In the Tentacles of the Murmur (The literature of crisis)

Fluidity, volatility, chaos, confusion, fragmentation, uncertainty, anxiety, crisis, polarization – these words are often used to describe the modern world. And even though we often find them inadequate, we feel subconsciously that they capture feelings we have that can’t be described in any other way. When I looked for a word that best captures our present era, out of nowhere came the strange expression “murmur”. I’m not even sure I know what precisely it means in Czech. Perhaps this is exactly why I like it so much. We can understand it as a sort of animal growl, an unarticulated dissatisfaction, an expression of disagreement or frustration that we can’t force into words. A dissatisfied hum without a form has pushed its way into the light of day and has influenced societies across the world and nobody knows what to do with it.

Literature offers an untraditional antidote to uncertainty, chaos, and confusion. It’s one option for protecting ourselves from the disorder. The act of writing creates a different mode of thought and self-expression: when we write or read, time slows down and we try to give some sort of form to our fluid, disorganized thought – or, together with the author, we observe the movement of their complicated, branching thinking. What does our world look like when viewed through contemporary literature? And how can we break free from the tentacles of the Murmur?

1st episode Merchants of Sadness

Why does Michel Houellebecq hide his depression behind cynicism and why does he reach for macho jokes when he wants to convince people about the nature [nebo "existence"] of love? How did the octopus become the perfect symbol of human consciousness in late capitalism, and is it at all possible to break free of the stultifying drone of dissatisfied grumbling that envelops us to an ever greater extent? The first episode of Jan Bělíček's literary podcast In the Tentacles of the Murmur shows us the modern world through the eyes of contemporary literature.

List of literature in the 1st episode:

Tao Lin - Taipei

Michel Houellebecq - Platform

Michel Houellebecq - Serotonin

Ocean Vuong - On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

Kobo Abé - The Face of Another

Sally Rooney - Normal People

Han Kang - The Vegetarian (from original translated by Deborah Smith)

Author: Jan Bělíček
Translation: Guy Tabachnick

Voice: Michael Pitthan and Rebecca Rose Riisness

Sound postproduction: Jonáš Richter
Music and sound desing: Ondřej Bělíček
Teaser: Barbora Kleinhamplová

Special thanks to: Ondřej Mikula