Jason Dark
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Jason Dark is the pseudonym of Helmut Rellergerd ("the least known, most well-known German writer", according to Rellergerd himself), writer of the most widely read popular horror detective fiction in the German language.
Jason Dark is almost certainly the most popular and most prolific of all German fiction writers in the history of German literature. He was born in 1945 in Dahle, the Sauerland, and from 1973 onwards started publishing horror detective stories of the pulp fiction variety, centred on an English Scotland Yard inspector named John Sinclair. The latter's surname was inspired by the "Sinclair" character played by Roger Moore in the popular 1970s TV series, The Persuaders. The stories (usually of around 100 pages in length) have mostly been published as pulp magazines and have now reached the astonishing number of well over 1,500 separate novels. The plots generally entail Inspector Sinclair's fighting against the forces of darkness (vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, etc.) and vanquishing them at the end of each tale. This positive disposition of the narratives has, Helmut Rellergerd believes, helped explain the popularity of the books, particularly amongst women, who (according to Rellergerd in a recorded radio interview) appear to number the most enthusiastic and largest group of his readers, not least because the stories are not excessively "brutal", but display a certain humanity.
The name of "Jason Dark" has humorous origins: Rellergerd's wife had a particular dislike for the fictitious English private investigator, Jason King, of the TV series of that name, and as a slightly malicious joke, Rellergerd decided to give his central character precisely the name of "Jason". The surname, "Dark", suggested itself quite naturally, as his hero constantly does battle against dark forces.
Helmut Rellergerd has claimed (in the same recorded interview) that many people have found his novels to be psychologically and emotionally beneficial, particularly during times of illness (saying that they have contributed to the recovery process through John Sinclair's "optimistic attitude" to life). In this, one might link him to the great Austrian writer, Adalbert Stifter, who specifically recommended his novel, Der Nachsommer, as a therapeutic tool for the overcoming of melancholia or depression.
When asked recently what caused him, the famed horror writer, the greatest fear and horror, he replied that it was George Bush's activities, particularly in Iraq: these call forth veritable goosebumps of fright upon his skin ...
Jason Dark continues to write three or four novels a month and shows no sign of losing his inventive vigour. While unlikely to merit the title of a "Dichter" (poet, or serious writer), he is perhaps best described in his own words as a "kreativer Beamte" (creative bureaucrat or civil servant), producing (on an old-fashioned manual typewriter) novel after novel for his employers, Bastei Verlag (Bastei Publishers).
Jason Dark has become, and remains, a pulp-author phenomenon in what the Germans term "Trivialliteratur", but which less generous commentators might call "trash fiction". Yet despite the speed with which the novels are written, they are marked by a certain skill in construction, a facility for devising gripping plot lines, and an eloquence in style which make them of some literary interest in their specific field.
[edit] References
Interview with the Writer, Jason Dark: http://stephen-king.de/interviews/jasondark/jasondark.htm
Radio Interview with Helmut Rellergerd, 2006: http://odeo.com/audio/2100374/view
Interview with Jason Dark http://www.wdr.de/themen/kultur/literatur/john_sinclair/interview_rellergerd_teil1.jhtml
