Birnbaum & Heller
Thursday, July 29th, 2004
The Summer issue of Mizna is now available. It’s devoted to the late Edward Said, and contains articles, poems, and fiction by Najla Said, Mohja Kahf, Nathalie Handal, Susan Muaddi Darraj and others.
The 9/11 Commission Report has sold an estimated 350,000 copies since its release last week. And W.W. Norton didn’t have to organize publicity tours or pay authors. The NY Times‘ Edward Wyatt explains how the book was printed and shipped in just four days, and how other publishers are also trying to cash in on the windfall. Of course, you can also find the report online, for free.
J.K. Rowling says that she recently made the “chilling” discovery that the distinctions she drew between “half-blood,” “pure-blood,” and “muggles” characters in the Harry Potter series were similar to those drawn by the Nazis. The Scotsman has all the details.
A good case of follow your own advice:
Those who dedicate their professional lives to idleness should do so with discretion if they hope to keep their jobs. This is one useful message in Hello Laziness - The Art and the Importance of Doing the Least Possible at the Workplace, an anarchic anti-business bible published in France. It is advice the author, Corinne Maier, a senior economist at Electricit
For reasons I can’t quite figure out, the CS Monitor devotes a full article to reviewing Short Stories at East of the Web, a British repository of short stories across many genres (humor, crime, sci-fi, classic and contemporary, mostly Anglo-centric.) The Monitor praises the site for its ease of navigation, and offers a complete guide to what you’ll find there. Short story databases abound, and one I visit semi-regularly is Short Story Classics, which has an impressive database that even includes a few of the Russian, French, Spanish, and Japanese masters. The rest of the world needs its own story database.
The Lebanese Daily Star has a review of The Night Baghdad Fell, a satirical play by playwright (and engineer) Houmam Al-Hout, which is showing to sold-out crowds in Syria and will soon move to Beirut and Cairo.
The Al-Jazeera newsreader speaks frantically of occupiers entering Iraq. The seductively attired Lebanese anchorwoman warns soldiers not to forget to apply tanning oil under the scorching Iraqi sun. If they’re killed, at least they’ll look good at the funeral. The US newsreader dons a cowboy hat and hee-haws promises of liberation and democratic change.
The play is said to be popular particularly because of its criticism of corruption of problems in Arab societies: corruption, disengagement, and economic failures, though it steers clear of direct criticism of the Syrian president.
Stuttering is said to affect one in every 100 people, and although it’s no longer “cured” with leeches on the lips, no one really knows why it happens or how to stop it.
However, for the stammerer who wishes to express himself without the risks inherent in speech, there is an obvious alternative: writing. On the page, even the most unruly words can be brought into line, so it may be no coincidence that many of the finest writers have suffered from a stammer: Lewis Carroll, Arnold Bennett, Somerset Maugham, Aldous Huxley, Elizabeth Bowen, Philip Larkin, Henry James, Charles Kingsley, Leigh Hunt, Margaret Drabble, and many more.
From this observation, it’s only a short leap to the conclusion that James’ “snaking sentences, full of measured subclauses and self-qualifications” may have had something to do with his stammering.
Publishers’ Marketplace reports that film rights to Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran have been sold. The memoir is to be made into a movie, with Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo to star.
You are currently browsing the blog archives for July, 2004.