Pri Karolo Piĉ ĉe la litomiŝla tombejo

Nu, jen la video:



"Miroslav Malovec rememorigas la esperantan verkiston Karolo Piĉ, ĉe flanka pordo de la litomiŝla tombejo, kie la ĉeĥa aŭtoro estas entombigita. Fakte, la ĉefa verko de Karolo Piĉ havas la titolon "La litomiŝla tombejo". La vizito al la tombo de Karolo Piĉ estis parto el la programo de la 25a IEK, okazinta en Svitavy en 2012."

Trotskyism & Esperanto in the 1930s

I remember initiating this project, but I forgot about this letter to the editor, which I recently stumbled upon online:

Ralph Dumain: Letter - Trotskyism and Esperanto, Revolutionary History, Vol. 7 No. 4, Winter 2000–2001

Even less do I remember this response, and I wonder if I ever read it:

Ron Lynn: Letter - Esperanto and the Left, Revolutionary History, Vol. 8 No. 1, Summer 2001

The print quality of these bulletins is so bad, OCR is impossible. The documents would have to be retyped or simply scanned as images. In fact, I enlisted someone to do the scanning but the project only got this far:

La Permanenta Revolucio. No. 3 (1935), 12 pages

This is an interesting piece of left history and Esperanto history that has completely dropped out of historical awareness. I must return to this project one day.

G. M. Tamás pri dekstrisma putro en Hungario

G. M. Tamás ne estas vaste konata en la anglofona mondo, sed pluraj eseoj kaj intervjuoj estas haveblaj en la angla. Plej gravas lia teorio de postfaŝismo, kiu aplikeblas vaste, ankaŭ pri Usono. Troveblas rekoneblaj trajtoj: faŝismigo de socio kadre de formala demokrata politika strukturo kaj historia renverso--malvastigo de civitaneco kaj legitimeco de homrajtoj.  Nu, jen artikolo en Esperanto, pri Hungario specife:

Hungario, la laboratorio de nova dekstrularo
 Le Monde Diplomatique en Esperanto, 1a februaro 2012

Michel Onfray pri Albert Camus recenzita

Mi blogis pri Michel Onfray anglalingve . . .

Michel Onfray @ Reason & Society

. . . eĉ pri Onfray en Esperanto:

Michel Onfray in Esperanto

. . . kaj blogis en Esperanto ĉi-bloge antaŭe jam kvar fojojn. Oni trovas artikolojn en Le Monde Diplomatique en Esperanto fojfoje.

Jen plua:

La lasta nova filozofo de Jean-Pierre GARNIER
Le Monde Diplomatique en Esperanto, 1a marto 2012

Temas pri negativa recenzo de L’Ordre libertaire: La vie philosophique d’Albert Camus de Onfray (Flammarion, Parizo, 2012).

En la manpleno de jam aperintaj anglalingvaj recenzoj kiujn mi legis, troveblas adoraj aŭ negativaj komentoj. Sed ĉi tiu recenzo detale kritikas la filozofion kaj asertojn de Onfray, kritikojn nevideblaj en la anglalingvaj recenzoj. Mi jam skeptikis pri Onfray, do mi pretas kredi la recenzon de Garnier. Mi supozas, ke finfine en anglalingvujo ni vidos.

En la franca:

Imre Madách: La Tragedio de L’Homo / The Tragedy of Man (5): Sándor Szathmári interpretas

Mi jam blogis pri la prelego de Kalocsay pri Madách, en kiu li kontraŭdiras la nedialektikan pesimisman interpreton de Szathmári:

“La Tragedio de L’Homo kaj Imre Madách” de Kálmán Kalocsay

Mi resumis anglalingve la du vidpunktojn. Jen la eseo de Szathmári pri Madách:

La Tragedio de L’Homo (Kritiko), Sennacieca Revuo, n-ro 100, 1972, p. 35-40.

Samuel R. Delany, sciencfikcio, & interlingvistiko

La temo de interlingvistiko plurfoje interagas kun la sfero de sciencfikcio. Kompreneble, artefaritaj lingvoj por literaturaj/artaj celoj, iam la kaŝplezuro de J. R. R. Tolkien, multobliĝis en la pasintaj du jardekoj, kaj oni trovas plurajn artefaritajn lingvojn konstruitajn speciale por sciencfikciaj romanoj aŭ filmoj. Plej ofte ili estas esence trivialaĵoj, sed de tempo al tempo eniras filozofie interesaj aŭ incitaj ideoj.

