Elephant (novel)

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Elefant is the title of a novel by Martin Suter from 2017. The story set in Zurich is about an intrigue that takes place in changing milieus. The focus is on a genetically engineered pink mini elephant, which is supposed to bring its creator, the director of a genetic engineering company, money and reputation through the intended patent, which some people in history want to prevent.

background

A few years ago, Suter had learned from a scientist that it was conceivable to breed brightly colored animals in the near future. Such animal experiments with cats were already reported in 2007. The author takes up this aspect in his novel, as this idea fascinated him by his own admission. When asked why his story is partly played out in the homeless milieu, the author replied :

“I needed someone who could believe that he would come across a little pink elephant in a cave or in a basement or in a ruined house and think he was too drunk, he should stop drinking when he was already pink elephants see. The pink elephant is a saying. In the Anglo-Saxon region you can see 'pink elephants' while we see 'white mice'. And while looking for such a figure, I quickly came across a homeless person. "

Form and content

The novel consists of three parts with 40, 30 and 40 chapters, which are headed with dates such as April 25, 2013 and On the same day . The story begins in 2013 and ends on December 16, 2018. The author uses flashbacks , parallel montages and elements of the future novel in his realistically and coherently structured narrative , but not the usual fantasy elements . In places the story uses elements of the thriller that create tension . At the end of the book, the author thanks scientists for their expert advice on details of genetic research and technology. Suter has consulted various specialists who explained the behavior of elephants, the possibilities and dangers of genetic engineering and reproduction and explained in detail the procedure for artificial insemination of elephant cows. Homeless people from Zurich, in turn, introduced him to the scene there. The book's dust jacket is decorated with an illustration by Christoph Niemann .

A small pink elephant appears at the sleeping place of the homeless Fritz Schoch, who lives in a cave. Where he came from can only be explained by Roux, a genetic engineer. Roux intends to make the business of his life with the elephants, which are produced by genetic manipulation of the genetic make-up and glow in the dark . The short stature , which came about by chance , now also offers the possibility of producing a living toy for children and acquiring a patent for it. As a sales market, he speculates on the rich elite of the Arab oil states, who would certainly buy such toys for their children. The catch, however, is that the little being was stolen from him before he could complete his experiments and present it to science as his work.

Kaung, a Burmese so-called elephant whisperer who works in a circus, accompanied the birth of the genetically modified animal through an elephant surrogate mother, but sees the little creature as something very special that is sacred, needs to be protected and hidden. Schoch, the homeless, suddenly has a job again, he takes care of the animal and, after it has gotten sick, takes it to a veterinarian who treats the dogs and rats of the junkies and the homeless for free. The elephant's odyssey takes him from a small circus where he was born to a lonely mountain farm, through the Zurich homeless scene and on to a fine villa on the Zürichberg , until he finally arrives in Myanmar and is worshiped there as a kind of elephant god becomes.

Characters of the novel

Martin Suter separates the characters of the novel strictly into good and bad , without intermediate stages.

The little elephant by the name of Sabu Barisha has miraculous properties, she is only about forty centimeters long and thirty centimeters high and her pink skin glows in the dark. Because of these special characteristics, the characters in the story have different plans for her. The unscrupulous, ambitious and ruthless genetic engineer Paul Roux , director of a small genetic engineering company with a genetic engineering multinational from China as a silent partner , who industrially manufactures domestic animals and pets using the CRISPR / Cas method, has purely financial interests Market promises. His counterpart are the homeless Fritz Schoch , about whose previous life little is known, and the "good" veterinarians Dr. Reber and also Valerie Sommer , who is fully dedicated to her social engagement in the milieu of the homeless, junkies and other marginalized groups. A mythical-religious role plays in the story Kaung , the "elephant whisperer " from Burma, who sees the small animal as a sacred and worthy of protection and wants to save it. At all costs he wants to get it out of Europe and place it in a Buddhist place of worship with a temple in his homeland.

Reviews (selection)

The media mostly received Suter's book positively. However, some reviewers noted that in the novel the line between good and bad was sharply drawn; but this was mostly accepted because the story of the genre was a modern fairy tale.

“With the story of Sabu Barisha […] Martin Suter wrote a veritable fairy tale. The good fight the bad, across continents, and there is even at the end a love between two people that actually seemed impossible. As in the most beautiful fairy tales, "And if you haven't died ..." must endure death, the grief for loss. "

“Thematically relevant, but philosophically overloaded. In this novel, good and bad are as clearly distributed as in fairy tales. As unlikely as the existence of a pink phosphorescent mini elephant may seem, the novel justifies its realistic manufacturability. "

"In his new novel" Elefant ", [...] the knitting pattern it is built from is provided as a blueprint, so to speak. A handful of bad guys here, all genetic engineers with sinister intentions; a handful of good people there; and in between a glowing pink elephant the size of a toy: the result of genetic manipulation and a whim of nature . "

A tangible slating gave the literary critic Denis Scheck in his television program off the press : "The scientific content of this novel is a self-luminous pink mini elephant is pathetic." His conclusion is that this novel was an "indisputable scrap heap".

expenditure

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Poor Master Lamp: Researchers create glowing rabbits. In: Die Welt Online. August 14, 2013, accessed March 10, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Genetically modified cats light up . In: Focus Online . December 12, 2007 ( focus.de ).
  3. ↑ Martin Suter on the research for his new novel "Elefant". dw.com, January 17, 2017, accessed March 10, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b Elefant - Suter, Martin. Diogenes Verlag, 2017, accessed March 8, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Rose-Maria Gropp: News from Martin Suter: The story of Sabu Barisha, which was perhaps a miracle . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 29, 2017 ( faz.net ).
  6. ↑ Ursula March: Good and bad as clearly assigned as in a fairy tale: Martin Suter's novel "Elefant". Deutschlandradio Kultur on February 11, 2017.
  7. ↑ Roman Bucheli in an interview with Martin Suter in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung on January 18, 2017.
  8. ↑ Internet page of the program hot off the press from March 19, 2017