Sunday, November 9, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
The White Review no. 11
http://www.thewhitereview.org/issue/issue-no-11/
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Hercules in Mato Grosso - Estreno mundial
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Hércules en el Mato Grosso
Drama lírico en 2 actos, en portugués, quechua y alemán.
Dramatis Personae
Hércules
Florence: Martín Díaz (tenor)
Barón
Langsdorff: Alejandro Spies (barítono)
Anaconda
Rainha: María Paula Alberdi (soprano)
Anaconda
Vestal: María Virginia Majorel (soprano)
Leandro Rodríguez Jáuregui, piano
Victoria Gianera, piano
Diego Cano, electrónica off stage
Compositor: Esteban Insinger
Libreto: Pola Oloixarac
Escenografía: Luna Paiva
Régie: Walter Jakob
Dirección Musical: Sebastián Zubieta
Asistencia Dir. Musical: Adrián Llano
Vestuario: Leticia Pompei
Iluminación: Eduardo Pérez Winter
Producción General:
Bárbara Scotto
Hércules en el Mato
Grosso es un encargo del Centro de
Experimentación del Teatro Colón.
Agradecimientos: Jorge
Rufinelli, Mariano Siskind, Clara Masnatta, Juan Pablo Piñeiro, Sebastián
Soler. Asistencia en idiomas: Andréa Bertacchini (portugués), Katrin
Zinsmeister (alemán).
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Festival de la Palabra: Puerto Rico - NYC
https://www.facebook.com/FestivaldelaPalabra
SAN JUAN
Teatro Tapia
5:30pm—6:45pm
DEBATE
Mujeres de Letras:
rebeldes y malditas
ALBERTO RUY SÁNCHEZ,
POLA OLOIXARAC,
VÉRONIQUE OVALDÉ
Y MARA PASTOR
Viernes 17 octubre:
Sala Oeste. Arsenal de la Puntila.
9:15am—10:00am
Yo también soy lector
POLA OLOIXARAC
(encuentro con estudiantes)
Sábado 18 octubre:
Las Arcadas del Edificio de Turismo. Paseo de la Princesa
3:30pm—4:45pm
DEBATE
De Madame Bovary a La Maga: retratos de mujer
FRANCISCO GOLDMAN,
POLA OLOIXARAC,
MARA PASTOR,
CARLOS MANUEL RIVERA
Y JOSÉ MURATTI
NUEVA YORK
Viernes 24 octubre
Black Box Theater at El Museo del Barrio
6:15 pm – 7:30 pm:
MASTER PANEL
¿Por qué Julia?: La Mujer en la Literarura/Why Julia? Women in Literature
MYRNA NIEVES,
POLA OLOIXARAC,
LILLIANA RAMOS COLLADO
Y SANDRA A. GARCÍA-BETANCOURT
Los teratos de la Lit
Los teratos de la lit. Acerca de La masacre de Reed College, de Fernando Montes Vera
por Pola Oloixarac
presentación leída en Purr Libros, 29 de mayo 2013
publicada en Revista Katatay, Año IX, No 11/12, septiembre 2014
A la dra. V. Cano
De
los seres humanos cultos con aspiraciones artísticas se espera, en los
casos más distinguidos, la destrucción. Hablar de la destrucción es una
de las maneras modernistas más comunes del arte: se habla una novela que rompe, o un autor que destruye equis estética, tradición, grupo, etc. O no: una novela que no logra romper, que quiso
matar y no pudo: en estos casos la expectativa por la destrucción queda
trunca. Se fantasea con una palabra escrita que destruye con su sola
presencia al resto.
Ahora vamos a hablar de una Masacre, un asunto de muerte distribuida en un milieu particular, en un college.
Un ritual de aniquilamiento a gente como ustedes llevado adelante por
gente como él (o como nosotros). Los yoes y los ellos se pueden siempre
recombinar: es la naturaleza de la magia lingüística, que exhibe como
ninguna el pasaje del yo al ellos. Será una petite morte
que viviremos no sin éxtasis (la Masacre los promete y los contiene)
distribuida en los nodos de una red social, de una escuela, un trabajo.
En esos lugares de la muerte, la red social vuelve a hacerse física, se
recomponen los lazos visibles. Es el ámbito del troll IRL (i.e. in real life), una de las taxa favoritas entre las mutaciones que nuestro autor investiga.
Adentro
y afuera de la novela, en el mundo de los personajes y en el mundo IRL
de la vida, la pregunta es Quién decide quién muere y quién permanece
con vida.
