
He suffers from delusions of grandeur.
There are conspiracy theories in the book.
Music and poetry, that’s nothing new.

They claim that my work merely tells the story of an individual against the system, that it’s full of delusions of grandeur, riddled with conspiracy theories, and that the ‘theme’ of music and poetry is clichéd and not innovative (while it explicitly dealt with A.I.). Are these artistic arguments?

My book, ‘The Eternal Initiation’, aims to reveal that it’s not simply a story of one against all, but a narrative illustrating the collective struggle of writers against the stifling system of cultural initiation. I use the lives and works of Reve, Hermans, and Snoek not just as examples, but as evidence of the invisible yet omnipresent chains of abuse that bind creative minds.

Furthermore, I lift the veil on the poetry of the oppressed, such as Livaditis who wrote under the shadow of the Greek Civil War, Can Yücel who was imprisoned for his translations of Che Guevara, and Tadic whose poems whispered with the strength of silent resistance. These poets and their works are not peripheral in my book; they are essential to understanding how poetry and music can serve as forms of resistance, far from clichéd or outdated.

And yet, the ‘local celebrities’ on your committee sum it up as ‘the struggle of an individual versus the system,’ and that system, well, that’s they themselves, of course. I’m sorry, but that is a very dumb and outright appallingly incorrect description of this work. It’s so skewed and twisted that I can only see it as yet another act of bullying in the long series of bullying treatments I’ve received from the Foundation, probably because I didn’t conform enough or had the wrong political stance.

Then, the next brilliant point: the conspiracy theory. Here, we must sound the alarm again: how on earth is it that this term is absent from the redacted report of the meeting, but the ‘Substitute Classics Teacher’ who got to play director based on one literary reference does mention conspiracy theories in her letter about that meeting? Did she invent that herself, since reading the book was apparently not on the agenda: a good part of the book is precisely about the conspiracy theory as a phenomenon which, according to my book, is simply a form of marketing, to be viewed in the same light as witch hunts of the past. And that should be summarized as ‘a book full of conspiracy theories’? Good grief, can the initiation ever end?

But that your director apparently enjoys the freedom to add things to the observations of the reading committee, well, that kind of freedom, I’m quite willing to discuss with a judge once again.

And let’s talk about how ‘artistic’ it would be to label me with delusions of grandeur because others compare me to greats and I publish in renowned magazines. Does such a label belong in a literary review? Is it an artistic assessment, or does it again reek of jealousy from people who were never compared to greats and never gained international recognition themselves?

It fits the overall picture well: the idea of literature is not that you are noticed as a talent of your time by two important critics (Komrij and Gerbrandy), but that you must eternally ‘prove’ yourself to a corrupt state committee of ‘local celebrities’ who then fill the entire report with insinuations and psychological group terror, and that all of this can be anonymously and heavily redacted in their favor: welcome to The Eternal Initiation!

Showing a rising trajectory until your death, is that a literary concept? Did Gerard Reve write better books as he got older? Of course not, it’s utter nonsense of the worst kind, which also happens to violate human rights. There is an ongoing lawsuit regarding this.

In true literature, an author must ‘prove’ himself UNTIL he is noticed by critics as an important voice of his time. A moment none of the local celebrities on your committee ever learned to recognize—they are not significant writers, they know it well, they know it to their very core. But that doesn’t stop them from infiltrating the literary world with their double roles, acting as both referees and players in a field where they twist and configure the rules as they please. This double role illustrates an intrinsic conflict in the literary world, where those who judge often are the same people who lack recognition as significant authors themselves. Their position on the committee serves not only as a position of power but also as a facade of literary relevance.

The literary landscape should ideally be a meritocracy, where writers prove themselves through their work, not through political or social connections. However, the reality is that many of these ‘local celebrities’ have never received the critical acclaim or public recognition that would label them as ‘important voices’ of their time. Their deep awareness of this lack of their own literary weight often reflects in their approach to new or distinctive voices within the field.

This is not only problematic, but it’s even deadly for the literary business. When I won an appeal against a similar committee in 2017, because the summary hinted that I was ‘an outsider who didn’t belong to the group,’ the organizing forces within the Foundation seemed to think it wasn’t enough yet—again, I get the same nonsense: the individual against the system, the conspiracy theory, the delusions of grandeur, and to top it all off, your brand-new director ends her letter with a barely concealed reference to me as a ‘madman.’ Well, well, that’s a nice touch. What wit, what a delightful series of tormenting tricks.

One must give credit to the Foundation for having the guts to showcase the pinnacle of this behavior during an ongoing lawsuit that precisely addresses this bullying behavior. But I am honestly afraid that this is exactly the wrong kind of courage; it’s the courage of the untouchable, who hides behind a system and knows he is himself unassailable. The chess grandmaster, whom I mentioned briefly yesterday. The man who made Martine Bibo and Welmoet Tideman disappear like snow in the sun. Jan Jansen, of Information Management 2.

(The critical backlash I received up to Baah Baaah Crash Sheep can be found here)

For the rest, the objection I wrote about this issue suffices, which I will share with my readers at a later date. On to more inspiring waters.

‘Italy’ by painter Enrico Robusti

What a perfect depiction of my shirt conflict last week. And precisely with the Venetian stripe as well, which the gondoliers also wear. I really think this is such a powerful piece. The half-saintly man, who actually only exists from that shirt and can continue to experience his own purity through repression. Isn’t this also a bit like the Foundation, where writers need to be repressed to keep the state smooth?

I vaguely remember my mother’s cursing about the prices of gondoliers back then. I didn’t take a gondola ride this time—they ask a hundred euros, too expensive for me but in principle, I don’t think it’s an unreasonable price since they push a boat around for an hour. So, I don’t find it a scam at all.

The clothing of gondoliers is strictly regulated by the gondolier guild in Venice. Every gondolier must adhere to these dress codes, which helps maintain a uniform and recognizable appearance that contributes to the city’s tourist appeal. It is also said that each stripe represents one of the Venetian islands, although this seems more like a modern romantic interpretation than a historically founded fact.

Yesterday, I managed to turn one of my poems (Love is for Amateurs, originally from Sauseschritt, I believe) into a music piece with JMH, Je Moerhussel. I think it turned out to be a very successful number:

I now have 250 subscribers on YouTube. Is that grandeur? It’s not much yet, but I’ve only really been active for about three months. They’ve made it particularly complex to have any form of success on social media. You almost need delusions of grandeur to try it. Could that be it then?

Martijn Benders, 19-08-2024

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