Why do teenagers find SchülerVZ, flickr or YouTube so fantastic? What are they finding in the communities on the internet that doesn't exist in real life, and what exactly are they doing with it? The JFF- Institut für Medienpädagogik (Institute for Media Education) looks into these questions and learns from a 15 year-old "I think the future will just be one big Second Life."...
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Prospect | Tygodnik Powszechny | Revista de Libros | Le Figaro | Gazeta Wyborcza | Le Point | Il Foglio | Magyar Hirlap | The Times Literary Supplement | Nepszabadsag | Die Weltwoche
Prospect 01.01.2007 (U.K.)
Journalist Will Hutton and Meghnad Desai, professor emeritus at the London School of Economics, discuss whether the future really belongs to China. Hutton denies this with reference to "China's only partial conversion to capitalism": "The effective use of resources also depends upon a network of independent processes of scrutiny and accountability, undertaken by people in multiple centres of power and backed by rights and private property. A democratic election system is but the coping stone of this structure." Lord Desai, on the other hand, does not believe in a necessary connection between capitalism and democracy. "It would be nice if individualism, liberty and pluralism were necessary for capitalism. But the fact is that it can manage without those things. Capitalism does release forces that undermine authoritarian regimes, but unevenly and never inevitably."
Tygodnik Powszechny 17.12.2006 (Poland)
In an interview with Andrzej Franaszek, Polish author Jerzy Pilch reveals his reasons for writing: "Writing is like a therapy. Once several hours of writing per day are part of your professional duties, the world composed of your words becomes more real than the world outside. It gives you inner peace and great security. Basically I think that happy people don't need to write books."
Revista de Libros 17.12.2006 (Chile)
Rafael Gumucio is enraptured by Adolfo Bioy Casares' posthumous, 1600 page biography of his good friend Jorge Luis Borges, which appeared recently. "A monstrous, exhausting, absurd but somehow also heroic and unbelievably liberating book. In it, the two of them cavort around like two huge, amused silly billies. The role model was obviously James Boswell's 'Life of Johnson'. While Boswell was commonly considered to have been the greatest chump in English literature, Bioy can comfort himself that Johnson's work – considered at the time to be the height of Anglo Saxon intelligence – lives on largely through Boswell's biography."
Alvaro Bisama believes that it will take a while for Chilean literature to conquer its demons. "Augusto Pinochet is still the unconquered monster of the Chilean novel. Of course there are some novels in which he surfaces but even in the best ones - 'Casa de Campo' by Jose Donoso, 'Nocturno de Chile' by Roberto Bolano – he remains a marginal character, never occupying the centre of the story. It's just the same with Franco – who Pinochet admired. Nobody was able to tell a story about him, nobody had the courage."
Le Figaro 16.12.2006 (France)
Francois Simon, food critic at Figaro, is annoyed by the arrogance of the French in their eating habits and culinary preferences, given the internationalism of the Slow Food movement. "There is such an unbelievable sense of self-satisfaction in the gastronomical sector here that the whole world seems to be excluded from our self-adulation. Bolivian nuts and the Argentinian yakon root are met with contemptuous sighs of disinterest. Our lovely country is defined by an old-fashioned big-mouthedness, we stand up to the rest of the world. It's true that we were once gastronomic world champions, but we rested on our laurels. And in the meantime, the world opened its eyes. Having admired us, they set to work. And now, one can eat divinely all over the world."
Gazeta Wyborcza 16.12.2006 (Poland)
Alexander Milinkievic, winner of the Sacharow prize and leader of the White Russian opposition, talks in an interview about the protests against the bogus elections in the spring and what came after. "An Orange Revolution is inconceivable in this dictatorship. But the people have seen that they have to fight. We are going to bring people onto the street because only demonstrations will force President Lukaschenko to give in. But we still don't know what's going to happen. We're working on the people and helping them to drive the fears out of their heads."
In a wonderful essay essay, Artur Domoslawski looks at Latin America after the death of Pinochet and reflects on the influence that the Chilean dictator still has. "His recipe of brutal repressions and neo-liberal economic reform was imitated by many to varying degrees of success. The legacy of this pheonomena was a burden to South America in the 1990s and led to the recent counter-movement with the victories of Chavez, Lulas, Morales and others. The only country that went its own way in the 1980s was Cuba. Fidel Castro became a symbol for many rebels on the continent. But in realpolitik, he lost – the new, leftist movements have done away with the Cuban methods and are headed in a new direction. The irony of the story is that Castro's successor might follow Pinochet's model: raw capitalism and authoritarianism."
