Sir Peter Stothard vs. Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto

This is smug British shtick at its worst:

Sir Peter Stothard, "The Book Show", ABC Radio National, February 12, 2009

"The editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Sir Peter Stothard, takes us through three new books featured in his august journal. A new book on why evolution is true, reviewed by true-believer Richard Dawkins; a book on why politicians negotiationg with Iran might have to brush up on Persian poetry, and a Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto, complete with Esperanto puns."

This is not very august or literary, it's just retarded. But at least it's publicity. To listen to the Esperanto segment, click here (mp3 - 4MB).

I am not terribly impressed either by Esperantist John Wells' review: "A long kolego," Times Literary Supplement, February 6, 2009.

Even the most cursory overview of the literary history of Esperanto demands a bit more than this.  Anyway, here is Mondial's advert for the book. You can get a fair preview from Google books:

Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto by Geoffrey Sutton (New York: Mondial, 2008). 740 pp.

Esperantists are not above criticizing their literary tradition. I've just uploaded an old paper by Holocaust survivor and poet Julius Balbin, with my comments:

The Secret Malady of Esperanto Poetry (1973) by Dr. Julius Balbin

Happy birthday, Esperanto!

Feliĉan naskiĝtagon, Esperanto!

How old are you? (123)
What's your boyfriend's first name? (Ludwig!)

La Unua Libro
Prezentas Aleksander Korĵenkov
http://www.esperanto.org/Ondo/Novaj/Nov10-23.htm#DL-01

Ĉi-date en 1887 eldoniĝis la Unua Libro de la internacia lingvo fare de D-ro Esperanto.

The first book on the "international language" was published on this date in 1887. The author was Dr. Esperanto (pseudonym of L. L. Zamenhof).

Festu, drinku, fiku / Party on, Esperanto!

Filmeto de D-ro L.L. Zamenhof! / Film of Dr. L.L. Zamenhof!

Zamenhof! (Tiel amiko kaj mi salutis unu la alian en Buffalo.)

Jen taŭga naskiĝtaga donaco por la 123a datreveno de Esperanto (la 26an de julio)! Ne demandu kiel kaj de kie mi havigis ĉi tiun aferon, nur ĝuu. Jen 14-sekunda filmeto en kiu D-ro Zamenhof mem riverencas salute, jen prezentata en formato Quicktime. Ni ĝuis lastatempe la 150an jubileon de naskiĝo de D-ro Zamenhof, ankaŭ la 100an datrevenon de la 6a Universala Kongreso en Vaŝingtono. Nun jen rarega filmeto aldoni al la kolektiva omaĝo de kara D-ro Zamenhof.

Here is a birthday gift for Esperanto's 123th birthday (July 26). Don't ask where and how I got hold of this. Enjoy this 14-second film (in Quicktime format) of Dr. Zamenhof himself bowing in greeting. We have recently enjoyed the Zamenhof sesquicentennial and the Washington DC centennial, and now we have this piece of rare footage to cap off commemoration of dear Dr. Zamenhof.

Feelin' good today!

http://autodidactproject.org/esperanto2010/zamenhof_film.html

Esperanto and Cinema

Esperanto and Cinema
Toño del Barrio
http://www.delbarrio.eu/cinema.htm

Translated from the Spanish and updated, this is a highly useful guide to the subject. And a visit to filmoj.net is a must. Even the long-vanished Angoroj can now be downloaded!

Edward Skidelsky on George Steiner, Ludwig Wittgenstein & Esperanto poetry

Skidelsky, Edward. "Beware the false prophet. George Steiner is celebrated and reviled in equal measure. Is he the most influential critic of his generation, as some say, or merely a fraud?" [review of Grammars of Creation by George Steiner], New Statesman, 19 March 2001.

Less appealing is the aesthetic theory that underlies the particular interpretations. Is it really true that poetry seeks to transcend the historicity of language, to achieve "liberation from imposed, borrowed, eroded reference"? Were that indeed the case, one might wonder why more poets did not avail themselves of the easy expedient of writing in Esperanto. Esperanto is a language with no history; its words are mere counters, without resonance or depth. Writing in Esperanto, poets would achieve without difficulty that "immaculateness" that historical languages inhibit.

