Thorsten Brinkmann is a passionate collector of everything that is bulky, ageing, and somewhat musty. A book now offers the first overview of the Hamburg artist?s work....
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John Berger writes in Clarin about the silent message of Israeli settlements in Palestine. In The Guardian, Pankaj Mishra is tired of hearing from writers in hotels. In the Nouvel Obs, Michel Rocard is the only French person with anything bad to say about Mitterrand. Magyar Hirlap is annoyed at an online game on the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. Folio brings statistics alive. Outlook India describes the newest thing in fitness with an aura of wisdom. The New Yorker has seen at least one good film in 2005: Fatih Akin's "Head On". And The New York Times looks at "the hottest thing on earth" - the paintings of the New Leipzig School.
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In Granta, Lindsey Hilsum reports on the Sino-African trade revolution. Al Ahram describes the culture shock at the election success of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. In Espresso, Umberto Eco warns about an excess of change. The Hungarian ES magazine accompanies the spirit of writer Miklos Meszöly through Trieste. In Der Spiegel, Karl Schlögel predicts a European renaissance in Eastern Europe. And the New York Times Magazine portrays the Ukrainian Eva Perón.
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In Prospect, Robert Skidelsky greets veterans of the People's Liberation Army in what used to be his family's villa in Manchuria. Merkur observes with satisfaction how stockholders can now oust top managers from their jobs. In the New York Review of Books, Ian Buruma relives Joe Louis' legendary fight against Max Schmeling. Peter Nadas tells in Magyar Hirlap what it's like to be a woman. Literaturen looks into the relationships of literary couples. In Le Point, Alain Robbe-Grillet tells how God visits him in the bath. The Economist discovers why the Japanese are so taken with robots. And in Gazeta Wyborcza, Maciej Zaremba discovers a new spectre haunting Europe.
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In Lettre International, Peter Nadas tracks down the last vestiges of Le Vernet concentration camp. In Kommune, Karol Sauerland investigates politics and everyman's corruption in Poland. Nepszabadsag reports on a brand new phenomenon in Hungary: women writers. Regis Debray and Marcel Gauchet argue in the Nouvel Obs whether a civil religion can exist at all. Die Weltwoche has located God in the temporal lobes. Harold Bloom presents America's literary figurehead in The Guardian. In Gazeta Wyborcza, Kinga Dunin analyses the significance of queer literature for Poland. And in the New York Times Magazine, Pankaj Mishra tells about the Tibetans who don't want enlightenment.
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In Al Ahram, Gamal Nkrumah accuses France of enriching itself at the expense of Africa. The New Yorker fears for the future of the New York Times. In Nouvel Obs, historian Marc Ferro refuses to let the French state dictate the morality of history. The Spectator listens in on the worries of super rich art collectors. Theatre director Piotr Tomaszuk defends his right to nail a bearded female Jesus to the cross in Gazeta Wyborcza. Peter György warns against Infotainment in Elet es Iroldalom. And in the TLS, George Steiner celebrates Karl Kraus.
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Is Alain Finkielkraut an iconoclast? Or a neo-reac? According to the Nouvel Obs, his recent comments on the youth riots have hit a nerve. Al-Jazeera is fast becoming establishment writes the Spectator, and for the The Nation it is the very model of good journalism. Outlook India protests against the fatwa epidemic in India, with particular reference to tennis outfits. And Ozon asks if Volker Schlöndorff is really the man to tell the true story of Solidarnosc.
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Wolfgang Kemp takes a poke at Unesco in this week's Merkur. Die Weltwoche pays a visit to Ilse Aichinger. Der Spiegel visits Giuliano Ferrara, publisher of Italy's most exciting newspaper. Outlook India covers the "Mama industry". Le Point is astonished at France's new iconoclasts and The New Republic writes on French anti-anti-Americanism. Elet es Irodalom warns against throwing out the baby of Islam with its radical bathwater.
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The New York Review of Books visits the radical religious school Madrassa Haqqania in Pakistan. Artist Rajeev Sethi remembers in Outlook India how Indira Gandhi told him how to get the best out of bad design. In L'Express, Caroline Fourest and Francois Burgat fight tooth and nail over Islamic feminism. In Revista de Libros, Rafael Gumucio bemoans the disastrous influence of Nabokov and Borges. In The Guardian, a group of authors speak out against Britain's planned blasphemy ban. In the Hungarian Heti Valaggazdasag, Janos Ladany warns of the consequences of poverty among the Roma. And Jonathan Lethem extols the delights of Italo Calvino in the New York Times.
