Ist das Ende des Kapitalismus schwerer vorstellbar als das Ende der Welt?
JOHN VON DÜFFEL
Ich möchte lieber nichts. Eine Geschichte vom Konsumverzicht /
I’d Rather Have Nothing. A Story About Renouncing Consumption
150 pages
Autumn 2024
A little book with big questions to ask: what is the right way to live?
John von Düffel builds on the world of ideas introduced in his successful book, The Little and the Essential
“This book of hours is smart and poetic, crystalline, refreshing and essential, its deeply humane approach offering an almost joyful consolation.”
KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU on ‘The Scarce and the Essential’
The Story of a Reunion
“The first future ascetic I ever met was a woman,” writes John von Düffel in his much-read book of hours, The Little and the Essential. The woman, Fiona — a Scot — was a philosophy student at the time and von Düffel is now seeking her out, decades later. He takes with him plenty of questions, which he continues to discuss with her in a series of intense discussions on long walks through the city: What is the right way to live? In a life full of excess, what’s truly essential? To what extent is it possible to abstain from consumption? And how do these things relate to freedom? The pair spend two days together in Edinburgh and out of this time emerges an exchange of ideas about the central questions of our time and a friendly correspondence that not only seeks answers but also poses puzzles. Who actually is Fiona and how has her life panned out since her studies? When Fiona makes a return visit to Berlin, a surprise casts their conversations in a different light…
Ich möchte lieber nichts. Eine Geschichte vom Konsumverzicht /
I’d Rather Have Nothing. A Story About Renouncing Consumption
150 pages
Autumn 2024
A little book with big questions to ask: what is the right way to live?
John von Düffel builds on the world of ideas introduced in his successful book, The Little and the Essential
“This book of hours is smart and poetic, crystalline, refreshing and essential, its deeply humane approach offering an almost joyful consolation.”
KÖLNISCHE RUNDSCHAU on ‘The Scarce and the Essential’
The Story of a Reunion
“The first future ascetic I ever met was a woman,” writes John von Düffel in his much-read book of hours, The Little and the Essential. The woman, Fiona — a Scot — was a philosophy student at the time and von Düffel is now seeking her out, decades later. He takes with him plenty of questions, which he continues to discuss with her in a series of intense discussions on long walks through the city: What is the right way to live? In a life full of excess, what’s truly essential? To what extent is it possible to abstain from consumption? And how do these things relate to freedom? The pair spend two days together in Edinburgh and out of this time emerges an exchange of ideas about the central questions of our time and a friendly correspondence that not only seeks answers but also poses puzzles. Who actually is Fiona and how has her life panned out since her studies? When Fiona makes a return visit to Berlin, a surprise casts their conversations in a different light…
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John von Düffel
John von Düffel was born in Göttingen in 1966, he works as a dramaturg at Deutsches Theater Berlin and is professor for scenic writing at the Berlin...
John von Düffel was born in Göttingen in 1966, he works as a dramaturg at Deutsches Theater Berlin and is professor for scenic writing at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has published novels and story collections with DuMont since 1998, including 'Vom Wasser' (1998), 'Houwelandt' (2004), 'Wassererzählungen' (2014), 'Das Klassenbuch' (2017), 'Der brennende See' (2020) 'Wasser und andere Welten' (new edition 2021) and most recently ‘Die Wütenden und die Schuldigen’ (2021). His works have...