Literature

Provokator goes high art as we present a short story by Garrett McNeill...

Her voice slid through the silence like an epidural needle. Any tension felt by those sitting in the room began to evaporate. Alcohol wasn’t working. Every eye-lash pointed towards her. The thing about anesthesia is it produces a sense of unreality and detachment from self. Absolved of identity, the room became a vacuum wherein the pulsating inflections of her voice were clung to by the rest in fungal acceptance.

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BLATT GETS A NEW FACE

We are happy to announce the launch of the new BLATT web site,
featuring our new logo and updated design, courtesy of BLATT Art
Director Mario Dzurila. Check it out:

http://www.blatt.cz

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by Sezin Rajandran

There are some books created by Fate. Books that call upon the writer, move his hand, and assist in their own invention. These books have a life of their own, drawing readers to them. I am one such book.

You know me as The Devil’s Bible, the Codex Gigas, The Great Book, the largest book in medieval history. You know that my pages are made of the skins of 160 donkeys. My parchments are illuminated in the maroon of dried blood, the gold of the Sun, the black of dark moonless nights, the green of the earth from where I was born in the year 1229. 

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By Wendy Wrangham

Paradoxes abound in Clare Wigfall’s debut collection.  Unnerving yet empathic stories are executed with a deftness that bestows a tale’s essence morsel by morsel, sublimely whetting the appetite before ending abruptly, often without resolution but with a piquant twist.

Age-old fears (paranoia, independent women, the failure to protect) thread through the varied scenarios whether in a timeless Gaelic isle, an allegorical Hamelin, a besieged Paris or a road trip to Florida, and the macabre is touched on with disappearing babies, hastily buried bodies, incest, starvation and a shocking though unnamed crime that leaves a wife adrift.

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By Matej Harik

MOTHER NIGHT was first published in 1961. It's amazing how little things have changed. Mother's Night, the title of which is taken from Goethe's Faust, is a relatively short but very powerful novel

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by Paul Leppin
translated from German by Cynthia A. Klima
Afterword by Dierk O. Hoffmann

PUBLISHED BY TWISTED SPOON PRESS

€ paperback original, 189 pp.
€ price: 290, CZK
€ available in bookshops

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Are magazines building hedges between the genders to keep readers coming back?
By Martina Cermakova

The headlines “Your orgasm guaranteed,” “Treat yourself Like a Goddess,” "Ways to Make New-Man Sex Amazing” on the front page of Glamour, and Cosmo, and increasingly any other women's magazine, talk of assertive women – women, who mimic men sexually, who are no longer the prey but the predator. Never mind that, as Anthony Clare in his book On Men: Masculinity in Crisis puts it, “men still outnumber women in positions of power across the globe, still glower downwards through the glass ceiling, still strut the cabinet and boardrooms in every developed country in the world,” women are taking charge – even if only in bed for now.

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An attempted Henry Rollins interview

(by Marika)

I had been warned several years ago about the sharp bladed temperament wielded when conducting an interview with Henry Rollins, and they were so right. The truth of their warning hit me like an involuntary ice-cold bath.  In the seven years this writer has been holding interviews, never once have I been told to shut up or be quiet and listen, just listen. I could go to a lecture for that.

It was this moment that I realized the warning I had not heeded was more than correct – it was devastating…for days, hearing Henry Rollins’ voice in my ears shut me down, “Hey! I’m talking here!”

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Original article by Stephen Delbos, Prague Post online

Anthology of 20th-century Czech poets translates many the country's best into English for first time

Great poetry anthologies are rare, but not for a lack of great poems. Any sampling of poets is only as strong as the sum of its parts, but, to be more than just a grouping of varied talents, a poetry anthology must also be a work of selective criticism.

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Original article by Stephen Delbos, Prague Post online

James Ragan, out with a new book, is a yearly house guest of Václav Havel

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Original article by Stephan Delbos, Prague Post online

Translation of Pavel Šrut makes us look at ourselves

Paper Shoes is the first collection of Pavel Šrut's poetry available in English, and is just hitting the bookshelves of Prague bookstores. Essentially a book of selected poems wonderfully translated by the young Czech-American Ema Katrovas, the book samples nearly 50 years of Šrut's work, including a group of poems originally published in samizdat form under Communism.

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Original article from BBC NEWS online

Authors, artists and musicians are due to gather at a library in San Francisco to protest against the banning of books in schools and libraries in the US.

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The Syrian poet Ali Ahmed Said Esber - known to readers as Adonis - traces the fault line between the Arab and Western worlds with his pen, attempting "to give a new image to what we call the Arab world, and to create a new way of seeing our contemporary world," he says.

