2012-12-23

The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2)

I've now read 22 chapters of Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, approaching 200 pages.The plot moved quite slowly as the overall scenario of the Jewish colony in Alaska was in the process of being laid out step by step. Chabon's use of language is quite adroit, and his capacity for description is quite rich. Note that the narrative is written in the present tense, rather than in the past tense as is customary in the English language. I cannot comment on Chabon's dialogue, except for noticing some clever turns of phrase, as I am not conversant with Yiddish culture to judge how he re-creates it in his alternate universe.

The novel is heavily sprinkled with yiddishisms, which I do not understand. The characters, particularly the main character Landsman, always refers to Jews as 'yids'.  Whether or not this is a derogatory term in context I do not know, but it does not sound very flattering.

There are references to real-world Jewish public figures. There is a Max Nordau (pioneer Zionist) Street and a Peretz (I. L. Peretz, Yiddish poet) Street. There is an Einstein Chess Club. The murder victim who is the focal point of the plot is pseudonymously known as Emanuel Lasker (named after a chess champion, who also wrote about other games, e.g. Go).

The Jewish society we see here is not very attractive. There's a low class seediness about it, that begins with the run-down Zamenhof hotel, and the vista of crudity spreads out from there.The orthodox fanatics are referred to as 'black hats'. The Verbovers have their own island, and regard Landsman, who is there investigating the murder, as an interloper, and there is no love lost on his part either. They have inordinate political influence, and there is a fraction of them involved in organized crime. The Jews' relations with the Indians, i.e. the indigenous Alaskans, is none too friendly, either. The overall picture is not pretty. Other than storytelling, if there is a thematic purpose to Chabon's narrative, I do not know yet what it is.

Landsman is divorced, but his ex-wife Bina becomes his boss in the police department. Word comes down to scotch the murder case, but he can't leave it alone.  The Jewish settlement faces Reversion, which presumably means the loss of the Jewish franchise of the colony, which means a certain percentage of the Jewish residents will have to disperse.  Israel itself was destroyed in 1948. An interesting alternate history scenario, to be sure.

There is only one place so far where we learn more about the political factions that once were part of the fabric of the colony (p. 76):
For forty years--as Denny Brennan's series revealed--Hertz Shemets used his position as local director of the FBI's surveillance program  to run his own private game on the Americans. The Bureau first recruited him in the fifties  to fight Communists and the Yiddish Left, which, though fractious, was strong, hardened, embittered, suspicious of the Americans, and, in the case of the former Israelis, not especially grateful to be here. Here Shemetz's brief was to monitor and infiltrate the local Red population; Hertz wiped them out. He fed the socialists to the Communists, and the Stalinists to the Trotskyites, and the Hebrew Zionists to the Yiddish Zionists, and when feeding time was over, he wiped the mouths of those still standing and fed them to each other. Starting in the late sixties, Hertz was turned loose on the nascent radical movement among the Tlingit, and in time he pulled its teeth and claws, too.
As much care as Chabon takes to delineate this society, I found my attention flagging after a while, until, while visiting the Verboters, Landsman confronts the rebbe with the death of 'Emanuel Lasker', whose real identity has just been uncovered. From there I've been riveted to the narrative.

Now on to the Esperanto references.

'Elevatoro', an Esperanto word which appears twice so far, does not really mean 'elevator' in the sense of transporting people: that would be 'lifto'. An 'elevatoro' is more like a winch that lifts cargo.

Hotel Zamenhof is a centerpiece of the narrator. As for Zamenhof the man, he is thought to be a ghost:
"You know what Kohn says," says Tenenboym. Kohn says we got a ghost in the house." Kohn is the day manager. "Taking shit, moving shit around. Hohn figures it for the ghost of Professor Zamenhof."

"If they named a dump like this after me," Landsman says, "I'd haunt it, too."

"You never know," Tennenboym observes. "Especially nowadays." [pp. 12-13]
Much later, while Landsman is on forced leave while recovering from a bullet wound, his ex-wife Bina visits his hovel in the Hotel Zamenhof:
She wades through pieces of Landsman's gray suit and a bath towel and stands at the foot of the bed. Her eyes take in the pink wallpaper patterned with garlands in burgundy flock, the green plush carpet with its random motif of burn spots and mystery stains, the broken glass, the empty bottle, the peeling and chipped veneer of the pressboard furniture. Watching her with his head at the foot of the pull-down bed, Landsman enjoys the look of horror on her face, mostly because if he doesn't, then he will have to feel ashamed.

"How do you say 'shit heap' in Esperanto?" Bina says. She goes over to the veneer table and looks down at the last bedraggled curls of noodle pudding lying in the grease-streaked clamshell. [pp. 163-164]

Du poemoj de L. L. Zamenhof tradukitaj de Marjorie Boulton

Ho, Mia Kor'

Ho, mia kor’, ne batu maltrankvile,
el mia brusto nun ne saltu for!
Jam teni min ne povas mi facile,
ho, mia kor’!

Ho, mia kor’! Post longa laborado
ĉu mi ne venkos en decida hor’?
Sufiĉe! trankviliĝu de l’ batado,
ho, mia kor’!

O My Heart

O heart, my heart, O do not throb so wildly,
Nor wildly from my bosom, throbbing, start!
I cannot be composed, sit calmly, idly ...
O heart, my heart!

