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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Polytika announces the end of the Third Republic in Poland. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Timothy Garton Ash wishes German president Horst Köhler would call new elections. Magyar Hirlap hopes the Germans will become worse off than they are - so they'll come back to the one-star camping grounds on the Plattensee. Prospect celebrates the statistical superiority of Anglo-American intellectuals in the world while The New Criterion finds British intellectuals somewhat mediocre. Outlook India learns about the role of the KGB in India. In Der Spiegel, Andre Glucksmann talks about hate. Reportajes explains what's special about poverty in the USA. Le Figaro honours Hannah Arendt and the New York Times fears democracy Turkish-style.
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In the New York Review of Books, Peter Galbraith calls the Iraq constitution the last chance for peace. In Espresso, Andrzej Stasiuk describes his holiday in Montenegrin Budva. The Spectator declares the UN to be corrupt beyond redemption. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the Germans are too disobedient for Swedish-style reforms. Nepszabadsag sings praises of German politicians. Historian Karl Schlögel travels through the European archipelago for Le Monde diplomatique. In Le Point, Alain Finkielkraut takes on Hannah Arendt. The Figaro looks at a black book of psychoanalysis. The New York Times Magazine offers a portrait of the NGO Bono.
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The New York Times Magazine fears that the war on terror has strengthened al-Qaeda. The Spectator bemoans the Third-World conditions in the USA. L'Espresso reports on soldiers' blogs in Iraq. The Spiegel exposes the vision of the Left as reactionary. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik takes a stand against the blinded masses. The Economist looks for Nobel Prize winners in German universities. In the Nouvel Obs, John Updike mourns the dying species of writers. The Guardian explains the difference between continental and British literature. And Outlook India sings the praises of film essayist Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
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The New Yorker attests to weak stamina on the part of George W. Bush in the wake of events in New Orleans, while Gilles Kepel attests to spiritual poverty on the part of Jihad ideologues' in the Nouvel Obs. The New Yorker holds suicide attackers for intelligent weapons. Zadie Smith tells in The Guardian how as a teenager, she preferred toking alone at home to popping ecstasy at parties. L'Espresso travels to Gaza, and Al Ahram depicts the waning influence of Al Azhar University in Cairo. Polityka sees new life in the spirit of socialist resistance in Warsaw, and György Konrad writes in Magyar Hirlap that freedom makes you beautiful.
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In Die Weltwoche, Abu Mussab al-Sarkawi answers criticsms by his former mentor about beheadings and kidnappings committed by his terror organisation. Literaturen talks with Michel Houellebecq about death, and the Nouvel Obs talks with him about his sympathies for the Rael sect. György Szerbhorvath comments in Litera on Andrzej Stasiuk's recent story on the writers' conference in Belgrad. L'Espresso calls China the bright light of the new economy. For Adam Michnik writing in the Gazeta Wyborcza, hurt and frustration abound on the 25th anniversary of Solidarnosc. And Al Ahram succumbs to the poetry of Gerard de Nerval.
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The French pan Michel Houellebecq's new novel while the Germans are delighted – at least until now. The Economist tweaks the new muscles of the German economy. Outlook India asks if cultural humiliation is the reason for suicide attacks, and Al-Ahram says nonsense. The Spectator castigates an alliance between Islamic fundamentalists and Western Marxists. Andrzej Stasiuk reports in Tygodnik Powszechny from Europe's black hole. In the ES Magazine, writer Yann Martel reflects on the question of identity.
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In Outlook India, Sunil Khilnani tries to re-write the history of Indian Partition. In Reason, Salman Rushdie explains what it is in Islam that he can't bring himself to appreciate. In the Hungarian magazine 2000, Laszlo Krasznahorkai tells how the euphoria he felt in China died when he went to a Hungarian miner's ball. The Guardian is looking for talented English language writers in India. In Le Monde diplomatique, Jan Philipp Reemtsma explains what Islamists and Johannes Paul II have in common. And the Nouvel Obs celebrates the chefs of Generation C.
