Leif Randt

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Leif Randt at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize 2011
Leif Randt 2015

Leif Randt (* 1983 in Frankfurt am Main ) is a German writer . He lives in Maintal- East and Berlin . Together with the writer Jakob Nolte and the graphic designer Manuel Bürger, Randt runs the online platform Tegel Media , for which he produces texts and video works .

Life

Randt grew up in Maintal-Ost near Frankfurt and studied creative writing and cultural journalism at the University of Hildesheim . In 2006 he was a finalist at the 14th Open Mike of the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin , in 2007 with the "Vli-Mintstroem-Projekt" at the Plopp! -Hörspiel-Award. He wrote a screenplay under the title Innocence for a Razor film production and performed at the PROSANOVA Festival in 2008 . In 2009 he won the jury prize of the KulturSPIEGEL competition, and in the same year his debut novel Leuchtspielhaus was published by Berlin Verlag . In 2010 Randt won 1st prize at the MDR Literature Prize and received the Nicolas Born Debut Prize from the Lower Saxony Literature Commission. In the justification of the award it is stated that Randt is performing "youth scenes as highly complex dynamic cultural machines that are designed to produce new lifestyle effects over and over again."

In 2011 Leif Randt received the Ernst Willner Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize for an excerpt from his novel project Shimmering Dunst about CobyCounty . The novel , the first half of which Randt had submitted as a diploma thesis, was published shortly afterwards by Berlin Verlag and received high attention in literary criticism. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called him "probably the most unexciting book of the season." In the following year, 2012, Randt was awarded the Düsseldorf Literature Prize. In 2013 Randt wrote a text about a room installation with fashion images by the British photographer Mark Borthwick , whom he had visited in New York, for the volume Eight Considerations published by the Frankfurter Literaturhaus .

The novel Planet Magnon was published in 2015 as Randt's first book by Kiepenheuer & Witsch and was included in the “50 Books of Our Time” list by Spiegel . The film rights to the novel acquired the director Nicholas Mockridge. In 2018 Randt was involved in the production of "Perfect Romance" by the performance group The Agency at the Münchner Kammerspiele .

Randt's fourth novel Allegro Pastell was published in March 2020. It was nominated for the Leipzig Book Prize and for the longlist of the German Book Prize and received numerous positive reviews. Zeit literary critic Ijoma Mangold wrote that no millennial could write a novel in the future without relating to Allegro Pastel .

In a contribution for the program Essay & Diskurs on Deutschlandfunk , Randt 2020 dealt with utopian life plans. In it, Randt conducts an email interview with the fictional “Inifinite Data Studios” from Zurich, which the two “founders” Toni Fluid and Sander Böhm describe as a “studio for a better perspective of summer”. Randt quotes the website of his father's partner, who works as a coach . In an article for the ARD radio festival on SWR2 , Randt read various travel reports , including from Siberia , China , South Africa and Florida . In it he describes various visits to Disney theme parks .

plant

Leuchtspielhaus (2009)

Randt's debut novel is set in London . There, the characters Eric and Helen open a hairdressing salon that is only open on the second and fourth Thursdays. The role model for customers, who are referred to as “members”, is the action artist Bea. The novel was published in paperback with a multi-colored illustration on the cover.

Shimmering Haze Over CobyCounty (2011)

Randt's second breakthrough novel is told from the first-person perspective of the 26-year-old literary agent Wim Endersson. It is about life in the fictional, to the world of American campus cities ajar CobyCounty, written with the typical Randts neologisms CamelCase . While the place is threatened by disaster, Wim talks about his relationship with the pianist Carla. The name of the main character is similar to that of the director Wim Wenders . There is a silver colored square on the book cover .

Planet Magnon (2015)

The science fiction novel Planet Magnon is based in its constellation, figure and place names on works from American culture, such as Frank Herbert's Dune series and David Lynch's film adaptation . The novel bears traits of a utopia in which one speaks of an “old time” and in which death is replaced by the phenomenon of “diffusion”. The two main characters Marten Eliot and Emma Glendale are traveling from planet to planet to recruit new members for their "Dolfin" collective. However, the harmony of the solar system is threatened by the so-called "Broken Hearts Collective". Instead of a government, the computer system “ActualSanity” controls political decisions based on statistical surveys.

The eponymous planet Magnon is named after a common drug and is described in the Almanac of the Dolfin collective as a utopian project: a planet whose community defines itself through the consumption of the substance beyond addiction. The novel has a scheme of the solar system as well as a glossary in which key terms are explained, including "Postpragmaticjoy", a post-pragmatic emotional state. In 2014 Randt published a text on the theory of so-called "Post Pragmatic Joy" in the magazine Bella Triste . A copper-colored circle is depicted on the cover.