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Late in his career, Robert Crumb goes back to where it all began 

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By Alex Jordan

The festival's aim is to give modern writers a place on the world stage. This year's contributors range from Nobel Laureates to acclaimed foreign writers. One of it's main players is controversial American cartoonist Robert Crumb. He will discuss his underground cartoons (or so we assume) and exclusively designed a 'new European Union' flag for the festival.
The focus is 'the art of storytelling'. Discussions explore Arabic, Chinese and American perspectives, on such subjects as truth and falsehood surrounding terrorist rhetoric following 'September 11th'. Participants will include the Nobel prize winner (2000) Gao Xingjian. Many speakers, e.g Xingjian and the Czech Jiří Suchý, have criticised their countries' (current or former) political regimes and should present views you won't hear from their governments.

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Bigger, Better, Harder Stuff That Doesn't Suck 25_03-01_04

Tired of stuff that sucks? Well we gots the cure for whats ails ya.
Recommended Events Listings: In addition to a print magazine we are media sponsors for things of specific interest that happen to be a bit weird, marginal or under the radar.

Wednesday 25:

Film klub: Kozy a Mazanec: 605037318 (videoart) @ MeetFactory (20:00)

Entrance: 50 Kč

A projector in the MeetFactory screens videos which were chosen by Martin Mazanec, a guest, and supervised by Eva Jiřička, MARK THER and Koza is partial to an elegant appearance and likes to show off, she’s artistically gifted and loves nature. She could be the most charming being on Earth, if she wasn’t so unstable and pessimistic. She’s never content with her fate and her statements drive her fellow citizens nuts. She covers up her flaws and inner insecurities with strong arrogance.

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Projektor promítá videa v MeetFactory, které vybral host Martin Mazanec dohlíží Eva Jiřička, MARK THER a Koza si potrpí na elegantní zevnějšek a ráda se předvádí, je umělecky nadaná, miluje přírodu. Mohla by být nejšarmantnější bytostí na zemi, kdyby nebyla tak nestálá a pesimistická. Nikdy není spokojena se svým osudem a přivádí své spoluobčany až k zoufalství svými výroky. Své slabé stránky a vnitřní nejistoty zakrývá silnou arogancí.

Shopsky Sound @ Zero (21:00)

After years of loving and enjoying Balkan and eastern European music, they created Shopsky Sound to make their friends enjoy this music as well. Because there was no possibility to go out and listen to Balkan Music, Merino and Danny started to create their own Balkan partys, beginning in 2008 at the Galerie Le Court, called Balkan Café. Merino aka Dyskoboi was playing on some festivals, where people were really enjoying this music... After summer he became resident dj in Chapeau Rouge, where he is playing with Danny. And a little later Shopsky Sound was born. Now they started aswell to play in the new club 2.patro like resident djs and they will play wherever people want to dance, drink, enjoy themselfs and listen to Balkan-Rakia and Vodka-Hits!

Thursday 26:

Albánské polyfonie @ Hlahol, Masarykovo Nábřeží 16, Praha 1 (20:00) promoted by Respect Plus

The South Albanian harbour town of Saranda represents with three polyphonic choirs („Jonianet“, „Dea“ and „Voices of the nightingale”) one of the centres of the polyphonic tradition of Lab singing. The six singers of the polyphonic Ensemble “Jonianet”, founded in 1993 by Maksi Kulo, are preserving, promoting and revitalizing the menaced older singing tradition of Saranda and Delvina. The extensive repertoire, inherited by the “rapsod” Kiço Kapedani, includes epic-historic songs, migrations songs, ritual and love songs. Even art songs, based on traditional pentatonic modes, enriched by texts of contemporary local poets have been integrated into their repertoire.

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Bigger, Better, Harder Stuff That Doesn't Suck 25_02-04_03

Tired of stuff that sucks? Well we gots the cure for whats ails ya.
Recommended Events Listings: In addition to a print magazine we are media sponsors for things of specific interest that happen to be a bit weird, marginal or under the radar.

Wednesday 25:

Tony Allen @Palác Akropolis (19:30)

Tony Allen gets Palác Akropolis dancing as part of the Respect Plus world music concert series.
As the drummer of Fela Kuti's legendary Africa 70 band, he played a vital role in the creation of afrobeat, the world-conquering genre that blends West African styles with Western jazz and funk.
Allen went solo in 1979, disillusioned with the cronyism and carelessness that had crept into the band.
He moved to Europe in 1984, eventually settling in Paris, and created a hybrid genre called afrofunk by blending afrobeat with electronica, dub, R&B and rap.