Como el promachotheuthis sulcus, un tipo de molusco con forma de estrella de mar y una pequeña boca circular de dientes alineados símil humanos, La Masacre de Reed College
de Fernando Montes Vera extiende sus tentáculos sobre dos mundos: el
universitario precarizado de Buenos Aires y el progresismo en estado de delirium tremens de Portland, situado en un valle del oeste de Estados Unidos. El promachotheuthis sulcus
mismo vive a mitad de dos mundos: es mitad calamar, mitad mantarraya.
Sabemos de su existencia entre nosotros, o entre el nosotros que
conforma el mar, desde épocas muy recientes, desde 20071.
(sigue acá)
Friday, September 19, 2014
insider's look! #HerculesinMatoGrosso
September 19, 2014
Earlier this summer, Music of the Americas explored the ongoing collaboration between the Teatro Colón and the Americas Society. In the last year, Americas Society expanded its relationship with the Colón, one of the leading opera houses in the Western Hemisphere, by initiating a partnership with the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón (CETC). Through the CETC, the Colón is able to establish an environment in which composers can create, audiences can get to know new works, and musicians can enjoy the challenges of premiering them. Music of the Americas had the unique opportunity to learn about the process of production for a new opera, Hercules en el Matto Grosso, due to have its premiere later this fall in Buenos Aires and its U.S. premiere at Americas Society in Spring 2015. Americas Society's Martha Cargo speaks with the opera's librettist Pola Oloixarac.
Background on the Work
Hercules en el Matto Grosso centers on Hércules Florence, the French-Brazilian painter and inventor who traveled with Baron von Langsdorff into the jungles of Brazil's Mato Grosso in the late 1820s. The opera follows the journey of these two men as they venture into the Amazon, where they are confronted by two anaconda snakes, who are water gods. Seduced by the anacondas, Langsdorff loses his mind, infected by fever. From the detailed journals that Hércules kept, we see that he completed his first experiments fixing images with a camera obscura, coining the term "photo-graphia" (painting with light). Oloixarac developed this story as a research assistant to the Department of Romance Languages at the Harvard libraries, and this past February completed her research and libretto at Stanford University. The cast features baritone Alejandro Spies in one of the leading roles (Watch his 2013 ISATC debut at Americas Society here).
The majority of the libretto is in Portuguese, with several German lieder, sung by Langsdorff, as well as some passages in Quechua, sung by the anacondas. The work is scored for two pianos, four singers, and electronics.
Music of the Americas: How did the inclusion of Quechua come up in your research? Is it connected to Amazon legends of these water gods?
Read it here!----- CETC Teatro Colón el 13 de noviembre, 14, 15, 16! =D
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Argentina vs. Angry Birds
by Pola Oloixarac for The New York Times
BUENOS AIRES — Argentina
has defaulted on its debt three times in the last 32 years, most
recently last month, making it somewhat of an expert on the subject.
After
failing to satisfy a judgment ordering the country to pay $1.3 billion
to American hedge funds, closing it out of international credit markets,
the hashtag “Argentina vs. the Vultures” no longer makes its citizens
anxious. They see it as business as usual.
Argentina
is disputing the ruling, by Judge Thomas P. Griesa of New York, which
forbids the country to pay the restructured debt from 2002 without
paying the investment funds that have held out for full payment. The
country has divided its bond holders into two groups: the good ones, who
settled their debt for 30 cents on the dollar; and the evil ones, who
refused to settle, taking their case to the courts and winning.
But
the so-called vultures have helped President Cristina Fernández de
Kirchner ease back into the spotlight. In fighting the angry birds of
capitalism, she is raising her profile at home, where her grip on power
was waning. She has been rising in the polls.
In
July, Mrs. Kirchner was facing the most difficult moment in her
administration. After six years in office, her policies had resulted in
an annual inflation rate that may be as high as 40 percent (official
statistics peg it at 10.9 percent), a stubborn recession and little hope
for economic growth.
Mrs.
Kirchner and her husband, Néstor, who preceded her as president and who
died in 2010, ascended to power after the crisis and debt default in
2002. Between then and the current crisis, isolation from the
international credit markets set Argentina apart from other left-leaning
but more market-friendly South American governments, such as Brazil and
Chile. With her vice president, Amado Boudou, put on trial on
corruption charges earlier this year for his involvement with the
company that prints Argentina’s currency, Mrs. Kirchner was running out
of options.
