Monday 16 August 2010

Misleading Headline of the Month

Captain Bluebear - I'm a porno freak! the billboard shrieked at me as I fetched our morning rolls from the baker's shop on Sunday.

You mean you don't know Captain Bluebear? Walter Moers' classic blue sea-bear is a teller of tall tales, available in English translation by John Brownjohn. But most of his stories involve pirates and islands and mermaids and the like, not necessarily pornography as far as I'm aware.

It was all a ruse though, sorry. West Berlin's favourite tabloid, BZ, ran an interview with the actor Wolfgang Völz to celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday. Völz is the voice of Captain Bluebear in the long-running puppet/cartoon version, always a joy on a lazy weekend morning. And he shared his life's wisdoms, including this little bon-mot:

I'm a big porno freak, for example. I like reading well-written porn books. The whole series… that red and green series… what's it called again... Oh, it's my age… I'm starting to forget things. Well anyway, there's some really good stuff, really great books. You don't have to read that stuff by that girl, what's her name, who's always fiddling with her bum and doesn't shave.

The latter being, of course, a reference to Charlotte Roche's Wetlands (and her armpits). I'm sure one of my readers will fill us in on that red and green series - I find it hard to imagine it might be Männerschwarm Verlag's "rote Reihe" of gay erotic literature. Then there's the Anais series, but they look more flesh-coloured than red or green. Not my specialist subject, I'm afraid.

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