O heart, my heart! The crucial hour is coming
Shall I not win when I have played my part?
Enough! be calm! no more of this wild drumming—
O heart, my heart!

* * * * * * * *

Pluvo

Pluvas kaj pluvas kaj pluvas kaj pluvas
senĉese, senfine, senhalte,
el ĉiel’ al la ter’, el ĉiel’ al la ter’
are gutoj frapiĝas resalte.

Tra la sonoj de l’ pluvo al mia orelo
murmurado penetras mistera,
mi revante aŭskultas, mi volus kompreni,
kion diras la voĉo aera.

Kvazaŭ ia sopir’ en la voĉo kaŝiĝas
kaj aŭdiĝas en ĝi rememoro...
Kaj per sento plej stranga, malĝoja kaj ĝoja,
en mi batas konfuze la koro.

Ĉu la nuboj pasintaj, jam ofte viditaj,
rememore en mi reviviĝis,
aŭ mi revas pri l’ sun’, kiu baldaŭ aperos
kvankam ĝi en la nuboj kaŝiĝis?

Mi ne volas esplori la senton misteran,
mi nur revas, mi ĝuas, mi spiras;
ion freŝan mi sentas, la freŝo min logas,
al la freŝo la koro min tiras.

Rain

The rain is falling, falling, falling,
Unending, pauseless, never stopping;
From sky to pavement, sky to pavement,
Rebounding water-clusters dropping.
Mysterious through the rainy patter,
I hear a secret murmuring noise;
I listen, dreaming, try to follow
The message of that airy voice.
As if that voice concealed some yearning,
Remembrance through the rain were sobbing ....
Confused by mingled joy and sorrow,
Bewildered now my heart is throbbing.
Are clouds, in memory, returning,
I saw so often in the past?
Or do I dream of coming sunshine,
Although the sky is overcast?
Not questioning these subtle feelings,
I dream, enjoy and breathe; I know
Only a freshness that invites me,
To which my heart would have me go.

SOURCE: Boulton, Marjorie. Zamenhof, Creator of Esperanto (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1960), p. 38, 176.


Kaj jen sonregistraĵo de deklamo de unu poemo fare de pioniro Edmund Privat!

Zamenhof - Ho, mia kor' - legas E. Privat 

2012-12-22

Zamenhof: 'Mia Penso'

El la 9 (?) originalaj poemoj en Esperanto de Zamenhof, tri estas pli notindaj preter movada intereso: "Ho, Mia Kor'!", "Mia Penso", kaj "Pluvo". La unuaj du temas pri la psika stato de Zamenhof, kio kompreneble rilatas al lia lukto por Esperanto, tamen, facile abstrakteblas teme aparte de la Esperanto-movado. "Pluvo" eble rilatas al la sama afero, sed pli apartigeblas disde rilato al la Esperanto-movado. Marjorie Boulton tradukis anglalingven "Ho, Mia Kor'!" kaj "Pluvo" en sia biografio de Zamenhof. Mi ne trovis anglalingvan tradukon de "Mia Penso". Jen la originalo:

Mia Penso

Sur la kampo for de l' mondo,
antaŭ nokto de somero,
amikino en la rondo
kantas kanton pri l' espero.
Kaj pri vivo detruita
ŝi rakontas kompatante,
mia vundo refrapita
min doloras resangante.

"Ĉu vi dormas? Ho, sinjoro,
kial tia senmoveco?
Ha, kredeble rememoro
el la kara infaneco?"
Kion diri? Ne ploranta
povis esti parolado
kun fraŭlino ripozanta
post somera promenado!

Mia penso kaj turmento,
kaj doloroj kaj esperoj!
Kiom de mi en silento
al vi iris jam oferoj!
Kion havis mi plej karan –
la junecon – mi ploranta
metis mem sur la altaron
de la devo ordonanta!

Fajron sentas mi interne,
vivi ankaŭ mi deziras, –
io pelas min eterne,
se mi al gajuloj iras...
Se ne plaĉas al la sorto
mia peno kaj laboro –
venu tuj al mi la morto,
en espero – sen doloro!

* *  *  *  *  *

Jen simpla liriko, sed mi trovas ĝin agrabla, kaj la finajn versojn kortuŝaj.

Kaj jen historia trezoro, sonregistraĵo de deklamo de la poemo fare de pioniro Edmund Privat!

Zamenhof - Mia penso - legas Edmond Privat

Jen germanlingvaj tradukoj de Franz Zwach kaj Manfred Retzlaff.

2012-12-20

Zamenhof-Simpozio 2010 ĉe UNo ĉemize


Kio estas ĉi tio? Jen T-ĉemizo, farita de esperantisto-entuziasmulo Neil Blonstein. La bildo estas fotografo farita ĉe Zamenhof-Simpozio kiu okazis en Novjorko la 15an de decembro 2010. En la grupfoto aperas Sam Green, Ralph Dumain, Humphrey Tonkin, George Soros, oficialulino de UNo, Neil Blonstein, kaj filo de Soros.

Kiaokaze Neil surportas ĉi tiun T-ĉemizon, mi ne povas imagi.

