Cornelia Funke tells stories of fairies and mud monsters, of adventurous girls, a gang of children in Venice ? and her stories somewhere between fantasy and adventure are Germany?s most successful literary export at the moment....
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The New York Times|
Plus - Minus | L'Espresso |
The Spectator |
Der Spiegel | Gazeta Wyborcza | Le Nouvel Observateur | The Economist | The Guardian | Merkur | Die Weltwoche | Outlook India
The New York Times, 11.09.2005 (USA)
Four years after 9/11 Mark Danner takes stock and has to admit that the war on terror has changed the
terrorists but it has also strengthened them. "The sheer
number and breadth of terrorist attacks, suggest strongly that Al Qaeda
has now become Al Qaedaism - that under the American and allied
assault, what had been a relatively small, conspiratorial organization
has mutated into a worldwide political movement, with thousands of
followers eager to adopt its methods and advance its aims. Call it
viral Al Qaeda, carried by strongly motivated next-generation followers
who download from the Internet's virtual training camp a perfectly
adequate trade-craft in terror. ... 'We have taken a ball of
quicksilver," says the counterinsurgency specialist John Arquilla, 'and
hit it with a hammer'."
Plus - Minus, 10.09.2005 (Poland)
Four years after the attacks of September 11th, Zbigniew Brzezinski the
former national security advisor to president Jimmy Carter writes, "The US
government replaced the communists with the Islamic terrorists as the
number one enemy. The real threat however lies in the Third World, in
the millions of frustrated people. Self-righteous America is the
ultimate object of hate for them." The world expects more of the USA
than just the military affirmation of its power. It is in its own
interests to look for allies to share the weight of responsibility for
improving the human race. "The sovereignty of the USA has to serve
something greater than its own security."
L'Espresso, 09.09.2005 (Italy)
The Pentagon is coming down strong on the blogs of soldiers in Irak, in
which they describe the trials of war, writes Alessandro Gilioli.
"Colby Buzzel, 28, first battalion, 23rd regiment, tried to write about
the battle for Mosul in August last year, in which he fought on the
front line. He provided all sorts of horrific details, admitted to having
shot civilians, and contested the number of deaths reported by CNN (who
gave the number as 12). Colby was ordered by the Pentagon to close the
blog until he was released from the army. Now he has started it again
and if you click on it you find an image which clearly illustrates the
opinion of the ex-soldier: Guernica, Picasso's painting of the massacre
during the Spanish Civil War."
The Spectator, 10.09.2005 (UK)
The Katrina catastrophe prompts the Spectator to ask on its front page:
"What's Wrong with America?" Walter Ellis summarises just how grim the
situation is. "For nearly half of the people of the United States,
these are hard times. The gap between the haves and have-nots has
widened to almost Third World dimensions over the past 30 years. The
rich and successful have flourished, but the middle classes are in
trouble, saddled with debt and uncertainty (to say nothing of college
fees), while many Hispanics barely scrape a living. Factories have been
closing at an alarming rate, with much of the slack being taken up by
China, whose power in the world America is only now beginning to
appreciate."
Der Spiegel, 12.09.2005 (Germany)
"After the poets, now the sociologists and historians are becoming the
puppets of the politicians." Matthias Matussek delivers
a melancholy
swansong for left-wing political critique. "To a great extent,
left-wing criticism has become reactionary. It either comments on Oscar
Lafontaine's pro-welfare rhetoric or not at all. Left-wing visions no
longer promote culture, probably because they've needed such constant
revision. Who's going to hurl abuse at internationalism when they have
to fight globalisation to keep their job. Who is still enamoured with
multiculturalism when in the Muslim ghettos of western capitals, women
are being beaten up and bombs constructed? Yes, and who's not sick to
the teeth of the whole self-realisation circus of the sexes when the
shattered remains of the family and abandoned children brutalize
society? The time, says Hamlet, is out of joint."
Gazeta Wyborcza, 10.09.2005 (Poland)
Commenting on the heated discussion in Poland over the mistakes committed after 1989 and the demands for a "moral revolution", Adam Michnik paints a black picture of the power of blind masses.
