# Posted 12:36 PM by Patrick Belton  

LETTER FROM BERLIN: OxBlog's Berlin correspondent writes in with his reflections and experiences in Germany. He's asked to remain anonymous, so to do our best to honour his request, we've replaced all personal names in his email with the names of Jewish porn stars:

Its a slow afternoon here in Berlin and so I thought you'd appreciate a little parcel of news, opinion, stories and a sprinkling of crass generalisation and bigotry.

I've been here for a few weeks now. The first thing to report is that I'm living with a couple of lesbians. they are very cool. Traci Lords (whose email name is Nora Louise Kuzma) and Janey Robbins (Robin Lieberman), whose email address would be valuable indeed. On the first day Traci and I had a beer off the wood on the balcony while she gave me a little gentle interrogation about who I was and what I thought I was doing in Berlin. I told her that I was interested in the mystique of violence in the first world war and that one day I'd like to work in America. This in liberal Berlin was rather a faux pas. Traci Lords peered at me and said sternly, "I hope you're not homophobic." I replied that, no, I come from an advanced and enlightened nation and totally understand her urge to make love to women (ha ha haa...ha...ha...ha...ha, give me a break, I'm just getting warmed up.) she told me exactly what she thinks of america, americans, and their beloved supreme court appointed leader. so then I changed the subject to the holocaust. best to get these things out in the open.

I'm doing research here in Berlin and am working in this strange place in the middle of the industrial sh**land of east berlin. around it, would you believe, are these roaving packs of 1980's style punks. With feral dogs. They shout a lot but don't do much. Like those sea creatures that look dangerous but actually can't do anything if challenged. They seem to be the appointed guardians of the protestant archive full of starchy, stiff, formal women in their 50's who haven't enjoyed congress since 1871. the bizarre thing is that this place has no catalogue. No computer, or book, or anything which allows the user to inspect their holdings. you tell them the subject that interests you and they go and get it. Its a totalitarian library, they control the knowledge, and you just have to trust them. Like in Name of the Rose, where these disfigured syphillitic monks hold the only keys to the great medieval library, a twisting endless maze which no-one, no-one can access. I find that kind of monopoly disturbing. the probability that they have nothing truly electrifying to hide makes it more disturbing. not like the vatican library. I asked one of the women whether there was a catalogue and by the way she looked at me I might as well have asked her whether I could bang her daughter.

the only thing that s**ts me about Traci is her mindless, reactionary, lazy thinking about the middle east conflict etc. she repeatedly, louldy declares how Palestinian terrorist groups are totally justified in suicide bombing because there is no alternative. Let me make myself clear, i am no extremist on this issue, but she seems to overlook the fact that under US mediation over 90% of the Palestinian demands were offered to them by Israel. and that Yasser didn't accept it. so there was and is an alternative, a diplomatic alternative to forge two states in co-existence. So no, blowing up children in buses and cafes because you can't bring yourself to accept co-existence is not a policy I can breezily endorse like Berliners. however, I keep my little mouth shut tight on this issue, there's no point mouthing off against your landlady.

hmmm. guess I'd better get back to it. sorry for that detour into politics, but lazy reactionary thinking (anything that America and its allies do is nefarious, anything that the PLO does is noble) gives me the sh*ts.

this email is wandering a bit. a good time to close up. Back on the weekend.
hope you're all well.

easy,

Ron Jeremy

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