|
2 May 2004 • Letter from Meg • Versal Available Now in Bookstores • The Open Stanza: May Edition • Calls for Writers • May Literary Picks 
R— Recently in Harper's I read an excerpt from a novel by Saddam Hussein. The bad guy of my generation is a published author, with four books to his name - the first three, as reported by Harper's, sold to the Iraqi public in the hundreds of thousands. The excerpt was from his fourth, Be Gone, Demons. The literary merits of this work, if I can draw any conclusion from the four column excerpt, are minimal. Saddam's prose is disjointed, the narrative plot-driven, and the characters flattened by the archetypes they attempt to represent. Whatever your adjective for current events ("occupation" v. "liberation"), Saddam's writing holds none of the Pound irony. Like the work from last year's poetsforthewar.org, it reads more like an army recruitment text, an (over)extended metaphor for a larger agenda, with a tone strangely akin to many of Bush's more metaphysical speeches. Literary genius or not, "forty thousand copies of the book were printed last Spring, though almost all were destroyed in air strikes. Saddam is believed to have spent his last weeks as dictator working on the novel" (Harper's Magazine, April 2004). —MG
NEWS Demodokos JOOT It's a lit mag with a spine: the Netherland's rich international literary community on the page, side-by-side with the world.
CALLS FOR WRITERS Send writing samples to openstanza@wordsinhere.com if you would like to perform. We're also looking for musicians to fill our music slot. Email the above email address if you're interested. For more information on these workshops and for a listing of more, click here.
MAY EVENTS WE'RE GOING TO ATTEND The Open Stanza Thursday 13 May, 8pm Volta, Amsterdam Get it off the page. Poetry in performance. Entrance: 5 euros. For more information visit our Stanza pages. • De Residentie Present Sappho Sunday 16 May, 3pm Sappho, Amsterdam De Residentie (Mohs Volke, Tom Zinger, Karlijn Groet, Pom Wolff & Lucas Laherto Hirsch), Pim te Bokkel, Gijs ter Haar, Peter M vder Linde, A.C.G.Vianen, and Erwin Troost present an afternoon of poetry at Sappho. Music from Non-stop-Rob.
Events listed with a • are known to be accessible to an English-language audience. If you visit a show which does not have a • on our list but does include multi-lingual performances, please let us know. For the full list of May Events and for a listing of regular shows, click here.
ABOUT THIS LIST AND ADDRESS REMOVAL Copyright © wordsinhere 2004. No part may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the specific written permission of wordsinhere first hand and obtained. wordsinhere is a registered association through the Kamer van Koophandel, Netherlands. Number 34181684. |
||
 |
|
|