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Bot

Conversations Without the Author
Edited by Angelika Klammer
Bot / Bot
Conversations Without the Author
Edited by Angelika Klammer
»I’m a synaesthete who experiences even humiliation in different colours.«

»As evil as Nabokov, as virtuosic as David Foster Wallace.« Welt am Sonntag

Imagine you’re a famous writer and are asked to give an extensive interview. You’re expected to disclose information about your interests and intellectual preferences, about the premises and backgrounds, the motifs and topics of your large body of work. Imagine not being able to think of anything to say, nothing whatsoever, try as you might. Well, someone else has to talk about you then. But who is the right person for the job? Who possesses enough information about you and your books? In...

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Imagine you’re a famous writer and are asked to give an extensive interview. You’re expected to disclose information about your interests and intellectual preferences, about the premises and backgrounds, the motifs and topics of your large body of work. Imagine not being able to think of anything to say, nothing whatsoever, try as you might. Well, someone else has to talk about you then. But who is the right person for the job? Who possesses enough information about you and your books? In the case of writer Clemens J. Setz, there was an alternative.


But in his case, it’s not an actual person answering questions and providing information, but a kind of artificial intelligence, his digital diary comprising millions of characters – the outsourced soul of the author, in other words: a Clemens-Setz-Bot. And all the things the interviewee was unable to verbalise during the conversation are revealed in surprising candour by the work itself, completely detached from its author.

»Alarming and surreally beautiful« John Burnside, Times Literary Supplement

»It’s inevitable that Setz will be compared to Thomas Pynchon, for his narrative has a similar complexity, nuance and, yes, even paranoia.« Kirkus Reviews

»When are we dealing with people, and when are we dealing with machines? This is the primary question of innumerable science-fiction fantasies. And this is the explicit point of departure for the new book from Clemens J. Setz. […]. Generally bizarre, […] always surprising, often touching. […] reading it may even bring you to tears.« DIE ZEIT

»Taken as a whole, the fragments do indeed form a kind of psychological image. And what emerges from the shaky contours is not only the literary wunderkind that is Setz (that too), or the nearly mad Dionysian (the Setz brand), but a deeply romantic spirit ... « Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Every piece of writing produced during an author’s lifetime is a self-portrait. Here we have a double image. In the foreground we find the nervous nerd, gamer and internet nomad. Behind him is his twin, an author whose feeling for language and for fantasy grows out of his inner connection with the elements, physical existence, and the natural world.« Süddeutsche Zeitung

»In addition to numerous stories, above all Setz's soul tells of the absurdity of a genre: the author interview. Refusing any claim to omniscience, it undermines the principle of the genius. Why are you asking me? What do you think I’ll have to say? This curious, comic-tragic and astonishing book gives the questions back to its readers.« Sasha Marianna Salzmann, LiteraturSPIEGEL

»Bot is an assorted collection of answers part original intelligence, part visions of the future. An eerie pleasure.« Deutschlandfunk Kultur

»The text is missing what usually occurs in interviews when two people of a certain socialisation meet in a clearly defined setting; instead, it feels like you are actually watching Setz think. Thoroughly recommendable.« Sophie Elmenthaler, Der Freitag

»In terms of writing Bot offers a lot. Just like in all of Clemens Setz’s previous works, bizarre details, indeed, whole ideas for novels, are encapsulated in the answers.« Spex

»Bot – a rather bizarre, sometimes puzzling, nevertheless completely fascinating trip through the world of Clemens Setz, who once more knows just how to captivate us in his deeply sad yet witty prose and with the poetic power of his crazy images.« ORF

»Bot is, in particular, a book for literary flaneurs, for aimless wandering and random collecting. The reader is rewarded with exquisite finds, astonishing insights and outlooks, and highly poetic miniatures.« Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung

»An excellent mess of confusion, a treasure trove full of valuable knowledge, absurdities as well as real gems of thoughts.« Kleine Zeitung

»Good stuff. A lot of absurdly good stuff, you can only take a little at a time.« Kurier

»Clemens Setz, without a doubt, has an eye for the unusual. And from out of some of his fantastic discoveries he has written an entire novel.« Passauer Neue Presse

»This here is a great diary of contemporary literature, a treasure trove for Setz-lovers, a real discovery.« literaturkritik.de

»A unique literary project reflecting contemporary writing in both its form and content while opening up new paths forward.« Literaturoutdoors.wordpress.com

»What a phenomenally mad book.« Augsburger Allgemeine

»Has Clemens J. Setz relinquished his authorial role to those automated computer programmes known as bots? In his most recent book of bizarre and enigmatic journal entries the best-selling author from Graz plays brilliantly with the idea.« Ruhr Nachrichten

»Alarming and surreally beautiful« John Burnside, Times Literary Supplement

»It’s inevitable that Setz will be compared to Thomas Pynchon, for his narrative has a similar complexity, nuance and, yes, even paranoia.« Kirkus Reviews

»When are we dealing with people, and when are we dealing with machines? This is the primary question of innumerable science-fiction fantasies. And this is the explicit point of departure...

