There is hardly a theatrical profession that has recently been so fostered, celebrated, loaded with prizes and grants as young dramatists....
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The New York Review of Books | L'Espresso | Elet es Irodalom | The Spectator | Gazeta Wyborcza | Le Figaro | Plus - Minus | Nepszabadsag | Le Monde diplomatique | The Economist | Le point | The New York Times Book Review
The New York Review of Books, 06.10.2005 (USA)
In view of the political
centrifugal forces in Iraq, former diplomat Peter W. Galbraith is hoping that the constitution will be accepted by all of the
population. " A few Shi'ite groups of liberal and secular
orientation are already talking of a Sh'ite nationalism – as though
they were an ethnic and not a religious community. They see Iraq as a
collapsed state and don't want to spend their lives fighting an
endless revolt in the middle of the country. If the current
constitution is rejected, there will not be a further one. And a
further government with a one year mandate will not be in a position
to take on Iraq's political, economic and security problem. Despite
all its flaws, the current constitution is the last chance to hold
Iraq together. The alternative is not a more centralised state, but
rather disintegration and chaos."
L'Espresso, 22.09.2005 (Italy)
Andrzej Stasiuk is on
holiday in Montenegro, in chaotic Budva, which represents for him the
epitome of modernity. "The summer holidays in Budva are like a
carnival in hell. Especially evenings, when the beach promenade
starts being convulsed by deadly mechanical music. In dozens of
little shops, sausages, skewers and cevapcici are thrown on the
grill. The smoke of wood fire hangs in the air. It's a party of a
poor people who, until recently, were only able to eat meat a few
days a year, it's a celebration of excess, a summer funfair. Between
the stands are parked cars, in front of which stand sun-glassed men:
BMWs and Mercedes, the longest and biggest models. The further the
state coaches push into the crowds, the more shamelessly one is
shoved aside by the onlookers."
Leo Sisti writes in the
title story a requiem for Naples. The population is impoverished, the
Camorra flourishes and thousands of disillusioned youth terrorise fellow
citizens, tourists and themselves. "In August, the in thing is
jumping from the hydrofoil. The target of the 13 -14 year olds are
the boats that put down from Merfelina to Ischia and Capri. As the
boat is docking, they throw themselves from a platform into the
water, forcing the boat to maneuver itself dangerously. And more.
Some walk crazily over the deck in order to fall from it into the
ocean: seven or eight meters of adrenaline."
Elet es Irodalom, 19.09.2005 (Hungary)
Essayist György
Petöcz summarises the attempts by Budapest intellectuals to
rescue the city's historic Jewish quarter. In the new city plans, a
row of historic tenements should give way to a new boulevard: "Here,
in the centre of the Elizabeth quarter, is where the 'real' Budapest
was born – the world of modern, cosmopolitan throngs and
encounters, the birthplace of the petty traders of Pest, the literary
coffee houses and cabarets, the home of many theaters and
publications, a mix of bourgeois wealth and petty bourgeois poverty,
of urban and village life – little pockets of the rural in the round residential courtyards, a magical collection of the West and the Balkans."
The Spectator, 17.09.2005 (U.K.)
Mark Steyn feels that the UN is so
corrupt that a reform would be pointless. "What’s important to
understand is that Mr Annan’s ramshackle UN of humanitarian
money-launderers, peacekeeper-rapists and a human rights commission
that looks like a lifetime-achievement awards ceremony for the
world’s torturers is not a momentary aberration. Nor can it be
corrected by bureaucratic reforms designed to ensure that the failed
budget oversight committee will henceforth be policed by a budget
oversight committee oversight committee."
Gazeta Wyborcza, 17.09.2005 (Poland)
In fact it doesn't matter how the elections in Germany are decided, because "the problem is the people", writes publicist Danuta Zagrodzka. "The economy is not the main problem – it is functioning relatively well. The problem is the society, which shifts all the blame onto the chancellor. With his inconsistent policies, he contributed to the Germans not having understood what the times demand of them." Even the much-touted Swedish example will not be of much help to Germany in its reforms, writes Zagrodzka. "The Germans are not as obedient as the Swedes, the chances of Germany making a breakthrough in its reforms are slim."
