Late night post:
Granta en Español ya ha salido.
A couple of articles here and here .
Mensagens
O livro que foi o primeiro 'best-seller' da literatura
Em carta datada de 1 de Junho de 1774, declarava um Goethe de 25 anos incompletos ao escritor Gottlieb Schönborn: «Criei algo de totalmente novo». Não se enganava: As paixões do jovem Werther, romance inaugural do genial intelectual alemão, é considerado o primeiro romance moderno. Mas na altura em que foi escrito, provocou um verdadeiro tumulto e um fenómeno de culto, moda e imitação só comparável ao de alguns grupos de música «pop» dos anos 60 e 70. Mais: vários casos houve de jovens que imitaram o destino do protagonista (que se suicida) como resposta a amores infelizes.
Publicado em 1774, o Werther é visto como a obra emblemática do período literário conhecido como Sturm und Drang (algo como «Tempestade e Ímpeto»), que surge como reacção aos princípios da racionalidade e de moderação das paixões do Iluminismo.
Goethe teve não só a coragem de tirar a consequência dramatúrgica natural da catástrofe que se ab...
Why Is It Called The Passion?
How Jesus' suffering got its name.
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ -- which gorily depicts the sufferings of Jesus during his last days - opens tomorrow amid great anticipation and controversy. But how did Jesus' anguish on the cross come to be called the Passion in the first place?
The simple answer is that the English word passion referred to Jesus' suffering long before it evolved other, more sultry meanings. Today, the word still refers to Jesus' torments, as well as to retellings of the crucifixion in the Gospels and elsewhere, even in pieces of music. (Before Gibson's Passion, for instance, there were Bach's Passions.)
But the Christian meaning and its modern, carnal cousins are not entirely unrelated. In fact, the more common meanings of the word passion -- strong emotion, zeal, and sexual desire -- grew organically from the Christian sense over the course of several centuries.
The English word has i...
Jacques :
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the canon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his s...
Food!
His current Mona Lisa is a three-layer cake, a sensational rendezvous of chocolate, almond, and orange flavors. Turbant, now a caterer in Marseille, France, came up with the recipe when he was asked to bake a birthday cake for a party of 50 guests. The host's only request was that it be "special." After experimenting a bit, Turbant went with the flavors he likes best. [with recipeeeeee]
And molecular gastronomy:
The term molecular gastronomy was coined in the 1980s by a French scientist, Hervé This , and Nicholas Kurti, who was a professor of physics at Oxford University in England. Both men were interested in food science, but they felt that empirical knowledge and tradition were as important in cooking as rational understanding.
Courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor , no less!
Gonna buy this book ( Berlin 1945, The Downfall )
"Probably the most amusing story is how the Red Army occupied a huge
underground command center south of Berlin. A caretaker was taking
Soviet troops on a tour when a phone rang. One of the soldiers picked
up the phone to hear a voice barking at him in German. The soldier
shot back in Russian: "Ivan is here. Go to hell." -- and hung up."
Here's one excerpt:
Air raids were so frequent, with the British by night and the Americans by day, that Berliners felt that they spent more time in cellars and air-raid shelters than in their own beds. The lack of sleep contributed to the strange mixture of suppressed hysteria and fatalism. Far fewer people seemed to worry about being denounced to the Gestapo for defeatism, as the rash of jokes indicated. The ubiquitous initials LSR for Luftschutzraum, or air-raid shelter, were said to stand for ‘Lernt schnell Russisch’: 'Learn Russian quickly'. Most Berline...
Since it's on the news I thought it might be interesting to review some of the most interesting US Constitutional Amendments:
Article [I]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Article [II]
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Article [V] --> the most famous one
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be ...
I used to be subscribed to two of these journals when I raced to be an English Literature teacher. They've made some samples them available under the MUSE project [Johns Hopkins University]. Here's one of them:
The Holocaust and American Public Memory, 1945-1960
[ Download it as a PDF to print it ]
Lawrence Baron
Abstract: Until the 1960s, many scholars assert, most Americans' awareness of the Holocaust was based upon vague, trivial, or inaccurate representations. Yet the extermination of the Jews was remembered in significant ways, this article posits, through World War II accounts, the Nuremberg trials, philosophical works, comparisons with Soviet totalitarianism, Christian and Jewish theological reflections, pioneering scholarly publications, and mass-media portrayals. These early postwar attempts to comprehend the Jewish tragedy within prevailing cultural paradigms provided the foundation for subsequent understandings of that event.
