Consumers have power. The Internet portal Utopia.de means to show how they can use this power so as, if not to save the world, then at least effectively to improve it by ?intelligent? consumption. In the meantime businesses have begun to sit up and take notice....
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An SS man reflects on mass murder - and there's a pigeon hole for every vile deed. Novelist Georg Klein on the Holocaust and the enlightened harmony of trivial realism in Jonathan Littell's novel "Les Bienveillantes" which has just been translated into German.
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The 400-page German translation of Jonathan Littell's corpse-littered SS novel,"Les Bienveillantes," has put the German-language feuilletons into a critical frenzy, despite the general consensus that the book is bad. We have compiled a selection of the accusations hurled.
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The Parisian social sciences institutes are being turfed out of their ancestral homes in the city's most desirable arrondissements and relocated to Aubervilliers. A bitter pill, but also a chance to turn theory into practice. By Wolf Lepenies
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Benjamin Biolay is France's new Serge Gainsbourg. He is pioneer of the "Nouvelle Chanson," even if he rejects the term. And basically he sings about one thing: love, nothing but love. By Elke Buhr (Photo © Bruce Weber, courtesy Virgin Records France / EMI)
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Cologne's Museum Ludwig presents Germany's first solo exhibition of the French painter Balthus. This self-styled "King of Cats" took a razor to reality and a guillotine to the metaphysical bombast of modernist painting. By Manfred Schwarz
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"In America I learned that Europe is possible." A conversation with Bernard-Henri Levy about his trip through the USA, the neo-conservatives after the disaster in Iraq, the fascist roots of Islamism and France before the elections. By Thierry Chervel (Photo: R. Escher)
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Freud once said that "dreams are the guardians of sleep." Andre Glucksmann has spent his life trying to fight them. At almost 70, he's as alert, distrusting and belligerent as ever. David Signer talks with the French philosopher about his new autobiography "Une rage d'enfant," and his life spent trying to find productive expression for his rage.
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Paris is the anti-Berlin. While the world's writers and artists are flocking to the ugly German capital, personalities like Sofia Coppola and Jarvis Cocker are drawn to Paris to pursue their work in freedom and impeccable style in front of perfect facades. By Eckhart Nickel
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Jörg Königsdorf interviews composer and conductor Pierre Boulez on his selective affinities for the works of Gustav Mahler. From April 2 to 12, Boulez will conduct Mahler's 9 symphonies at Berlin's Philharmonie, alternating with Daniel Barenboim. (Photo © Betty Freeman)
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One fifth of the population of Chechnya has died in the war there. The West has played deaf. Studies Without Borders is the initiative of a few French students to bring Chechen students to Europe to study. A drop of hope in an ocean of indifference. By Andre and Raphael Glucksmann.
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Since France's first suburban riots took place there in 1981, Les Minguettes has had a serious image problem. The suburb of Lyon is synonymous with integration problems, urban violence and social decay. But having taken the time to look behind the apartment block facades, Anne-Marie Vaterlaus paints a picture not entirely devoid of hope.
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In response to the uproar caused by Benedict XVI's speech in Regensburg, Abdelwahab Meddeb, one of France's most respected Arab writers, considers why peaceful disputes between Christians and Muslims were possible in the Middle Ages but not today. An interview with Michael Mönninger.
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American first-time novelist Jonathan Littell has created the sensation of the French literary season with "Les Bienviellantes." Michael Mönninger describes the memoirs of a fictional SS officer as scandalous kitch, an epic panorama and eminently worth reading.
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Paris is the cinephile's Garden of Eden, yet its arthouse screens are under threat. Having pursued their own form of artistic expression for over 80 years, the Parisian cinemas d'art et d'essai must now use all the ingenuity they can muster to keep bums on seats. By Marc Zitzmann
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Katja Nicodemus raves about Claude Chabrol's new film with his favorite actress, Isabelle Huppert. As an investigative judge in "Comedy of Power," Huppert is a modern femme fatale, mowing down corruption and male condescension with weapons of wit and writ.
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