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2018, 167 pages
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Persons

Clemens J. Setz, born in Graz in 1982, studied mathematics and German language and literature at the University of Graz from 2001 to 2009. Today he lives in Vienna. Clemens J. Setz is the author of novels, short stories, poems and plays. He has received numerous awards for his works.
Clemens J. Setz, born in Graz in 1982, studied mathematics and German language and literature at the University of Graz from 2001 to 2009. Today he...

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Moons before the Landing
Year of Publication: 2023
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2023

Worms in the early twenties of the last century. Peter Bender, a former lieutenant pilot in the German Army, makes a name for himself as the founder of a new religious community and with the...

Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (H&O Editores), Italy (La Nave di Teseo)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Roof Music)

The Triumph of Clematis in Europe
Year of Publication: 2022
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2022

Life plans are worrisome worlds apart, transitions and nuances threaten to disappear in the public debate. David is dead, as published by the influencer Tim and some journalists, but from the parents’ point of view their boy has been suffering from a kind of dementia ever since his traffic accident. Renate and Konrad are looking for a school for their son, who takes the form of a tablet...

The Bees and the Invisible
Year of Publication: 2020
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2020

Pure meaning, pure poetry – this idea seems to worry and spur on people throughout the centuries. It is the driving force behind the invention of languages like Esperanto, Volapük or...

Rights sold to:

Spanish world rights (H&O Editores), Korea (Eulyoo), Esperanto world rights (Mondial)

 

The Comfort of Round Things
Year of Publication: 2019
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2019

An Alsatian soldier in the First World War discovers the constellation of the Great Young Kid in the night sky, but it is so awful that he can’t tell anyone about it. A young man, who has fallen...

Rights sold to:

Russia (Symposium), France (Actes Sud), Italy (La Nave di Teseo), Denmark (Vandkunsten), Japan (Kokusho Kankokai), Poland (Filtry), Greece (Gutenberg)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Griot)

The Hour Between Woman and Guitar
Year of Publication: 2015
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2015
In a residential home for people with physical and mental disabilities, a young woman – Natalie Reinegger – is employed as a caregiver to Alexander Dorm. The man is confined to a...
Rights sold to:

France (Jacqueline Chambon), Italy (La Nave di Teseo), Bulgaria (Paradox)

Till Eulenspiegel
Year of Publication: 2015
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2015
Every child knows the stories about this most famous of pranksters, the one who bakes owls and monkeys, teaches a donkey how to read and fools the Duke of Anhalt. His sly humour, taking everything literally and intentionally misunderstanding everything, with which he keeps lords and masters at bay, has become proverbial. But it’s not only the powerful that fall victim to his rough pranks:...
Happy as Lead in a Corn Field
Year of Publication: 2015
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2015
There are stories so inconceivable that they cannot be told publicly, explicitly, but can only be recounted. Naturally, by the author himself. Here they are. Forty-five in number, and each of them illustrated by Kai Pfeiffer.


»Some months ago«, writes Clemens Setz, »I found some old stories in a folder that I had written when I was eighteen or nineteen. Leafing through the...
The Ostrich Trumpet
Year of Publication: 2014
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2014
Why did young women in the nineteenth century like to stick sharp needles in their mouths in the dark? What is it that prevents someone from being a great lover? And what do childless parrots do?


The answers to these and many more questions are to be found in Clemens J. Setz’s new collection of poetry, The Ostrich Trumpet. The same can be said of his uncanny and by turns abyssal...
Indigo
Year of Publication: 2012
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2012
In the northern part of Styria, Austria, lies Helianau, a boarding school for children suffering from a mysterious condition known as indigo syndrome. Everyone who comes to close to them is struck...
Rights sold to:

USA (W. W. Norton / Liveright), UK (Serpent's Tail), Chinese simplex rights (CITIC Press / Sight), France (Jacqueline Chambon), Italy (La Nave di Teseo), Netherlands (Leesmagazijn), Denmark (Vandkunsten), Korea (Eulyoo), Japan (Kokusho Kankokai), Croatia (Hena Com), Greece (Gutenberg)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Chinese complex rights (China Times), Czech Republic (Fra), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Funtasy)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Roof Music)

 

Love in the Times of the Mahlstädter Child
Year of Publication: 2011
Clemens J. SetzYear of Publication: 2011
A woman who has herself locked in a cage in her own kitchen; a man who lives all by himself in the innermost part of a distant planet; an aging poet in a crib who becomes the core of the collection...
Rights sold to:

Chinese simplex rights (CITIC Press / Sight), Arabic world rights (Al'Asreya), France (Actes Sud / Jacqueline Chambon), Czech Republic (Fra), Hungary (Europa), Bulgaria (Funtasy), Romania (Univers), Macedonia (Blesok)

Previously published in the respective language / territory; rights available again: Denmark (Vandkunsten)

Domestic Rights Sales: German Audiobook (Griot)


DISCOVER

News
Laura de Weck talks to Clemens J. Setz about aliens, synaesthesia, and about what we should be mindful of if we don't want to become Bitcoin millionaires.
News
05.04.2020
We are delighted to announce that Clemens J. Setz has been awarded the Kleist Prize 2020 for his œuvre.