Monday, 18 July, 2005

Monday's papers are naturally full of Mr Harry Potter.

The general consensus on the "Half-Blood Prince" seems to be, in the words of Carmen Böker of Berliner Zeitung, that the book is little more than an "hors d'oevre to the twilight of the gods".

In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Thomas Steinfeld finds the sixth Harry Potter so disjointed because the "parallelogram" of fictional time and real time "has become so contorted. The lion's share of the book consists of functional and narrative preparations for the finale, the seventh book. It is a long, an overly long exertion, a supplementary book that has come off the rails, interrupted almost solely by the gropings, snoggings and jealous trifles of pubescent youth."


Frankfurter Rundschau, 18.07.2005

Ruth Spietschka is worried about the effect mega-bestsellers like Harry Potter are having on the German literary landscape: "The Pope and Harry Potter will bring in for major profits this year. But these figures hide a fatal development: fewer and fewer titles account for a bigger and bigger share of revenues, so the gap between bestsellers and other titles is steadily increasing. In fiction, the situation is dramatic. Authors that have been able to achieve small to mid-sized editions with between 3,000 and 8,000 copies now reach only half that. And that changes all previous cost calculations: there is now more pressure than ever to produce best-sellers, because a growing number of titles do not cover their own costs. What the book sector refers to as the 'midlist problem' could significantly change the literary landscape." For Spietschka the consequences are all too clear: "Even the most promising small publishers will scarcely be able to make up for the impending loss in quality."


Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18.07.2005

In an interview with Marc Zitzmann, French director Claude Regy proves to be a right old grouch: "I have a problem with French theatre. And with French culture in general, with the 'esprit francais'. I hate the 'Gauloiserie', the patriotism and the food – saucisson and cassoulet... I find it all extremely hard to bear."


Saturday, 16 July, 2005

Die Welt, 16.07.2005

In an article on Wolfgang Kraushaar's new book on "Die Bombe im Jüdischen Gemeindehaus" (the bomb in Berlin's Jewish Community Centre) Götz Aly asks himself and the revolutionaries of 68 why the striking anti-Semitism of Dieter Kunzelmann, the brains behind the failed attempt to explode the building on 9 November 1969 (more here) could have been so suppressed. Everybody knew Kunzelmann's articles in the underground paper "Agit 883", (see example) the call to arms in the "struggle against the holy cow Israel" and other such things. "Anyone who has had the pleasure of going to any of the 60th birthday parties of these one-time protest friends will have heard copious references to a youth spent in heroic struggle, not like today's oh so apathetic youngsters. The party throwers love to tell themselves fairytales of their socially-committed revolution, of fighting for the weak and worldwide justice and general progress which, they say, has had such a positive influence on the climate of the Federal Republic. These lies have at last been exposed for what they are. The German 68ers were woefully similar to their parents."


Frankfurter Rundschau, 16.07.2005

Jörg Hunke and Thomas Wolffe talk with painter Markus Lüpertz in the paper's weekend magazine. Asked whether the SPD-Green Party coalition which has governed Germany for the last seven years has left behind major artworks, Lüpertz answers: "The paintings in the Reichstag. The grandiose works by Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter – those are artists with an extraordinarily clear stance, and they make all the difference. In the era of Helmut Kohl, the previous chancellor, all we saw was pompous pieta. Nowadays there's an exchange among great artists. You mustn't forget that the world's foremost painters in this era, right up until today, are German. Think of Anselm Kiefer, Baselitz, Richter, Polke, Jörg Immendorf and Lüpertz. That's a generation that's still going strong."


die tageszeitung, 16.07.2005

Klaus Hillenbrand looks back on the history of the luxurious Taurus Express, that once connected with the Orient Express to bring affluent Westerners to Asia Minor. Now called the Toros Express, the train has not lost all of its original charm, writes Hillenbrand. "The Taurus Express started up in 1930, and was the first luxury train in Asia Minor. The trip was a real adventure, passing through the Taurus Mountains between Konya and Adana on a route that had been installed just twelve years earlier. Financial and technical problems had caused the rail construction to be delayed. 'No toilets on board', warned the Baedeker travel guide in 1914 about a trip on a recently finished section of the line."