Le point 14.12.2006 (France)
Bernard-Henri Levy writes that it is a disgrace for Chile and the entire world that Pinochet was allowed to die in peace in his bed. But there is a second dictator who, unlike Pinochet, has not even been put to trial yet: Fidel Castro. Levy writes "Wake up, comrades and friends! A little solidarity! Make a little effort, please, to show yourselves as true democrats and republicans. There is little time for you and for us to ensure that Fidel Castro be made to account for the same crimes as Pinochet, in the name of all the torture victims of South and Middle American dictatorships."
Il Foglio 16.12.2006 (Italy)
Every journalist is advertising something, writes Giampiero Mughini, after being chastised by the press council in Lazio for advertising mobile telephones. "Take Carlo Rossella for example, a very likeable, great journalist who I've known for 30 years. I'd write a novel about him if I had the discipline. He's the perfect blend of great journalistic (and literary) talent and no ethical backbone whatsoever. Product placement is a constant in his pieces, an ever-present testimony to his inability to say no."
All of history's spy stories were told with Shakespeare's "Hamlet" writes Siegmund Ginzberg (here and here). "There's even Polonium. And the poisoners end as vilely as their victims, carried off by their own poison. After a certain point you lose sight of who wants to murder whom, on behalf of whom and to revenge whom."
Magyar Hirlap 16.12.2006 (Hungary)
In the early 1930s, Stalin orchestrated an artificial famine in Ukraine. Historians estimate that around a quarter of the country's population died. The Ukrainian parliament has now passed a law declaring that the 1931 – 1933 famine was genocide and making its denial punishable by law (news story). The subject is still taboo in Russia. The Hungarian historian Miklos Kun sees parallels with the denial of the Holocaust and the attempt to play down the evils of the Gulag. "In 1931 the KP prohibited the sale of foodstuffs, matches and petrol in Ukraine. Trade was restricted and even letters reporting the tragedy were not allowed to get through to the outside world. While in Ukrainian villages the desperate people, crazy with hunger, were eating the green branches of trees, Ukrainian food was being sold cheaply to other Soviet republics on Stalin's orders as part of the so-called 'Soviet dumping'.... On his tour of the Soviet Union, G. B. Shaw said to the press in Moscow that he'd never eaten so well as during the 'purported' famine in Ukraine. The KP no doubt treated the world-famous dramatist to a copious meal, but he could see with his own eyes how Ukrainian peasants were starving on the streets."
The Times Literary Supplement 15.12.2006 (UK)
Richard Wilson lauds the Guardian commentator Simon Jenkins as the greatest polemicist of our times, finding Jenkins' book "Thatcher & Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts" so fantastic he can hardly dare believe it. On the one hand, the facts on the Thatcherism of the Labour Party are too depressing: "In 1995 the British government spent 300 million pounds on management consultants. By 2003 the Office of Government Commerce put the figure at 1.7 billion. A year later it was found to be 2.5 billion." The anecdotes about Margaret Thatcher, by contrast, are almost too good to be true: "I liked the one about the Spanish Foreign Minister who declared to Mrs Thatcher: 'I had been told, madam, of your formidable intelligence, but no one had warned me of your beauty.' Douglas Hurd expected her to explode, but not at all. For years afterwards she would ask any Spaniard she met: 'Whatever happened to that charming Foreign Minister of yours?'"
Nepszabadsag 14.12.2006 (Hungary)
Judit Kosa sharply criticises recent attempts to idealise Hungary's past. She is prompted by Gabor Koltay's documentary film about Miklos Horthy, the authoritarian regent who was head of the Hungarian state between 1920 and 1944, and György Moldova's book about János Kadar, leader of the Hungarian Communist Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party between 1956 and 1988: "Both oversimplify the most important periods of the 20th century and their complex political systems, as if they were talking to little children. Their portrayals of Kadar and Horthy are rendered with complete disregard for the results of historical research. In two thick volumes Kadar is portrayed as the righteous leader of his people, a puritan petit bourgeois and a victim of history. The film about Horthy is over-long and portrays him as the saviour of the Hungarian nation, a wonderful father and the last hope for Hungarian Jews threatened by the Holocaust. Both portrayals are despairingly false. They are just vehicles for the authors' views on politics in Hungary today."