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The magazines this week are full of the events in France. The Spectator sees an Islamic conspiracy behind the riots. By contrast, Die Weltwoche and Le Point see nothing but infantile self-destruction. For The New Yorker the American integration model is the most successful. Lawrence Lessig explains in Foreign Policy why he doesn't want Europeans in ICANN. Canadian Pianist Angela Hewitt tells in the TLS where the best grand pianos are had. The New York Times is against the National Book Award in particular and the award culture in general.
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In Der Spiegel, Hans Magnus Enzensberger considers the Islamic radicals to be the losers that the Nazis once were. Elet es Irodalom celebrates the Hungarian novel of the century: Peter Nadas' "Parallel Stories".The New Yorker asks if the CIA can legally kill its prisoners abroad. Polityka sees the results of the most recent presidential election in Poland as evidence that the country is still split along the border of 1918. Le Nouvel Observateur asks if France's failure to integrate immigrants relates to its unwillingness to confront its colonial history. Al Ahram reports that the religious authorities in Egypt have forbidden the publication of a book on Wahhabism. And, according to New York Times Magazine, Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is the fruit fly of literary Darwinism.
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In Merkur, author Bernard Schlink looks at the shifting usage of the German word "Opfer". DU wanders through the hip city of Istanbul. In L'espresso, Andrzej Stasiuk poeticises on his bleak and bleary, beautiful and dreary homeland. The New York Times Magazine visits Nepalese Maoist rebels in flip-flop fighting boots. A battle rages in Plus-Minus over the future of the family. The TLS and The Economist investigate the now you see it now you don't British class system. In Elet es Irodalom, photographer Patrick Zachmann reflects on the ups and downs of Hungarian history - mostly on the downs. And the Nouvel Obs portrays the battle lines drawn around Michel Houellebecq's latest book.
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Prospect bemoans the decline of the theatre critic. In Reportajes, Mario Vargas Llosa praises cultural life in bankrupt Berlin. Umberto Eco explains in L'Espresso the difference between bullshit and balderdash. The New Yorker writes a portrait of architect Santiago Calatrava. Adam Zagajewski tells in Plus-Minus what life in Paris is like for a poet. In The Guardian, Ian McEwan looks forward to a new edition of Peter Schneider's "The Wall Jumper". Al-Ahram hopes the Nobel Prize for Harold Pinter will give Egyptian intellectuals more gumption. The Spectator looks at Russia's death throes. And in Le Point, Regis Debray sees nothing but pyschosis and perversion in theatre today.
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In the New York Review of Books, Timothy Garton Ash admires Iranian women's bikinis. Le Monde diplomatique delves into the origins of language. In Plus-Minus, philosopher Wojciech Sadurski hopes for a United States of Europe. The Spectator hates the Blairpop of Coldplay, Franz Ferdinand and all such wimps. The London Review of Books reads in Andrew Bacevich how Americans love their military but refuse to serve in it. In Le Point, Mario Vargas Llosa wishes for a French Tony Blair.
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Lettre publishes excerpts from the essays of the seven finalists for the Lettre Ulysses Award. In Radar, the poet Silvina Ocampo explains how the song of the little ape is the most pleasing of all. Gazeta Wyborcza considers the relationship between Belarus and Europe. In Polityka, Dorota Maslowska describes her trip to Moscow. In Du magazine, Sybille Lewitscharoff considers the work of the devil in modernity. And Weltwoche offers a portrait of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
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In L'Express, Salman Rushdie explains why Indian left-wing intellectuals have branded him an Islamic separatist on the Kashmir issue. Holmi celebrates Janos Terey's drama "The Nibelung Subdivision". In the Guardian, playwright Tom Stoppard visits his colleagues in Belarus where a chasm opens between form and content. In Literaturen, Michael Frayn confesses his lazy reading habits. And the Economist hopes for a grand coalition on the scale of Kurt Kiesinger and Willy Brandt.
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