Benji Knewman, Vol.13

Benji Knewman is a man, around 41 years old. He’s trying to be genuine, and it seems he sometimes manages. Just like his grandfather who used to say: “Ben, how you spend your day is how you spend your life!” Currently Benji Knewman is more everywhere than anywhere. Mostly on the road. He’s still in search of his own perfect day. While looking for it, he curates a biannual bookazine telling stories about people who don’t pretend and who can simply be. Covering a myriad of vocations and lifestyles, as well as geographical locations, they’re living proof that you don’t have to be conventional to have a good life.

In this issue:

It’s been a year of magical thinking.

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“My mom at some point understood that my relationship with this woman had become “unhealthy”, so to speak. And then she said, “But you do understand that you will have to lick cunt?!” “Good thing you told me, Mom. It wouldn’t have occurred to me, I thought we’d just hold hands!””

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“I left Riga that winter on a pilgrimage to Lake Sevan, where the periscope-like cafe front of the Writers’ Resort faces out onto choppy waters. The story behind this site is full of longing and absence, and I felt it all the more because I’d left someone in Riga, knowing, though not admitting to myself, that things were coming to an end.”

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“How anatomically revealing pornographic videos are doesn’t concern me, though some angles teach me new things about the human body. It is impossible to gain sexual pleasure from watching videos that have so clearly been created to please men who have no interest in the sexual pleasure of women.”

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“I bought myself a good knife. The first evening I cut my hand twice. That’s good, wise people say, the knife is getting used to you and striking up a friendship. Then the knife cut up the sponge and the cutting board began to resemble the arms of a depressed teenager. And yet it’s great to have your own knife. Now I’ll go and buy myself some baking soda for the homey feeling to settle in.”