Reflection on a lie in the legendary VPRO letter section Backside

Once upon a time … A twelve -year -old boy who wrote a moving letter to the legendary letter section Backsidefor children and young people at the back of the VPRO Guide. His letter was in it in March 1998. Börre Lyndstrøm from Nigtevecht tells how he is harassed at school, “only because, I think, I come from another country.” They call him Burp and throw clumps earth at his dachshund. And now the dachshund, Søren, has also walked under a car! Börre adds a poem for him and asks the readers of the guide for ‘answer to my problems’.

Forty years, from 1976 to 2016, was Backside The platform where children could go with what they were doing. From life demand to practical advice, from frustration to joke. Other children then responded. The rear editor – until 1991 it was Nelleke van der Drift, then Katja de Bruin and in the last eight years that the section existed Elja Looijestein – chose to post those reactions or sent them in conscience. They did not respond themselves: Backside Was really from and for children themselves. Modes, music and trends were discussed, as good as questions and problems, some time -bound – “I don’t want to be in military service,” “How do I get a furby” – and others timeless, as Börre writes about: mourning and bullying.

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Recently, twenty -seven years after his pathetic letter, Börre appeared again, but now as a book title, not as an author. In Börre or the confession of a liar Ko van ‘t Hek (1985), philosopher, poet and writer, explains how the boy with the special first name fell further. Did he ever get a new dachshund? Did he find love and happiness? No. Because Börre did not exist. This Börre not and also no other, because Börre is not an existing name (not even a rather occurrence such as ‘AAF’ or ‘Tatum’; the children Brandt Corstius and Dagelet wrote about their special name too, or no, do once in the back).

It is time, Van ‘t Hek writes, “to confess the lie, to face the consequences and to apologize.” He wants to give the more than a hundred statements of support that ‘Börre Lynstrøm’ still received ‘the attention and love that they’ deserve ‘and they’ feel ‘. Does he do that then? Yes, because he takes a lot of it in his book, but also no. Börre or the confession of a liar is primarily a playful exploration of people’s desire for attention, fabulating and to power. And to the boundaries between fiction and reality.

Colored glasses

What was the reason that he and his boyfriend Jelle came up with a Kul letter? Van ‘t Hek tries to find out who he was really that old at the age of twelve. The problems of Börre were perhaps not yet made up. Ko van ‘t Hek was nicknamed’ Koter bacterium underpants-gymnasium-atheneum ‘at primary school. And then, arriving in the first year of a Lyceum in Bussum, he quickly went through life as a ‘Brugger of the Year’ because of his very strikingly small length and as’ Ko through ‘t Hek’. Not naturally to action and adventure, he rode a quad during a school camp on a quad, on which he actually did not dare, plank gas through a fence. And he also wore a colored glasses. That was certainly not pink. As a child he experienced life, although he had loving left-intellectual parents, as complicated. As an adult he suffers from depression.

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It is disarming and at the same time coquest this book. It really touches the writer, to read how much the letter writers of when wanted to help him, how frank they were. At the same time, he appears, seriously writing how embarrassing lying at the age of twelve, he could not leave it at the age of forty. He performs Arjen Lubach who was one of the letter writers as an eighteen year old. He contacts him, and with other letter writers, for a late confession. It yields very nice conversations. Only they are made up again.

Ko van ‘t Hek reflects in his book on what nowadays prank is called. He refers to Banana SplitOn Uschi & Van Dijk and to the movie Space Jamin which Michael Jordan pulls BUNNY with Bugs. That film became a hit, because it is’ exciting how real and fake together [kunnen] falls ”. He refers to Orson Welles and Werner Herzog, but also to striking program makers of today, Nathan Fielder and John Wilson, whose work is an excellent game of reality and fiction. Börre or the confession of a liar Leaving, just like their work, are nicely confused.

In the meantime, backside remains, even if it no longer exists. In the sparkling podcast of the same name, Elja Looijestein, assisted by predecessor Katja de Bruin, searches people who sent a letter as a child. Real people who were real children, with real letters. A woman who as a girl had a branch like hug, for example. Or a man who thirsty as a boy for a “girl with feeling.” Anyone who really exists and now wants to tell about his letter from then, is invited to contact the VPRO for the fourth season of Backside, the podcast.

Ko van ‘t Hek: Börre or the confession of a liar. Thomas Rap, € 22.99

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