January 31, 2003

biz girls don't cry

Where was this kind of advice when I was working in the corporate world?

a war crime or an act of war?

Stephen Pelletierre, the CIA's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war weighs in on the mass murder of Kurds at Halabja, an act which, despite the fact that the U.S. was on the side of Iraq at the time, is now used to justify the pre-emptive war. The information he offers on Halabja might surprise you. And he also has an interesting perspective about the stakes of the war. One hint: it's not just the oil...it's the water, too. Requires (free) registration to the NY Times, but definitely worth a read: A War Crime or an Act of War?
Link via Metafilter.

poets against the war

Laura Bush's cancellation of the White House Poetry Symposium (see yesterday's entry here) has engendered quite a bit of press coverage. See the AP blurb, the New York Times article, the BBC, and the Guardian, for example. Visit Sam Hamill's Poets Against the War site to read more anti-war poetry (and, in the interest of fairness, I'll give a $20 bill to anyone who can point me to a "poets for war" site if there is such a thing, so I can link to both!)

the guru of love

I saw this review of The Guru of Love by Samrat Upadhyay, and it seems like it would be a fun read. I'll have to check it out.

January 30, 2003

new book by diana abu-jaber

Diana Abu-Jaber, the author of the critically acclaimed Arabian Jazz, will have a new book out in April, called Crescent. Here is the teaser: "What do Saddam Hussein, actor Richard Burton and a mermaid named Alieph have in common? They all play bit roles in Diana Abu-Jaber's lyrical new novel, "Crescent," about Sirine, a 39-year-old Iraqi-American chef in Los Angeles, and her love affair with Hanif Al Eyad, an Arabic literature professor and Iraqi exile haunted by his past."
More about Abu-Jaber's book here.

state of the union address

or SOTU, as I like to call it, is available online, with comments from the Atlantic Monthly staff. Very nice resource, especially since it ties in with their special double issue, on newstands now, about "the real state of the union."

censorship in the white house

A few months ago, the First Lady decided to organize a poetry symposium in February, but as the date drew near some of the guests made clear their opposition to her husband's pre-emptive war. Sam Hamill, in particular, asked fellow poets to send in their contributions on the war to the symposium. Now the White House has announced that it is cancelling the event. The reason? "While Mrs Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions, and believes it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political forum," her spokesperson said.
Newsflash: literature deals with countless varieties of human experience, among them the political. So to silence the event really amounts to censorship, especially considering that a couple of months ago, the Bush Administration had no qualms about using various American literary figures in a book paid for by taxpayers (but unavailable in the U.S.) to promote the Administration's view of the world.

vonnegut on war

I wonder if I should start a separate category for writers commenting on Bush and his war. Seems like I run into these kinds of articles almost daily. Today's offering: an interview with Kurt Vonnegut. And he doesn't mince words.

Link via Metafilter.

January 28, 2003

more on treisman

The New York Times has a brief profile of Deborah Treisman, the new fiction editor. (See an earlier entry about her here.) One quote intrigued me:

Nor is she concerned by criticism that The New Yorker, at least during Mr. Buford's tenure, favored male fiction writers. According to her, the magazine receives 200 unsolicited manuscripts per week, and each of the five editors in her department receives another 10 or so "recommended" manuscripts daily. She estimates that out of 50 stories published each year, 5 are from virtual unknowns. But 8 out of 10 of all submissions, whether veteran or neophyte, are from men. "It makes it very hard to publish half and half," she says, "and though I'd like to, I can't let it force my hand. It's quite hard to find 50 great stories a year."

Thanks to MobyLives for the link. Check out his ongoing survey on women in the New Yorker (and he looks at both fiction and non-fiction.)

from the oddly enough files

Read about the surreal, men-only world of Pakistan massage.

Link via Turbanhead.

January 27, 2003

kim on korea

Suki Kim, author of The Interpreter, in bookstores now, writes movingly about what it was like to visit North Korea. There's everything you might expect (famine, persecution, cult of personality) and everything you might not (people who fled North Korea in horror decades ago, now calling it "home.")