In
May, she sought to raise her profile by creating an agency with the
Orwellian name of Secretariat for Strategic Coordination of National
Thought. But the hedge funds proved a more successful foil for
coordinating the nation’s thinking. Most Argentines think it’s fair to
defy Judge Griesa and defer payment, even if it means that credit
markets consider the country an outlaw, because the system itself is
flawed.
Argentines
have a weakness for defiant characters. The writer Jorge Luis Borges
said the country sympathized with “good outlaws,” those who fought
unjust laws. Mrs. Kirchner has assumed the role with aplomb: Like the
Argentine literary character Martín Fierro, she’s the outlaw with good
intentions, the heroine who never betrayed the people and was willing
to defy the capitalists.
Argentines
have become skeptics about the usefulness of world markets. “Here,
there’s never been a market god,” says Mauricio Corbalán, 46, an urban
planner who lives in Buenos Aires. “They no longer trust the neoliberal
expert that says you have to pay, no matter what.”
In
mid-August, Mrs. Kirchner made an emotional appearance on national
television. “I know I’m taking a big decision here; I’m nervous about
it,” she said, almost in tears. She explained that the country was
trying to make good on its debt payments, but was prevented from doing
so by Judge Griesa’s ruling.
China,
Argentina’s latest power partner, is eager to see the dispute resolved.
Argentina began paying debts earlier this year to the Paris Club and
others in a failed attempt to re-enter the credit markets. But Judge
Griesa’s ruling interrupted the path to normalization, denying the
country the boost that foreign investment could bring.
Argentina’s
leaders have reacted by promoting new laws that will grant more power
to the state in regulating the economy. To curb inflation, there’s a
smartphone app, Cared-for Prices, that allows citizens to “control”
prices. Both Argentina and Venezuela share the belief that new
technologies can perfect the growing presence of the government in
people’s lives, a neo-Socialist approach that has created two of Latin
America’s most fragile economies.
Inside
the presidential mansion, known as the Casa Rosada, the minister of
economy, Axel Kicilloff, has two nicknames: “Excel” and “the Soviet.”
The
political gain from the dispute with the vultures is likely to be
short-lived, as inflation and stagnation persist. But it cements Mrs.
Kirchner’s style as a bejeweled, Ferragamo-carrying committed Socialist:
“To my left, there’s only the wall,” she said recently. Not quite.
Between that wall and Mrs. Kirchner, the Argentines stand trapped.
Sunday, August 17, 2014
:)
They'd come around and
They'd ask
"You finished you
2nd novel yet?"
"No."
"Whatsamatta? Whatsamatta
That you can't
Finish it?"
"Hemorrhoids and
Insomnia."
"Maybe you've lost
It?"
"Lost what?"
"You know."
Now when they come
Around I tell then,
"Yeh. I finished
It. Be out in Sept."
"You FINISHED it?"
"Yeh."
"Well, listen, I gotta go."
Even the cat
Here in the courtyard
Won't come to my door
Anymore.
It's nice.
--Bukowski
They'd ask
"You finished you
2nd novel yet?"
"No."
"Whatsamatta? Whatsamatta
That you can't
Finish it?"
"Hemorrhoids and
Insomnia."
"Maybe you've lost
It?"
"Lost what?"
"You know."
Now when they come
Around I tell then,
"Yeh. I finished
It. Be out in Sept."
"You FINISHED it?"
"Yeh."
"Well, listen, I gotta go."
Even the cat
Here in the courtyard
Won't come to my door
Anymore.
It's nice.
--Bukowski
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Amazon sent me a raven to protect the Realm
Dear KDP Author,
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive. (falta mencionar writing and editing: el trabajo real. btw, books can't be resold within the Amazon realm)
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive. (dice que promueve competition, pero la batalla es por eliminar la competition que compite incluso en definir sus propios precios).
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
(the idea itself of talking about "writer in the middle", where they shouldn't be according to amazon, is the problem. writers are naturally in the middle, and in the middle of the constitution of the price, even if Amazon only notes (supra) the side dwellers of plusvalor).
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com
Please consider including these points:
- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.
(laughs)
Thanks for your support.
The Amazon Books Team
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback, yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense, they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive. (falta mencionar writing and editing: el trabajo real. btw, books can't be resold within the Amazon realm)
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion, Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt “Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary, paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality, books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive. (dice que promueve competition, pero la batalla es por eliminar la competition que compite incluso en definir sus propios precios).
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures. And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike, supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.” We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere, have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
(the idea itself of talking about "writer in the middle", where they shouldn't be according to amazon, is the problem. writers are naturally in the middle, and in the middle of the constitution of the price, even if Amazon only notes (supra) the side dwellers of plusvalor).