In a long essay, he cites examples from history in which adrenalised
nationalistic and anti-Semitic masses ruined the lives of decent people
– whether in the Dreyfus Affair in France, the bating of Emile Zola or the hate campaign against the first Polish president Gabriel Narutowics,
who was shot by an artist in 1922, just after being elected. "It is
difficult, very difficult, to stand up against the aggression of the
masses. And it is very difficult to find a reply to the base, antidemocratic argumentation
that is lapped up so eagerly by the mob. But you have to resist, even
if it means showing solidarity for a losing cause. That is the lesson
learned by every Polish democrat in the 20th century."
Le Nouvel Observateur, 08.09.2005 (France)
John Updike's book of short stories "Licks of Love" has just appeared in French, and the Nouvel Obs asks him in an interview whether he believes writers are a dying breed.
"Writers, as I understand them, are professionals who work in
meditative solitude to create a product that is sold to an interested
readership, and who strive to think subtly and express themselves well.
This type of writer, who can approach almost any subject, is becoming
increasingly rare. The term 'writer' is fading in the electronic age,
where the market's appetite for the written word has abated... The
desire to read hasn't entirely disappeared, because the printed word
offers escapism and enlightenment second to none. But what is
new, what in earlier times was printed in newspapers, is now threatened –
like poetry – with being shunted onto a side track in a specialised
province, which is basically only frequented by self-proclaimed
writers."
The Economist, 09.09.2005 (UK)
The Economist dedicates a dossier to the quality of university education in a time of steadily rising enrolments. The magazine writes in bitter terms that teaching quality in the former academic citadels of Europe has suffered considerably. In a list of international universities
put out by the University of Shanghai, only Oxford and Cambridge ranked
among the top 20. "To grasp the full absurdity of this ambition, it is
worth visiting the Humboldt University in Berlin. Walk into the
main foyer, stroll up the steps to the first floor past a slogan by a
former student engraved in gold on the wall ("Philosophers have simply
interpreted the world; the point is to change it") and study the portraits of the Nobel prize-winners
that line the walls. There were eight in 1900-09, six in 1910-19, four
in 1920-29, six in 1930-39, one in 1940-49 and four in 1950-56. The
roll of honour includes luminaries such as Theodor Mommsen, Max Planck,
Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg. But after 1956 the Nobel prizes suddenly stop."
The Guardian, 10.09.2005 (UK)
Austrian author Murray Bail attempts to understand what distinguishes European from Anglo-Saxon novels. The Europeans, including the Russians, love to generalise. "Another attraction of European, including Russian, writers: they are not afraid of the bold assertion.
So bold and distinctive are these assertions, it's enough to send timid
and ordinary minds rushing for the exits. 'Oh, that's a
generalisation.' What then is to be said of the first sentence of Anna Karenina?
'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its
own way.' Surely it's little more than a 'generalisation'. Timid
readers, timid thinkers are more comfortable when bold and distinctive
minds are lowered to more digestible levels - via the refuge of relativism."
Merkur, 01.09.2005 (Germany)
This year the September/October issue is dedicated to reality and realism in philosophy, politics and culture. After years of deconstructive melancholy, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht identifies a new longing for substantiality:
"'Substantiality' also, and above all, stands for a (not just
psychical) warmth, for density and perhaps also for the incalculability
of life, which can never be reduced entirely to the performance of
consciousness."
Die Weltwoche, 09.09.2005 (Switzerland)
The cover of this week's Weltwoche boasts the title: "All about Germany". Bruno Ziauddin travels first class through the Federal Republic on the high-speed ICE train, to find a (Swiss) answer
to the question: Are the Germans really doing so badly? No sooner does
the train start through the Allgäu Region in south-western Bavaria than
he exclaims: "Here everything looks as perfect as in a Heidi film.
Everyone's well-off. Hardly a house hasn't been renovated, the
limousine quotient is considerably higher than in Switzerland, not to
mention elsewhere in Europe. And with its high-tech equipment, roomy,
wood-trimmed toilets and friendly stewards who bring a tray with tomato
juice to your seat, the ICE is like a four-star hotel. Can a country that can afford trains like this really be in crisis?"
Outlook India, 19.09.2005 (India)
"Adoor Gopalakrishnan
lives very much in the present, crafts exquisite cinematic essays about
the past and is assured of a permanent place in Indian cinema's
future." And he is the first filmmaker from Kerala to be given the
renowned Dadasahed Phalke Award by the Indian government, very much to the delight
of film critic Saibal Chatterjee. Despite the European influence in his
works, writes Chatterjee, "it became clear quickly enough that he was too distinctive a filmmaker to build his career on borrowed ideas and styles.... All his films hinge on adroit psychological probing rather than on sweeping dramatic thrusts."