There plenty more in th...
The official program of the NSDAP, proclaimed 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler at a public gathering in Munich (excerpt):
Point 4: "None but members of the nation (Volksgenosse) may be citizens. None but those of German blood , whatever their creed, may be members of the nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a member of the nation."
Point 23: [...]
(a) that all editors and collaborators of newspapers published in the German language be members of the nation.
(b) non-German newspapers be requested to have express permission of the State to be published. They may not be printed in the German language.
Rosenberg advocated in 1920 the adoption of the following program concerning the Jews:"
(1) The Jews are to be recognized as a ( separate) nation living in Germany, irrespective of he religion they belong to.
(2) A Jew is he whose parents on either side are nationally Jews. Anyone who has a Jewish husband or wife is henceforth a Jew.
(3) Jews have no ri...
Listen to the girl
As she takes on half the world
Moving up and so alive
In her honey dripping beehive
Beehive
It's good, so good, it's so good
So good
Walking back to you
Is the hardest thing that
I can do
That I can do for you
For you
I'll be your plastic toy
I'll be your plastic toy
For you
Eating up the scum
Is the hardest thing for
Me to do
Just like honey
Today, Patricia Highsmith is hot. Once belittled as a "dime-store Dostoyevsky," she is now being canonized as a major American artist. Nearly a decade after her death, in 1995, her popularity in the United States is at an all-time high. A collection, The Selected Stories of Patricia Highsmith , was published by W.W. Norton in 2001, and Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith followed in 2002. Norton also has been steadily reissuing Highsmith's previous books in handsome new trade editions. In a different venue, Matt Damon and John Malkovich have taken their turns playing Highsmith's murderous antihero Tom Ripley in recent movies.
Susan Sontag on Translation
To translate means many things, among them: to circulate, to transport, to disseminate, to explain, to make (more) accessible. By literary translation we mean, we could mean, the translation of the small percentage of published books actually worth reading: that is to say, worth rereading. I shall argue that a proper consideration of the art of literary translation is essentially a claim for the value of literature itself. Beyond the obvious need for the translator 's facilitations in creating stock for literature as a small, prestigious import-export business, beyond the indispensable role that translation has in the construction of literature as a competitive sport, played both nationally and internationally (with rivalries, teams and lucrative prizes) -- beyond the mercantile and the agonistic and ludic incentives for doing translation lies an older, frankly evangelical incentive, more difficult to avow in these self-consciously impious time...
Suzanne Vega's Favourite playlist :
Bigger Than My Body , John Mayer from Heavier Things
Time and Love , Laura Nyro, from New York Tendaberry
Trouble , Coldplay from Parachutes
St. Teresa , Joan Osborne from Relish
American Tune , Paul Simon from There Goes Rhymin' Simon
Like a Tattoo , Sade from Love Deluxe
Barely Breathing , Duncan Sheik from Duncan Sheik
Living It Up , Rickie Lee Jones from Pirates
Story of Isaac , Judy Collins from Who Knows Where the Time Goes
Red Rain , Peter Gabriel from So
Can't Let Go , Lucinda Williams from Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Fortress around Your Heart , Sting from The Dream of the Blue Turtles
Ring of Fire , Johnny Cash from 16 Biggest Hits: Johnny Cash
Feels Like Home
Norah Jones blew everybody away with her jazzy, country-tinged, Grammy-winning debut CD, Come Away With Me. On this recording, Jones doesn't mess with her trademark formula. Under Arif Mardin's cozy co-production, Jones is supported by her writing partners, her Handsome Band, and some special guests (country legend Dolly Parton, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of the Band, and jazz drummer Brian Blade, to name a few).
You can listen to some samples here
Links in Spanish, nah, really?
O capítulo perdido da Rayuela de Cortázar, vinte anos depois:
«Rayuela partió de estas páginas». ¿Y por qué lo eliminó? «No me había dado cuenta [...] que el final del libro, la noche de Horacio en el manicomio, se cumplía dentro de un simulacro equivalente al de este primer capítulo ». Comprendió «que debía eliminarlo, sobreponiéndome al amargo trago de retirar la base de todo el edificio».»
" -- A mãe disse que o biberão ficou em cima do fogão -- informei eu.
