The second and third generation of immigrants behind the camera has given German cinema a new lease of life and goes way beyond depicting what it is like to be a foreigner in another society, as was the case in the 70s, 80s and 90s. By Margret Köhler...
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L'Espresso | Al Ahram Weekly | Gazeta Wyborcza | The Guardian | Polityka | Folio | The New York Times Book Review | Weltwoche
L'Espresso, 11.08.2005 (Italy)
"Belgrade is a strange city," writes Andrzej Stasiuk, who went there for an event being held in the name of his famous colleague Danilo Kis.
"The gathering that was intended to honour one of the greatest Serbian
writers was being watched over by Serbian police. The participants feel
a bit like the members of a forbidden religion, meeting in the
catacombs. The audience is made up mainly of friends. On the walls are
photographs of graves full of corpses but the speakers talk of poetry,
metaphors and the phonetics of texts whose shared feature is the
narrative of paranoia and the perversion of power which is nourished by
death and massacres."
Al Ahram Weekly, 04.08.2005 (Egypt)
Amr Hamzawy explains that, due to a well-rehearsed duo, necessary reforms are going to proceed very slowly, if at all, in Saudi Arabia.
"The ruling elite monopolises the government and national revenue while
the Wahabi religious establishment controls schools and universities.
Their power is exercised and perpetuated within the framework of a
mutually beneficial relationship whereby the latter confers religious
legitimacy upon the ruling elite while the former protects the Wahabis' absolute authority
to regulate society. This reciprocal arrangement works to curb any
reformist drive, giving both sides of the equation the ability to
determine the nature and pace of political change. Against this binary
power structure the influence of other political forces in society,
from the liberal, secularist, enlightened Islamist to the hardline
fundamentalist, pales. Whatever hopes they entertain are pinned either
on manoeuvring themselves into positions whereby they can obtain the
ear of those who monopolise power, or else on mobilising the public in support of their demands, so enhancing their room for manoeuvre."
Gazeta Wyborcza, 06.08.2005 (Poland)
Miroslaw Czech and Jerzy Chmielewski engage in a debate on the situation in Belarus. In the last two weeks, several speakers representing the Polish minority in Belarus have been arrested.
Lukaschenko has accused them of being a raiding patrol of the EU, trying to instigate an orange revolution. Czech said
in an interview, "Warsaw must not be silent if the rights of the Polish
minority are being violated, but Lukashenko's regime can spin this as a
western intervention in the country's domestic politics. For this reason,
one must try to represent the problem as a violation of elementary
human rights and not as a bilateral conflict. We have to make it clear
to the Belorussians that this also has to do with their rights. To do
this, the representatives of the Polish minority and the Belorussians
in Poland should be brought together – solidarity of the minorities against the dictatorship!" Chmielewski, himself a representative of the Belorussian minority in Poland, warns,
"We regret the situation but we have little influence on it. Poland
should be more careful in its statements so that the Belorussians don't
get the feeling that they are being talked down to by their
western neighbours. I only hope that the present conflict does not
result in separation and animosity – we must get to know and understand
each other better."
The Guardian, 06.08.2005 (UK)
The writer Blake Morrison goes to bat
for editors – key figures in the world of literature who are
characterized as know-it-alls but whose existence is now seriously
threatened, as their work is increasingly regarded as superfluous.
Particularly in England, cutbacks have meant that publisher's in-house
editors are no longer able to supervise all their authors, meaning that
either freelancers are engaged or novels are published in their raw
form. "Perhaps I've been unusually lucky, but in my experience,
editors, far from coercing and squashing writers, do exactly
the opposite, elucidating them and drawing them out, or, when they're
exhausted and on the point of giving up (like marathon runners hitting
the wall), coaxing them to go the extra mile. And yet this myth of the
destructive editor - the dolt with the blue pencil - is
pervasive, not least in academe." Today it still pertains: "Those who
can, write; those who can't, edit - that seems to be the line. I prefer
TS Eliot. Asked if editors were no more than failed writers, he replied: 'Perhaps - but so are most writers.'"
Polityka, 03.08.2005 (Poland)
Adam Krzeminski writes on the 60th anniversary of the Potsdam Conference,
commenting that in contrast to the celebrations marking the end of
World War II on May 8-9, no country was making a big thing of the day.
No wonder: "Potsdam was a 'day of reckoning'. And one
of the judges was a criminal comparable to Hitler. Yes, the Allies
agreed to drastic solutions, like the massive 'transfer' of the German
populations living in Central and Eastern Europe, solutions which
complied with no existing intergovernmental arrangements. But these
were also exceptional times. You can't declare war on two
continents, wage it in the most criminal way, and then go home as if
you'd lost a football match. What should the Allies have done? Cut
Germany into little bits, turn it into one big potato patch,
require it to pay an additional ten billion dollars in reparations?"
But, Krzeminski insists, the Potsdam model must be declared an isolated
historical event, one that could not serve as an example.
Folio, 02.08.2005 (Switzerland)
The weekly magazine of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is all about men. English ethnologist Nigel Barley takes a look at "new laddism".
"I called another friend, a psychologist, and asked him what he thought
about it. He sounded irritated. 'Baloney', he grumbled. 'Laddism is
nothing but a new name for egoistical retarded development. By
the way, did I tell you I'm getting a divorce and moving into a new
place? I've realised that in fact I don't really want children. I have
enough of them all day long at work. Where was I? Oh yeah, you're
barking up the wrong tree. The real problem of laddism doesn't lie with
men, but with women! Today they all act the same way, they go on
binges, eat fast food, burn the candle at both ends... Have you seen
how girls walk around these days? That says it all. I can't imagine any man letting it all hang out like that. It's nauseating."
In his Duftnote column on fragrances, Luca Turin
calls for great perfumes to be conserved for eternity. Current scent
museums do not deserve the name, he writes. "Most of them (one in Paris and several in Grasse) consist of collections of bottles
and end up in a shop. There the frustrated visitors who were not
allowed to smell a thing for half an hour are set loose among an
arsenal of multicoloured soaps they can take home and give to relatives
and other un-loved ones. The biggest museum in Grasse used to have a
glass wall behind which you could see a perfumer at work, just like a panda bear in a zoo. And just like a panda, the poor guy spent most of his time holed up in a back room."
The New York Times Book Review, 06.08.2005 (USA)
Rachel Donadio visits the "irascible prophet", writer V.S. Naipaul, at his home in Wiltshire. The author does full justice to his reputation, and rails against French authors like the "tedious" Proust
and the "infuriating" Stendhal with as much gusto as he denounces the
"philosophical shrieking" of Islamist holy warriors. And he announces
the end of both modernity and fiction: "'We've changed. The world has
changed. The world has grown bigger.' Which brings us back to
the limitations of the novel. The writer must leave the sitting room
and travel abroad into the active, busy world. It is the tragic vision only a novelist can reach: that the world cannot be contained in the novel." Listen to excerpts from the interview here.
Weltwoche, 08.08.2005 (Switzerland)
Urs Gehriger and Simon Brunner quote from blogs, homepages and Internet forums by American soldiers
stationed in Iraq. "We sat tight, my humvee was in flames. Everyone
else from my truck was wounded, and my machine gunner, Lance Corporal
Cisneros, was dead. He'd saved our lives when a rocket hit the roof of
the transporter and exploded downwards. He took the whole brunt of the
explosion and protected the rest of us." One amateur porno forum features a big archive
with films and images taken by soldiers while deployed. The key to its
success: anyone providing material from Iraq gets free access to the
pay-to-view pages.
RSS
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. 
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.