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Andrzej Stasiuk reports in L'Espresso from a slightly spine-chilling literary congress in Belgrade. Al-Ahram describes political stagnation in Saudi Arabia. Weltwoche finds films and images from the Iraq War on an amateur porn site. In the Gazeta Wyborcza, Ryszard Kapuscinski diagnoses the dethroning of Europe. In the Guardian, Blake Morrison praises a dying breed: the editor. Adam Krzeminski looks back on the Potsdam Conference in Polityka. Folio takes a new look at laddism and the New York Times visits an irascible as ever V.S. Naipaul.
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In Merkur, Walter Laqueur describes grey-haired Europe of 2050. In the London Review of Books, Eric Hobsbawm investigates the most sexually active people of the Western world. The ES Magazine recalls the fathers of the atomic bomb - almost all of them Hungarian. Prospect and Gazeta Wyborcza summarize the days of Red-Green. In the Nouvel Obs, historian Elikia M'Bokolo defends Africans against ethnicism. In Polityka, Jeremy Rifkins announces the era of hydrogen cells. The Spectator defends dropping the bomb on Hiroshima. New Republic fears the conservatism of the Republicans.
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In the New York Review of Books, Peter W. Galbraith worries that the Schiites could take over Iraq - democratically. The Spectator celebrates the Greatness of Britain. Polityka fears that Anti-Islamism could become the new Anti-Semitism. Al-Ahram presents two new books on Al-Jazeera. In Nepszabadsag, Peter Bartok explains why Duke Blaubart doesn't need to have any more than three wives. In The Guardian, Jane Stevenson talks about her experiences in the biggest men's club of the world. And the New York Times visits an old age home for laboratory chimps.
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In Espresso, Umberto Eco explains how Catholic priests protect their religion from fundamentalism. Outlook India explains to the Brits why there is so such thing as British Asians. In Spiegel, Ian McEwan gets annoyed about the egocentricity of the anti-Iraq demonstrators. The Spectator highlights the communist career of the Albanian writer Ismail Kadare. In the Novel Obs, ethnologist Philippe Descola explains what we can learn from the Jivaro. The TLS presents the Wittgenstein of music history. The ES magazine celebrates Transylvanian writer Jehan Cavus. In New York Times Magazine, Michael Ignatieff learns about the universality of human rights from Iranian students.
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Foreign affairs warns against Islamic attackers with European passports. Pascal Bruckner asks in Le Figaro whether Europeans have lost their taste for freedom. In Plus-Minus, Agnes Heller calls terrorists frustrated intellectuals with little talent for anything else. Andrzej Stasiuk marvels In Espresso at the symbolic rise in status of the Polish plumber. In Elet es Irodalom, György Konrad celebrates the hedonism of the European brain. And Al Ahram looks at the transglobal hiphop umma.
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Jack Lang begs the "pardon" of the Polish in Gazeta Wyborcza. Plus - Minus looks at those lost in the tea leaves of Kalingrad's future. Elet es Irodalom traces the shifting of the blame in Eastern Europe. Der Spiegel finds bone-stealing grannies in Naples and Foreign Policy enjoys picking out US-lovin stereotypes. Al Ahram Weekly smiles on the future of Egyptian e-books and Outlook India compares and contrasts V.S. Naipaul with Pankaj Mishra.
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Europe is just a question of money for the British, writes Nepszabadsag. For the New York Review of Books Europeans can also be nationalists. Al Ahram reminds how the British and French fought over Tutankhamun. For Prospect, the EU constitution is above all a stylistic mistake. The Gazeta Wyborca wishes for a bit more respect for the founders of the EU. The Spectator introduces the African WaBenzis. In the Nouvel Obs philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy looks into the question of evil. And in the New York Times Magazine Michael Ignatieff engages in a Platonic one-man-dialogue on the American exportation of democracy.
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Peter Handke explains in Literaturen why he refuses to act as defense witness in the Hague, although he believes Milosevic is not guilty of the charges brought against him. In Lettre International, Isabel Hilton tells how she cleaned up rural factories as a student in China. A young Christian tells of her love woes in the New Yorker. Umberto Eco pokes fun at the Left's new love for the police in L'Espresso. Eliot Weinberger portrays the Chinese Poet Gu Cheng in the London Review of Books, and Balint Szlanko call the French lazy in Magyar Narancs.
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