Alle Woche wieder: die besten Texte aus dem Netz über die Literatur in Gegenwart und Zukunft. Diesmal mit drei Listen, zwei Gesprächen, fünf Entdeckungen und zwei Geschichten aus München.
LISTEN
Barack Obama Shares His 2019 Summer Reading List
In his summer reading list for 2019, Obama has highlighted books that span genres and feature authors from a variety of backgrounds, from veterans like Colson Whitehead and Téa Obreht to newer voices like Stephanie Land and Lauren Wilkinson.
https://time.com/5652277/barack-obama-2019-summer-reading-list/
Too busy? Distracted by your phone? How to love reading again
Here is what I’ve learned, and what might help you to fall back in love with reading in a way that fits in with our ever-online world.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2019/aug/14/how-to-restore-your-books-habit-reading-social-media
From Kafka to Gogol via Pynchon: top 10 absurd quests in fiction
I wanted my characters to keep striving to find answers, even as everything falls apart. So here are 10 of my favourite absurdist quests …
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/14/from-kafka-to-gogol-via-pynchon-top-10-absurd-quests-in-fiction
ESSAYS
Art Spiegelman: golden age superheroes were shaped by the rise of fascism
Created in New York by Jewish immigrants, the first comic book superheroes were mythic saviours who could combat the Nazi threat. They speak to the dark politics of our times
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/17/art-spiegelman-golden-age-superheroes-were-shaped-by-the-rise-of-fascism
Is There Such a Thing as an Ethics of Cosmopolitanism? By Martha Nussbaum
Human beings are social beings. The fact that we are capable of interacting with one another through speech and reason, and that we are in a deep sense interdependent and interactive beings, means that we are moral fellow citizens, in the sense that any world citizen’s harm can be grasped by any other, and can move another to appropriate action.
https://lithub.com/is-there-such-a-thing-as-an-ethics-of-cosmopolitanism/
Hans Christen Andersen, Original Literary Softboi
Bookish Ambition! Awkward Gentleness! Goth Sexiness! He Had It All
https://lithub.com/hans-christen-andersen-original-literary-softboi/
GESPRÄCHE
In Conversation: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The novelist on being a “feminist icon,” Philip Roth’s humanist misogyny, and the sadness in Melania Trump
https://medium.com/vulture-magazine/in-conversation-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-1c21dea8e0ef
„Literatur beruht auf Politik und Erotik“
Natürlich bin ich in erster Linie Iraner. Meine Sprache ist Persisch, ich kann in keiner anderen Sprache der Welt eine Erzählung schreiben. Ich bin im Iran aufgewachsen und sozialisiert worden und verstehe die Welt auf Persisch.
https://de.qantara.de/inhalt/interview-mit-dem-iranischen-autor-amir-hassan-cheheltan-literatur-beruht-auf-politik-und
Aber ich habe als Autor nicht nur meine Landsleute im Blick, mit denen ich die Sprache und viele Sorgen teile. Denkt man ausschließlich lokal, dann zieht man eine Trennlinie zwischen „uns“ und „den anderen“.
ENTDECKUNGEN
Address Unknown: the great, forgotten anti-Nazi book everyone must read
It has been translated across the world, adapted into a 1944 film and into multiple productions for the stage and radio – all under the name of Kressmann Taylor, after Story’s editor, along with Kathrine Kressmann Taylor’s husband, Elliott, decided it was “too strong to appear under the name of a woman”.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/23/in-praise-of-address-unknown-the-anti-nazi-novel-that-saw-into-the-future
«Ich war einmal ein grosser Zeichner», schrieb Kafka einmal an Felice Bauer
Nach einem langwierigen juristischen Seilziehen konnten jüngst Bankschliessfächer in Zürich geöffnet und die darin befindlichen Kafka-Manuskripte nach Israel gebracht werden. Neben Bekanntem fand sich darin auch ein bisher unbekanntes Skizzenheft.
https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/kafka-als-zeichner-das-skizzenheft-aus-dem-zuercher-banksafe-ld.1503497
Lessons From Nabokov: Finding Freedom in a Foreign Language
When I heard his name, all I knew was this: He was a Russian who wrote in English. Surrounded by American students half my age, ones who, I suspected, had an inborn connection to the English language that I would never possess, I clung to Nabokov’s success at doing that which I yearned to do.
https://lithub.com/lessons-from-nabokov-finding-freedom-in-a-foreign-language/
Inside the archives — and mind — of sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick
The Philip K. Dick papers reside on the third floor of the Pollak Library at Cal State Fullerton, not far from where the science fiction writer spent his final decade. The space is nondescript: a small room with a few institutional tables and a door through which to request materials from an archive that stretches out of view.
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-08-15/philip-k-dick-archives-science-fiction-csuf
Poetry of the proletarians
Many migrant workers in Singapore have taken refuge in the written word. They highlight their daily lives of drudgery and the wrenching heartache of being away from home through their poetry. They publish memoirs, participate in literary workshops, win competitions and make short films inspired by their life experiences.
https://www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/poetry-of-the-proletarians-1565942432596.html
MÜNCHEN
Die Blumenkinder und das rote Sofa
Im Büro der Literaturhaus-Leiterin Tanja Graf hängt alles irgendwie mit Literatur, Lesungen und Ausstellungen zusammen. So wichtig der früheren Verlegerin ihr Familienleben auch ist, private Fotos sucht man vergeblich: „Da wird nichts vermischt“, sagt sie
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/sz-serie-muenchner-chefzimmer-folge-2-die-blumenkinder-und-das-rote-sofa-1.4568930
Seitenweise Plaudereien
Viele Verlage setzen auf kostenlose Audio-Angebote im Netz. Sie ermöglichen Einblicke in den Literaturbetrieb – und sollen neue Zielgruppen erschließen.
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/sz-serie-kultur-podcasts-aus-muenchen-folge-3-seitenweise-plaudereien-1.4570889
LIEBE
In praise of pretty books
Even as a boy, I was already a book critic — of sorts. Any paperback I might buy underwent intense scrutiny for manufacturing flaws and other irritations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/in-praise-of-pretty-books/2019/08/14/bfc77e44-bd1c-11e9-9b73-fd3c65ef8f9c_story.html
Why Do I Recite the Same Paul Celan Poem to All My Dates?
You were doing it again, my roommate Renee accused me one morning, turning off the hairdryer, sticking her head out the bathroom like a hand-puppet. I heard you Corona-ing last night through the wall.
https://lithub.com/why-do-i-recite-the-same-paul-celan-poem-to-all-my-dates/
