2 September 2017. Today Arjan Peters discusses three types of humor in recent book publications, including gestammelte werke (Berlin: kookbooks, 2017) by Rozalie Hirs. His column appeared in the Volkskrant Magazine (image: Io Cooman, Eva Roelofs):
Kees the boy is unintentionally funny. A jolly Goethe, funny Hirs and strange Thijssen encountered Arjan Peters, or: three variations of humor.
[…] “Second category: intended funny, and fun too. In gestammelte werke by our own poet and composer Rozalie Hirs there are translations of her work, into German and Spanish through to Lithuanian (Kookbooks; €22.90). Her poem about a woman alone in a deadly motel room, which reminds her of “unwilling organ donation” and of a honeymooning couple who have been intoxicated and kidnapped here, takes on something of a timely escaped tourist who, in desperation, has a police dossier prepared. Hirs sings it out in many tongues.”