Peter Cockelbergh has just written what amounts to the first solid review of my book of essays, Justifying the Margins. For the occasion he has done way more: he has put together a feature on my work for Jacket # 40 — you can access it all here — that includes, besides his review, a choice of poems, extracts from the forthcoming Paul Celan Meridian volume, and two essays … Read more Cockelbergh’s “Marginalalia”
November 29, 2010 Open Letter to : George Philip, President University at Albany-SUNY Dear President Philip, In April 2007 I visited the University at Albany, extremely happy to have been invited by Professor David Wills to participate in a conference organized around my work. I had the distinct impression that the university was an institution focused on intelligence and culture, a place open toward the future, thriving on new … Read more Hélène Cixous’s Open Letter re UAlbany LLC
Check out the other half-dozen trailers or watch or download the whole movie: it’s a hilarious (if you know French, though it’s still funny if you don’t) gangsta flick made by a 29-year Vincent Peltier on a shoe string — and available for free download here.
This tract by The Invisible Committee came out last year in French, was translated into English & published by Semiotexte (also out now in German, btw.) An excellent day-after Thanksgiving read — cleans & clears the head, the palate & the gut from all the turkey-triptophane induced somnolence. Read up on revolution’s possibilities — you got nothing to lose but your hang-overs! Below, the opening paragraphs. Read the full … Read more The Coming Insurrection
or to quote Jon Stewart: “I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.”
[Reuters/Jean Blondin] Abraham Serfaty spent decades campaigning for human rights in Morocco. Via MoroccoBoard.com, here is an article by NAOUFEL CHERKAOUI on the passing of a major Moroccan figure: Moroccan Jewish political activist Abraham Serfaty died on Thursday (November 18th) in a Marrakech hospital at the age of 84. He was known to be one of the strongest dissidents against the regime of the late King Hassan II, and … Read more Morocco mourns Political Activist Abraham Serfaty
Today we would celebrate — we do celebrate — Paul Celan‘s 90th birthday. Below, some excerpts from my forthcoming translation of the scholarly edition of The Meridian, specifically from the sections called “Breath” and “Breathturn.” These section titles are not Celan’s own but those of the editors; the texts come from Celan’s various notebooks and jottings spanning the months during which he composed his seminal essay “The Meridian”. Most … Read more Paul Celan @ 90
I thought this article worthwhile to think with concerning a problem — Palestine — that is not going away any time soon: With Netanyahu bribe, Washington going for broke Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada, 17 November 2010 With this latest diplomatic development the Palestinians will be the losers, again. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills) Watching the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians drag on year after year without conclusion, it is … Read more Obama and Palestine, well, Israel
Here are this week’s signandsight noticings on the ongoing Oskar Pastior affair: Oskar Pastior’s Securitate past After it emerged that the Romanian-German poet Oskar Pastior (more here) had been working for the Romanian Securitate under the name “Informant Stein Otto“, all his friends hoped that these revelations would not be followed by a slew of incriminating evidence regarding his spying activities. A former friend of Pastior’s, the Romanian-German author … Read more Oskar Pastior Fortsetzung