Nepenthe

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore 

as interviewed by  Ekaterina Loushnikova for Open Democracy Russia - full text “It’s most important to remember that the camp is a negative school from the first day to the last – for everyone.  No one, from the camp commandant down to the convict, should have to see it, but once you have done so, you have to tell the truth, however terrible that may be.”   Varlaam Shalamov Kolyma is often compared with Auschwitz, but without the ovens and the gas chambers.  The killer here was something else: cold, hunger and backbreaking labour.  In the Stalin years millions of prisoners did their time in the labour camps of Kolyma. Not many survived to tell the tale; and today there are even fewer of them left.  Pavel Kalinkovich Galitsky, one of those very few, lives in St Petersburg. A journalist by profession, Galitsky spent 15 years doing hard labour in Kolyma. He recently celebrated his 100th birthday and I went to see him. Spit it out! I st...

From McSweeney's The Muses  by ~Callyie-Chan on deviantART What is poetry? Poetry is clumps of words that make people feel something. Was poetry meant to be read silently or aloud? Yes and yes! Rhyme began circa 367 B.C. or A.D. when somebody, Homer, I think, wanted to tell a famous story about a Greek guy and have people  remember  it. Later, in the schoolyard, rhyme developed into jump-rope songs before there were phones to look at. Soon rhyme was used to tout a company’s products and services for an ironic effect after natural disasters, i.e.. “Nationwide is on your side." Rhyme is still alive “in the hood,” where rappers use it to urge their fellow “gangstas” to kill policemen. But African-American poets have contributed more than rap; they also wrote many Harlem Renaissances. Why do people go to poetry readings? Some go to get signed copies of books that may one day be worth something on eBay. Some go because it makes them look arty and deep. B...

Slate.fr: n proposant sur son site —sous forme numérique— sa propre traduction du roman d’Hemingway  Le Vieil Homme et la Mer,  l’éditeur et écrivain François Bon posait deux questions: une sur ce qui fait la qualité d’une traduction, une autre sur la propriété des droits d’édition. Cette dernière question a  été largement débattue, sur Slate  comme ailleurs, notamment parce que Gallimard, qui revendique les droits du roman, a accusé Bon de contrefaçon. Il ne s’agit pas de revenir ici sur la polémique et de nous repencher sur le labyrinthe du domaine public qui évolue en privilégiant les rentiers et les gestionnaires du patrimoine au détriment des créateurs. L’autre remarque soulevée par l’éditeur —peut-on proposer une traduction alternative à celle de Jean Dutour («lourdingue», selon les mots de Bon)— n’a en revanche reçu que peu d’échos. Qu’est-ce qui fait la qualité d’une traduction? Comment évolue-t-elle? Le traducteur est-il un auteur? Plutôt que ...