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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The Guardian | L'Express | Outlook India | Die Weltwoche | Merkur | Der Spiegel | Literaturen | Elsevier | The New York Times Book Review | Gazeta Wyborcza | The Economist | Al Ahram Weekly | The New Yorker
The Guardian, 29.04.2006 (UK)
To mark the announcement of the shortlist for the Orange Prize for women's fiction, The Guardian asked women writers to describe their favourite pictures of women reading. A.L Kennedy chose Theodore Roussel's "The Reading Girl"
(1886-87): "You shouldn't risk reading naked. You don't want someone
else's words getting on your skin, lodged in those little crannies
where they'll stick and pray on your mind, your sense. Certainly, don't
get your naked self mixed up with a second-hand book - all those
strangers' fingers touching the pages before you. Worse still would be
a book that you've been given - known fingers on your pages. Even worse
would be a letter. But this girl wants risk. Why else read as if she'd
like a broken neck? It's tricky enough to read and write at all - our
bodies evolving more slowly than our minds and still designed for
action, tree swinging, sex - our heads are heavy, dangerous if held in
place. Do you have any idea what she's doing to her cervical vertebrae?
Her trapezius, her levator anguli scapulae, her splenius and scaleni
muscles, they're all screwed and you can bet she has a bitch of a
headache."
L'Express, 27.04.2006 (France)
The
philosopher Tzvetan Todorov has put together an exhibition for the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris about the Enlightenment - "Lumieres! Un
heritage pour demain" – which showcases, among other things, an
original edition of Kant's "The Critique of Judgement". Eric Conan
marks the occasion with an essay outlining some of the key considerations of the
Enlightenment which, says Todorov, have come under threat since
9/11. Unlike the protagonists of the Enlightenment who knew how to
recognise their enemies, Europe believes: "It is enough to assert that
one has no enemies, for them to disappear. The texts and letters by the
champions of the Enlightenment testify to their anxiety and alertness
towards anything that went against their convictions. The real weakness
of European societies, who live with this legacy, is that they
regularly project their own vested values (negotiation, liberation,
rationality and democracy) onto those who negate them. Whether this
means the politics of conciliation against Nazism or of pacifism against
the Soviet Bloc, the tendency to be blind in the face of the reality or
towards the threat of the enemy, seems to produce the opposite of
European self-confidence, which consists of a combination of universal
arrogance and naive thoughtlessness."
Outlook India, 08.05.2006 (India) 
As "Midnight's Children" celebrates its 25th
anniversary, Salman Rushdie recalls its long and painful birth - and
the day Indira Gandhi tried (unsuccessfully) to sue him for one sentence
she claimed was defamatory about her relationship with her son. "The
only defence we had was a high-risk route: we would have had to argue
that her actions during the Emergency were so heinous that she could no
longer be considered a person of good character, and could therefore
not be defamed. In other words, we would have had, in effect, to put
her on trial for her misdeeds. But if, in the end, a British court
refused to accept that the Prime Minister of India was not a woman of
good character, then we would be, not to put too fine a point upon it,
royally screwed."
Die Weltwoche, 27.04.2006 (Switzerland)
In an interview with Andre Müller, Salman
Rushdie explains why he'd rather be a sex symbol than a symbol in the
clash of cultures, and why despite this he believes it would be
mistaken to surrender in the battle for freedom of expression – like in
the Muhammed cartoons case. "You have to make a clear distinction
between expressing an opinion and defamation. In free societies it is
my good right, to express my opinion about a religion or a person. When
I say, you are an idiot,
you have to cope with it. When, however, I
say, you are a murderer, although you are not, you can take me to
court. There was a famous case in England where a newspaper wrote that
the actress Charlotte Cornwell, the sister of John le Carre, had a big
arse. She sued the paper and lost. Because there can be different
perspectives about the size of an arse."
Merkur, 01.05.2006 (Germany)
Wolfgang Fuhrmann
turns his thoughts to the "hopeless and forlorn" state of new music:
the discrepancy between the mental, musical, not to mention financial
effort that goes into a premiere and the resonance that it finds with
the audience is grotesque and would be intolerable had we not grown
accustomed to it over a period of decades." Fuhrmann believes that new
music has overly distanced itself from the listener – become too
specialised – to such an extent that the listener now has barely any
chance of being let in. "If new music even wants to reach an audience,
it has to start making forays into spaces of experience and feeling
that open into the world in which we live. There are plenty of them."
Der Spiegel, 01.05.2006 (Germany)
Sociologist Ralf Dahrendorf explains to Erich
Follath and Hans-Jürgen Schlamp why he finds all the talk of a clash of
cultures so abhorrent and why the current conflicts do not indicate an
increase in self-confidence in the Islamic world. "If you were to offer
American visas to a crowd of 10,000 demonstrators who are raging
against the USA somewhere or another, they would all come running. We
are dealing with a part of the world which has not really progressed in
recent years – unlike India and China, say. Which is why there are
plenty of people there whose frustration can be exploited. This is not
a clash of cultures."