If anyone's read Kim's book already, I'd love to hear your thoughts. I remember picking it up and reading the first couple of pages and then putting it back down--it didn't grab my interest.

Link via Arts and Letters Daily.

deaf to the drums of war

Poor Dubya. France and Germany don't want to go to war. Neither do Russia or China. That leaves him alone in the Security Council, and so any war on Iraq will have to be on his own terms, without the approval of the UN. Problem is, 72% of Americans want to see more proof before going to war, and 48% think Al-Qaeda is a greater risk than Saddam (24%). And while 56% still think we should "take action" in Iraq (36% oppose), that number is sure to continue to drop as we get closer to the attack (mid-February, analysts say). More numbers from the WSJ poll here.

January 23, 2003

2003 forecast

I noticed a few book mentions in this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly, devoted to the new year: a new book by Eric Schlosser (of Fast Food Nation fame) will be out in Spring. Then Suzan Lori-Parks (Topdog/Underdog) will have a novel out in May, called Getting Mother's Body. But we'll have to wait till September for Jhumpa Lahiri's much anticipated first novel, described as "a multi-generational tale of a Bengali family in America called The Namesake".

January 22, 2003

Pinter on America

Harold Pinter wrote this poem, "God Bless America," for the Guardian.

americans, geography, and collateral damage

Adnan ran across this video of an Australian journalist asking general interest questions here in America. It's not random, of course. I'm sure they just happened to pick the dumbest people for the clip. But it's damn funny.

January 21, 2003

publishing's latest gimmick

Apparently, publishers now send reviewers "limited, signed, first-editions" of books they're trying to promote. See, it's not really a bribe or anything. It's just a contribution. Book promotion is becoming more like movie promotion. Or politics.
This Guardian article explains it all.

mailer in newsweek

Here's an interview with Norman Mailer in Newsweek. Like John LeCarre, Salman Rushdie, and other writers, he's not too hot on the war with Iraq:
"Leaving aside all the usual explanations—the oil, the fact that if the people in power in this country win they will then have this commanding position in the Near East—forgetting all that, the fact is, that war could just go on and on and on. But I don’t think that bothers our leaders very much. I think they kind of like the idea that if the country gets very military, then they can stop all the “frees”—free love, gay liberation, women’s liberation, all the things they detest. There’s no question that the level of uncertainty, the absence of absolutes, has probably never been greater. So the longer the danger goes on, the longer they have to create a new kind of society. We’re in for curious times. "
Indeed.

January 15, 2003

john le carre on the bush administration

John LeCarre, the man who has made a living by writing terrific spy novels as well as more 'reflective' books like The Tailor of Panama, has an Op-Ed piece in today's Times Online, titled "The United States of America has gone mad."
He decries the lack of debate about the proposed war on Iraq, the lack of coverage of all the issues plaguing the U.S. Administration to the exclusion of the war plans, the bewildering support of Tony Blair for the war, etc.
However, I think he's got it wrong on a couple of points. To wit, I don't believe that "88% of Americans support the war." It's more complicated than that. Americans oppose unilateral action, and want Bush to get U.N. support before doing anything. In addition, Americans rank Al-Qaida as a far greater risk than Saddam.
Overall, though, the piece is definitely a worthwhile read, especially since he expressed the opinions of many Brits. Plus he's got a real way with words, that man. Unfortunately, I'm sure he'll be ridiculed just as much as all those actors who told Bush to shove it. After all, they're just artists. What the hell would they know about the world, right?
Link via The Literary Saloon and Maud Newton.

the next harry

Harry Potter fans (whose numbers include my husband) can finally mark their calendars for June 21. That's when they can assault bookstores for the worldwide release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And you can already pre-order it at Amazon.com.
In other YA book news, Publishers' Weekly's Off the Cuff awards were announced today. Poor Michael Chabon. They picked his Summerland as the most over-rated book of the year. Ouch. Not everyone can have J.K. Rowling's mojo. Not even Joyce Carol Oates' latest.

It wasn't just sloth

Turns out my fatigue from yesterday was because I was coming down with a sore throat. Suggestions for harmless self-medicating brews welcome.

