Arnon Grunberg's Blog, page 476

Phone

ID

Around noon I changed my pants, there was a big, black spot on it.
I had lunch at Cipriani in Grand Central, a place where I usually don’t go for lunch.
When I asked for the check I discovered that my credit cards were still in the other pants. I didn’t have any cash on me either.
The waiter wasn’t amused.
He said: “Leave your ID here.”
I answered: “I don’t have my ID on me, but I can leave my phone here.”
He took my phone.
About fifteen minutes later I was back with my credit card, I settled the bill, then I asked: “Can I have my phone back?”
The waiter gave me a dirty look.

Knowledge

Twice

“Have you seen Chaplin’s movie ‘Monsieur Verdoux?’” a friend asked. “You remind me of Monsieur Verdoux.”
“I’ve seen ‘Monsieur Verdoux' at least twice,” I answered. “But to the best of my knowledge I’m not a marriage swindler. Nevertheless, I will take your remark as a compliment.”

Commodity

Their own societies

Tim Parks on globalization and literature:
“Apart from the immediate repercussions on the book market, where there is now fierce competition between English and Dutch editions of English language novels, the phenomenon suggests a few things about reading and the modern psyche. There appears to be a tension, or perhaps necessary balance, between evasion and realism in fiction, between a desire to read seriously about real things—to feel I am not wasting my time, but engaging intelligently with the world—and simultaneously a desire to escape the confines of one’s immediate community, move into the territory of the imagination, and perhaps fantasize about far away places.”

(…)

“The politically-engaged social novel many European writers (Moravia, Calvino, Sartre, Camus, Böll) were celebrated for writing up to about the 1970s continues in the Anglo-Saxon world, but is fast disappearing in many European countries for the simple reason that people are reading and now perhaps writing rather less about their own societies, and hence novels are less likely to take on national issues. Globalization, it seems, does not homogenize across the board; it may push literature to develop in one way on one side of the Atlantic—or rather the language divide—and in quite a different way on the other.”

(Read the complete article here.)

Tim Parks makes some provocative and interesting statements about snobbery and the novel as an economic commodity in times of globalization.
We need to take these remarks seriously, but as an inquiry into the taste of readers in Europe his anecdotal evidence might be a tad too anecdotal.
The novel as a tool of escapism is nothing new and the request that novelists should write about their own societies is understandable but also slightly provincial. Not in the last place because we cannot be sure in times of mass migration what exactly is the novelist’s society.

Let’s take for example the South African author Richard de Nooy. He grew up in South Africa, he has been living in Amsterdam for the last 20 years, he started writing in English, but according to his editor he recently switched to Dutch. What’s the society of Mr. de Nooy? And if he suddenly writes a novel that’s set in Finland should we condemn him for trying to please Finnish readers instead of writing about his own society?
(Click here for more information on Richard de Nooy.)

Whether the politically-engaged social novel has disappeared in many European countries is an intriguing question. But if this is the case – I’m not completely convinced – this has certainly also to do with the changing political climate in Europe and the rest of the world. Most European authors I know still write about their own societies. Just think about all these German authors – many of them rather successful in Germany – writing about the GDR.

We are still waiting for European or American authors to write the Great Chinese Novel or the Great Tanzanian Novel for that matter.

Isn’t Michel Houellebecq writing politically-engaged social novels, to name just one? Or do we dismiss these novels because they don’t live up to the standards of social democratic idealism?

And what do we know about the contemporary novel in Croatia and Serbia? I bet that the politically-engaged social novel is alive and kicking over there.

Statement

Nipples

Steve Coll on Facebook in The New Yorker:

‘Within the United States, Facebook is a venue for all sorts of issue and political campaigns. And yet, on the site, as a practical matter, what speech is permitted or banned is determined largely by Facebook’s terms of service. The terms function as a corporate constitution binding users to the provider’s conception of what speech is acceptable. My colleague at the New America Foundation, Rebecca MacKinnnon, in her recent book “Consent of the Networked,” calls this realm “Facebookistan.” Once Facebook users sign on and accept the terms of service, their postings are subordinate to the corporation’s rules, for as long as they choose to stay. In a place like Syria, the Facebook rules users encounter are much more permissive than local laws; in the United States, that is not so clear.
You might expect dense legalese, but the terms’ language is clear and soaring, echoing the tones of constitutional documents. Some of the declaratory sentences lay out the commitments by Facebook’s royal “We.” Others describe the obligations of the subject “You.” The terms are organized into sections, like articles. One entitled “Safety” seems to self-consciously echo the Ten Commandments: “You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user…. You will not post content that: is hateful, threatening or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.” And there is this hint of Facebook’s expansive authority: “You will not encourage or facilitate any violations of this Statement.”
The terms obfuscate Facebook’s business strategies in such simple language that the deception—the sense of what is being left out—is almost poetic: “Sometimes we get data from our advertising partners, customers, and other third parties that helps us (or them) deliver ads, understand online activity, and generally make Facebook better.”’