2012-12-19

Sam Green's 'Utopia in Four Movements' revisited


by Stephen Squibb; Idiom; October 13, 2010

This is an old review but an interesting one. The reviewer is sharply critical but insightful in dissecting the logic of Green's live documentary  Utopia in Four Movements as well as his earlier documentary The Weather Underground.  Read for yourself.



2012-12-16

Haunted by the Holocaust: The Ghosts of Muranow made visible

The ghosts of Muranow: A journalist's mission to illuminate Poland's haunted past
 By Donald Snyder, NBC News Special Correspondent
 23 Nov 2012



The report begins:
When Polish journalist Beata Chomatowska walks the streets of Muranow, she can’t stop thinking about the horrible things that happened there.

“It’s a daily trauma,” she said.

Present-day Muranow, a district of Warsaw, Poland, is built on rubble and the remains of Jews who perished there during World War II, but many residents are ignorant of the area’s past.

So Chomatowska started a website to educate them called “Stacja Muranow,” which means “Muranow Stop.” And in October she published a book by the same name, chronicling the haunted past of the former Jewish ghetto.

  The stories of the perished, of survivors, of the restoration of historical memory are all interesting.  As yesterday was Zamenhof's birthday, I will point out the following:
Thirty residents have joined Chomatowska’s Muranow education project, meeting in an unfurnished office with no hint of the past. She’s particularly proud of one of the murals painted by members of the group in the entry way of an apartment building. It features prominent Jews who lived in Muranow before the war, such as the creator of Esperanto, Ludwik Zamenhoff, who hoped his universal language would unite people of different cultures.
 All of Zamenhof's children were murdered by the Nazis, but one grandson survived. I had the opportunity to meet Zamenhof's great-granddaughter, now living in Louisiana.

Stacja Muranow [Muranow Station] is a book published in Polish on this project.

Courtesy of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, you can take an audio walking tour of Muranow in Polish.

And here is the web site devoted to the district: Stacja Muranów strona o Muranowie.

Atheist Alliance International meets & greets Esperanto-speaking atheists


Written by Tanya Smith, 09 May 2012

 *   *   *

I co-founded Ateista Tutmonda Esperanto-Organizo (ATEO) in 1987, Esperanto's centennial year. Others are now carrying on the work and forging links with non-Esperantist organizations.

Tanya Smith of Atheist Alliance International met the vice-president of ATEO, Anna Löwenstein, and wrote a greeting in English which Anna subsequently translated into Esperanto and published in our journal Ateismo.  The translation is in the graphic to the left. Here is Tanya's original message:

"Hello atheist esperantists! As is common with native English speakers I am quite bad with other languages (it's embarrassing really), so I appreciate ATEO's translation of this greeting from me. I understand that the key goal of Esperanto is to facilitate communication and cooperation between people of different backgrounds, with the intention that this will foster goodwill and harmony on our small planet. It's a noble goal, and esperantists who are also atheists may appreciate that Atheist Alliance International has similar objectives. By challenging religion and its privileged place in society we seek a secular world that is fair to all people, and ultimately more peaceful. For all our sakes, I hope the efforts of both communities are successful in fostering a better world."

2012-12-15

Zamenhof! En garde!


"Mi trapikis krokodilojn dum 153 jaroj kaj mi trapikos vin."

Nikolao Gudskov pri antikva-greka filozofio

La ofte trovata frenezeco en Esperantujo troviĝas ankaŭ ne malofte inter tiuj esperantistoj kiuj ankaŭ ambicias roli kiel filozofoj. Estas diversspecaj tipoj de filozofia literaturo en Esperanto: tradukoj, popolklerigaj verkoj, historiaj resumoj, kaj originalaj verkoj. Aliokaze mi komentos pri la tuta gamo. Ĉi-foje mi reliefigas analizan historian originalan verkon, kiu estas vere leginda:

Gudskov, Nikolao. Kiel la Homo Ekis Pensi: Eseoj pri la Helena Filozofio. Moskvo: Impeto, 2012.

Ĉi estas tiom serioza, perspektiva, detala pritrakto de la temo, ke mi inkluzivas ĝin en mia nova anglalingva bibliografio interalie pri la sociologio de antikva-greka filozofio:

Greek Philosophy, the Scientific Revolution, Abstraction, Phenomenology, & the Money Economy: Selected Bibliography 
[Greka filozofio, la scienca revolucio, abstraktado, fenomenologio, & monekonomio: elektita bibliografio]

Jen rilata eseo de Gudskov:

Ĉu Taleso estis la unua, aŭ forgesitaj “Sepoj”?, Teleskopo, #1, 2009

Oni pretendas nuntempe pensi tutmonde pri filozofio, sed fakte tio estas ideologia trompo laŭ modo tutmondiga/novliberalisma/postmodernisma. La interagado de lingvosferaj, naciaj, skolaj kaj ideologiaj intelektaj tradicioj restas problemo ne adekvate ekzamenata. Ĉi tio estas pensenda afero en la krokodila makrosocio kaj inter la esperantista intelektularo.

En la verko de Gudskov percepteblas la plej bona influo de la sovetia historiografio de filozofio, kiu estas preskaŭ tute nekonata kaj ne facile konebla en Usono kaj ŝajne estas forigita el la historia memoro. Perspektivo el historia materiismo estas fakte tre utila kontribuo al kompreno de la historio de filozofio kaj ne estas perspektivo el kiu oni instruas filozofion en Usono. (La eroj kaj aŭtoroj en mia menciita anglalingva bibliografio ne estas vaste konataj.)  Do eble taŭgas ke Esperanto ĉi-kaze estu medio ne nur de interlingva kaj internacia sed ankaŭ de intertradicia komunikado.

