RaveBOMBRave , recently translated by Adrian Nathan West into English for the first time, is Goetz’s 1998 fragmentary novel about nightlife. Like Irre, it circles around the idea of disintegration. By the end, the book seems to self-destruct, a vision as much about rave culture’s dissolution as about the psyche’s. This takes place at the level of language ... the book’s arc is hacked up excessively and deliberately. Snatches of prose intersect with dialogue, intertitles, and scenes strung out and interrupting themselves ... the book’s frenetic scenes resonate and invite us to dissolve our attempts at spectatorship ... Spilling out and trying to contain, understanding and rejecting the offered narratives—this is all part of a push and pull we use to learn about the self. It’s in this madness, and not aside from it, that Goetz thrives.
