David Edelstein’s Slate article “They Distort, We Deride,” is subtitled “A pair of pugnacious documentaries takes on the right-wing propaganda machine.” But then someone decided to switch directions, and, on Slate’s front page, the article is billed with the line “More Infuriating, Delightful Left-Wing Propaganda.”
NPR has an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald’s Malcom Knox, who first broke the story that the events described in the book never took place. Knox brings up an excellent point, which I don’t think has received enough attention: Khouri had alleged that as many as 5,000 women were victims of honor killings in Jordan, making it sound as part of mainstream culture, when in fact the number is a few dozen cases, mostly on the fringes. There’s a lot of other discrepancies discussed in the audio clip.
They say the best non-fiction reads like fiction, and so it is with the 9-11 Commission Report. David Ignatius recommends thinking of it as a thriller:
And deservedly so. For in its meticulous compilation of fact, the report makes the horrors of 9/11 even more shocking. Try to read the story as a narrative, a nonfiction thriller in which the characters move inexorably toward the cataclysm of that cloudless morning. The strength of the report is precisely in its narrative power; by telling all the little stories, it reveals the big story in a different way. We see the bland evil of the plotters, the Hamlet-like indecision of government officials, the bravery amid chaos of the firefighters.
The SF Chronicle’s David Kipen also looks at the book from a literary point of view, and he says, “This is no thriller (…) The 9-11 report resembles a thriller about as much as life does.”
Washington Post link via Stephany, guesting at Maud.
Amazon.co.uk is refusing to sell Craig Unger’s House of Bush, House of Saud, which seems rather odd, since its American parent company does in fact stock it. And, the Guardian explains,
In theory if someone in Britain buys the book from the American site the company still could be taken to court in Britain, because a litigant could argue that it had effectively sold the book in the UK.
But the British site persists in its decision, saying only that it made it due to “legal reasons.”
The NY Times’ Daniel Terdiman reports on a hilarious blog hoax, a blogspot journal supposedly written by Bill Clinton. In addition to Clinton’s blog, Terdiman cites a whole slew of others:
A variety of hoaxes have spiced up the so-called blogosphere. Among them are Andy Kaufman Returns (andykaufmanreturns .blogspot.com), in which an unidentified writer purports to be the eccentric comedian, reappearing 20 years after his death; Rance (captainhoof.tripod.com/blog), the musings of an anonymous Hollywood star; and Jane’s Blog (jane.blogs.com), the daily diary of a starry-eyed, oversexed young woman in Los Angeles who turns out to be a fictional character on the Oxygen TV sitcom “Good Girls Don’t.”
I actually got a few hits from Jane’s Blog last week (?!)
MG friends Mark Sarvas and Carrie A.A. Frye are mentioned in this Post Bulletin article about blogging.
In yet another weird development from the Norma Khouri case, the Australian press is reporting that the author allegedly went to Australia to escape an FBI investigation for fraud. Khouri’s publisher had supported her application to settle in Australia under the “Distinguished Talent” category, but the Immigration Department never discovered her previous entanglements with the law here in the States.
Interesting article in the Daily Star about the phenomenon of foreign workers’ remittances in Morocco. A recent study by the IMF finds that money sent or brought to Morocco by its immigrants in Europe and elsewhere is now reaching about 9% of its GDP, with top reasons being “attachment to the homeland” and “altruistic motives.” However, the report warns,
With workers’ remittances largely flowing into construction activity and only a small portion going to the creation of small and medium-sized enterprises, it is clear, Bougha-Hagbe says, that Morocco is not yet taking full advantage of the skills of the younger generations, who are not only highly qualified but also more likely to be entrepreneurs.
Read the article here (and scroll down for the second portion.)
Literary agency Curtis Brown is setting up its own film development division, in order to promote screen projects for its writers.
Variety reports that Curtis Brown, one of Europe’s oldest and largest agencies, has set up Cuba Pictures in order to help its clients “maintain more control” over the early stages of screen development. The division will, for example, produce first drafts itself before taking them to other financiers for further development.
So maybe Aleksandar Hemon wasn’t completely off his rocker when he spoke of books that want to be movies.
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