2012-12-13

The Yiddish Policemen's Union (1)

Opening sentence of Michael Chabon's novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union:

"Nine months Landsman's been flopping at the Hotel Zamenhof without any of his fellow residents managing to get themselves murdered."

The hotel of course is named after L.L. Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto, whose 153rd birthday is coming on December 15. So in honor of Zamenhof's birthday, I begin reading this alternate history novel. Is alternate history good for the Jews?

"Landsman puts his hand on Tenenboym’s shoulder, and they go down to take stock of the deceased, squeezing into the Zamenhof’s lone elevator, or ELEVATORO, as a small brass plate over the door would have it. When the hotel was built 50 years ago, all of its directional signs, labels, notices, and warnings were printed on brass plates in Esperanto. Most of them are long gone, victims of neglect, vandalism, or the fire code." [p. 3]

Omaĝe al la venonta naskiĝtago de Zamenhof, mi komencas legi ĉi tiun ukronian romanon (La Jida Policana Sindikato/Unio), en kiu situas Hotelo Zamenhof.

2012-12-12

Mario Pei revisited

Pei, Mario. One Language for the World. New York: Devin-Adair, 1958. (Reprint: New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1968.)
Parts 1 and 3 can be found here. The bulk of the history of the international language movement, not included here, will be found in part 2 supplemented by the bibliography & appendixes. Complete text available to Questia subscribers.  You can see the complete table of contents and other snippets at Google Books.
The history of artificial languages and the quest for a universal language has been documented in several languages. There is a selected bibliography of key works under the rubric of Selected General Works on Interlinguistics and History of Constructed and Universal Languages in my bibliography:

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

. . . which otherwise focuses on the subset of artificial languages indicated.

The most general web guide to the field of artificial/universal languages, which in recent decades as morphed into the conlang phenomenon, can also be found on my web site:

Esperanto & Interlinguistics Study Guide

Until Pei's book came along in 1958, the most prominent work in English was:

Guérard, Albert Léon. A Short History of the International Language Movement [on my web site]. London: T. F. Unwin, Ltd., 1922. (Reprint ed.: Westport, CT: Hyperion Press, 1979.) [Also offsite.]

You can now get it online, but back in the day, it could probably only be found in large central public libraries or research libraries.

After Pei, the most significant general work in English was:

Large, J. A. The Artificial Language Movement. Oxford; New York: B. Blackwell; London: A. Deutsch, 1985. (The Language Library)

But now, your first English-language go-to place for this subject matter is:

Okrent, Arika. In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009. See also web site: http://inthelandofinventedlanguages.com.

Many decades ago this field was dubbed interlingustics, but the explosive growth of language invention as a hobby in the Internet age yielded the term conlangs. Large still reflects the old concerns; Okrent reflects the conlang world of today.

When I first became interested in this subject matter, circa 1968, Pei was my major reference point. And I don't think he is entirely obsolete, both in covering the issues and the specifics of artificial language projects.  What has most conspicuously changed is not merely the world of conlangs but the geopolitical and technological picture in general, which does not favor the solution of one world auxiliary language save to the extent that English has become dominant though not universal.

In the same time period Pei recorded a record album with Smithsonian's Folkways Records, also titled One Language for the World (1961). Thanks to the digitized world we now live in, this recording is obtainable via download or CD. I don't believe I ever listened to the original record album.

The liner notes for the album can be found here.

My own interest in this subject matter now is bibliographical, historical, and sociological. The old philosophical languages of the 17th and 18th centuries hold a special interest in the history of ideas and philosophy of science. I suppose I was a conlanger avant le lettre in 1968. In those days the publications of enthusiasts (like the International Language Review which became International Language Reporter which became Eco-Logos) took some effort to track down. Aside from my use of Esperanto, I don't find conlangs in themselves interest me: I approach this area from a distance seeing it as a subcultural and ideological phenomenon. But I can also pay tribute to human inventiveness and creativity, and in the process, to Mario Pei for taking the trouble to document this phenomenon.


2012-11-30

Nova jida artikolo pri Esperanto / New Yiddish article on Esperanto

Ĉu la angla venkos la mondon; ĉu aliaj lingvoj malaperos aŭ konserviĝos nur en muzeoj? Nu, judoj respondecas pri Babelo. Unu solvonto de la lingvo-problemo estis Zamenhof, kies judeco estis nepra motivo al kreado de Esperanto. Esperanto similas socie al la jida. Laŭ amiko de la aŭtoro, Esperanto estas la jida de la gojoj.

Do jen eta resumo de Esperanto kaj Zamenhof en jida usona ĵurnalo (kun anglalingva eldono, sed ĉi tiu artikolo ne havas anglan version) ankoraŭ eldonata:

The Jewish Daily Forward / פֿאָרווערטס
23 Nov 2012:

 
דער נײַער עספּעראַנטאָ
 [The new Esperanto / La nova Esperanto by/de Alec Burko]
 לייזער בורקא

2012-11-21

Boxer, Beetle (4)

Boxer, Beetle has been blurbed as hilarious. I would call it satirical in the extreme, but I haven't been laughing.