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.com
Please consider including these points:
- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue.
(laughs)
Thanks for your support.
The Amazon Books Team
Monday, August 4, 2014
Fabrication
by Najwan Darwish
The whole story is fabricated. Never have I believed the game that tells us you were slaughtered, and that your blood poured all the way to the Mediterranean only to be consumed by the sea. I am sure the story is all fabricated: Merriam Kershenbaum and Shlomo Ganor every night at 7.30.
Al‐Hurra (Free) [TV], al‐Arabiyya (the Arabian) [TV], and A‐ljazeera (the Peninsula) [TV]. Taken together: the Free Arabian Peninsula. Merriam Kershenbaum and Shlomo Ganor. I am sure they are also fabricated.
The bills placed into my mailbox by a person I do not know. The name of my family in three different languages. They, also, are fabricated. This woman who loves me through my email.
Haifa, too, is fabricated. This is why I never go down the street, and I only look at the sea from a perpendicular angle. Our friendship was in no one’s account. No one took the time to fabricate it; this is why it remained true. Oh! I forgot, all truths are fabricated. This is why I enjoyed sharing with you all your Araq, apples, nuts and other things.
Nothing pressures me. This is why I am not torn when I see our land that has been stolen from us. The robbery was fabricated, checkpoints are fabricated and the soldiers are a bunch of kids who still wet themselves. The elderly
Greek Orthodox women crossing into the Bethlehem checkpoint this morning are, also, fabricated. “In the name of the cross!” is said in a fabricated way. Good Friday is fabricated. The Byzantine‐tunes at the Maronite church in Nazareth is fabricated. My enemies are fabricated, and my relatives are the epitome of fabrication. Inferno is fabricated, and Paradise is fabricated with even greater skill and contempt. (Damn! Is Fairouz’s voice also fabricated?)
No nightmares haunt me, nightmares are fabricated. I do not suffer any disorders with my biological clock. I have no old enmity towards the sun, I do not suffer because of my inherited nature. All of these labels are fabricated.
I, too, am fabricated. Not because of who I am, but because all of the pronouns are fabricated. I do not hate collaborators; see how I listen to their news commentators without vomiting?
I am not afraid of the alarm clock, or even AIDS and atomic weapons. I do not suffer a phobia from ringing door bells or ringing phones. The world will not end tomorrow... all of these are fabricated news.
I am tired of 21st century romanticism: romance mixed with the “shit” of consumers from all social classes. If you wanted to live you too must be tarnished with it as well. This is also another fabricated theory.
Rejoice and be merry! The boxes filled with defeat that are stacked up under your grandparents’ beds are fabricated. And you have been wailing all those years about losing your homelands. Dude! (Woe! As said in Classical way) Loss is fabricated. A big lie formed by robbers of your existence.
Merriam Kershenbaum Shlomo Ganor Al‐Arabiyya al‐Hurra al‐Jazeera And that leper who holds the remote control.
Cockroaches and collaborators are nice creatures. Look at how gentle this one is, and how sweet the ugliness of that one’s face is. Our stereotypical ideas about their cheapness are fabricated.
A sedated group of men sit in the living room listening to the “Voice of Israel”. A respectable group of women make “Tabbouleh” and think about the future after having buried our public dignity. Don’t worry, these are all fabricated.
We cannot respect a few trees in front of our homes, leaving the mountains for those who set up the nets in our naps.
On the 22nd of April, 1948, Haifa surrendered. The date is fabricated. On the 8th of December, 1917, a few Effendis carried their white flag and a picture was taken of them as they surrendered Jerusalem. The event truly took place, but the picture is fabricated. You can, at any given time, gather a few Effendis and ask them to carry a white flag and march with it to Jaffa Gate to take a picture.
The time is 11:30 just before noon on the first of April 2010. Everyone went to sleep and awoke, and I am still up. Pillows are fabricated. In two weeks I will be going to Beirut. The Visa is an enormously fabricated obstacle. Oh, Our Lady of Lebanon, pray for us (though we know your prayer is fabricated.)
In a while I am going to sleep, as my wacky friend rides the bus from Nazareth. Words in Hebrew are flying around her like flies because she thinks the language of the enemy is a corpse, so I tell her: This is a fabricated ideology, the language of the enemy is a sexless robot. She bursts into a wacky, fabricated, laughter. We burst into laughter. Oh god, we won’t die. We run into eternity as our flip‐flops tap along. Eternity is fabricated. Everything that proceeded was a fabrication. Everything to come is also a fabrication. And each creature is raising it's arms like a tree in this fabricated poem.
