City of Possibilities

I can’t recall how I first hear of Jason Lutes’ graphic novel, “Berlin: City of Stones”.  As I reflect now, I seem to remember that I had written the name of this work on a scrap of paper, and this scrap must have lain in my drawer for a few months before I actually decided to purchase the book.

Upon first reading it, I was completely entranced. This is a historical narrative that manifests strong literary qualities, investigating as it does the epoch of the Weimar Republic in the late 20s and early 30s. As we well know, this period was marked by grave instability and ongoing conflict in the wake of Germany’s bitter defeat in World War I. It is as such a tragic work because we know that despite this instability the country had for a time been illuminated by a hopeful light, that of the advent of the Republic that put an end to the rule of the Kaiser and his “barons”, those traditional political and economic elites that as reflected in the rumination of selected characters, had such an overwhelming influence on Germany.

This narrative follows the story of several characters to give us a multi-faceted view of life in the city of Berlin. We follow art student Marthe Müller and journalist Kurt Severin, along with many minor characters that represent different economic, social and political groups. As such, this graphic novel very much incorporates a panoptic viewpoint that is characteristic of the realist novels of the 19^th century, recalling the novels of Dickens, Galdós, Balzac and, of course, Döblin, as they examine their respective historical moments.

Throughout this work we are made aware as well of the vitality and excitement of Berlin. This is another paradigmatic city, akin to London or Paris or Madrid, in which the new processes are at work and in which new juxtapositions are evident. And we are made aware as always of the political conflict of this era, and of movements that were to assume central importance and were to lead to the tragedy of the 30s and 40s. Nonetheless, with the evocation of Berlin on a grand scale, we are made aware of similarly pivotal events, and this first book will terminate with the episode of the massacre of protesting workers during the May day rally of 1929.

The characters are nuanced, and they reflect certain ambiguities and uncertainties. They are in no way to be viewed as types, and instead we share in the doubts they feel, conveyed as they are not only in spoken word dialogues but in thought balloons that reveal intriguing contrasts. Thus, we have an old security guard who is assigned to keep public order, and who reflect on the people he sees, revealing a certain wistfulness and desire while at the same time forced to act in the role of a gruff and severe order of agent. In a scene with a prostitute he reveals the need for a certain spiritual comfort and doubt in the fact of the role he will be forced to play. He and other agents will, as suggested by other characters, be forced to entrap the protesting workers in order to cause the massacre that he could certainly foresee on a visceral level. And we feel this unease as readers.

The characters are also confronted by dilemmas. Marthe, the older woman in her late 20s who has arrived to undertake studies in an art academy, is immediately seduced by the city. She is unnerved as well, and finds herself lost by the grand scale and by the novelty that presents itself. Thus, we are made aware of her provincial background as a member of what she herself terms the haute bourgeoisie of Köln, wishing perhaps to escape from the role that would be imposed on her. In this sense, this character strikes a deep chord in myself, for I also felt similarly entranced as well as frightened by my first encounter with the big city, in my case, Los Angeles. Our cities are filled with all manner of refugees, and as such, we look for uncertain hospitality.

The journalist Kurt seems to be suffering from disorientation, struggling to overcome a dry writing spell as he reflects on the new and dangerous possibilities that are making themselves manifest. And it is inevitable that Kurt and Marthe will come together as they strive to find their own personal sense of equilibrium, even as everything else falls apart. And, in the gloom that is projected by this entire work, we know that it will not be a durable encounter.

The work as such is infused with a sense of compassion but also, at times, with a severe historical perspective that takes an unblinking look at the processes in play at this moment. We will have several story lines, and a recurring theme would seem to be found in the figure not only of refugees from the past as well as from a provincial mindset, but also of the disenfranchised and those such as the Jews who are shortly to be subject to severe persecution. The liberal view of a Germany that, however much grounded it was in the idea of empire, the conception of artists such as Heine and Goethe, was to crumble under the pressures of this era. We care about these characters, the outsiders, but I wonder at times if this work is not in need of greater balance for it doesn’t seem to incorporate more fully the viewpoint of the ideologues of repression. But then again, this novel takes not an abstract perspective but instead one that evolves on street level, and indeed, it will reflect that sensibility because so many of the events portrayed are conveyed by the movement and reactions of crowds.

I was impressed by this work, and look forward to the next few books in this series. Because we know what will happen in subsequent years, with the triumph of the National Socialist movement and the frightful spectacle of a cowed Germany, we nonetheless feel compelled to follow the narratives as they swirl and cross and coalesce as well as separate, reflecting as they do the dynamism of this city and its population as they respond to these forces of repression as well as expansion and liberation. And if the subtitle “City of Stone” suggests a social matrix that is unyielding and pitiless, it also can be taken to connote durability and resistance, as we end up ascribing to the full panoply of human characters in evidence.

 

 

Eternal Observer -- ORomero (c) 2013
Copyrights ORomero 2013