Nu, mi dokumentis anglalingvajn verkojn kiuj traktas lingvajn konceptojn en sciencfikciaj verkoj en mia bibliografio:

Philosophical and Universal Languages, 1600-1800, and Related Themes: Selected Bibliography

Jen kelkaj koncernaj verkoj:

Barnes, Myra Edwards. Linguistics and Languages in Science Fiction-Fantasy. New York: Arno Press, 1975 (1971).

Conley, Tim; Cain, Stephen. Encyclopedia of Fictional and Fantastic Languages, foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006.

Meyers, Walter E. Aliens and Linguists: Language Study and Science Fiction. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1980.

Pli grava ol la nura ekzisto de artefaritaj lingvoj estas la esplorataj filozofiaj konceptoj pri la lingvo. Ekzemple, jen libro, nomita klasikaĵo, kiun mi akiris sed ankoraŭ ne legis:

The Embedding, de Ian Watson.

Nu, mia favorata scienfikcia verkisto (rigardu foton supre) kiu aperis en la 1960aj jaroj estas la genia Samuel R. Delany (1942- ), kiu cetere estas la unua sukcesa usonnegra sciencfikcia verkisto, kaj ankaŭ geja (ambaŭ faktoj kiuj disfamiĝis dum la progreso de lia kariero).

Oni trovos interesajn konceptojn pri la lingvo en la  romano Babel-17 (1966). Ĉi tiu afero kaj sia konekso kun la historio de artefaritaj lingvoj estas esplorata en la jenaj artikoloj:

Collings, Michael R. “Samuel R. Delany and John Wilkins: Artificial Languages, Science, and Science Fiction," in Reflections on the Fantastic: Selected Es says from the Fourth International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, edited by Michael R. Collings (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986), pp. 61-68.

Malmgren, Carl. “The Languages of Science Fiction: Samuel R. Delany’s Babel-17,” in Ash of Stars: On the Writing of Samuel R. Delany, edited by James Sallis (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996), pp. 3-16. (Originally published in Extrapolation, vol. 34, no. 1.)

Mi ne memoras ajnan tradukon aŭ mencion de Delany en Esperanto. La jena retpaĝo resumas la temon kaj ties variantojn en sciencfikcio:


Future Language (Atomic Rockets, June 17, 2012)

Enestas mencio de Esperanto kaj Harry Harrison (fakte lastatempe mortinta), sed nur negative kiel difektplena lingvo.

Mi referencis la romanon de Delany Empire Star [Imperi-Stelo] (1966) en mia anglalingva omaĝo al esperantista verkisto Endre Tóth (kiun kune kun alia materialo mi baldaŭ tradukos Esperanten):

A Memorial Tribute to Endre Toth

Tiurilate mi citis por komparo la konceptaron inventitan por tiu verko de Delany: Simplex, Complex, and Multiplex [simpleco, komplekseco, plurplekseco].

Zofia Banet-Fornalowa mortis

Zofia Banet-Fornalowa, naskiĝinta en 1929, mortis la 19-an de septembro 2012. Ŝi estis historiisto, ankaŭ historiisto pri la Esperanto-movado. Mi legis ŝian libron La Familio Zamenhof.

La 161a E-elsendo de Pola Retradio en Esperanto, la 21an de septembro 2012, omaĝas ŝian memoron, kun sonregistraĵo el aŭgusto 1993, en kiu ŝi rakontas pri la katastrofaj eventoj en la Bjalistoka Getto la 16-an de aŭgusto 1943.

Szathmári's Kazohinia favorably blogged

Voyage to Kazohinia by Sándor Szathmári was reviewed today by Dwight Green on his blog A Common Reader (Sept. 20, 2012).

Dwight is not an aficionado of utopian/dystopian literature, but he expresses admiration for the novel, summarizing its noteworthy features. He finds some of the issues still relevant today, as well as some contradictions in the novel. But you can read his commentary for yourself.

And thus Szathmári's work continues its slow crawl through the English-speaking world.

Sam Green: The Universal Language

Sam Green presented a rough cut of this documentary at the Zamenhof Symposium at the UN in New York on 15 December 2010, the same symposium in which I spoke on the Centennial of the Esperanto Universal Congress in Washington, DC. Since then I have blogged about the forthcoming final version.

Well, the documentary has been out for some time, and can be purchased on DVD or downloaded via the Internet. In addition, Sam has a web site devoted to the documentary, with a blog and with web posts in both English and Esperanto:

The Universal Language: A Documentary Film by Sam Green

The blog is bilingual, with English and Esperanto versions of each post, which relates to some aspect of the film or to Esperanto more generally.