Translated from the Arabic by Susan Hamad
Monday, July 21, 2014
BAR #2 !
- Liliana Colanzi, Alfredito (fiction)
- Thibault de Montaigu, An excerpt from Zanzíbar (fiction)
- Bernardo Carvalho, História de Amor (fiction)
- Ishion Hutchinson, Vers de société (poetry)
- Ken Harvey, The Invisible Mourner (fiction)
- Sam Rutter, sobre Carlos Labbé (review)
- Victoria Liendo, Bn(f) (bookstores we love)
- Busto, Entre difuntos (essay)
Imagen: Amaya Bouquet, "Judith", fotografía toma directa.
Leo y Presentação
Bulnes 2705 esq. Cerviño
MiauMiau/Arta/08
Presentamos ARTA/08
ARTA /08 revista trabajó en forma conjunta con los artistas visuales Walter Andrade y Luciana Roldolini y los escritores Rodolfo Biscia y Pola Oloixarac.
En ésta edición, se rompió con la caja de diseño (dossier / imagen separadas), que se trabajó en las anteriores publicaciones.
En ARTA 08, la edición de textos e imágenes es simultánea. Conviven en dobles páginas. Pero los objetos textuales y visuales continúan siendo autónomos. Se construyen entre ellos diálogos o puentes pero ninguno se circunscribe al otro.
En forma dialógica las dos entidades ponen en suspenso categorías, pensamientos e impresiones sobre el arte.
Entre horizontes de semblantes y fantasmas, se entrecruzan las Filósofas de Bling, que se posan en la evanescencia del tiempo de la imagen.
beij xx
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Banff!
Dry air, steam baths, variegated rodents, lean white men dressing like it's 1929: I'm loving Banff. Super brainy conversations with excellent scholars and artists: plus, now I know how to act when encountering a Grizzly Bear (play dead) and how to act when locking eyes with a Black Bear (make eye contact, then look down; slowly slip away, Lot-style). Shoe-gazing mathematicians roaming around, and a jazz festival to boot. Really excited to give a talk tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Friday, May 9, 2014
Travel Fantasy! Extática lectura de BAR en la Feria deli Libro de BA
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Saturday, April 26, 2014
#NaovaiterCopa
by Pola Oloixarac for the NYT International
BRASILIA– “I'm sorry Neymar, I won't cheer for you this time” is an unexpected song to hear in a soccer-crazed country about to play host to the biggest sports tournament in the world. Neymar is Brazil’s reigning soccer god, the home team is one of the favorites to win the coming World Cup and its five championships are the most of any country. In the caustic style reminiscent of Musica Popular Brasileira during the dictatorship, these lyrics by Edu Krieger reflect widespread discontent in the lead-up to the first match, less than two months away.
“Não vai ter Copa” (we will stop the Cup) is the rallying call for protesters, who have been in the streets regularly since last June. These days, Brazilians are more likely to be caught up in protests against sweeping corruption and wasteful spending than in the renewal of national rivalries that come up every four years. Billions in public money are being spent on stadiums unlikely to be used after the Cup, while the state neglects investments like a new train station for São Paulo.
“During Carnival, every block burst into ‘Não vai ter copa.’ It was the music of the Carnival,” said João Paulo Cuenca, 35, a writer and filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro. The mood that accompanies the tournament every four years is sour this time around. “Every World Cup, Rio gets filled with painted streets, competing with each other. Now, it’s like the Copa didn’t exist.”
Soccer is the strongest socializing bond in Brazilian life so it’s not surprising that the World Cup has become a catalyst to express discontent. The signs of corruption abound: stadium construction projects wildly over budget, scant infrastructure improvements and poor public services.
In a country without a strong tradition of political engagement, people may not follow the news, but everybody reads the sports section. There they learn, for example, that the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia, which was demolished and rebuilt, cost 17 times more than estimated by FIFA, the World Cup’s governing soccer association. There are reports that the stadium roof still leaks and that the government is diverting money meant for other projects to solve the problem.
Since this is an election year, the World Cup is shining a spotlight on the Worker’s Party, which has been in power for 12 years. After two terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and four years of his protégée, Dilma Rousseff, Brazil has become the world’s eighth-largest economy. Showing off lavish new projects to an international audience was one reason Brazil courted the tournament; holding a successful Cup is a test the Worker’s Party is desperate to pass.