Yet the very notion of "Esperanto poetry" is repellent; it suggests, as Wittgenstein once remarked, a corpse. Why this should be so is an extremely interesting question. At the very least, it suggests that there is something radically wrong with Steiner's conception of poetry. Far from scorning the historicity of language, the poet should, of all people, delight in it. It is only because words have a history, because they teem with ideas not of the poet's choosing, that poetry is at all possible. As English transforms itself into the lingua franca of the global market, as it approaches more and more the condition of Esperanto, poetry in English becomes not easier, but progressively more difficult to write.

Here is a rebuttal from a reader:

Roberts, Gareth. "Poetic possibilities," New Statesman, 26 March 2001.

Edward Skidelsky (Books, 19 March) misunderstands. It is true that the meaning of a word is more than its definition, is in many ways a bundle of associations, historical and personal. But Esperanto is not ex nihilo; it has, by some reckonings, its roots too deep in Europe. Even if it had been created in one day (which it was not), its vocabulary unrooted and new and with no history, it would still have hope. Nobody I know of sees a baby and says, "You will never be a poet, you lack experience of life", or calls children's painting a repellent notion. Once people live a language (truly think and speak it), the language takes on life, and that is where it draws its power and resonance. People, if not an enormous number of them, "live" Esperanto, too; and no words in any language that ever lived are mere "counters". Those who live Esperanto know its strange, unique beauty, its poetry.

Gareth Roberts
Dolgellau, Gwynedd

Wittgenstein on Esperanto / Wittgenstein pri Esperanto

Mi traktis ĉi tiun temon en antaŭaj blogeroj, sed finfine jen la fifama citaĵo de Wittgenstein, en la angla, kun mia traduko:

Wittgenstein on Esperanto / Wittgenstein pri Esperanto

Harvey Pekar mortis

Mi unuafoje lernis pri Harvey Pekar  (8 oktobro 1939 – 12 julio 2010) dankon al  veterana Esperantisto Charles Power. Mi aĉetis du grandajn antologiojn de liaj komiskoj American Splendor (Usona Gloro), kaj jarojn poste spektis la kinon pri li (en kiu ĉefrolis Paul Giamatti). Pekar mortis hieraŭ (la 12an), kio estas tristiga novaĵo:

Harvey Pekar dead: American Splendor comic writer was 70
[Harvey Pekar mortinta: verkisto de Usona Gloro estis 70-jara]
By Terence McArdle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/12/AR2010071202413.html

La titolo estas ironia, ĉar temas fakte pri ĉiutagaj tedaj okazoj de ĉiutaga griza vivo (plejparte pri propra vivo de Pekar) en Cleveland (tipa usona pluretna laboristeca urbo), kiujn Pekar celis montri interesaj. Pekar mem laboris en tre teda burokrata posteno, mastrumante dosierojn en hospitalo. Lia komiksa persono kaj supozeble li mem estis aŭtodidaktulo, laborista intelektulo laŭ speco de antaŭaj generacioj. Pekar kunlaboris kun famaj komiksaj artistoj, ekz. sia amiko Robert Crumb. Pekar ankaŭ estis adepto kaj recenzisto de ĵazmuziko. Mi mem ĝuis iun fifaman disputon televide, kiam Pekar estis gasto de David Letterman, kiu gastigas eminentan ĉiunoktan malfruhoran televidan "klaĉprezenton" (talk show). Pekar denuncis lin kiel kvazaŭ-putinon de kapitalista firmao.

Mi ne trovis ion en Esperanto pri Pekar. Ekz. de manko:

Bildliteraturo - Vikipedio
http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildliteraturo

Mi ne havas tempon verki nekrologon. Sed mi devas diri ion . . . .

Adiaŭ, Harvey Pekar.

The Zamenhof Legacy

The Zamenhof Legacy
Romeo Vitelli
Providentia: A Biased Look at Psychology in the World (blog)
May 17, 2009

A brief summary of the Nazi persecutions, specifically of the extermination of the Zamenhof family.