There are no redeeming characters in the book. Not only are the fascists obnoxious and stupid, but their would-be victims, the underclass East Ender Jews of London, are primitive and crude. Seth "Sinner" Roach is the crudest of them: a malformed boxer who lives to fight, who hates Jew-haters but has no political perspective, only selfish interest. His bizarre symbiosis with the anti-Semitic fascist entomologist and amateur eugenicist Philip Erskine and their mutual fate is the focal point of the mystery Kevin Broom is trying to solve under extreme duress in the present. As the narrative toggles between tracking down vanished persons and the obscure events of 1936, we descend further and further into the pit.

Erskine not only names a beetle he has bred after Hitler, he receives an effusive letter from Hitler. Sinner becomes a mercenary in a brewing battle in the East End as Mosley's fascists storm the area to confront the Jews, who are poised for battle.

Well, Broom and his kidnapper (and the latter's mysterious boss) finally solve the mystery of the boxer and the beetles, as do we in a flashback to October 1936. Both halves of the story conclude with no justice meted out to the bad guys, no good guys to win or lose, no redemption and no moral. This satiric portrait of degradation and fascism is a brilliantly written tour de force, well worth reading, but don't expect any wisdom to be gotten from it.

What this young man is about I do not know, or if this novel bespeaks a trend in Jewish fiction, but you can learn more about the author and his work at Ned Bauman's web site, which also links to his blog "Oh my god look at its little face!". Bauman, born in 1985, studied philosophy in Cambridge. Make of that what you will. There is also a bibliography for this novel. The references for artificial languages are:

The Artificial Language Movement by Andrew Large (1985)
Esperanto: Language, Literature and Community by Pierre Janton, ed. Humphrey Tonkin (1993)



2012-11-19

Boxer, Beetle (3)

In the present (Chapter 12 of Boxer, Beetle) the narrator is kidnapped to Claramore, where the key to the quest is thought to be: an incident suspected to have taken place at a fascist conference in 1936.

Then we are back in 1936, at Claramore, the bizarre estate of the Erskine family. William Erskine, inheritor of the estate, rigged it up with high-tech (for 1936) inventions and gizmos in accordance with his vision of the technological future.

Sinner (Seth Roach) and Philip Erskine arrive for the upcoming conference. Pangaean gets mentioned a few more times (145, 149, 163). Philip's father William reads the son's manuscript and decides to have it bound. Later on as the drama at the household reaches a macabre climax, Erskine--which Erskine I'm not certain--has a morbid fantasy involving the third Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon.

It also bears mentioning that Evelyn, Philip's sister, is an aficionado and composer of atonal music, which she ends up attempting to justify to Sinner (171). I mention this noting that one of the prefatory quotes to the novel comes from Adorno on dissonance.

Chapter 13 (August 1936) teaches us that the entire family and the assembled fascist guests all belong in a looney bin. It's a bizarro Addams Family world, only truly morbid. And each fascist we encounter is crazier than the next; each insists on the peculiarities of his own cobbled together world view, such that none can agree and all end up bickering.

Chapter 14 begins with footman Alex Goodman obsessed with two goals: marrying Evelyn's maid, and securing a "top-class conjugal safety coffin." But that's normal compared to what transpires by the end of Chapter 15, as the insanity at Claramore reaches a climax, in more ways than one.





2012-11-16

Boxer, Beetle (2)


In the past two days I have read 11 chapters (133 pages) of Ned Beauman's novel Boxer, Beetle. It's a real page-turner, compelling reading, superbly written, and highly absurdist.

Chapter 10 (Autumn 1881), on which I reported in my previous post on this book, is actually a historical digression from the main two plots. incorporates the real history of artificial languages into the fiction. Erasmus Erskine appears to be the grandfather of Philip Erskine, entomologist, eugenicist, Nazi sympathizer. His main occupation is finding and breeding beetles, until he secures the cooperation of gay, nine-toed Jewish Boxer Seth "Sinner" Roach to serve as a guinea pig for a eugenics experiment. This scenario takes place in Britain in the 1930s.

The other main plot takes place in the present, in which Kevin Broom, a collector of Nazi memorabilia, is sucked into a nefarious intrigue involving the sordid past just described.

At the end of chapter 9, Philip Erskine is forced by his father to leave beetles and boxers be for a time in order to complete another project:

"It was time to write the history of Pangaean--the Erskine dynasty's greatest pride, and greatest embarrassment."

So the chapter on artificial languages, though seemingly out of place, is a historical flashback from the 1930s, and pits not only artificial languages against one another, but anti-Semite against Jew.  Erasmus Erskine, creator of Pangaean, wants to abolish adverbs as well as Jews. In 1881, "on the same day that the Jews were driven out of Fluek, the adverbs were driven out of the English language." Meanwhile, far away in Poland, Seth Roach's grandparents prepare to fight off a pogrom.

Erskine, bigoted and obsessed, makes Pangaean so complicated and difficult, that even he can't master his language.

"He was even forced to consider putting the adverbs back in, but concluded that he had left himself no room for them, on the same day in June 1882 that Sinner's grandfather returned with his wife and daughters to Fluek, where they were told by local officials that, according to Alexander III's new Temporary Regulations, no Jews were allowed to settle in the countryside of Russian Poland."