- Dei-lho há pouco. Não é fome -- retorquiu Seymour.
Mesmo no escuro, dirigiu-se à estante e fez incidir o feixe de luz ao correr das prateleiras. Sentei-me na cama e inquiri:
- De que andas tu à procura?
- Pensei que talvez lendo-lhe qualquer coisa... - respondeu Seymour e tirou um livro da estante.
- Por amor de Deus, ela tem dez meses! -- exclamei.
- Bem sei -- tornou ele -- , mas tem ouvidos, pode ouvir.
A história que Seymour leu a Franny, nessa noite, à luz da lâmpada, era uma das suas preferidas, uma história taoista, e a minha irmã ainda hoje jura que se lembra de ele lha haver lido.
O príncipe Mu da China disse a Po Lo: «Já estás velho. Há alguém na tua família que te possa substituir em cuidar dos cavalos?» Po Lo respondeu: «Um bom cavalo conhece-se pelo porte e pelas maneiras. Mas um cavalo excepcional -- que não levanta pó nem deixa rasto -- tem qualquer coisa de efémero e rápido, evanesc...
Frederico Lourenço Galardoado com o Prémio D. Diniz
Frederico Lourenço foi galardoado com o Prémio D. Diniz, um dos mais importantes de Portugal, pela tradução de Odisseia , de Homero. É a primeira vez que uma tradução é distinguida com este prémio.
Atribuído pela Fundação Casa de Mateus, em Vila Real, o D. Diniz foi instituído em 1981 e distinguiu obras de ensaio, ficção, poesia (Eduardo Lourenço, António Lobo Antunes, Sophia, são alguns dos galardoados). Também por isso, Frederico Lourenço, romancista (autor de " Pode um Desejo Imenso ", " O Curso das Estrelas " e " À Beira do Mundo ") disse ontem ter ficado "absolutamente surpreendido": "Nunca imaginei ganhar o D. Diniz. Com toda a sinceridade, fiquei estupefacto."
A proposta inédita de distinguir uma tradução foi feita por Vasco Graça Moura, e aceite pelos outros dois membros do júri, os poetas Nuno Júdice e Fernando Pinto do Amaral.
No ano passado, Graça Moura ...
Walter Benjamin on Translation:
"(A literary work's) essential quality is not statement or the imparting of information. Yet any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information—hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark
of bad translations. But do we not generally regard as the essential substance of a literary work what it contains in addition to information—as even a poor translator would admit—the unfathomable, the mysterious, the "poetic," something that a translator can reproduce only if he is also a poet?"
"The Task of the Translator"
(Introduction to his translation of Baudelaire's Tableaux Parisiens)
1923
Shakespeare went even further, caught as he was not just between two social classes but between two historical modes of production. His Globe theater was a profitable enterprise, charging only a penny for standing space (a third of the cost of a pipeful of tobacco), but able to accommodate an audience of 3,000. Even so, this budding capitalist venture still needed the protection of the court, and could suffer political censorship at its hands. Queen Elizabeth, an expert political operator, would have been quick to score a red line through any script that advocated popular rebellion.
I've always been fascinated by WWII German propaganda .
Here 's a frightening collection of Goebbels' speaches (one as late into the war as April 1945)
Also, there is this massive site with free WWII photographs . Courtesy of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Japanese prisoner camp: When liberators reached camps in the jungles of Southeast Asia, they were horrified by what they found. Some captives had lost over 100 pounds, and almost all suffered from crippling diseases.
Window Shopping in the (Evil?) Empire
I shop comfortably, mindlessly, compulsively; sometimes purposefully; often in a daze. I scrutinize merchandise with the privilege and prejudice of a Westerner. Consumption is my cultural responsibility and patriotic duty. This cornucopia is my birthright and I understand it well. Shopping synchronizes my heartbeat with the rhythms of industry. It teaches me my place in the social hierarchy. It initiates me into my many temporary tribes. Watching television is shopping just as reading the news is shopping. Meeting people is shopping. Travel is shopping. Shopping is choosing a momentary self out of a ceaseless catalog of disposable identities.
To not shop is to not pay attention.
Between 1986 and 1990, I made approximately 8,000 color, Hasselblad images on the streets of Communist Europe. I purposely avoided dramatic moments and newsworthy events. In a cityscape without commercial seduction, banality seemed to signify everything. At fir...
