Twenty-five years after his cult TV series, Kir Royal, director Helmut Dietl has now come released a sort of ?sequel? for the big screen. Zettl focuses on the high-flying career of a ruthless media man in Berlin. As satire, however, the frigid figures in Zettl fail to warm up to viewers. ...
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In Le Point BHL remembers the non-Stauffenberg members of the German resistance - civilians like Georg Elser, Sophie Scholl and Willy Brandt. In Nouvel Obs, Roland Barthes weeps for his mother. Outlook India describes the Talibanisation of the IT state Karnataka. Elet es Irodalom explains why the Dutch don't get Peter Esterhazy. The New Statesman wonders at the improbable marriage of physicist Paul Dirac. In Al Ahram the writer Herman P. Spruijt calls for the Arab world to improve IP rights for its writers. Prospect sees red Tories a' coming.
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Elet es Irodalom complains about the cowardliness of Hungarian theatre. Wired tells the story of why Google's deal with Yahoo fell through. In Spiked, sociologist Frank Furedi describes the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe. In Salon.eu.sk, sociologist Zygmunt Bauman gets excited about Europe as a multilingual laboratory. The Hungarian Quarterly can't get "Daisy, daisy" out of its head. In the Nouvel Obs, Bahgat Elnadi and Adel Rifaat say it's time to stop psalmodising the Koran and starting thinking it. The New York Review of Books trembles at the feet of Google, which is rapidly becoming the world's largest book store.
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How avant-garde can art be when it's paid for by the Deutsche Bank, asks Elet es Irodalom. In the American Conservative, John Mearsheimer blames the Israelis for the war in Gaza. In Le Point, Bernard-Henry Levy has had it up to here with imaginary Palestinians. Al Ahram is worried about the Palestinian takeover of Sinai. Senator Chuck Schumer rallies to save the American middle-class in the Atlantic. The TLS looks at left-wing racism. Polityka scans the contracts for "sponsoring" female students. The New Statesman enjoys some world-class anarchist chocolate in Sao Tome. And Andrzej Stasiuk watches Transnistrian football for L'Espresso.
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Portfolio presents Barney Frank, the man who's about to tighten the screws on Wall Street. In the Guardian, Scottish author Andrew O'Hagan wonders when the English working class will awake from its slumber. In HVG art collector Gabor Pados tells us to start snapping up Hungarian art. Umberto Eco pieces together the fragments of John the Baptist for L'Espresso. The New Yorker learns why there are no four-year-olds in the movies. Senagalese historian Mamadou Diouf calls for a new universalism in La vie des idees. And Steven Pinker puts his genes to the test in the New York Times.
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The era of the book is over, publisher's editor Tom Engelhardt declares in The Nation. In the New Statesman Jonathan Derbyshire turns his thoughts to Weltliteratur since Goethe. In Polityka, Adam Michnik praises the Communists for passing their exams in Polish patriotism. Difficulty as a virtue has abandoned the realm of literature to be embraced by the computer game, John Lanchester writes in the London Review of Books. Standpoint takes Germany to task for its love of Russia. The New York Times tells the story of Mexico's victorious battle against the "culture of poverty". The Economist honours H.M., the man without memories.
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In Outlook India Arundhati Roy analyses the nature of terrorism. In the London Review of Books, Tariq Ali describes an "honour killing" in his own family. In the Observator Cultural, the writer Mircea Horia Simionescu describes how useful it is to be the victim of infidelity. Elet es Irodalom examines the detrimental influence of the primitive Janos Kadar. In Gazeta Wyborcza Victor Erofeev wishes the credit crunch would hurt Russia more, so that it would be forced to change. In Lettre International Peter Nadas describes the legacy of simulation which had the Eastern Bloc in its grip. The New York Review of Books publishes the Chinese "Charter 2008".
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In Al Ahram, Aijaz Zaka Syed calls upon Muslims to confront the terrorists in their midst. In Atlantic, Gao Xiqing tells the Americans to be nice to their money-lenders. In Przekroj Lech Walesa explains that he has to be top dog. In Nepszabadsag Laszlo Lengyel defines Hungary as bottom dog. In Merkur Dina Khapajewa explains how the Russians use WWII myths to repress memories of the gulag. The TLS maligns journalistic moralising. And the Spectator salutes the gentleman pirates of Somalia.