January 14, 2003

NBCC nominees announced

The National Book Critics Circle award nominees have been announced. I still haven't read Middlesex, but was happy to see a short story collection on the fiction list: Aleksandar Hemon's Nowhere Man. I heard mixed things about it though. A few friends liked it, but others couldn't get through it and really hated it.

something new

I decided to put that story (working title "The End of Refraction") away for a while and work on something else. I dug up an old scene I had written a while back, between a mother and daughter. I don't have a story yet. I'm intrigued by what this character (a woman who's abused by her husband) will do, given all the handicaps I've given her. We shall see. Much to my shame, it's already 2 pm (the time when I usually start to panic) and I don't feel awake yet. Was woken up at an ungodly hour by one of Alex's work emergencies and then I had to drive him to work. My schedule got messed up, and I haven't recovered. I feel exhausted.

January 10, 2003

the hell of revisions

I've been procrastinating for the better part of three hours. I lie to myself and say, it's just news (shouldn't a person stay informed?), it's just industry stuff (shouldn't a writer keep up with lit. news?), or it's just email (am I supposed to ignore my friends?) Finally, I get up, get coffee and sit back to sip it, even though I'm supposed to be off the devil's drink at the moment. Then a little mosquito starts pestering me. I swat at it. It comes back. I nearly spill my coffee on the laptop trying to get rid of it. Then it occurs to me it's a divine sign: stop wasting time, get back to revising your draft. And, I ask you, who am I to ignore heavenly warnings?

January 09, 2003

test sanitization: suite (et fin?)

In a June 3rd entry, I had mentioned the recent discovery that the New York high school exam questions included many literary passages (from the likes of Chekhov and Singer), which had been "cleaned up" to remove references to gender, race, religion, sex, (all the fun stuff.) You would think that the outcry over this would have made the board clean up its act, so to speak.
Not a chance. Today's New York Times says they're still at it:
"A review of the most recent state exam, given in August, reveals that they did it again, this time altering Franz Kafka and sanitizing Aldous Huxley.
Worse yet, a historian quoted on the exam believes that a test question based on his work has more than one correct answer. If he is right, it may mean that some high school students who failed the August test actually passed and could be eligible for a diploma." (article requires registration)

P.S: On a related note, see a July 22nd post on how textbooks (not just exams) are altered in Texas to avoid "offending" people.

January 08, 2003

earth to bush: stop it.

Families of September 11 victims don't believe the official stance that Iraq is an immediate threat and are against the war. The irony is that Sep. 11 is exactly what'll be used to justify the upcoming attack.

i wasn't holding my breath, but still...

Now that Bill Buford has stepped down, fiction editing at the New Yorker is in the hands of Deborah Treisman, a young editor who's been with the magazine for the last five years. Book Magazine conducted a Q&A with her, which you can read here.

Q: Have you ever rescued anything notable from the slush pile?
A: Someone who's submitting themselves directly to the fiction editor probably isn't all that savvy about publishing and probably not about writing either. Though I'm sure there are exceptions to that. Particularly in poetry. A lot of poetry comes from the slush pile, because poets don't have agents. "

Can you hear the collective cries of thousands of unpublished writers everywhere as stakes are driven through their hearts?
Link via the Literary Saloon.

January 06, 2003

announcing their colors for 2004

Elsewhere, and just as you think that September 11 could not be further commercialized for personal gain, Republicans announced today that New York City will host the Republican Convention in 2004.

and the 'word' of the year is...

"weapons of mass destructions," according to the American Dialect Society. It's been that kind of year.

young and gifted

Granta's much awaited list of best young British Novelists under 40 is here. Compare with their picks in 1983 and in 1993.

back to the grind

MobyLives, the Literary Saloon and Bookslut are all back from their Christmas/New Year hiatus. I'm just happy things are back to normal. I'm working on my laptop, legs askew on top of the desk, and I just realized I'm wearing a pale green top with dark brown pants and fuschia pink mini socks. This is what happens when you don't hold down a regular job anymore.

January 03, 2003

it's 2003, what prospects for 2004?