Le Figaro, 15.09.2005 (France)
The debate around psychoanalysis,
whose representatives have considerably more influence on public debate
in France than in Germany, has been rekindled with a newly published
"black book". "Le Livre noir de la psychanalyse" is counting its victims, writes
Paul Francois Paoli. "How many dead? That is the question that occurs
to me when I read the book, which promises to spark off a major debate,
and a scandal as well... but which is nonetheless
disappointing. The title alone is provocative, as is the perspective of
considering psychoanalysis as a major scourge of the 20th century, along with Stalinism and colonialism." The confrontation with Sigmund Freud
is also somewhat suspect, writes Paoli. The book maintains that Freud
"did not think", he was "naive", and stole other people's ideas. "And
on top of things he was a wheeler-dealer. After he realised that his
method would make him rich and famous, he excluded his competitors, persecuted Jung and Adler, and domesticated Ernst Jones and Ferenczi. A monster, this Freud! (...) The book presumably contains one or two undisputed truths, but why all the exaggeration?"
Plus - Minus, 17.09.2005 (Poland)
On the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939, historian Pawel Wieczorkiewicz comments: "If people in Warsaw had known about the German-Soviet Pact, they would have capitulated right away. Then a war wouldn't have made any sense." Wieczorkiewicz writes that Poland was seen as a potential ally of the Third Reich right until March 1939, and only rejected this possibility with Poland's alliance with Great Britain. "The British and French knew about the Hitler-Stalin Pact, and intentionally let the Polish run straight to their doom to gain time for their own war preparations."
What turns an average man of letters into such a media star, wonders Grzegorz Dobiecki while conisdering French writer Michel Houellebecq, whose latest book "La possibilité d'une ile" ("The Possibility of an Island") has made major waves in the press. "The book is reminiscent of Houellebecq's previous novels, and doesn't really have anything new to it. Once more it's a critique of modern consumer society, and once more the author uses provocative language. He doesn't want to be a thinker, he wants to be a novelist, a narrator, a sort of Candide, but a very pessimistic one."
Nepszabadsag, 17.09.2005 (Hungary)
The German elections are over. The Hungarian elections will start soon. Hungarian EU parliamentarian Katalin Levai thinks Hungarian politicians should take German politicians as a model: "As a Hungarian citizen, I am mortified by the vainglory and incompetence of Hungarian politicians. As an intellectual, I am maddened by the intellectual indolence our politicians, the low level of political debate and the way the press chums up to the political elite. As an expert in social matters, I am incensed at the ignorance with which socio-political questions and equal opportunities are dealt with. As a European politician, I am chagrined by the widespread obtuseness in public life. As a woman, I am enraged by the sexist language which is still entirely taken for granted here. As someone who is eager to learn, I am grieved by the obstinacy with which the Hungarian political elite resists and blocks new values and lifestyles. Too bad we have too few politicians like Schröder and Merkel."
Le Monde diplomatique, 16.09.2005 (France / Germany)
In a very entertaining article, historian Karl Schlögel travels through the European archipelago, which is made up not of states and capital cities, but of islands of everyday experience. They include for example circling above Heathrow airport, tanking up on the highway, a visit to Gellert spa in Budapest, the Ikea on the Leningrad Chaussee, wandering dunes of plastic garbage and the port of Rotterdam: "All major European transport lines travel through Rotterdam, and from there they spread out all across Europe, above all up the Rhine. To the Ruhr Region, Cologne, Frankfurt, Strasbourg, Basel, Lyon, Marseille, Barcelona and Milan. Rotterdam is the final station of the 'blue banana', that high-energy, high-performance zone that is now one of Europe's major thoroughfares.... If things in Rotterdam came to a standstill, if the estuary mouth were to close even for a moment, the entire continent would writhe in convulsions, the highways would grind to a halt, the display panels on the stock markets would go crazy. The tempo of Europe is dictated in Rotterdam. Every piece of merchandise begins its journey to Europe there."
The Economist, 16.09.2005 (UK)
The Economist tells why the large telecommunication firms should break out in cold sweat in view of the inexorable rise of Internet Telefony software firm Skype (recently purchased by eBay). "Skype can add 150,000 users a day (its current rate) without spending anything on new equipment (users 'bring' their own computers and internet connections) or marketing (users invite each other). With no marginal cost, Skype can thus afford to maximise the number of its users, knowing that if only some of them start buying its fee-based services—such as SkypeOut, SkypeIn and voicemail – Skype will make money."