I translated one of Sam's original English posts into Esperanto:

Intervjuo kun Eva Soltes pri komponisto Lou Harrison
August 02, 2012

. . . corresponding to the original:

An Interview with Eva Soltes about composer Lou Harrison
August 02, 2012

I have blogged before about Lou Harrison, in English and Esperanto. I myself first encountered Eva Soltes at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, at the presentation of a documentary film about Harrison. This was the first event in a symposium about Harrison. I reported on this event (and subsequently the others) in Esperanto:

Lou Harrison: Mondo da Muziko
2011-02-28

In August viewers of Sam's film were invited to pose questions about it. Sam responded to the first round of questions. Before the month was out, I sent Sam some of my questions about the film. His responses to some of these are included in his second round of responses:

Respondoj al demandoj de legantoj II
August 30, 2012
Jen respondoj al kelkaj demandoj, kiujn vi sendis al ni

Questions from Viewers, Part II
August 30, 2012
Titles, futures, footage source

The comment about archival sources and the subsequent questions are mine. Sam provides images, video, and audio in response.

Here is some footage of the noted Andreo Cseh, of Cseh-method fame, teaching Esperanto to a class outdoors:



In response to my question about a voiceover, Sam presented a speech by the noted Esperantist orator and organizer Ivo Lapenna:

"La Kultura Valoro de la Internacia Lingvo" [The Cultural Value of the International Language] de Ivo Lapenna

133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko (4)

Jen novelo rilate al la temo de la 133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko, el Hungara Vivo, 19a jaro, n-ro 1 (83), 1979:

“Tavoligo kaj disigo” de Gyula Hernádi, tradukis Vilmos Benczik [14-15]

Do, krom la enkonduko de Vilmos Benczik, nun ĉiuj rilataj enhavaĵoj el ĉi tiu numero estas enretigitaj.

Kaj ne forgesu:

Cent tridek tri tagoj: historia skizo de hungarlanda proletara revolucio. Leipzig: Ekrelo, 1930. 141 p.

Mi ne posedas ekzempleron de la libro. Mi ricevis skanaĵojn de alia esperantisto, do mi dubas, ĉu mi aldonos al la eroj jam enretigitaj.

133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko (3)

La temo de Hungara Vivo, 19a jaro, n-ro 1 (83), 1979 estas la 133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko de 1919.

Mi jam blogis pri la menciita numero kaj aldonis ligojn al du enretigitaj eroj. Post tiam mi aldonis pluajn:

“Esperanto-movado dum la Konsilia Respubliko” de Zoltán Barna & Ervin Fenyvesi [10-11]

“Al fronto de Laboristhejmo” (1919) de Gyula Juhász, tradukis Márton Fejes [11]

“Brasikaĵo” de Endre Fejes, tradukis P. Rados
(Fragmento el la novelo “Pariza rememoro”) [12-13]

“Apud la fajro, en gardo ruĝa” de Béla Balázs, tradukis P. Rados [13]

Restas por enretigo: “Tavoligo kaj disigo” de Gyula Hernádi, tradukis Vilmos Benczik [14-15].

Mi blogis ankaŭ pri rimarkinda antologio eldonita en 1930:

Cent tridek tri tagoj: historia skizo de hungarlanda proletara revolucio. Leipzig: Ekrelo, 1930. 141 p.

Tiam mi estis enretiginta kvar artikolojn. Jen tri pluaj:

La Karoji-revolucio 1918‑1919. — BOLGAR A.

La agrarpolitiko de la diktaturo — MAGYAR Lajos

Soveta Hungario kaj la kamparanaro. — HEVEŜŜI

Fabeloj en Esperanto

Se fabeloj interesas vin, jen retejo kie oni kolektas Esperantajn tradukojn de fabeloj:

Fabeloj en Esperanto

Boxer, Beetle

First, here is the web site for the novel Boxer, Beetle.

The novel is prefaced by two quotes. The first is from Jane Jacobs, from her landmark book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. The second:

"Dissonance is the truth about harmony." -- Theodor Adorno, Aesthetic Theory

Who knew?

I don't follow trends in fiction generally, or even in various fictional genres, but I have taken note of several contemporary Jewish novelists who have immersed their imaginations in the cultural environments that would have been familiar to their great grandparents, often incorporating real historical figures, or creating alternate histories. Michael Chabon and Joseph Skibell come immediately to mind.  I suppose then it should not be too surprising that Esperanto and its Eastern European Jewish creator L. L. Zamenhof would appear in this fiction. Ned Bauman's novel, published in 2010, can be added to this list.