Arika Okrent pri Na'vi & aliaj inventitaj lingvoj

Here are a couple of public interventions from March:

The New Klingon

By Arika Okrent

SLATE, Posted Wednesday, March 24, 2010

"Without so much as a dictionary, Avatar fans are learning how to speak Na'vi."

http://www.slate.com/id/2248683/

Questions Answered: Invented Languages - Schott's Vocab Blog - NYTimes.com

March 10, 2010

http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/questions-answered-invented-languages/

This is an exceptionally detailed Q & A, with Okrent and Paul Frommer fielding the questions.

150a Zamenhof-Tago revizitita

Verkite 16 dec 2009:

Zamenhof Day | Homepage Feature | PRI's The World
Radio broadcast, December 15, 2009

Ĉi tiu radio elsendo estas elstara, laŭmemore unue el la plej bonaj pritraktoj de la temo iam ajn aperintaj en la usonaj amaskomunikiloj. Ĝenis min nur Arika Okrent, kies komento pri Esperanto impresis min kiel tre supraĵa kaj eĉ misgvida.

Postnoto 5 julio 2010:

Tiu estis granda tago por Zamenhof kaj Esperanto. Rigardu ankaŭ mian . . .

Web Guide to Zamenhof-Tago: 150th Birthday of L. L. Zamenhof, Creator of Esperanto, 15 December 2009 [Retgvidilo al Zamenhof-Tago: 150a datreveno de la naskiĝo de L. L. Zamenhof]

Why Esperanto Is Different

Why Esperanto Is Different
by Norman Berdichevsky
New English Review, Dec. 2007
http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/9560/sec_id/9560

This is a reaction to pejorative publicity. Okrent at the time of writing was one of the culprits, according to Beridichevsky, but her cited remark strictly pertains to the chances of Esperanto given English world domination, not to the value of Esperanto as a living language. Orwell didn't help either in his time, so it seems. But in making the historical case for Esperanto, the author cites more serious obstacles, such as the sabotage of Esperanto at the League of Nations by the French delegation, and the persecutions perpetrated by Hitler and Stalin. Okrent's cited article is:

Okrent, Arika. “Exploring Esperantoland,” The American Scholar, Winter, 2006, pp. 93-108.

Arika Okrent & kreinto de Klingono intervjuitaj

13 Nov 2009:

Se vi volas lerni pri la Klingona lingvo en la sveda lingvo, jen viddokumento:

http://svtplay.se/v/1724880/kobra/del_2_av_11?cb,a1364145,1,f,-1/pb,a1364142,1,f,-1/pl,v,,1718406/sb,p102859,1,f,-1

La kreinto de Klingono estas intervjuita; li parolas en la angla. Sekvas prezento de adepto de Klingono.

Post ĉi tiu dorkfesto, je 19:30 komenciĝas kelkminuta intervjuo kun Arika Okrent, kiu parolas en la angla. Ŝi skizetas bazajn periodojn en la historio de artefaritaj lingvoj: Wilkins (filozofia-logika), Esperanto (internacia komunikado), Laadan (la ina lingvo) & Klingono (hobiaj lingvoj).

postnoto 5 julio 2010: 

Ĉi tiu video ne plu troveblas ĉe la indikita retejo.

In the Land of Invented Languages: Miscellaneous Reviews

I'm collecting various references gathered and comments made some time ago, but which I never posted here.

---

Written 27 June 2009:

Tongue-tied
By A.J. Jacobs
Washington Post
Sunday, June 28, 2009

{review} IN THE LAND OF INVENTED LANGUAGES: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language By Arika Okrent

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/26/AR2009062601723.html

• Book World Podcast: Download an Interview With Arika Okrent

The review is rather half-assed, as if the reviewer were too lazy to write anything beyond a few cliches. Well, nothing better can be expected from this cow town, anyway. The comments are not exactly brilliant, either. I have no interest in justifying Esperanto for being anything other than it is, and accurate reporting would be good enough for me.  One thing Esperanto is not is an attempted perfect or logical language, akin to either Loglan or the philosophical languages of the 17th century.  And only a minority of the minority of Esperantists who are stark raving mad are daft enough to think that a common language will lead to world peace.  Zamenhof himself did not think so, so he concocted an even more ridiculous notion of how that would happen, i.e. a universal religion that no real religion would ever tolerate.  Also, though Esperanto does attract nerds, it is light years away from what must be the appeal of Klingon, which is aptly summarized iun the character of Comic Book Guy in The Simpsons and William Shatner's famous put-down of Trekkies on Saturday Nite Live. Nevertheless, this review, like others, is good publicity for a topic that generally doesn't get this kind of attention.