Die Weltwoche 14.12.2006 (Switzerland)
After bringing a worldwide exclusive four weeks ago (English here) documenting their meeting with Taliban Mullah Sabir and publishing the new Taliban codex, Urs Gehriger and Sami Yousafzai now write a gripping account of how they were kidnapped by a separate group of Taliban fighters: "The old man, who at first appeared to be our saviour, ordered his men to empty our pockets. Passports, wallets, several hundred dollars, digital camera, even my glasses, everything was taken and tossed in a pile on the sand. Then the old man strode over to us, pointed his gun and ordered: 'Kneel down in a row!' Until this point I hadn't lost hope. But now my inner strength waned. Life can't terminate so senselessly, I try to persuade my self in despair. And yet I know that kidnappings often end in such a banal, tragic way. Nathan knelt to my left, to my right our driver Ismael. He'd shuffled a meter or so away from me, as if he believed he could prolong his life by distancing himself from the 'infidel'. The thought of how pathetically such moments are portrayed in literature and film shot through my head. Often those condemned to death have profound thoughts, sentimental memories or a last wish. Nothing happens like that at all. Your heart beats too fast, the adrenalin surges are too strong. The only thing I felt in that moment of mortal fear was an extremely dry throat, as if I'd just swallowed a bag of flour."
RSS
In the Hungarian Quarterly, Magda Szabo remembers how her first manuscript was smuggled out of Hungary and into the hands of a German publisher's reader by the name of Hermann Hesse. Portfolio portrays the new publisher of the Washington Post, Katherine Weymouth. The Financial Times portrays the editor of the New Yorker, David Remmick. In Espresso, Robert Saviano meet actors who would never join the Mafia. The Economist is amazed to see that the music industry is starting to wise up at last. And in the New Yorker, Chinese students ask why they need democracy.
"Hands off Lech Walesa!" demands Adam Michnik in the Gazeta Wyborcza. Polityka also defends the Solidarnosc leader against the hatred of the Kaczynski brothers. La vie des idees introduces a resistance programme against the dominance of English. In The Nation, Naomi Klein explains the neat rationale for pillaging Iraqi oil. Suketu Mehta encourages slum tourism in Espressso. Martina Navratilova lobs and smashes her way into the art world in the Spectator. And Elet es Irodalom can't get over the Dutch in Hungary.
In American Scholar, Yale professor William Deresiewicz sees the downside of his elite education while standing opposite his plumber. Wired welcomes in the Petabyte Age. Tygodnik Powszechny visits the "Sacroexpo" to look at camouflaged chalices. In the New York Review of Books, Zadie Smith analyses the supra-Kafka. In L'Espresso, Umberto Eco explains the vocative to Italian ministerial officials. Merkur recommends that art critics take a leaf out of Theocritus' Fifteenth Idyll. And the New York Times goes out in search of children in Europe.
The New Republic portrays the last hero of Tiananmen, the surgeon Jiang Yanyong. In Tygodnik Powszechny, historian Jochen Staadt explains why Polish lustration is anything, but not a witch hunt. Polityka says Poles just wanna have fun. The Spectator fears that the Catholic Church is on the brink of civil war. Espresso portrays Italy's two most famous fugitives. The TLS reads Prokofiev's diaries. And the best English-language books of the moment, Outlook India claims, all come from Pakistan.
In Lettre International, philosopher Michail Ryklin explains how power functions. In Le Point, historian Patrice Gueniffey explains the revolutionary passion of the French. In the London Review, psychogeographer Iain Sinclair watches on as Olympic preparations destroy London's East End. In Polityka Adam Krzeminski is irritated by the Polish neo-National Democrats and the German Left. Atlantic hears the music in Rupert Murdoch's plans for the Wall Street Journal. The New Statesman remembers Austrian football hero Matthias Sindelar. Elet es Irodalom asks why we need literature?