Entomologists, eugenicists, Nazis, and a Jewish boxer occupy this scenario. Chapter 10 (Autumn 1881) incorporates the real history of artificial languages into the fiction. Erasmus Erskine insists that in a true philosophical language, ambiguity would be eliminated. There is speculation about an alleged archaeological finding of a legendary ancient advanced civilization and the language its inhabitants would have spoken. Sudre's musical language Solresol is mentioned as is perhaps the oldest recorded example of an artificial language, produced in the 12th century by St. Hildegard. The era of a priori constructed languages is mentioned. In the same era in which pogroms in Eastern Europe are feared on a daily basis, Erskine pursues his project, until in January 1890 Erskine completes "the 998-page first draft of the Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon." Zamenhof's native city of Bialystok is also part of the story.

Erskine's friend Thurlow continues to discourage the project, mentioning Volapuk had already achieved success and was a far superior language than Pangaean and easier to learn. (The irony!) But Erskine is more irritated that someone of his acquaintance, Marcus Amersham, is working on his own artificial language Orba, and has a club devoted to it. Amersham's publications include forms to which the reader can subscribe promising to learn the language if 10 million other people do so. This fictional item is borrowed from real life Zamenhof's initial attempt to promote Esperanto.

Esperanto then makes its appearance: "But by 1901 Pangaean, Orba and Volapuk were all being swept aside by the onrush of Esperanto." A few paraphrased quotes from Zamenhof are adduced to demonstrate Zamenhof's Jewish motivation. Erskine learns about the forthcoming Delegation for
the Adoption of an International Auxiliary Language (which in real life selected the dark horse Ido, resulting in the famous Esperanto-Ido schism),  and is determined to counterpose Pangaean to the Jewish cosmopolitan Esperanto and mold his language accordingly. Erskine, apparently, is an anti-Semite and presumably a non-Jew.

The 1903 Delegation could not gain assent to its authority, and so no new language definitely triumphed. Bauman correctly describes Hitler's animosity to Esperanto and the Nazi extermination of Zamenhof's family, but adds the fictional element that Hitler bans Pangaean as well as Esperanto. To Stalin's real-life persecution of Esperantists is added Stalin's unverified anecdotal inability to learn Esperanto and purely fictional inability to learn the fictional Pangaean.

And now the final SPOILER: Erskine catches Thurlow with his wife, with a book of Orba grammar between them. Devastated, Erskine discards his notes for the third edition of the Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon.  I have deliberately kept this description as dry as possible, because the actual writing is hilarious.

And undoubtedly the balance of this award-nominated novel is equally as entertaining.

William Auld en rememoro

De tempo al tempo je naska aŭ morta datreveno iu (ankaŭ mi ĉi-bloge) rememorigas pri William Auld (6 novembro 1924 – 11 septembro 2006). Okaze de la ĵusa 11a de septembro mi trovis la jenan grafikigitan poemon dankon al Facebook-amiko.

Do jen denove mia retgvidilo:

William Auld Memorial Page / En Memoro

Sándor Szathmári underreviewed

The last time I reported on reviews of Voyage to Kazohinia was on July 26, Esperanto's 125th birthday.

Slightly more than a month later, I can only add one additional review, from a blog:

Voyage to Kazohinia, H. Deal Safrit, The Literary Outpost, August 28, 2012

The disappointing denouement of this review suggests the challenge ahead. The reviewer describes the outstanding features of the novel, but doesn't get it. Somehow the target of this satire alludes him. If he got it, he could still criticize it, even indicate why readers would not be sufficiently compelled by it, or why it might be considered dated,. but the reviewer loses his literary erection before consummating the literary experience. It's a symptom of the unwillingness to engage in critical thinking or anything that is not already familiar.

Other reviewers have found the elaboration of the Behins' irrational customs --which are a parody of European civilization--coded in Szathmári's profligate neologisms, excessive and thus eventually tedious. This I suppose is a matter of individual taste. One could criticize some of the concerns as dated, for example, the transposition of sexual taboos to food taboos, which would no longer be a novel satirical point for the contemporary reader. But two counterpoints here.

Once we consider the novel as an intervention at a particular point in history, and the repressive cultural and political circumstances of the time and place, we would gain a better understanding of the nature of Szathmári's intervention, and thus also of his putative limitations.

Secondly, the reviewer mentions an essential aspect of Behin society, that, even beyond our own irrational practices, words have lost all stable referents to reality among the Behins. This is not a trivial accomplishment of the satire. Contrapose it to the other extreme: of the strictly referential use of language among the Hins and the absence of poetry, symbolism, culture, and subjectivity. Herein lies an opposition whose implications still bear exegesis today.