Allegro pastel (2020)

The novel Allegro Pastell is about the relationship between the Frankfurt web designer Jerome Daimler and the Berlin writer Tanja Arnheim. He plays in Frankfurt, in the Frankfurt area and Berlin. Randt started the novel project in 2016 under the working title Jerome Daimler . Randt himself had been in a relationship since 2017, but it ended before the novel was written. Randt described the book in advance as a romance novel . Like Randt's family, the main male character Jerome Daimler lives in Maintal Ost. The novel title Allegro Pastel goes back to the Allegro primary school in Berlin-Tiergarten , where the badminton department of TSV GutsMuths Berlin is trained. Both the main female character Tanja Arnheim and Randt train there. The word “pastel” refers, among other things, to the pastel shades on the website that Jerome Daimler would like to give his girlfriend for her birthday. Jerome's father Jürgen Casper Daimler gets to know his new partner Beate in the novel via an online dating portal .

Facade of the Decathlon branch on Berlin's Alexanderplatz

Allegro Pastell is Randt's first book to use almost exclusively real-world places, especially clubs, restaurants and bars. Several reviews pointed to the detailed description of a branch of the sporting goods company Decathlon on Berlin's Alexanderplatz. A working title for the novel was Artengo , a Decathlon own brand for badminton accessories, among other things. Writer Tanja is working on a book project of the same name. However, the Decathlon company prohibited the use of the brand name for the novel title.

The book is preceded by a quote from Shimmering Haze about CobyCounty and a quote from the German-Canadian author Eckhart Tolle . Text messages are printed with emojis in the text and on the book cover, and numerous messaging services such as WhatsApp , iMessage , Instagram , Telegram and Snapchat are used. As in Shimmering Haze over CobyCounty , statements in direct speech are in italics. Numerous pieces of music by Yung Lean , Joy Division , Gerd Janson and Kedr Livanskyi, among others, are mentioned and discussed . On Spotify , a playlist contains all the titles mentioned in the book. Despite its realistic form, the novel contains counterfactual elements, such as the different spelling of the Berlin club About Blank ("About Blanc") or a passage about the Austrian writer Peter Handke , who Jerome thinks is Tanja's favorite writer from Switzerland.

On the cover is a hexagon with a photograph of street lights. The colorful gradient is reminiscent of an Instagram filter . The literary critic Insa Wilke described Randt's book covers in the SWR show Worth reading as forms of serial aesthetics. She referred to the importance of the hexagon in Christian iconography as a symbol of the omnipotence of God. Denis Scheck pointed out the use of hexagons in role-playing games . Wilke compared Randt's working method with the aesthetics of the artist Thomas Demand , who recreates photographs from paper, photographs the models and then destroys them.

Influences and effects

Randt is often compared to writers of pop literature such as Christian Kracht and Rainald Goetz . Randt claims to have been more influenced by cinema than literature. His literary influences include the early Peter Handke and Michel Houellebecq .

An excerpt from Shimmering Haze about CobyCounty served Rainald Goetz as an example of a successful start to a novel in the seminar on the occasion of his Heiner Müller guest professorship in 2012 at the Free University of Berlin . In Goetz's novel Johann Holtrop , published in the same year, both Randt's name and the phrase “shimmering haze” are used. However, Randt does not appear in Goetz's list of people for the novel.

The performance group The Agency, with whom Randt worked, uses the domain postpragmaticsolutions.com for its website, based on Randt's term .

Novels

Shorter texts

  • Light playhouse. Excerpt , BELLA triste 20, Hildesheim 2008, ISSN  1618-1727
  • a room with a view (Mark Borthwick) , in: Susanne Gaensheimer and Hauke ​​Hückstädt (eds.): Eight reflections. 8 authors. 8 works of art. With contributions by Helene Hegemann, Thomas von Steinaecker, Peggy Mädler, Thomas Pletzinger, Judith Schalansky, Leif Randt, Annika Scheffel, Saša Stanišić, Henrich Editions, Frankfurt 2013, ISBN 9783943407204 , pp. 28–33.
  • Post Pragmatic Joy (theory), BELLA triste 39, Hildesheim 2014, pp. 7–12.
  • SNOOZE (Version 2.7) , in: Stefan Brandt (ed.) 2029 - Tales of Tomorrow, Suhrkamp 2019, pp. 327-340.

