Latest on Fri, 06:13 am
Clips and Books
Clips have become a sophisticated industry and some are even shining examples of art. But clips and books are still a quite unusual combination. Till today I wasn’t aware of this rather fresh and promising development: to use clips to promote books. In a way that’s similar to the one it’s used for pop music. Not a dull interview with the author, but a pretty exiting or intriguing teaser of a few minutes. Like this one:
Though “The Outcast” by Sadie Jones may or may not stand out as a novel ( I didn’t read the book myself. One of the reviews even casts a huge amount of doubt on the quality of the novel), the clip at least arouses interest. It may not be at the a same level as “Thriller” (by the way: congratulations to Michael Jackson, who celebrated his fitieth birthday yesterday), yet it is one of the first times the publishing branch uses this medium to successfully boost the sales figures. Which, generally speaking is very good news, because literature is having a hard time and can do with some extra help.
Quickie 2: Seven Strong Women
What happens when you love literature and strong women? Well, at one moment in your life you are bound to hit upon a selection of books about (fictional) strong women. Well, actually it happened several times. And here is the last one. In this case only about Anglo-Saxon books and strong leading characters. The list was composed by stine jensen , who, I guess, is a strong lady herself. I very much tend to agree with her choice. Some of her “ten best†I never read however, so I’ve no own opinion on them. The rest is, if you would ask me, very good or excellent indeed. But I should confess at the outset that my order of rank and motivation slightly differ from hers.
Newsflash: WWW.TITLEPAGE.TV.
The colder the climate is, the more people seem to read books. Iceland with it’s dark winters, lots of wet weather and low temperatures is renowned for this phenomenon. The downside of this is that in tropical countries like Indonesia, people usually prefer different occupations. If I had wanted to write some satire, I could have started from here.
But I’m serious.
I read a good and famous blog (http://fatihsyuhud.com) the other day. This particular post told about an Indian professor visiting Java, who was amazed about huge super malls and restaurants and total absence of libraries. Except for Gus Dur, the post goes on, even no private library worth mentioning can be found in the archipelago. Fatih Syuhud ends by calling the middle class citizens to do something about this cultural omission. As a profound lover of books I second that.
News Flash:Spotlight on Indonesian Literature.
In Indonesia and in the Netherlands Indonesian authors did draw attention.
Three of them got a Khatulistiwa Literary award last Friday. They are: Farida Susanti (Best Young Writer 2007; “And the rain stops”), Gus tF SAkai ( Best Prose 2007; “Migrant”) and Acep Zamzam Noer (Best Poet 2007; “Being a poet again”).
At the same time – but the other end of the globe – another Indonesian poet got a well deserved appreciation at the Winternachten Festival in the Hague, the Netherlands. Tan Lioe Ie officially received the first copy of his book of poetry, a translation in Dutch that is, titled “Nacht van de lampionnen” (“Night of the Chinese lanterns”). He has been praised for the quality of his poems as well as for his convincing acts as a performer.
According to a review in the NRC the quality of his poetry can be compared to that of modern literary giants like the Flemish Hugo Claus and the Dutch poet, the late Lucebert.
That’s odd
Accepting or permitting others’ religious beliefs and practices, that nice. And it impressive if you can accept other’s beliefs if they disagree with one’s own. And we do have a lot of religions in the world. So some tolerance would come in handy. Next to the established religions like Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism you’ll find small ‘weird’ groups with deviating believes. And some might argue that although religious tolerance is a fine thing. There are limits. And some of these people will give examples of sects with dramatic moments in history.
Most people still remember the tragedy in Waco, Texas. David Koresh and his Branch Davidians sect were on TV when on February 28, 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) raided Mount Carmel. The raid resulted in the deaths of four agents and six Davidians.