Denkzettel

Why Mickey Rourke will be the next President of the United States, why no one gets what they deserve, or that trigger warnings always come too late – these are among the topics addressed in these notes. For Markus Bundi, it is clear that future parliaments should be filled by lottery, that a good bottle of red wine is always preferable to remotely controlled drones, and that we can only applaud as long as we can beat ourselves. Thinking for oneself means getting tangled up – and trying to grasp anew, perhaps also to understand how and why a small old letter scale measures the weight of a friendship, to envy the freedom of cats, and why no one under seventy should carry a weapon. Originally, Denkzettel were hung around the necks of sinners in monastery schools, with their misdeeds noted on the papers. Unpleasant for the one burdened, not a pretty sight for all others who tried to find relief through mockery and scorn. Those who wish can understand the Denkzettel in this book in the same way. However, Bundi's intention is different: they were meant to be rations in the sense of provisions, but they have remained fragments: sometimes poetic or laconic, then again aphoristic and philosophical, told as anecdotes or condensed into mini-essays, tender and bitter, heart-refreshing or wicked – in short, concise and to the point.