I'm afraid I cannot speak for Peter Handke. I merely forwarded
that email from the avant-garde list. However I can offer this small
interpretation. - What Handke's letter seems to suggest, and it was a
translation I should add, is that Yugoslavia is going to become a sort of
nightmare model of what is going to - I mean the bombing of Belgrade, is
going to become a model of what is going to happen with other cities which
do not conform to the Nato guidelines. Further I think that Handke uses
the image of Martians - translated as Marssians in the texts ,is an
image whereby Handke is saying that we all are going to be victimsof
our own projected otherness i.e. Martians - our our alientated self-image
which shall come to attack is ie. a further move toward the alienationthat
we ourselves are as other in seeingourselves as other, and to that extent
that we see the Other as Other and thus killable. To the extent that the
enemyis always other, so the enemy must be destroyed. for the nationalist
anywhere this will be some other, inthis case it is the Serb nationalist
against the Kosovo Albanian. To the extent that we impose on the other the
monstrous image of our hatreds, fears, insecurities, terrors, etc. and to
the extent that we persecute her then we ourselves are Marssian Martian
green [the typical image we have of Martians being green] Monsters of our
projected and mad imaginations,, and then we must also persecute Others
and kill and exterminate them. I amnot sure why he makes reference to
theother writers, butI am sure he has his reasons. I do not know the
original German letter text. - Butto continue about Martians, well then we
shall all be destroyed in the projected attack on ourselves the earthlings
by our own demonized ulitmate projection of the Other i.e. the Martian who
will attack theWhole Planet and kill us, but in fact we shall be Killing
ourselves, as the other is always us. Sadly for the other, this is no
pleasant or fun, and they suffer. I think the last line in that email that
quotes Handke is snippet that might refer to the sound of war jets leaving
a French Airforce base for their war destinations.
Dial - 1-800-Terror .
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