So they left Fluek and ended up in Bialystok (in real life, the birthplace of Zamenhof, creator of Esperanto), where Sinner's father "was born on the same day that Erskine completed the 998-page first draft of the Pangaean Grammar and Lexicon."

Pangaean, of course, never existed, but the real history of the international language movement, with some historical distortions, serves as the backdrop for the unhappy fate of Pangaean. Erskine opposes Esperanto as a Jewish language, as did Hitler later on, but as fate would have it, Hitler ends up banning Pangaean as well as Esperanto.



Bildrakontoj


Bildrakontoj 
Plenaj bildrakontoj en Esperanto

Jen interesa retejo. Troveblas nun la jenaj bildrakontoj:

La Milito de la Mondoj de H. G. Wells (kaj ne maltrafu la duan parton)

La Triton-murdoj de István Nemere (kaj ne maltrafu la duan parton)

Baldaŭ alvenos:

Stelŝipo 

La Drako

2012-10-24

Lukács & tragedy / tragedio (2)

I still need a translation from Lukacs' 1955 Hungarian essay on Imre Madach's The Tragedy of Man.

I succeeded in getting someone to translate from German an extract on Hungarian drama from an early work by Lukács. The German and the English are now on my web site:

I also digitized the choicest philosophical passages from a famous 1910 essay in Soul and Form:

The Metaphysics of Tragedy: Excerpts by Georg Lukács

Though this is not related to the theme of tragic drama, note again my uploaded essay by Lukács in Esperanto translation on the counterrevolutionary reaction to the 1919 Hungarian Soviet Republic:

Kontraŭrevoluciaj fortoj dum la hungara proletara diktaturo de György Lukács
[Counterrevolutionary Forces during the Hungarian Proletarian Dictatorship]

I cannot find this in English. There are a couple British anthologies of Lukács' political writings I have not seen. But in the familiar anthologies, nothing: Tactics and Ethics would have been the place to find this piece.

So we continue to fight the language barrier as we pursue our scholarship.

2012-10-18

Lukács & tragedy / tragedio (1)

The following quotation is excerpted from an excerpt from Lukács' early work on modern drama translated into English in 1968. This translation does not mention Imre Madách; the complete German text does. But here you will find background on Lukács' view of tragic drama from this period.

On the historical transition from the logical structure of traditional drama based on a presumed metaphysical/social order to the logic of individualism in modern drama:

“Artistically this all implies, in the first place, a paradox in the dramatic representation of character. For in the new drama, compared to the old, character becomes much more important and at the same time much less important. Our perspective alone determines whether we count its formal significance as everything or as nothing. Even as the philosophies of Stirner and Marx are basically drawn from the same source, Fichte, so every modern drama embodies this duality of origin, this dialectic out of the life that gives it birth. [….] Character becomes everything, since the conflict is entirely for the sake of character’s vital centre; for it alone and for nothing peripheral, because the force disposed of by this vital centre alone determines the dialectic, that is, the dramatic, quality of drama. Conversely, character becomes nothing, since the conflict is merely around and about the vital centre, solely for the principle of individuality. Since the great question becomes one of to what degree the individual will finds community possible, the direction of the will, its strength, and other specifics which might render it individual, in fact, must remain unconsidered. Thus—and the essence of the stylistic problem is here—character is led back to more rational causes than ever before, and becomes at the same time ever more hopelessly irrational.” [p. 435]
SOURCE: Lukács, Georg. “The Sociology of Modern Drama” [1909/1911? - excerpt from Entwicklungsgeschichte des modernen Dramas], translated by Lee Baxandall (1965), in The Theory of the Modern Stage, edited by Eric Bentley (London: Penguin Books, 1968), pp. 425-450.

2012-10-17

Kreivo, varbado, & la demando de kulturo

Ĵusafiŝe pri Jorge Camacho, mi konkludis je la temo de kulturo kaj kreivo. Kiam mi parolas krokodilmedie pri Esperanto, mi ne disdonas la kutiman naivan kaj falsan propagandon pri Esperanto. Mi tute rifuzas promocii finvenkismon kaj mi emfazas honeste Esperanton kiel vivantan lingvon. Tre rare okazas iaj negativaj reagoj aŭ postkomentoj.

Kelkfoje mi spertis nur unu tian reagon: oni lernas lingvon por eniri kulturon. Esperanto ne havas kulturon, do kiel valoras Esperanto? Mi lastfoje spertis tion post mia prelego ĉe UNo en decembro 2010. Mi klarigis mian pozicion, senpropagande, sed la koncerna persono evidente ne simpatiis.  Kaj mi ne asertis la specon de vidpunkto pri Esperanto-kulturo kian oni trovas ĉe Auld.

Mi iomete diskutis la kulturdemandon en mia anglalingva afiŝo:

Don Harlow's Esperanto Book

Jen kerna paragrafo:

 Important here I think is conveying the texture of the Esperanto world as a culture-forming phenomenon. Ultimately, this is far richer approach than kindergarten-level propaganda. That is, convey Esperanto as a living language, not just advertise how it is the interminably procrastinated solution to the world language problem.
Mi priskribas Esperanton ne kiel "kulturon", sed kiel kultur-formigan fenomenon.

