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”. 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?

4th episode Entangled in the Traumas of Slavery

In the following episode of In the Tentacles of the Murmur we shall focus above all on how the African American experience is presented in contemporary literature, and how a careful reading of it can broaden our often superficial notions about American society.

List of literature in the 4th episode:

Ta-Nehisi Coates – Between the World and Me
Octavia Butler – Kindred
Colson Whitehead – The Underground Railroad
Octavia Butler – Xenogenesis: Dawn, Book 1
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Americanah

Author: Jan Bělíček
Translation: Ashley Davies
Voice: Michael Pitthan and Rebecca Rose Riisness
Sound production: Mr. Wombat, Jonáš Richter
Music and sound desing: Ondřej Bělíček
Teaser: Barbora Kleinhamplová