The higher expectations of the population are another challenge for the party. The social programs fostered by Lula have turned 40 million poor Brazilians into consumers, the new “C” class, and they and the traditional middle class are asking for better health care and education. But Rio de Janeiro has become one of the most expensive cities in the world, and average Brazilians feel they are paying too much for too little. There is the sense that the World Cup is not for them. “Copa pra quem?” (Whose Cup is it?) is another protest slogan.
The World Cup also coincides with the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s coup d’état, a sensitive topic for President Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during the dictatorship. The excesses of that military past are echoed in the pacification steps in poor neighborhoods in advance of the World Cup. What began as an effort to uproot the drug cartels in the shantytowns has grown into a repressive occupying force, backed up by tanks. Tens of thousands of families have been evicted, and many people feel they have been pushed aside to make the Cup a success.
Bruno Torturra, a 35-year-old journalist from São Paulo, has founded Media Ninja, an organization devoted to covering the protests and police and gang violence overlooked by most media. “People recall the day when the army confiscated our rights in 1964, and on that very day national troops stormed Complexo da Maré and brutalized the poor,” he said. Now, he added, “people are being literally tortured and killed.”
Videos of tanks sharing the narrow streets with children and girls being kicked to the ground by the military police are making the rounds in social media under the hashtag #NaovaiterCopa. There are worries that the repression will worsen. FIFA is pushing for what’s called the “Copa law,” allowing any protester to be treated as a terrorist, jailed without trial.
This authoritarian approach is copying other Latin American governments, raising concerns about individual rights. A law criminalizing protest is being considered in Argentina, and the protests in Venezuela have been marked by police brutality and the jailing of students on terrorism charges. Today’s left-leaning leaders show an alarming willingness to adopt the brutal techniques of the old right.
When the protests began, President Rousseff, who faces re-election in October, pointed out that they were a sign of an improved and changing Brazil; these days, people do think they deserve better.
With quintessential Latin American panache, President Rousseff has resorted to the ultimate populist move: She knows that if Brazil wins the Cup, all will be forgotten. In the end, it’s all up to Neymar and the soccer fans.
BRASILIA– “I'm sorry Neymar, I won't cheer for you this time” is an unexpected song to hear in a soccer-crazed country about to play host to the biggest sports tournament in the world. Neymar is Brazil’s reigning soccer god, the home team is one of the favorites to win the coming World Cup and its five championships are the most of any country. In the caustic style reminiscent of Musica Popular Brasileira during the dictatorship, these lyrics by Edu Krieger reflect widespread discontent in the lead-up to the first match, less than two months away.
“Não vai ter Copa” (we will stop the Cup) is the rallying call for protesters, who have been in the streets regularly since last June. These days, Brazilians are more likely to be caught up in protests against sweeping corruption and wasteful spending than in the renewal of national rivalries that come up every four years. Billions in public money are being spent on stadiums unlikely to be used after the Cup, while the state neglects investments like a new train station for São Paulo.
“During Carnival, every block burst into ‘Não vai ter copa.’ It was the music of the Carnival,” said João Paulo Cuenca, 35, a writer and filmmaker from Rio de Janeiro. The mood that accompanies the tournament every four years is sour this time around. “Every World Cup, Rio gets filled with painted streets, competing with each other. Now, it’s like the Copa didn’t exist.”
Soccer is the strongest socializing bond in Brazilian life so it’s not surprising that the World Cup has become a catalyst to express discontent. The signs of corruption abound: stadium construction projects wildly over budget, scant infrastructure improvements and poor public services.
In a country without a strong tradition of political engagement, people may not follow the news, but everybody reads the sports section. There they learn, for example, that the Mane Garrincha National Stadium in Brasilia, which was demolished and rebuilt, cost 17 times more than estimated by FIFA, the World Cup’s governing soccer association. There are reports that the stadium roof still leaks and that the government is diverting money meant for other projects to solve the problem.
Since this is an election year, the World Cup is shining a spotlight on the Worker’s Party, which has been in power for 12 years. After two terms of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and four years of his protégée, Dilma Rousseff, Brazil has become the world’s eighth-largest economy. Showing off lavish new projects to an international audience was one reason Brazil courted the tournament; holding a successful Cup is a test the Worker’s Party is desperate to pass.
The higher expectations of the population are another challenge for the party. The social programs fostered by Lula have turned 40 million poor Brazilians into consumers, the new “C” class, and they and the traditional middle class are asking for better health care and education. But Rio de Janeiro has become one of the most expensive cities in the world, and average Brazilians feel they are paying too much for too little. There is the sense that the World Cup is not for them. “Copa pra quem?” (Whose Cup is it?) is another protest slogan.
