Like all writers, Müller asks himself what exactly constitutes writing. He answers the question by defining writing as a blind power: “an area that is simultaneously free and blind, completely untouched by the political.”(6) Writing means resisting facts. Power is a term for this resistance and centrifugal force. Its blindness is its indifference to what exists. It is an expression of a distancing of reality, of an escape:

“Of course writing is invariably also an escape from reality, if you will. But this is in itself a wrong judgement: it is simply another world and it would be wonderful if one could stay there. Yet one is repeatedly disturbed and then must work this disturbance into the writing.” (7)

(6) Heiner Müller, Krieg ohne Schlacht, Köln 1999 (4. Aufl.), S. 64.
(7) Heiner Müller, Gespräche 2, Werke 11, S. 518.

Complete text will be published at: Note on power

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