Mi iam polemikis pri ŝajne tute malsama temo:

The Traditional Canon vs. Multiculturalism in the Literary Profession: A Sterile Debate
[Tradicia Beletrokanono kontraŭ Plurkulturismo en la Literatura Profesio: Sterila Debato]

La komuna faktoro estas la logiko de la adorado de la beletra korpuso de la pasinteco—majstroverkismo—kontraste al perspektivo de antaŭenpuŝa kreivo. Nu: mi konstatas analogion inter ĉi tiu afero kaj la rilato inter jam konstruita (por formuli simplisme) nacia/etna/lingva kulturo kaj la kulturformiga historio de Esperanto. Jen fruktodona perspektivo por plua taksado de la afero. Tradicia aprezado, ĉu pozitiva ĉu negativa, de Esperanto-kulturo kompare al naciaj kulturoj baziĝas sur erara premisaro.


Jorge Camacho kaptita sen iluzioj

Oni povus postfakte konstrui tradicion de memkritiko, skeptikismo, kaj satirado de la Esperanto-movado. Jen unu ekzemplo ĉi-bloge:

Satire pri esperantistoj 

Estas kompreneble multaj frenezaĵoj kaj frenezuloj en la Esperanto-movado—Esperantujo aŭ Esperantio, pli ĝuste—; estas pluraj sobraj sagaculoj kiuj objektive konstatas la fortaĵojn kaj malfortaĵojn de la medio; estas miksaĵoj de realismo kaj ideologia iluziemo.

Jen lastatempa poemo de Jorge Camacho skeptikumante pri la Esperanto-medio:

Nefermita poemo pri Esperanto kaj Esperantujo  

Laŭ la postkomentoj, mi kaj pluraj aliaj konsentas kaj kunsentas la nepoeziecan poemon.  Temas pri kroĉiteco al la lingvo malgraŭ la multaj negativaĵoj kaj elcerpitaĵoj de la afero.

Ekzemplo de miksita pritakso de la afero kaj troa ideologiemo estas William Auld. Notu:

William Auld: kulturo & Esperanto

En lastaj monatoj mi relegis plurajn librojn de Auld, ne ankoraŭ blogis pri ĉiuj. Auld povas racie taksi aferojn, do lin ne ŝokus Camacho aŭ aliaj similaj. Kompreneble onies juĝkapablo ne nepre estus unuforma. Ie Auld mencias la emocian kroĉitecon al la lingvo. Mi konsentas pri tio kaj la (raci-speca!) legitimeco de tia emocia ligiteco. Estonte mi blogos pri tio kaj pri la vastasenca kreivo de la Esperanto-afero, rilate al tiuj kiuj senvalidigas Esperanton ĝuste pro "kulturo".

2012-10-06

Árpád Tóth en la angla?

Kiel pontolingvo inter naciaj literaturoj Esperanto elstare sukcesis. Mi scias malmulton pri hungara beletro, sed ĉion mi lernis pere de Esperanto. Nur lastatempe mi trovis Árpád Tóth.

Jen la du poemoj kiujn mi trovis en Esperanto, nun en mia retejo:

 “La Nova Dio” de Árpád Tóth, tradukis Kálmán Kalocsay

 “De animo al animo” de Árpád Tóth, tradukis Ferenc Szilágyi

La unuan mi trovis en Hungara Vivo, 19a jaro, n-ro 1 (83), 1979, numero pri la 133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko de 1919. Tóth varme salutis tiun revolucion.

Do, kio troveblas en la angla?  Mi supozas, ke ekzistas individuaj tradukitaj verkoj en revuoj aŭ antologioj. Elsarki tiujn estas tro granda tasko nun. Ekzistas tamen unu literaturkritika libro pri Tóth en la angla:

Nyerges, Anton N. Árpad Toth: Song of the Drywood. Richmond, KY: A.N. Nyerges, 1983.

De Tóth mem, estas unu ero en la angla en la usona Parlamenta Biblioteko:

Tardos, Béla. The New God: Cantata, de Béla Tardos; words by Árpád Tóth; Fly, Poem: Cantata / András Mihály; words by Attila József [sound recording]. Budapest: Qualiton, [196-?]. 1 sound disc: analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo; 12 in. In the 1st work: György Radnai, baritone; Budapest Chorus; Hungarian State Orchestra; Miklós Erdélyi, conductor. In the 2nd work: Sándor Nagy, baritone ; Chorus of the Hungarian Radio and Television; Hungarian State Orchestra; Ervin Lukács, conductor. Sung in Hungarian. Durations: 20:30; 17:04. Program notes by Péter Várnai in Hungarian, English, German, and Russian on container. (Series: Contemporary Hungarian music)

Ŝajnas, ke almenaŭ la teksto de "La Nova Dio" akompananta ĉi tiun sonregistraĵon estas tradukita en la anglan. La kantoj mem estas faritaj en la hungara.

Interese, mi trovis mencion de Tóth en jena artikolo:

MetaGalaktika #11: A thousand years of Hungarian science fiction, 2009

Tie oni trovas priskribon de novelo de Tóth: “The Strange Fits of Tom Briggs”[La strangaj paroksismoj de Tom Briggs]. Interese en sciencfikcia kadro, ankaŭ ĉar li estas plej konata kiel poeto.


Lukács vs. science fiction?