The World Cup also coincides with the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s coup d’état, a sensitive topic for President Rousseff, who was jailed and tortured during the dictatorship. The excesses of that military past are echoed in the pacification steps in poor neighborhoods in advance of the World Cup. What began as an effort to uproot the drug cartels in the shantytowns has grown into a repressive occupying force, backed up by tanks. Tens of thousands of families have been evicted, and many people feel they have been pushed aside to make the Cup a success.
Bruno Torturra, a 35-year-old journalist from São Paulo, has founded Media Ninja, an organization devoted to covering the protests and police and gang violence overlooked by most media. “People recall the day when the army confiscated our rights in 1964, and on that very day national troops stormed Complexo da Maré and brutalized the poor,” he said. Now, he added, “people are being literally tortured and killed.”
Videos of tanks sharing the narrow streets with children and girls being kicked to the ground by the military police are making the rounds in social media under the hashtag #NaovaiterCopa. There are worries that the repression will worsen. FIFA is pushing for what’s called the “Copa law,” allowing any protester to be treated as a terrorist, jailed without trial.
This authoritarian approach is copying other Latin American governments, raising concerns about individual rights. A law criminalizing protest is being considered in Argentina, and the protests in Venezuela have been marked by police brutality and the jailing of students on terrorism charges. Today’s left-leaning leaders show an alarming willingness to adopt the brutal techniques of the old right.
When the protests began, President Rousseff, who faces re-election in October, pointed out that they were a sign of an improved and changing Brazil; these days, people do think they deserve better.
With quintessential Latin American panache, President Rousseff has resorted to the ultimate populist move: She knows that if Brazil wins the Cup, all will be forgotten. In the end, it’s all up to Neymar and the soccer fans.
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Soirée de honor argentina en París
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por Pola Oloixarac para Revista Eñie
La ensayista Beatriz Sarlo
llegó puntual, de rigurosas perlas japonesas, con una falda de tajo tanguero
que dejaba entrever sus ya legendarias piernas. Ricardo Piglia sorteó las
distinguidas multitudes engalanado en un trois
pièces, el look intacto que hacía furor durante sus magnos días de Puán. Cual
Justin Timberlake plateado, Ricardo tomó ágil posesión de la silla y comenzó a
firmar sus libros pacientemente, inquiriendo el nombre de cada lectora con un
parpadeo gentil.
Aconcagua humano entre los
stands, Alberto Laiseca era de suyo un espectáculo impar. La eminencia de
Camilo Aldao cruzó con lenta majestad los pasillos del Salon mientras los niños se arremolinaban a su paso, atraídos y fascinados ante su
presencia sobrenatural (la littérature,
c’est ça). A unos metros de la estela que dejaba Lai caminaba distraído César Aira, la mirada distante en
lo alto como un Napoleón miope que escruta la batalla en lontananza, los estandartes
editoriales multiplicándose infinitos, conversando con su amigo el mago-poeta Arturo
Carrera.
En la cena de gala Martín Caparrós
se encontraba en su elemento profundo. Departía con una copa de Pouilly-Fumé en
mano y degustaba la exquisita combinación del foie aux truffes con su propio francés añejado, que domina como
pocos. Ya ubicados en la amplia mesa circular, enjoyada de escarapelas, el
bigote de Caparrós y el del Turco Asís generaban un extraño mandala.
En otra mesa Sylvia Molloy
conversaba muy animada con Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, que se había delineado los
ojos muy punk, y Ariel Schettini, que consultaba una misteriosa app en su teléfono que le decía cuántas
personas (¿lectores, escritores?) había dicho la palabra frenchkissing esa noche. No se veía por ningún lado a Mariana
Enríquez; su espíritu darkie (nunca
emo) la había llevado a pasear por el cementerio Père Lachaise. Daniel Link
llegó un poco más tarde: su conferencia sobre Copi, la supernova exiliada cuyas
obras siempre están en cartel en alguna parte de Francia (toda drag tiene su Evita) lo había ralentado
en las medianías de Paris Huit. Al llegar desplegó su abanico mientras
recobraba el aliento, e intentó desviar la atención de la prensa francesa, en
vano; vencido por la insistencia, comentó que sí, entre sus condiciones de
contratación había exigido viajar con su gata Tita Merello y la gata no habría
asimilado “el agua tan dura de Paris” dado que es “artera a su aristocracia
intestinal”, a lo que agregó “perdón pero me tengo que ir”. Para entonces, un
deportivo Martin Kohan ya se había retirado a sus aposentos; no es fobia, expliqué
entonces, súbita vocera de la biopolítica especializada: es una técnica
depurada para evitar los paparazzi. Por
suerte Alan Pauls clavó los talones de sus Nike azules y recibió con aplomo el
impacto de las fans.
