Herbert Achternbusch

Sitting at a table in a beer hall are “Stupid Cloud”, “Me, who writes”, and “Susn”. “Stupid Cloud” is Erich and Erich is “Stupid Cloud”. And he does as one does when one gets drunk: he talks. Stupid Cloud starts with the biggest question of all time: the meaning of life. But he negates it: you’re alive, that’s enough, why ask for a meaning, being alive is the meaning. At least in the Lower Bavarian beer hall he only answers questions and comments with “yes”, Stupid Cloud states, since no one there would understand anything anyway. But sitting opposite “Me”, he starts orating: a whole chain of associations from language criticism to the void, to drinkers and Lower Bavaria is raining down on his table neighbours – as playful and profound as pub monologues tend to be. And Me replies with “yes” from time to time. Apart from that, Me and Susn are doing as one also does when drinking: they stay silent. At the end, a one-word sentence- “Yes.”- is enough to tell their story.

In this masterstroke, Achternbusch manages to capture the whole experience of a pub night in only a few strokes – profound, ironic and substantial.