Le point, 15.09.2005 (France)
French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut has taught the history of thought at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris for twenty-seven years. Now he has published a volume with four series of lectures entitled "Nous autres, modernes" (Editions Ellipses). The magazine publishes excerpts from two of them, on the "Use of the World", and the question "Why schools should be conservative", dealing above all with the thinking of Hannah Arendt. "In her entire work, Hannah Arendt always insisted on the connection between the integration of the new and the preservation of the world. The schools, to the extent that they teach autonomy, seem to her to be the most holy element in this fragile alliance. 'Schools must be conservative in oder to preserve the new and the revolutionary in every child.' Emancipation is not possible if you simply ride the course of time, but only by taking the detour through the overarching sign of humanity, which can be read in the works of culture. As the masters of the Renaissance said, in Cicero's school you learn how to be yourself, not Cicero."
The New York Times Book Review, 18.09.2005 (USA)
Ted Widmer, director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, writes a letter from Istanbul in which he voices concern over the booming sales of the Turkish thriller "Metal Firtina" (metal Storm), about a war between the USA and Turkey in the year 2007. Turkey is an important ally of the US, but anti-American sentiment is running high: "A Turkish newspaper recently editorialized, 'At no period in Turkey's history has there been such antipathy toward the United States.' The American ambassador to Turkey reportedly had to find scientists to prove that last winter's Asian tsunami was not caused by an American nuclear explosion. (Then again, the cultural misunderstandings run both ways; 'The West Wing' recently portrayed Turkey as a country where women are beheaded for having sex with their fiancés.)"
James Traub writes a portrait for the New York Times Magazine of the NGO Bono, also known as the lead-singer of the group U2.
RSS
In Magyar Narancs Agnes Heller demands more civil courage of the Hungarians. Mohammed Ali Atassi explains in Qantara, why conservatives in Egypt see women as candy: either wrapped or covered in flies. Oliver Roy outlines in Resetdoc, why's there not so much as a hair's breadth between the Christian right and the secular left. In Magazin, the philosopher Ludwig Haslar tells the Swiss that if they want mediocrity today, they cannot expect the superman tomorrow. Jonathan Safran Foer tells Prospect why he neither wants a chicken in his bed nor on his plate. The NYT embarks on a human-flesh search and finds a kitten killer.
The New Yorker tells the story of how corrupt podiatrists almost brought down the US health system. In Polityka, the Kapuscinski biographer Artur Domoslawski explains how he thinks the legendary reporter should be read. In Tygodnik, Zygmunt Bauman calls for more understanding for Kapuscinski. Magyar Narancs celebrates the ban on Holocaust denial in Hungary. In Le Point, Jorge Semprun asks whether Claude Lanzmann is the only person who's allowed to talk about the Holocaust. Wired describes how Google learned how to tell the difference between a hot dog and a poached pooch.
In Eurozine, the Transylvanian-Hungarian-Armenian writer Kinga Kali tells the story of a "virgjinesha". Prospect celebrates the next art superstar, Argentinian painter Guillermo Kuitca. The Gazeta Wyborcza explains how young people use the web. The New Yorker sends out a message to the depressed: stay away from psychiatric literature. Outlook Indian learns to play Carnatic music online. The London Review swims with the salmon sages.
The Atlantic finds out why the Chinese are not enemy number one in cyberspace. Elet es Irodalom asks why no one in Hungary is interested in former informers. In New Statesman, Tariq Ramadan can't tell us what a moderate Muslim is. The Guardian hearkens to the ticking bomb in Emily Dickinson's bosom and links it to the shards of crockery on the floor. And if it can't smoke, El Pais Semanal wants everything painted black.
In Prospect, Tim Berners-Lee invites the world to play with the British government's data. England, not Nigeria belongs on the terrorist list, literary Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka informs The Daily Beast. In Rue 89, Beppe Grillo explains why Sarkozy is more dangerous than Berlusconi. In Tygodnik Powszechny, Stefan Chwin mourns for the Polish idealist. Polityka reveals where a Pole turns to when he's not allowed to marry. Olga Tokarczuk walks her Polish tangle around Amsterdam for Salon. And the Guardian thinks about Armenian women rubbing their soft breasts on a stone.
In Wired, Chris Anderson celebrates the next industrial revolution - taking place in garages near you. The Boston Globe serenades the camel - Nabati style. In El Pais Semenal, the sociologist Edgar Morin complains about European lethargy. Outlook India asks why the Australians hate the Indians. Odra and Tygodnik are still debating the impact of freedom on literature. In OpenDemocracy, Salome Zourabichvili mourns for the wilted petals of the rose revolution. In Prospect, Martin Amis divides the literary sheep from the goats, according to the pleasure principle. The NYT profiles a dyed-in-the-wool jihadist from Alabama.