I didn’t vote for George W. Bush, so it’s hardly a surprise that I’m not his biggest fan. Mind you, I don’t dislike the man himself so much. I’m sure he’s a nice fellow and a fun guy to meet at a party, but he stands for everything I disagree with, and I am hard pressed to think of anything positive he’s done for this country since being selected for the office of President. For example, in the last three years, he has:

Unilaterally withdrawn out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missiles treaty, a move that some in Congress said pushed the limits of the Constitution , and one that will certainly increase the chances that arms races will continue.

Lifted restrictions on logging of national forests, at a time when we are already using and abusing natural resources.

Wants to allow drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Failed to do much of anything to stop corporate malfeasance (Enron, WorldCom et cetera) though he managed to distance himself from the crooks.

Allowed his Attorney-General and other members of his Administration to mount an unprecedented war on civil liberties, including:
a) the detention of approximately 1,200 Arabs and Muslims (no exact number has been released) indefinitely and with no access to legal counsel. None of the detainees were proved to have any real connection to the events of September 11.
b) the implementation of “special registration,” which requires non-immigrants males from only a handful of Mid-Eastern countries to register with INS and be fingerprinted, all the while absolving nationals of other countries from the inconvenience.
c) the empowerment of federal agents to wire tap, obtain library records, and detain people if there is any suspicion of terrorism or terrorism-related activities. The agents are allowed full discretion as to what they consider “suspect” actions.
d) the launch of Total Information Awareness, a system that essentially violates the privacy of citizens and spies on them for the government, and in a wonderful twist of irony, the choice of a convicted liar to head this DARPA program.

Started a “War on Terror” but has failed to capture Ossama Bin Laden or Mullah Omar or Ayman Al-Zawahiri or indeed any Al-Qaeda “big fish”. In addition, Bush has done nothing to stop his Saudi acquaintances from funding terrorism in his own backyard.

On the world front, Bush has refused to deal with Yasser Arafat (a man he has never once met personally, whereas he has often heard Ariel Sharon’s views in person). He has thus painted his State Department into a corner, and indefinitely postponed any mediations by the U.S. in the decades-old conflict.

Declared that Iraq represents a clear and present danger to the United States, and that he intends to go to war, thus mounting an unprovoked attack against a sovereign nation, despite all evidence pointing to the fact that Iraq does not represent a viable threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. When criticized for his zeal on war, he has sought the seal of the United Nations, only to de-legitimize this international organization by making it clear he intends to go it alone if the UN disagrees with his assessments on Iraq. Meanwhile, North Korea, which has nuclear weapons (a tad more dangerous than chemical or biological weapons, one might point out), is being courted via diplomatic channels.

Fostered an atmosphere in which dissent is regarded with suspicion. His spokesman Ari Fleischer tells people that they “must watch what they say and watch what they do.” Bush has even criticized the Senate, saying that its members are “not interested in the security of the American people”, prompting an emotional response from Tom Daschle (who was in fact intimidated enough to then vote for what the President asked for)

Sought to change the language of facts, in pure Animal Farm fashion. In his idiom, you are “either with us or against us.” Countries are deemed to belong to “an axis of evil.” We are not attacking Iraq but launching “a pre-emptive strike”. We are not “conquerors” of Iraq, but its “liberators”, etc.

Given all this, I’ve been quite curious about what the rest of the political class is doing. But I am not very optimistic because on the issue of Iraq, for example, the House and the Senate both gave the President the right to attack without so much as a debate, and they look likely to follow the leader all the way. And now that Gore has (thankfully) dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination, is there anyone who might offer an alternative? What is needed is someone who can actually stand his ground and dare to disagree with Bush, not someone who can say “my policies will do the same,” like Al Gore.
So far, the names of Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and Tom Daschle of South Dakota have been mentioned. Yet, all of these Senators voted “Yes” for the war on Iraq. One surmises that they are too afraid to disagree, afraid to be called unpatriotic for questioning the direction that the country is taking, even though that is precisely their role.
It’s clearly too early to tell, and there could yet be others who jump into the race later in 2003. And there is also Vermont Governor Howard Dean. But I’ll be interested to see whom the Democrats will choose. Otherwise it’s back to the Greens again in 2004.

posted by Laila Lalami at 04:41 PM

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