Author Spotlight: Dave Dröge

As self-employed ICT worker, I accidentally read the book ‘Extension du domaine de la lute’ by Michel Houllebecq, his breakthrough. Within this novel, a young man teaches courses in ICT, as he is struggling in live together with his colleague technician. This peculiar, rather short novel touched me at that time in my live. In following years, I immediately bought a new book of the writer after an edition in Dutch was available. Meanwhile, I was looking for a more intellectual challenge. This knowledge I first found by attending two psychology studies and by reading philosophy, and later by reading novels. In particular, I read some classics in literature. And now I am challenging myself in writing fiction myself as well.

My first novel is partly an identification with three writers: Bernard Henri-Levy, Kluun and Michel Houellebecq. It is partly a satire, joining their different morality into something new. It resulted in the trilogy/triptych called: metaphysical challenges. My second novel, inevitably dreaming, is a deliberate writing experiment in Dutch language and in establishing a solid storyline, as some themes in combination with the personality of the protagonist lead to a relatively short novel in which the reader can enjoy this language gaming, the story and the exciting and perhaps surprising plot. The reader is thus faced with a combination of subjects: law, grief, revenge, superstition and conservation of wildlife, dreaming versus reality and virtual reality. For to make a change, to search for a new challenge, I wanted the contents of the third novel to be much closer to home. It was time to write about The Netherlands, about Rotterdam area, the harbour and the industry. These subjects are fit into a storyline in which a company doctor is starring (see this).

Literature is eventually written intuitively. You do think about themes before you start, you delve into topics and conduct extensive research, but the writing process and empathize with main characters ultimately will result in a largely intuitive written text. When taking stock and rethinking things over, at this moment I can conclude there is a certain tendency to be found in my work as a novelist. It seems as if I tend to show how everyday worries engage people and how they require all their efforts and attention, while larger issues such as climate change, the way we treat animals and other things on a global scale, such as overpopulation, war, poverty, injustice and their interconnectedness, are thereby being neglected. The aim of my fourth novel includes a rather optimistic description of the future in literary form: see here.