---

Written 5 Sept. 2009:

I'll admit it. I think Klingon is cool.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Cate Morrison, The Doxophiliac Blog

Interesting reaction to Okrent's In the Land of Invented Languages.

On this particular bullet point:

"The goals for Esperanto sound a lot like those Peter Galison describes as linking Vienna Circle logical positivism and Bauhaus aesthetics, though Esperanto is older. Inventor L. L. Zamenhof sought to create a universal second language to foster peace. I link all three because each saw difference as the cause of violence between peoples and sought to erase the markers of that difference. The VC sought to overcome subjectivity by creating a logical structure of thought and expression which could be more resistant to miscommunication or misunderstanding. The Bauhaus movement stripped ornamentation from their creation and elevated the functional as the source of beauty without provincial/historical markers. The object is made transparent to the viewer--it is truthful."

Not the best of analogies. But since we are on the topic of the Vienna Circle, it is apropros to note that Carnap was an enthusiastic Esperantist, but he viewed Esperanto as a tool for social communication totally differently from his project of logical syntax, i.e. an artificial logical language or formalism. And I have the web pages to prove it:

Carnap on Wittgenstein & Esperanto / Carnap pri Wittgenstein & Esperanto

"Lingvoplanado" (Language Planning) de Rudolf Carnap (9/9/2004)

          ( For part of original English text, see Rudolf Carnap on IALs.)

Johán Balano eltiras ĝin

Johán Balano estas pseŭdonimo de Claude Piron kaj aŭtoro de krimromano (aŭ kremromano?) Ĉu Ŝi Mortu Tra-Fike? Mi serĉis interrete, kaj jen la unua ĉapitro. Ĝi komenciĝas:

"Ĉu vi permesas, ke mi montru al vi mian penison?" li demandis kun afabla rideto.

Sed ne antaŭsupozu, pri kio temas. La dialogo estas lerte konstruita, do vi nur laŭgrade konstatos, kia estas la problemo.

Ornette Coleman pri Usonaj Ĉieloj

Se oni bezonas scii ion ajn pri io ajn por proksimiĝi, ĝojo kuŝas en ĝiaj ekzisto kaj libero atingante plejan plezuron kun ĝi, ne el ĝi. Koni amon estas koni amon. Usonaj ĉieloj spektis pli da ŝanĝoj sube ol ĉe iu ajn alia lando—asasinojn, politikajn militojn, gangsterajn militojn, rasajn militojn, kosmospacajn konkurencojn, virinajn rajtojn, seksumadon, drogojn, kaj la morton de dio—ĉion al la plibonigo de la usona popolo. Kio restas okazi sub usonaj ĉieloj krom boneco; lando enhavanta tiom da ŝanĝoj en la karaktero de sia popolo nepre oferas ion elstaran al la mondo por ĝuado, ĉar ĝi tiom multe faris por ŝanĝi sian teritorion kaj mensajn interrilatojn. Amo, malamo, kaj mensogoj iamaniere vivas en la karaktero de ĉiuj. Usono konas ĉiujn tri, el la mondo kaj ties popolo. Kial, kie, kaj kio estas la celo de lando kiu entenas la esencon de l’homaro kaj benojn de ĉieloj? Usono estas juna lando. Kiam ĝi atingos mil jarojn, ĉu ĝiaj idoj zorgos pri la usonaj indiĝenoj kies ĉieloj donis tiom multe? Ĉiuj usonanoj scias, kies, kiel, kaj kial sia ekzisto fariĝis usona, ajnakondiĉe. Do, se oni nur fidelus . . . kiel usonaj ĉieloj!