Literaturen, 01.05.02 (Germany)
"Freud didn't invent psychoanalysis; women did", proclaims Manfred Schneider in the
current edition of Literaturen, which nonetheless focusses on Sigmund
Freud's 150th birthday. "Psychoanalysis seems to be little more than
the result of letting women talk about everything that goes through
their heads, and so extensively, successfully and even
lucratively that it became a worldwide movement. Those eternally
feminine 'Oohs and Ahs' that Goethe's Mephistopheles explained to the
confused student can no longer be 'cured thousandfold at a single point', but
are channelled, filtered and conducted off. Of course hoards of men have
laid on the couch to have themselves healed of fears, compulsions,
madnesses and perversions, but men cannot be cured just by letting them
talk. No catharthis flows from all their faltering and associating.
They are certainly not going to let the secret be ripped from them as
to why Nature wanted them in the first place."
Elsevier, 26.04.2006 (Netherlands)
"Beat Bin Laden – fill your tank with ethanol!" writes Leon de Winter. The Dutch writer fulminates in his weblog against his country's energy policy, warning: "In their visions of the upcoming fight against the West, both the radical Iranian mullahs and the Al-Qaida leaders are pinning their hopes on the weapon of oil. Thanks to its nuclear programme, Iran will soon be in a position to put this weapon to use. Protected by the atomic mushroom, the country will be able to dominate the entire Gulf Region – which like Iran has a Shiite majority – and so control the flow of oil to the West. And on top of that, the danger now presented by Iran is being funded by Western oil imports." De Winter calls on Europe to increase funding for alternate energy sources: "If the EU needs a reason to exist, it should look for it in the energy sector."
The New York Times Book Review, 30.04.2006 (USA)
Walter Kirn is very taken by Gary Shteyngart's novel "Absurdistan", about a young exiled oligarch who is prevented from emigrating to America by the St. Petersburg authorities: "Shteyngart and his hero Misha, exuberant depressives, don't stint on the syntax or the verbiage when objects huge and rotten hulk into view. Their thick, overloaded style is what happens, though, when socialist realism decays into black comedy. This is the prose of heroic disappointment, faintly labored at moments but fitted to the task of shoveling up mountains of cultural debris. Hemingway's clean sentences wouldn't do here. A man needs commas, semicolons, adjectives. He requires linguistic heavy machinery."
Gazeta Wyborcza, 29.04.2006 (Poland)
Jacek Pawlicki analyses the state of things two years after the European expansion, coming to the conclusion: "The major expansion of 2004 was Europe's last courageous step. The next will be long in coming. In its third year of membership, Poland must in turn do all it can to prove to doubters that membership is worth it. Somehow or other Poland will get by in the EU. But for a country of its size, 'somehow or other' is too little. We must actively cooperate in shaping European policy, instead of just sticking out our hands for money."
The Economist, 28.04.2006 (UK)
The Economist tells the story of the late South Korean film director Shin Sang-Ok, who was abducted to North Korea to shoot non-propagandistic films for the "Dear Leader". "Mr Kim was worried that films produced in decadent, capitalist South Korea were better than those produced in the North. Perceptively, he explained to Mr Shin that this was because North Korean film workers knew the state would feed them regardless of the quality of their output. In the South, by contrast, actors and directors had to sweat to make films the public would pay to see. Mr Kim wasn't saying that there was anything wrong with socialism, of course, but he gave Mr Shin millions of dollars, a fancy marble-lined office and more artistic freedom than any North Korean director had ever enjoyed before."
Al Ahram Weekly, 27.04.2006 (Egypt)
Political scientist Sharif Elmusa imagines a Palestine in the pre-1922 borders, a tri-ethnic Greater Palestine for Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians initiated above all by Palestinians: "The vision of a single state in Greater Palestine could only come to fruition through Palestinian mass mobilisation. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) needs to reconstitute itself as a non-corrupt Palestine Reunification Organisation (PRO). The PLO, even though it had earned the support of the majority of Palestinians, was never able to harness Palestinian energies." In Elmusa's view, "Israel needs to choose between demographic advantage and state size; to insist on having both is to invite strife."
The New Yorker, 08.05.2006 (USA)
In an essay that is as funny as it is ambiguous, David Sedaris reflects on gifts, which in his case can become "memento mori" that follow him around. "For the past ten years or so, I’ve made it a habit to carry a small notebook in my front pocket. The model I favour is called the Europa, and I pull it out an average of ten times a day, jotting down grocery lists, observations, and little thoughts on how to make money, or torment people. The last page is always reserved for phone numbers, and the second to last I use for gift ideas. These are not things I might give to other people, but things that they might give to me: a shoehorn, for instance—always wanted one. The same goes for a pencil case, which, on the low end, probably costs no more than a doughnut. I’ve also got ideas in the five-hundred-to-two-thousand-dollar range, though those tend to be more specific."
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.