Theater adaptations

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marc Reichwein: Nobody intends to have the gender star. In: Welt.de. May 21, 2017. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Leif Randts Internet-Verlag Tegel Media - The strange pop universe of a book award nominee. Retrieved on April 18, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ KulturSPIEGEL competition: Leif Randt wins jury award. In: Spiegel Online . December 8, 2009, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  4. ^ Bachmannpreis.eu: Ernst Willner Prize for Leif Randt , July 10, 2011
  5. ↑ Internationaal Literatuur Bureau Linda Kohn: "Shimmering Haze over CobyCounty" ( Memento from November 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), August 2011.
  6. ↑ Leif Randt: Shimmering haze over CobyCounty. Novel. In: perlentaucher.de. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Jana Hensel: Frankfurt Book Fair - The Furious. In: Friday. October 6, 2011, accessed March 9, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Lena Bopp: The fat years are the best. In: FAZ.net . August 5, 2011, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Alexander Jürgs: literary scene: young stars set a monument to the MMK collection . In: THE WORLD . June 30, 2013 ( welt.de [accessed August 26, 2020]).
  10. ^ "Planet Magnon" by Leif Randt. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  11. ^ Situation 24: Nicholas Mockridge and Leif Randt. In: Santa Lucia. March 2, 2017, accessed on March 15, 2020 (German).
  12. ↑ Philipp Bovermann: Perfect Romance - The Agency and Leif Randt ensnare visitors to the Münchner Kammerspiele with a stylish dating simulation. Retrieved on August 23, 2020 (German).
  13. ↑ Nominated. Retrieved August 18, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Leif Randt: Allegro Pastel. Novel. In: perlentaucher.de. Retrieved March 6, 2020 .
  15. ^ Ijoma Mangold: Leif Randt: The absolute now . In: The time . March 5, 2020, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed on March 16, 2020]).
  16. ↑ Interviewer Leif Randt - The Better World as a Marketing Task. Retrieved on August 23, 2020 (German).
  17. ↑ The Soul Coach: Utopias, Visions & Goals. July 8, 2020, accessed August 23, 2020 .
  18. ↑ SWR2, SWR2: Leif Randt: "MAPS ME" - Years in Disneyland. Real-life travel miniatures. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  19. ↑ By Kathrin Schlimme: Being different - About Leif Randt's novel “Leuchtspielhaus”: literaturkritik.de. Retrieved on August 22, 2020 (German).
  20. ↑ Leif Randt: Shimmering haze over CobyCounty. Novel. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Postpragmaticjoy - On Leif Randt's »Planet Magnon« by Heinz Drügh January 15, 2016 | POP MAGAZINE. Retrieved on August 15, 2020 (German).
  22. ↑ Tobias Schmidt: On the current situation in young German-language literature: The magazine "BELLA triste" reports on the "Prosanova" Festival 2014. Accessed on September 28, 2019 .
  23. ^ Republic: «The insane privilege of being able to live in your own cocoon». Retrieved August 19, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Dear Reader | Leif Randt on his favorite films - From the center of an aesthetic | detektor.fm - the podcast radio. September 27, 2019, accessed on August 19, 2020 (German).
  25. ↑ Xaver von Cranach, DER SPIEGEL: "Allegro Pastell" by Leif Randt: Love in the Times of Instagram - DER SPIEGEL - Culture. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
  26. ↑ a b Jens-Christian Rabe: New novel by Leif Randt: Everything is kind of okay. Retrieved March 15, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Jan Küveler: Leif Randt's novel "Allegro Pastell": Love in the age of Instagram . In: THE WORLD . March 6, 2020 ( welt.de [accessed on March 16, 2020]).
  28. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart Germany: Book tip: “Allegro Pastell” by Leif Randt: Alles gut. Retrieved April 18, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Caught | Litlog. Retrieved on August 15, 2020 (German).
  30. ↑ Worth reading Quartet with Denis Scheck. Retrieved August 15, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Almost Winner - Sex-positive going out in Berlin. Retrieved March 17, 2020 .
  32. ^ Mascha Jacobs: From the center of an aesthetic. In: Dear Reader. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  33. ^ German literature: Leif Randt, Writer - Pictures & Photos - WELT. Retrieved September 28, 2019 .
  34. ^ Jan Lietz: Visiting Professor Goetz. In: Jan Lietz. September 15, 2012, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  35. ^ Gregor Keuschnig: Everything only Monopoly for adults. Rainald Goetz 'Johann Holtrop. Demolition of society. In: Shine & Misery. October 27, 2012, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  36. ↑ ABOUT | THE AGENCY Performance / Immersion / Theater. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Randt, Leif
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German author
DATE OF BIRTH 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main