(Read the compete article here.)

Where exactly would hate speech or pornography begin according to Facebook?
Once I submitted an article to The New York Times Magazine, an editor informed me through my agent that the word “nipples” was off limits in a family newspaper.

But then again, Facebook is not a family newspaper.

Steve Coll has valid things to say about Facebook but he forgets to mention that “Facebookistan” is almost everywhere i.e. we are submitted to arbitrary terms of service wherever we encounter service. Ah Facebookistan, you can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave.

Too much

Shave

“You’ve too much hair on your toes,” my girlfriend said. “Let me shave your toes.”
She gave my toes a shave and then she said: “This is much better.”

3.4 million

Savior

More on e-books – in today’s Herald Tribune Stacy A. Anderson reports about the Espresso Book Machine:
‘Self-publishing has been made easier since the Espresso Book Machine by On Demand Books made its debut in 2006. The machine also can make copies of out-of-print editions.message:%3C553807bf-9a21-4a71-b38b-14e7116bd5b7@xtinmta408.xt.local%3E
The first machine was installed briefly at the World Bank’s bookstore. Through a partnership with Xerox, the company now has machines in about 70 bookstores and libraries around the world, including London; Tokyo; Amsterdam; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; Melbourne, Australia; and Alexandria, Egypt.
Thor Sigvaldason, the chief technology officer at On Demand Books, based in New York, said the system could help book retailers in two ways. “It can, potentially, give them a huge virtual inventory so they can have as many books as Amazon, all in a little bookstore,” he said. “It turns independent bookstores into places to get books published. It’s a new thing for the bookstore to do: not just sell books, but actually create books.”’

(…)

‘The Association of American Publishers reported that 3.4 million e-books were sold last year in the United States, up more than 300 percent from 2010. Still, revenue from electronic book sales was a small fraction of that for printed books, $21.5 million compared with $335.9 million, the association said.
As bookstores continue to close their doors, hurt by e-books and digital reading devices, more are embracing the Espresso Book Machine.’

(Read the complete article here.)

The Espresso Book Machine as the savior of the bookstore; I would call this superior irony.

Soon we will see publishers advertise their services: “Don’t self-publish! Our publicity department is ready for your erotic chick-lit. We will make you rich.”

Tailor-made

Money

“What’s the business model?” my publisher asked over dinner. “Everybody is stealing e-books. Do I have a good idea for you? Paper! Print your books on paper. E-books? Schme-books. Paper. Old-fashioned paper.”
His colleague looked chagrined.
“No, I’m not conservative,” my publisher continued. “But I want to know, what’s the business model? Spending money is one thing. Earning money, that’s the hard part.”
I smiled. I don’t have a business model, I’m not saving money for my retirement, and I don’t expect the Apocalypse within 30 years.
But there is always hope. If the big Apocalypse doesn't arrive on time you can always orchestrate your own, personal Apocalypse, tailor-made so to speak.

Proposal

Leader

Job Cohen, the former mayor of Amsterdam and former leader of the Labour Party in the Netherlands, visited my mother.
About an hour before his arrival my mother got nervous. “Why did you invite him?” she asked. “I’m an old woman. It’s going to be embarrassing.”
I comforted my mother by saying that Mr. Cohen would propose to her.
He didn’t propose to her, but this evening she called me and she said: “Mr. Cohen is such a lovely man. He is so special.”

Countrymen

Paradox

Mr. Sarrazin wrote another book, but this time it caused less uproar. People are less emotional about the euro than about Muslims.

Yascha Mounk writes in the London Review of Books:

“And yet a paradox remains. Germans are increasingly turning against the compromises that have kept the euro afloat. But, for all that, they don’t want to leave the single currency. Even Sarrazin admits that ‘one neither can nor should simply leave the euro.’ Like most of his countrymen, he is at a loss as to what Germany should do.”

(Read the complete entry here.)

Slowly but steadily the hate against the EU and the euro replaces xenophobia. But as Yascha Mounk points out there is a paradox out there: they hate the euro but they don’t want get to rid of the single currency.

Sport

Soup

Because of my mother’s birthday my sister took to my mother to a kosher deli.
I was present as well, although I’m not too fond of kosher deli’s.
My mother just wanted a chicken soup, but she is a good sport: she ordered a second chicken soup.