Pero la pompa máxima fue
cuando entró en escena Edgardo Cozarinsky –mistérico, con unos antifaces negros
que exorbitaban sus ojos cerúleos. Todos elevaron su copa hacia Edgardo, que
intentó zafarse de su destino de divo de la noche pero los franceses, con buen tino,
lo escoltaron a su sitial para que no pudiera escapar. La noche estalló en
aplausos; “nadie como él ha sabido unir el refinamiento de la alta cultura argentina
con el arrabal”, comentó Josefina Ludmer, de estricto negro y diamantes. A la
par del Salon habían organizado una muestra de los primeros documentales de
Edgardo, una máquina mágica que permitía a los parisinos entrar y salir de Buenos
Aires. “París está transfigurada. Al fin caemos en la cuenta de que, caminando
por París, uno siempre es un fantasma entrando o saliendo de Buenos Aires”,
comentaban los visitantes locales.
A la hora de los quesos, algunos
se fueron al Flore (tan obvio) o al Deux Magots (l’horreur). Siguiendo a Edgardo que, como buen porteño, es un parisino
de fuste, los autores caminaron por el Sena iluminado en lo que debió ser una
de las noches más bellas del mundo. Por el río oscuro se deslizaba una pequeña
embarcación con guirnaldas de lucecitas de Fogwill; el que comandaba el timón
era el hermano de Fog, marino, y su hija Vera.
En suma, París era una
fiesta, y no en el sentido Hemingway o Vila-Matoso del término. O quizás ya no
era París: era Roma o Bizancio, y nosotros los godos.
Un estrépito los distrajo
de la maravilla. Había siseos, gritos; no se entendía bien. No era francés; tampoco
era el terciopelo de las gargantas argénteas.
“¡Es un debate que nos debemos como
sociedad!”, “¡Hay que abrir el debate!” (bis)
El misterio cacofónico se
disipó rápidamente: ¡era un generador automático de frases de Ricardo Forster!
Un trineo de fabricación nacional, con partes chinas pero ensamblado en Tierra
de Fuego, lo venía empujando entre los pasillos del Salon; como se habían
olvidado de apagarlo, el muñeco generador automático de frases de Ricardo Forster
había continuado camino por las callecitas de París. “Déjenlo, ya le va a tocar
cruzar la Île Saint-Louis”, dijo Edgardo, su voz ronca de malevo abisal, que ya
preparaba una de sus bombas ninjas para desaparecer sin dejar rastros. Todos
guardaron un silencio educado lo que duró la proclama del muñeco, que venía sin
traducción al francés (color local) y cuya estela de humo terminó devorada por
el runrún de la noche.
El muñeco generador
automático de frases de Ricardo Forster era bastante gracioso y de vanguardia tecnológica
para la industria del cotillón, pero no era nada comparado a lo que vendría. De
lejos parecía una comparsa, pero no era carnaval; tampoco se trataba de emular actitudes
brasileras, en tanto el asunto revestía un delicado cariz nacional. Se venía un
ser gordísimo (“la Cultura es un asunto muy UOM”, comentó Ariel Schettini, sin
dejar de chequear su app), como el Hombre
Malvavisco de los Cazafantasmas pero con la cabeza enorme de alguien que no había
leído nadie pero que… ¡era Ernesto Laclau! Aullaba:
“¡Significante Vacío! ¡Significante
Vacío!”, su probóscide subía y bajaba como el Pájaro Loco.
Rodrigo Fresán y Cecilia
Szperling se miraron incrédulos; Luisa Valenzuela acarició al loro azul sobre
su hombro, tranquilizándolo. “Cómo les gusta Lacan a los argentinos, es
surreal. Para mí es el tipo que meaba borracho el palier de mi edificio cuando
niño”, comentó el escritor Thibault de Montaigu, que después de ser vecino de Jacques
se mudó a Buenos Aires pero había optado por París para no perderse la fête.
¿A qué venía ese alboroto?
¿Trajeron piquetes, Moyanos, paros docentes, para sumar más color local? Alguien
susurró: No, no, es todo una perfo, por
“Casa Tomada”, de Cortázar Julio. Es la perfo
oficial.
Empezaba la puesta en
escena de “Eva Perón” de Copi por una drag
de lustrosa peluca caoba y cartera Louis Vuitton.
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