Writers writing. That's what Moped at Sea is about, and that's ok. 

Many avid readers will dream of their favourite author sitting at their table one day, talking about her work. Perhaps just as many avid readers will take their dream author on a stroll, want to drink lamb on a café terrace or take them to a darkroom. Or to a classical concert at the Concertgebouw. All can be done. Some will even be satisfied with the book alone (don't go crazy).

Yet you usually end up in a room at a literature festival where the writer sits at a table with one or more interlocutors. Lazy and slouching, with restless legs, or on edge and hyperalert. Next to a plant. Or a set piece by a designer who was allowed something for 0 budget.

In book programmes on TV, it usually goes the same way. Though does Moped At Sea, the new programme with which VPRO is trying to make literature survive the NPO's ratings terror a valiant attempt at more life.

Don't sit!

The presenting duo, Ruth Joos and Wilfried de Jong, have already taken my first tip of the year to heart: Keep Standing! 5 tips for VPRO's new book programme. But then they sit down anyway. This is apparently inevitable if you want to talk about books, or maybe the authors get nervous about it (not a bad thing, a bit of nerves makes every person more active).

To still keep a bit of life in the programme, De Jong practices for his favourite Marathon during the broadcast, which is a bit odd as his colleague is left a bit sparse at her little table. This is akin to ghosting during a date, which is not a good example. It would be better if, for once, she had something better to do, and therefore Wilfried had to take a diversion. Creativity is desirable.

Promenade

They won my heart with one part of VPRO, though, and that is the part where Wilfried so visits a writer locked in a glass booth. Could be a nice reference to the OSM hit show Promenade, in which grump Ton Kas also locked himself in a phone box for safety reasons, and so it works. Not because of that glass booth, but because of the idea.

Because writers are in the world to write. Not to become TV personalities, although most publishers currently seem to think that only TV personalities are allowed to write books, but that's another story. In Moped at Sea, the writer gets to do what she was born to do on the spot in the writing booth: write. A simple question at the beginning, a beautifully written - and read by the author herself - answer at the end. Brilliant idea.

For that reason alone, that moped may remain at sea for a while.