Martin Scorsese presents
THE BLUES
Ashley Kahn
ed. Amistad
É fácil, é assunto, Música para filmes, filmes onde o italo-americano (sempre eles..) Martin Scorsese é quem mais ordena. Um conjunto de fitas. ' A Century of the Blues ' por Robert Santelli, ' Feel Like Going Home ' por Scorsese, ' Warming by the Devil's Fire ' de Charles Burnett, ' The Road to Memphis ' por Richard Pearce, ' The Soul of a Man ' por Wim Wenders, ' Godfather and Sons ' de Marc Levin, ' Red, White and Blues ' por Mick Figgis e ' Piano Blues and Beyond ' de Clint Eastwood. Um disco sem ser ouvido está morto, um livro de filmes sem serem vistos presta apenas para ler e nele, neste, há artigos, depoimentos, entrevistas úteis e sensacionais até. O book é gordo e pesado e promete estrelas muitas do mundo dos blues. Os blues não têm estrelas, mas sim estrelas. Do céu. Há muitos autores de escrita, neste livro, e brancos e pretos como bluesmen e w...
The NYT on Bill Murray's acting in LIT:
BILL MURRAY
When a performer becomes a star by seeming hipper than everyone else, it can put a damper on his future as a dramatic actor. Imagine Groucho Marx being tearily sincere or that lordly drunk W. C. Fields owning up to his alcoholism: no, it wouldn't feel right to watch these champions of one-upmanship stripped of their comic masks.
But in "Lost in Translation," Bill Murray has found a role that lets him be the rumpled, mock-suave, slightly lewd hipster that made him a pop-culture icon, and also an achingly vulnerable late-middle-aged man contemplating the wreckage of his life. The performance is a dual triumph — for the actor, who is marvelous, and for the director, Sofia Coppola, who conceived it with his persona in mind. Under Ms. Coppola's direction, Mr. Murray's humor and sadness can now be seen as coming from the same place, his irony rooted in an unshakable sense of isolation.
As the fading mov...
Revisitar o Holocausto
O Holocausto é um dos maiores traumas na História da humanidade. Muito foi dito e escrito sobre o tema.
No entanto, uma nova geração de historiadores está a reformular os motivos que conduziram à ascensão de Hitler. É o caso de Norbert Frei, escritor alemão que aborda o III Reich em todas as suas formas de desenvolvimento, do político ao cultural, do económico ao social. Em «O Estado de Hitler», o autor reconstitui a complexidade da Alemanha hitleriana, desmontando ponto por ponto o triunfo do mito do Füher e a construção da «Comunidade do Povo».
O Estado de Hitler
Norbert Frei
Editorial Notícias, 2003, 380 Págs.
I would like to see this show:
Teatro da Trindade , Lisbon's oldest theatre, will also sponsor a preliminary tour of university towns in Portugal, beginning in Porto on Nov. 13, 2003, the writers said.
The production, which will be performed in Portuguese under the title O Último Tango de Fermat , features a multimedia presentation as part of the production. Teatro da Trindade's artistic director, Carlos Fragateiro, is also involved in the planning of other European productions of the show, both in English and translated into other European languages.
Executive producer Catarina Gonçalves said in a statement: "I would love for the Portuguese version travel to New York, to be enjoyed by the city's Portuguese community. César Viana has given a superb translation."
from Playbill
Somebody wrote this guess about whom? D eus fê-la à nossa medida U ma Lusitana Paixão L ágrima doce e dorida C anção do Mar convertida E m Senhora do Almortão P ortugal tem mais fronteira O País nasce de novo N a sua Alma Guerreira T raz a nossa alma inteira E a voz do nosso povo S oa nela, verdadeira
This is a website that caters to its own needs and ours: I've been looking for the foreign-language magazine where I saw Ferran Adrià on the cover and it turns out there are several, from Le Monde 2 to NYT to a Jap publication, and what is more, even if one can no longer access them, they're all on the page :-D (IMHO, French and Jap have the best photos, no wonder)
La imagen ganadora del World Press Photo 2003
La imagen de un prisionero iraquí consolando a su hijo de cuatro años -tomada el pasado marzo cerca de Nayaf-
ha ganado el certamen World Press Photo 2003. Su autor es el fotógrafo francés de la Associated Press
Jean-Marc Bouju. (AP)
Some Spanish photographers among the prizes ;)
