Granta and Habitus: Spanish Novelists and Berlin

You've probably already heard about Granta's recent "Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists" issue. Over at Three Percent they covered each author and it's well-worth taking a look at their coverage. The issue includes fiction from six writers from Spain: Andres Barba, Pablo Gutierrez, Sonia Hernandez, Javier Montes, Elvira Navarro, and Alberto Olmos.

The new issue of the excellent magazine Habitus will be published soon and it's focused on Berlin. A few pieces have been posted to their web site, including an interview with Horst Hoheisel and Habitus Editor Joshua Ellison's thoughts following a visit to the city.  

15 Second French Films

I intended to mention this weeks ago but time slipped away ... this link was sent to me by the inimitable Sean Cotter:

15 Second French Films--"Want to watch pretentious films, but simply don't have the time?
Problem Solved."

These entertaining shorts will make you want to download that Godard or Truffaut film from Netflix.

Or maybe not.

Literalab Blog at Czech Position

A new blog to keep tabs on is Literalab by Michael Stein over at the recently launched online magazine Czech Position. Michael writes about Central European writing and art and so far he's added interesting posts on the cultural scene in Belarus, Wassily Kandinsky, the Belarus Free Theatre, Kafka and Schulz in Stockholm, and a two-part interview with György Spiró.

Public Enemies: Bernard Henri-Levy and Michel Houellebecq

Random House has recently published Public Enemies, a conversation between the French writers Bernard Henri-Levy and Michel Houellebecq. It's sure to be an entertaining read and the New York Times provides two takes on the book.

Dwight Garner helps us understand the neologism "moasting" and notes that Public Enemies "is a pure distillation of literary moasting, as high proof as it gets. Both men delight in being provocative, on the page and off, yet feign shock that anyone has ever been provoked," while Ian Buruma writes "the running gag that permeates the entire discussion is the conceit that (Henri-Levy and Houellebecq) are hated, persecuted and despised by almost everyone" and concludes that "it is all brilliantly done. But I’m afraid to say that none of this is meant to be read as a comic novel. It is all in deadly earnest."

You can also read an excerpt here.

Absinthe #14 Has Arrived

Don't miss out on the newly published Absinthe #14.

The issue presents fiction by Mateiu Caragiale, Anca Cristofovici, Robert Gal, Wieslaw Mysliwski and Norberto Luis Romero, with poetry by Rita Dahl, an interview with filmmaker Dmitry Trakovsky, book reviews and film & music recommendations, and reports from Copenhagen and Prague. In addition, photographs by Giacomo Brunelli appear on the cover and in an 8-page portfolio. Order a copy here.

European Cinema and the Golden Globes

Last night the Golden Globe Awards were presented and the five films nominated for best foreign-language film were all from Europe: Biutiful (a Mexico-Spain co-production), The Concert (France), The Edge (Russia, and presumably not a film about the U2 guitarist!), I am Love (Italy), and In a Better World (Denmark).  Susanne Bier's In a Better World won but all the films sound like they're worth taking a look at. I'm definitely interested in seeing Bier's film after seeing her well-done Oscar-nominated 2006 film After the Wedding.

2011 Milosz Year

This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of poet, translator, and prose writer Czeslaw Milosz and the Polish Book Institute is celebrating 2011 as Czeslaw Milosz Year:

Our hope is that the hundred-year anniversary of Czeslaw Milosz’s birth will be a chance to reacquaint ourselves with his work, which has long prompted creative reflection on the condition of the contemporary world.

The Milosz Year program is made up of new book publications, conferences, discussions, and exhibitions devoted to the poet, organized in Poland and abroad – from Krasnojarsk through Vilnius, Krasnogruda, Krakow, and Paris, to New York and San Francisco. Its culminating point will be the second edition of the Milosz Festival, taking place in Krakow (May 9th-15th 2011).

Dwell Magazine and European Architecture and Design

One of the magazines we like to read in the Absinthe home office is Dwell and the current issue (February 2011) has a number of Eurocentric articles, including a look at the London Design Festival  (we’d add the Pontus desk by Pinch to our office). Additionally, there is a feature on Brussels-based German furniture designer Christiane Högner and the castoffs she creatively uses to furnish her family’s two-bedroom apartment, along with an article about 2012Architects, a firm that designed and built a home in Enschede, the Netherlands almost entirely from locally recycled materials.

The Wisdom of Dostoevsky’s Father Zossima and Current Political Rhetoric

There has been a lot of finger-pointing from the political left and right in response to the shooting last weekend of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (and many others) but little in the way of taking responsibility for our own words and actions. Contrast The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz  who states “there are crazy people out there, but we can’t all be responsible for what they do” with what Tucson resident Michele Brubaker told a reporter: “I’m here for Tucson. This should not be happening … we’re all responsible. We have to do something.”  Her reaction echoes the words Fyodor Dostoevsky ascribes to Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov that we are “each of us responsible for everyone.” 

How would our political rhetoric (and personal or “private” behavior) change if we held to the belief that we have a responsibility for everyone and everything?

Damian Kelleher and Absinthe 13: Spotlight on Romania

The Australian writer Damian Kelleher has a great site where he intelligently reviews international literature (including many European authors and several who have appeared in Absinthe). He’s been working through the Romanian issue of Absinthe and so far has reviewed five stories: Adriana Bittel's Names, Clockwork Animals by Mircea Cărtărescu,  Dan Lungu's To the Cemetery, Bogdan Suceavă's Can You Hear the Shape of a Drum?, and Chewing Gum by Lucian Dan Teodorovici.