The Economist watches the evolution of the book market. Theatre director Pawel Demirski tells Tygodnik Powszechny that Lech Walesa is a dead symbol for Polish youth. The TLS tells us why we're all geeks now. Espresso looks into the female face of India's future labour market. The New York Review of Books has the latest on the love affair between dopamine and the human brain. In Nouvel Obs anti-globalisation network Attac explains the effects of globalisation. In ResetDoc Zygmunt Bauman tells us what to do about it. And the New York Times takes us down to PigCity.
The London Review wishes Elfriede Jelinek's novel "Gier" had never been translated. Polityka provides a history of Polish anti-Semitism - in German too. In Clarin, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava is confident that our cities will soon become pleasant places to live. In Gazeta Wyborcza, political scientist Ivan Krastev assuages ex-Yugoslavian fears that the end of the EU is nigh. In the Guardian, Ian McEwan pours cold water on apocalyptic belief. Al Ahram looks back at the history of the Jews in Egypt. And the New York Times admires Pakistan's strongest democratic weapon: men in black.
The New Humanist observes the rise of Muslim Creationism. Nepszabadsag wonders how democracy should deal with covert racism. The New Yorker introduces Dr. Fadl, a reformed terrorist and one of al-Qaeda's fiercest critics. In the New York Review of Books, the head of the Harvard library explains why the news is only a story. Caffe Europa describes the xenophobia of Italian politicians. Die Weltwoche warily watches the vicious hoodies in the new Justice video.
In the London Review of Books, Kevin Kopelson spills the beans about his plagiarism-littered path to professorship. Elet es Irodalom is green with envy over the independence of the Polish press. The Christians had it better under Nasser and Saddam Hussein, claims Coptic priest Giuseppe Scattolin in Resetdoc. In Le point, Bernard-Henri Levy spits out a colourful array of adjectives to describe the regime in Burma. And in L'Espresso, Umberto Eco analyses how the Mafia is murdering with the times.
In Eurozine the 69-year-old Catalan philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventos admits to his growing radicality. In Nepszabadsag the 75-year-old writer György Konrad declares: remembering is rebellion. In Artforum the 84-year-old philosopher Artur C. Danto thinks about art and revolution. In The New Republic Anne Applebaum takes a hammer to Nicholson Baker's pacifist polemic "Human Smoke". In Folio Christian Demand sends out a distress signal for art criticism. And the Spectator portrays the Anglican Church's only openly gay Bishop.
In the TLS, tenor Ian Bostridge writes about music under totalitarianism. The New Yorker introduces the millionaire-nerd-led group "Intellectual Ventures". Caffe Europe describes Aldo Moro's attempt to reconcile Church and communism. Nepszabadsag and Elet es Irodalom analyse the frequently misundertood concept of "competition" in Hungary. The London Review of Books explains Thabo Mbeki's motivations for backing Mugabe. And in the Weltwoche, violinist Julia Fischer demonstrates how to put up a wall.
Literaturen searches in the giant haystack of literature on '68 for a book on equal rights. The TLS rediscovers the man who sexed the English language. In Outlook India, political scientist Kishore Mahbubani closes the lid on Western cultural dominance. The New York Review of Books looks at the dominance of the national conservatives in Putin's Russia. Le Monde des livres reports on a clash of historians over the role of Islam in the Middle Ages. The Economist fears for freedom of the press in Eastern Europe. And the New York Times portrays Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswan.
In the Weltwoche, Tom Ford makes the case for full, natural pubic hair. Vanity Fair blames Bill Keller for the diminishing Timesness of the New York Times. In Espresso, Umberto Eco mourns the diminishing importance of the newpapers all together. The Times waves its fork about over the English breakfast. In L'Express, über ad-man Maurice Levy wants to give the industry a complete rehaul. The LRB experiences the joy of French painting, the TLS the joy of German Romanticism, the Economist the joy of Japanese "infantile capitalism and Al Ahram, the joy of Russian photography. The New Yorker conquers English with Li Yang.
Elet es Irodolam knows that 'minor literature' doesn't have to be political to be political. World Affairs defends Hirsi Ali, Bruckner and Berman against Buruma, Garton Ash und Ramadan. Rue 89 works through a black book of censorship. In the TLS professor of geriatric medicine, Raymond Tallis, argues that too much brain is the death of literary criticism. Hector Abad speaks out against literary protectionism in Semana. Outlook India is thoroughly put out: revolution is simply not cricket. And Vanity Fair plunges into icy water with the Russians.