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Outlook India investigates the attacks in Mumbai. In Salon, Martin Simecka outlines the difference between ex-communists and true dissidents. The Walrus pines for the wild Jews. In Przekroj, Dorota Maslowska warns about the imminent combustion of Polish society. In the TLS George Walden consoles hedge fund managers with tins of excrement. Umberto Eco buries himself in a dictionary of onomatopoeia. In the Nouvel Obs, Paul Virilio meditates on the omni-polis of the modern nomad. Sex ain't revolution the Nation declares, with an eye on Iran. The Wired watches Charlie Kaufman bleed. And the New York Times lifts the veil on the world's most powerful censors: the Google Three.
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The American magazines - The Nation, the NYT, New Yorker - focus their attentions on V.S.Naipaul. The Nation also reviews Roberto Bolano's forgotten novel "2666" which, the Economist is astounded to reveal, is flying off the shelves. The Hungarian magazines take the temperature of the cold war between Hungary and Slovakia. Prospect waits for the bubble of bubbles to pop. Jose Saramago outs himself as a flush-faced blogger in El Pais Semanal. Dubravka Ugresic tells the Gazeta Wyborcza why Serbo-Croat is a throroughly modern language. And in the New York Times Kevin Kelly hurtles towards screen ubiquity.
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Portfolio portrays the dark prince of Wall Street, who saw the storm coming, while the sun was still shining. In the Guardian, Jeanette Winterson explains why a tough life needs tough words. Polityka criticises the Catholic ideology officers monitoring Polish schools. Magyar Narancs is concerned about Hungary slipping back to the Stone Age. The New Republic eyes the collection of forceful characters on Obama's staff. And in Monde diplomatique, Juan Villoro describes a Mexico in the grip of a drug-induced here and now.
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Who will be India's Obama? asks Outlook. The New Yorker looks at the tricky relationship between Obama and civil rights activism. The Guardian is stunned by the seething cauldron of neuroses that was the Wittgenstein family. Tygodnik Powszechny stares into the eyes of Polish Jews on film. Al Ahram introduces the ambitious online project of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on Egypt's history. In Radar Rodrigo Fresan puts bestsellers in the dock. Vanity Fair meets the top news provider of the future: Bloomberg.
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Shortly before his death, Studs Terkel calls for more reg-u-lat-ion in the Huffington Post. The Spectator shines a light on the China Poly Group - an arm of the People's Liberation Army, with a strong interest in art. The Observator Cultural compiles a dossier on the writer Mircea Nedelciu. The New Statesman looks into Chinese-Muslim relations in Kashgar. Umberto Eco finds suicidal tendencies in Italian terrorism. The New York Times portrays Lauren Zalaznick, the creator of "layered" TV for savvy urbanites. And in the New York Review of Books, Zadie Smith sounds the death toll for lyrical realism.
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The new Slovakian internet magazine Salon translates articles from Miroslav Kusy, Rudolf Chmel und Gaspar Miklos Tamas on the tension between Hungary and Slovakia. In Portfolio, Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen tells newspapers to scrap their print editions. In Le Point Emmanuel Todd foresees the return of Marx and Bonaparte. The Polish papers report on the Kundera affair. The TLS introduces lit crit as practised by a militant pro-capitalist. In the Weltwoche Paul Scheffer talks about the boomerang effect of immigration.
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In Nouvel Obs, Oliver Roy explains what fundamentalists of every stripe have against culture. In Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan celebrates the golden age of journalism (we're in it). In ADN cultura, Paolo Coelho says we should look at Britain's history to worrying about internet piracy. For Commentary, the financial crisis is the fault of the state. For the Economist, the Milan Kundera case is just a drop in a toxic cloud.
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The Observator Cultural introduces Stelian Tanase, a world champion of storytelling. In ResetDoc, the Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas recites his credo. In Lettre International, a Russian woman describes her childhood in a labour camp. In Esquire Mikhail Khordokovsky describes the Russian nomenklatura as the result of a process of natural annihilation. In Dissent, Carlos Fraenkel talks about teaching philosophy in Indonesia. In the Guardian Margaret Atwood sings the praises of Alice Munro. The Walrus visits Josef Skvorecky. Przekroj introduces Jacek Duka, the new Stanislaw Lem. And the Economist answers the call of nature.
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