— Ornette Coleman, el notoj por komponaĵo "Usonaj Ĉieloj" (Skies of America, 1972), tradukis Ralph Dumain, la 4-an de julio 2010

Ornette Coleman (n. 1930) estas pioniro de avangarda ĵazmuziko ("liberforma ĵazo"). Ĉi tiu teksto ne estas tre facile tradukebla, ĉar la anglalingva originalo ne estas tute gramatike korekta. Tamen, Ornette bele esprimas senton pri sia lando, simile al esprimoj de diversaj usonnegraj (ĵaz)muzikistoj dum jardekoj, ekz. Duke Ellington kaj Anthony Braxton.

Kaj ankaŭ estas . . . Ray Charles!

Meditations on utopia, documentaries, Zamenhof & Esperanto culture

Written 29 June 2010:

I had some additional thoughts on Zamenhof while trapped on the malfunctioning Red Line yesterday evening en route to a play on the excommunication of Baruch Spinoza. The play, however, wiped my memory of this cerebumado. I believe these were the things I was thinking about:

(1) Could an argument be made that Zamenhof kicked off the utopian dreams of the 20th century? (Not really, but . . . ) How does the Esperanto movement relate to other key events and innovations of that historical moment in Western civilization? We could take the 1905 Universal Congress as a landmark. Possible points of comparison: the failed Russian Revolution of 1905, Einstein's "miracle year", the birth of cubism and futurism a few years later, the technological breakthroughs / inventions I mentioned in my radio interview . . .

(2) A more thorough treatment of Zamenhof's alleged naivete is needed. I've been involved in a limited discussion of this topic on another list. I've forgotten most of what I remember from reading various biographies 35-40 years ago, which were published before the wave of scholarship since the '70s which brought to light the centrality of Zamenhof's Jewish concerns. This material, however, helps me make sense of why Zamenhof thought the way he did, and though there were serious limitations in his social world view, it would be incorrect to dismiss him as naive, especially not with the old saw that he thought a common language would yield world peace. In context, even a "neutral" movement espousing internationalism in a world in which human rights were universally disrespected was a political intervention that could disturb the powers that be, regardless of the practical advantages adoption of such a universal auxiliary language might bring.

(3) Of the various video documentaries and informational material I've been looking at recently, what do we have in the way of a intensive video documentary of a certain period of Esperanto history, say from 1887-1937 (first 50 years), or maybe through 1945, 1947, or maybe even up through the UNESCO victory in 1954? The bits of visual footage of the Esperanto movement from Zamenhof himself through the 1930s in Sam Green's film made a striking impact on me, and I'd like to see more compiled in one place. For instance, you could add the SAT congresses, the role of Esperanto in the Spanish Civil War, the Nazi and Stalin persecutions, Esperanto in the Resistance, relief efforts in postwar Europe . . . It's interesting that great efforts, even enlisting important filmmakers, are now being made to document the Esperanto movement for promotional purposes, covering various angles. But as a person interested in history, I'm stuck in the past, and oddly, it's the first 60 years of Esperanto, all having transpired before I was born, in radically different social and cultural circumstances, that most interest me.

(4) I had the strangest feeling looking at footage of young people dancing to Esperanto rock, punk, hiphop, or whatever I saw. This seems to unreal to me; maybe I should witness this myself one day and it won't seem so preposterous. But it also reminds me of my own reaction to the limited part of the Esperanto world I encountered in the '70s. It seemed so dated, quaint, exotically anachronistic, so thoroughly old fashioned and behind the times, so totally out of touch with popular culture, not to mention reality . . . I found Esperanto charming as a survival from the past, something to be experienced anachronistically rather than contemporaneously. Anyone attempting to write poetry in American English in the way Esperantists wrote poems would induce hysterical laughter. Maybe it was the provincial Buffalonian in me that found this internationally based provincialism irresistible. But there is also the premium on print culture, the lifeblood of Esperanto for those who didn't travel much. Monda Kulturo, Norda Prismo, Hungara Vivo, etc.--whatever was lacking in terms of original ideas, one could nonetheless find a serious attitude towards literacy and literature. Decades before I completed my little poem for the Zamenhof-Tago in 2007, I wrote the first line: "Ho, orfo de Eŭropo orienta" . . .

This is the best I can recall of my delirious meditations while fuming in a stalled subway car.