Month: July 2005
Over at the Book Standard, Jessa Crispin writes about what she’s missing out on: literature in translation.
Recently I noticed just how much I was missing out on when I saw how many works by Julio Cortazar (1914-84), one of my favorite writers, have not been translated into English. Archipelago recently released the first English translation, by Anne McLean, of The Diary of Andres Fava. I was so impressed by the novella that I wanted to get in contact with McLean to talk about the work of translation and the books of the masterful Belgian-born Argentine who is so well-known by Spanish and Latin American readers, but virtually invisible to English-speaking ones.
As a child, I read in Arabic and French (both in the original or from other languages translated into the Arabic or the French) and that state of affairs seemed completely normal to me. When I came to the States, I was surprised to find out how little of world literature people seemed to read. And things aren’t improving, with literature in translation being constantly curtailed to make room for the Da Vinci Codes and Harry Potters.
Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish lashes out at militants who have taken to disrupting cultural events, the SF Chronicle reports:
It’s been a hot summer on the Palestinian arts scene: gunmen broke up the concert of a popular West Bank singer after he refused to limit his repertoire to political songs, and a Hamas-run town banned a music festival to prevent mingling of the sexes.
Now, Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish is striking back, saying fanatics have no right to deprive Palestinians of beauty in their lives. “There are Taliban-type elements in our society, and this is a very dangerous sign,” Darwish told a gathering of artists and intellectuals this week.
It’s not just an argument over artistic freedom, but over whether a future Palestinian state will be a theocracy or a pluralistic democracy.
Read the rest here.
Busy week, kids. Tonight at Powell’s, Natasha Radojcic reads from You Don’t Have To Live Here, her novel about a young woman’s travels and search for redemption. (Details here.) Last year, Radojcic’s essay about her first few months in America had me nodding with amusement and recognition.
And then on Wednesday, Kevin Smokler will be in town to promote Bookmark Now, his anthology of essays about reading and writing in an age when both seem increasingly embattled. (Details here.) A couple of months ago, Smokler guest-blogged over at The Elegant Variation, and got some notice from discerning readers.
I’ll be attending both those events, so stop by and say hi.
Tayari Jones (author of The Untelling) talks about attending Bible school, while being raised atheist.
Link via Maud.
Peter Bergen, whose myopic NY Times Op-Ed following the London attacks enraged me, seems to have regained enough sense to file this piece at Mother Jones, recapping the administration’s policies between 2001 and 2003, and the foolish decision to go after Iraq.
What we have done in Iraq is what bin Laden could not have hoped for in his wildest dreams: We invaded an oil-rich Muslim nation in the heart of the Middle East, the very type of imperial adventure that bin Laden has long predicted was the United States’ long-term goal in the region. We deposed the secular socialist Saddam, whom bin Laden has long despised, ignited Sunni and Shia fundamentalist fervor in Iraq, and have now provoked a “defensive” jihad that has galvanized jihad-minded Muslims around the world. It’s hard to imagine a set of policies better designed to sabotage the war on terrorism.
Funny, that’s what some people (deemed unpatriotic, if I recall) had warned of back in 2003, and what a majority of the U.S. public now thinks.
Dan Olivas informs us that he will be guest DJing on Pinky’s Paperhaus. What will he play? Tune in to find out.