Described by producer Brian Eno as "perhaps the greatest drummer who has ever lived," Allen's most recent release, 2006's Lagos No Shaking, saw him returning to his afrobeat roots with a live album recorded in the Nigerian metropolis.

Plague Playwrite contest @ Divadlo Minor

we|st 25.02.2009 (20:00)
su|ne 01.03.2009 (20:00)

we|st 04.03.2009 (18:30) 

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by Alex Jordan

Alchemy Reading & Performance Series
@ The Globe Cafe, Pštrossova 6
Monday, December 1, 2008
8:00pm - 10:45pm
Open mic sign up from 7.30 to 8
 
The Alchemy Reading & Performance Series is pleased to welcome poet E. Amato to Prague for a reading, followed by a massively cheerful open mic of music, poetry and whatnot.

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By Caroline Winter for nytimes.com

Why do we capitalize the word “I”? There’s no grammatical reason for doing so, and oddly enough, the majuscule “I” appears only in English.

Consider other languages: some, like Hebrew, Arabic and Devanagari-Hindi, have no capitalized letters, and others, like Japanese, make it possible to drop pronouns altogether. The supposedly snobbish French leave all personal pronouns in the unassuming lowercase, and Germans respectfully capitalize the formal form of “you” and even, occasionally, the informal form of “you,” but would never capitalize “I.” Yet in English, the solitary “I” towers above “he,” “she,” “it” and the royal “we.” Even a gathering that includes God might not be addressed with a capitalized “you.”

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By Stephan Delbos

Most of us take complete self-expression for granted. Weblogs, Facebook, MySpace; our society is based in part on the belief that every individual’s opinion deserves to be heard. As foolish or illusionary as this may be in reality, there is little doubt that a relatively free media is an improvement over most alternatives.

Imagine a society in which individuals cannot express their thoughts or even read books or newspapers not officially-sanctioned by the conservative, authoritarian government. For those living in post-communist countries like the Czech Republic, this was a reality until recently. Where could an intellectual turn for escape? 

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By: Jack Terricloth
Published by Gunner Records, 2007
84 pages
ISBN- 978-3-00-021799-9

      Eminently readable, fast-paced prose stories that chronicle a world of glamorous and rampant drug use, addicts, outcasts and punks prowling cities in the aftermath of failed revolutions, “The Collected Cloth” is the book the cool kids wanted to write in high school.
      The book is actually two books collected into one, hence the title. The first section, “Bakshish,” is a short story consisting of 43 pages and 13 ‘chapters’ that read more like episodes, polaroid pictures rather than fully-developed sections. The narrative itself, however, is developed, as are the characters. The story centers around Simon Grapelli, a young bartender eking out a living in an unnamed post-revolutionary city. When he is hired as an unwilling informant for the secret police, he finds his pockets fattened with cash enough to support the copious drug intake of both himself and his girlfriend Mary-Anne, as well as to pay for the tailored suits he’s always longed for but has never been able to afford.

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Reviewed by Brian L. Youngwright

There are countless things human beings are scared about, and most of these fears are universal - even if they tend to affect individual life in varying degrees and intensities. One person worries obsessively about the constant failure of relationships, the other about impending bankruptcy; one person is petrified by his seeming inability to live up to his own expectations, the other paralyzed by the idea of terrorist attacks. And on goes the list, ad infinitum. Often enough, even the best psychiatrist can provide only a limited cure.

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BLATT Books is pleased to announce the finalists for its Novel of Novels Contest.

This was a contest held by BLATT earlier this year to find a novel for what will be our first publication of fiction in 2008.

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By Fiona Mizani 

Bordercrossing Berlin - The English Language Literary Magazine was launched on 2nd December 2006. The debut and second issues of this beautifully-designed, illustrated, 170 plus page publication are bringing to the attention of an interested German readership, as well as to the anglophone population, Berlin's importance as a hot-bed of English language literary talent at the beginning of the 21st century.

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By Stephan Delbos

The Prague Writers’ Festival

June 1-5

Free-300kc (Depending on event)

www.pwf.cz

May in Prague might be the time of love and lilacs, but in 1968 it was a time of dreams and petals crushed beneath the treads of invading Soviet tanks. This May marks the fortieth anniversary of the sudden, militant end of nearly a decade of “democratic communism,” during which Prague artists and intellectuals worked to expand the oppressive paradigms of communist rule. And they were not alone. The events of 1968 Prague were mirrored in cities throughout the world. The Paris riots, student riots in Pakistan, protests in Moscow, the Civil Rights protests and tragic assassination of Martin Luther King Jr: these independent expressions of disillusionment give just a taste of the volatile state of the world in that unique year.

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