Morse, Donald E. “When the Hungarian Literary Theorist György Lukács Met American Science-Fiction Writer, Wayne Mark Chapman,” in Anatomy of Science Fiction, edited & introduced by Donald E. Morse (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2006), pp. 186-191.

While this essay is not available on the net to my knowledge, the contents and introduction to the book are:

http://ppke.academia.edu/K%C3%A1rolyPint%C3%A9r/Books/130495/Donald_E._Morse_ed._Anatomy_of_Science_Fiction

There's also the Cambridge UP book description:

http://www.c-s-p.org/flyers/Anatomy-of-Science-Fiction.htm

And there's this:

International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA)

There's some pretty interesting stuff in this book. Morse himself started out in a different branch of literature, then got into science fiction, fantasy, and Hungarian literature. One of his specialties is Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Here's a list of publications:

http://ieas.unideb.hu/index.php?p=756&l=en

I also copied another article: „Leakings: Reappropriating Science Fiction: The Case of Kurt Vonnegut,” by Tamás Bényei, a Hungarian author (pp. 48-69).

Back to Morse: the article is not about Lukács at all, save for implicating him in the suppression of science fiction, fantasy, and indigenous Hungarian culture in Stalinist Hungary. "Light" reading was deemed decadent and was officially under suspicion. Apparently all this was strictly forbidden until after the 1956 Revolution. But science fiction didn't get published much in Hungary until 1989, whereupon there was an explosion, not always properly documented in the American reference work on the subject.

But here's something else of interest, what Morse terms "pseudotranslation". There is no Wayne Mark Chapman: he is a fictional construct of a network of Hungarian authors who created their imaginary universe and published their original works under this pseudonym, owing to the fact that they could not sell their books as Hungarians: they had to pretend to be translating an American author!

As for Lukács role, I'm still not clear. In other instances Lukács indulged in Stalinist propaganda while covertly subverting it.  I know he hated Joyce and Kafka (though he admitted to the Kafkaesque quality of Stalinism), but I don't know what he had to say about science fiction and fantasy, if anything.

In any case, my eventual aim is to relate this to Lukács' take on Imre Madách.  I want to relate all of this to Sándor Szathmári. Perhaps there's a chance of interesting Morse or IAFA in Szathmári?

2012-09-26

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.


2012-09-25

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:



2012-09-23

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.

2012-09-21

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.

2012-09-19

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.

2012-09-18

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

2012-09-16

Fabeloj en Esperanto

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

Fabeloj en Esperanto


2012-09-15

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.

2012-09-12

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

2012-09-03

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.

2012-08-23

Georg (György) Lukács en Esperanto

Mi jam blogis pri Georg (György) Lukács, pioniro de "okcidenta marksismo."

Mi unue trovis referencon al Lukács antaŭ ol mi sciis ion ajn pri li, en revuo Norda Prismo, n-ro 1a de jaro 1972, t.e. la eseo "Arta Partikulareco kaj Esperanto," en kiu Roberto Passos Nogueira skizas la literaturteorion de Lukács kaj provas aplikon al la beletro de Esperanto. Pri detaloj, konsultu mian ĉi-teman afiŝon.

Kelkajn menciojn de Lukács mi trovis aliloke, ekz. en The Crooked Heart de Esther Schor; recenzo de romano A Curable Romantic [Kuracebla Romantikulo] de  Joseph Skibell, en kiu Zamenhof kaj la Esperanto-movado elstare rolas.

Sed lastatempe, trafoliumante malnovajn numerojn de Hungara Vivo, mi trovis mencion kaj la jenan fotografon en artikolo:

1919: Hungarlanda Konsilia Respubliko” de Ervin Fenyvesi, tradukis Vilmos Benczik

Poste, mi petis kaj ricevis skanaĵojn de kelkaj artikoloj en  Cent tridek tri tagoj: historia skizo de hungarlanda proletara revolucio (Leipzig: Ekrelo, 1930), pri kiu mi ĵus blogis.  Nu, en tiu libro troviĝas eseo de Lukács mem!

Kontraŭrevoluciaj fortoj dum la hungara proletara diktaturo de György Lukács

Ĉu eble ĉi tiu estas la unua apero de Lukács en Esperanto?

Nu, mi interesis neesperantiston pri ĉi tiu afero, kaj mi devas esplori, ĉu ekzistas anglalingva traduko de ĉi tiu eseo. Ekzistas multaj multaj verkoj de Lukács en anglaj tradukoj: mi mem posedas tutan breton se ne ĉion libroforman. Ĉi tiu estas tute nefamiliara. Do ni vidos.

La historio de Esperanto estas vere trezorkesto.

133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko (2)

Mi jam afiŝis pri la numero de Hungara Vivo (19a jaro, n-ro 1 [83], 1979) kiu temas pri la 133 tagoj de la Hungara Sovetrespubliko de 1919. Denove, jen la ĉefa artikolo pri ties historio:

1919: Hungarlanda Konsilia Respubliko” de Ervin Fenyvesi, tradukis Vilmos Benczik [5-8]

Nu, mirinde, Ekrelo en 1930 eldonis esearon pri la venkita revolucia reĝimo. Komence, kontrolu la enhavtabelon, kiun mi enretigis:

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

Jen la ceteraj eroj kiujn mi havas kaj enretigis:
Mi blogos pri Lukács aparte.