Das Magazin reports on the dramatic increase in the number of pupils who have threatened to gun down their classmates. The Spectator warns City bankers about gun-wielding dominatrices in Switzerland. In Sinn und Form, Marc Fumaroli remembers the man whose name shall not be mentioned: Mario Praz. In the New Humanist, Laurie Taylor remembers the holy men who sexually abused him as a child. The Guardian asks why Theo von Doesburg slipped into avant garde oblivion. And in the NYRB, Garry Kasparov asks why computer chess programmers are so uninspired?
OpenDemocracy explains why a novel called "Paranoia" suddenly disappeared from Belarussian bookshops. Prospect fears that a ban on Islam4UK could undermine British democracy. The Gazeta Wyborcza explores Polish-Jewish relations. Le Monde diplomatique watches the carving up of Africa. In El Pais Semanal, maths whizz Marcus du Sautoy explains the sex appeal of suduko. And Gerhard Richter manages to surprise the Nation.
The New Yorker buries itself in the Arab novel. In Le Monde, Bernard-Henri Levy heaps scorn on the state-run caricature of a debate. Qantara points to the person responsible for all the misery in the Arab world: Daddy. In L'Espresso, Umberto Eco takes a pin to the overblown daily paper. The Nation has earmarked 30 billion dollars to save journalism. In Tygodnik Powszechny, the writer Wojciech Albinski explains what makes Poland exotic. And the Spectator waves a tear-stained old hanky as shabby chic fades into the past.
In Merkur, art historian Wolfgang Ullrich defines a new type of artist: the contractor. In Nepszabadsag, writer Peter Nadas considers the crisis in Hungary and how it might end. In NouvelObs, Francis Ford Coppola explains why DVDs should be free. Eurozine introduces Lithuanian literature. In the New York Review of Books, Wyatt Manson asks why Pleiade is omitting Celine's anti-Semitic trilogy from the collected works. In Express, Philippe Gavi reminds us that Mohammed was not a crazed killer. A Californian marvels in NZZ Folio, at the reincarnation of an Indian factory worker. And confronted with the recent proliferation of literary cuddling, the New York Times yearns for a bit of Philip Roth.
Wired tracks James Cameron's 32-year quest to out-Lucas Lucas. In Nouvel Obs, Alain Finkielkraut and Alain Badiou tear each other apart over immigration and national identity. Tygodnik Powszechny introduces the pioneering artist Miroslaw Balka. Andras Bozoki asks why Hungarians are undermining democracy. In The New Statesman, Leo McKinstry explains why the bombing of Coventry was an inspiration to the British Air Staff.
Vanity Fair goes in search of a superpartner. Elet es Irodalom reads a new collection of essays by Imre Keresz. Outlook India complains about journalistic corruption. The New Yorker reads a new Koestler biography. Nepszabadsag foresees the next French revolution. Rue89 wonders about the provenance of prawns. And in the New Republic, Moshe Halberthal celebrates the sublime humility of Amartya Sen.
In Wilson Quarterly, the economist Tyler Cowen sings an ode to multitasking. Prospect has seen the monsters of the left. The Boston Globe follows James C. Scott to the new Shangri-La in the mountains of Tibet. Weltwoche is up in arms about the criticism of Switzerland's anti-minaret vote. In the Novel Obs, Pierre Nora applies his mind to the bestseller. New Criterion knows why the Pop art bubble won't pop. NZZ Folio examines the chicken nugget. Al Ahram asks what political Islam wants. The Walrus mourns for the first victim of the C-58. In Resetdoc, Joseph Massad explains why Arab homosexuals are an invention of the West.
Slovenian poet Ales Debeljak argues for a fusion of cultures in Eurozine. Umberto Eco agrees in Le Monde. The Nation portrays the Salvadorian author Horacio Castellanos Moya, who himself explains in Babelia why 200 years after independence there's nothing to celebrate in a number of Latin American countries. Polityka lies Poland down on the couch. La vie des idees reads a book on Jews and the resistance in France. Americans read more than Europeans, writes historian Peter Baldwin in Merkur. And in The New York Review of Books Robert Darnton makes two bold proposals for a new Book Settlement.
The New Yorker searches for the ultimate difference between male and female. Elet es Irodalom comments on the Imre Kertesz interview in die Welt. Prospect assesses the development of Swedish crime writing. Walrus finds out from the conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin why it's sometimes necessary to get a little rough with the score. In Polityka, the historian Jerzy W.Borejsza remembers the assimilators, accommodators and collaborators in Poland's history. In the Guardian, Zadie Smith defends the novel against the essay.