RSS
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. 
The New Left Review introduces China's most influential intellectual magazine, Dushu. Outlook India would be embarrassed to be embarrassed by the Dalai Lama. "Generation 1,000 Euro" has made into Italian cinemas, Caffe Europa reports. In Nepszabadsag, philosopher Gaspar Miklos Tama declares an end to the days of anti-Semitic journalism. Folio is bowled over by the musical compositions of electronic engineer William Sethares. The New York Times is transported back to the founding of Liberia. And Vanity Fair picks apart Monsanto.
In the Blätter Jürgen Habermas joins the debate launched by signandsight.com and Perlentaucher about Islam in Europe. Merkur reveals how Adorno pinned his hopes on the Nazis and had them dashed. In La vie des idees philospher Philippe Lacour celebrates the true DJ of digital knowledge. In Literaturen Micha Brumlik reviews the new Carl Schmitt biography by Christian Lindner. Nepszabadsag takes the pulse of the unconscious body of Hungary. In Edge.org evolutionary biologist Iain Couzin explains the importance of one mormon cricket wanting to bite another in the rear. And New Republic puts its favourite Democrat on the cover.
Le debat explains why the press is on its way out. The New York Times is starting to look like the next victim of a hostile takeover by Murdoch, fears Howell Raines in Portfolio. The New Yorker sees the end in sight for the entire American newspaper industry. ResetDoc examines the role of immigrants in the Italian election campaign. In Europa, Leszek Kolakowski philosophises on success. Aharon Applefeld tells Rue89 what he will be writing about when he turns 268. And Die Weltwoche asks whether anyone in German literature is still taking risks.
Vanity Fair exposes a scandalously covert, Bush-approved operation in the Middle East. In the NYRB, Nicholson Baker extols the virtues of the Wiki vandal. Edwy Plenel announces the launch of a new independent online paper Mediapart. L'Espresso sniffs out the diabolicalness of cheese. Expert Sibir sounds out the Siberian art market. And the Economist inspects the tumorous bureaucracy in the belly of the tiger.
The London Review of Books is concerned about second-hand journalism in Britain. Prospect fills us in on the Chinese intellectual scene. Al Ahram explains why Egyptians prefer their flags made in China. Caffe Europa asks: where was Tariq Ramadan when Milan Kundera's book was banned at the Cairo Book Fair. And Gazeta Wyborcza examines the self-confidence of the Polish worker.
A healthy selection this week! Nigerian women should be punished, because they've only got oil on the brain, The Atlantic discovers. Nepszabadsag is amazed: Jan T. Gross has avoided offending the Turkishness of the Poles by the skin of his teeth. Columbian Hector Abad Faciolince sees the human face of Swiss conservatism. The precariat is today's working class, Telerama announces. Al Ahram introduces the first beauty salon for veiled women. And Denis Johnson discovers Paul Wolfowitz's wet dream in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The New York Review of Books sees the future of America in a Harlem hairdressers. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Serbian historian Slavenko Terzic declares Kosovo's independence illegal. The London Review of Books considers the links between Modernism and liberalism, or the lack thereof. In the Novel Obs, Edgar Morin explains how he became a radical anti-Stalinist. Zanan is dead, long live Zanan! cries Al Ahram. The New York Times portrays the Turkish-Kurdish politician Abdullah Demirbas who wanted to ease the pressure on the Kurds and Armenians to assimilate in Turkey.
Why do Germans like Nicolas Gomez Davila, asks Semana. Le Monde diplomatique goes on a cruise with some Park Avenue ladies. The Spectator buries Venice. Nepszabadsag looks for real Hungarian liberal democrats. In Edge.org, Kevin Kelly looks to the future of the culture industry in the internet. And Portfolio has seen the nemesis of the culture industry in the internet.
The Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik warns about Google the monster snoop. Merkur has a transcendental experience with Gerhard Richter and Swarovski. Prospect worries about traditional book reviewing. In Nepszabadsag, historian Dusan Kovac looks into the likelihood of Hungarian-Slovakian reconciliation. And the New Statesman searches for the mild Anglican God.