Is The Wooden Tongue Speaks bleak? What picture does it paint of Romania? Are the Romanian New Wave films grim? It angers me to the extreme when I read commentary by Romanians who find reality negative. (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘bt’
The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu and Us
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011Nicolae Ceauşescu smiles at me in person but, most times, from the large and immortal picture of himself above my desk. Goodness truly radiates from that smile. He says a joke to me and I laugh, wholeheartedly. I love his jokes but when he leaves I feel my stomach has been pitted by the world’s biggest corkscrew. (more…)
Corruption
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011The act of corrupting or state of being corrupt.
The act of sitting on a bus, and teens beating on another teen. You do nothing. Like everyone else, you stare into the distance thinking about home, holidays, survival.
The act of sitting in an office not daring to express anything different because you know it won’t go down well, it won’t be understood, that you’ll be laughed off, shut in an echo. (more…)
The Writers’ Gathering
Sunday, December 5th, 2010Envelope-pushing smiles. Trench coat-wearing, jumper-loving, fake champagne-sipping one-sided conversations.
Dull aches, headaches, cravat-wearing backslapping singalongs. Promotional videos, readings, chin-stroking poet varieties, big on sales, creativity half-price. (more…)
The Meaning of Independent in Independent Publishing
Monday, October 25th, 2010The first definition of independent is:
“free from outside control; not subject to another’s authority.”
Must be a delicate subject in independent publishing today for I look at top independent names out there and they’re surrounded by backing, by influential friends, contacts at their beck and call. (more…)
The Libraries of Freedom
Saturday, September 25th, 2010Today a colleague of mine told me about the book she’s reading. More surprising than the book itself was the fact that it was a library book. I honestly hadn’t seen one in years.
The library was a place I used to frequent at university, college or school. I used to spend hours trawling through the library catalogue looking for obscure and interesting reads. Or going through CDs and video tapes. It was very relaxing and eye-opening. Almost like freedom and seems a long, long time ago but the plastic cover of this book and the date stamped on the first page brought back something akin to emotion. The good old days. That old scam. (more…)
Death of the Bookshop
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010So, the death of the bookshop is apparently upon us. Wave goodbye to lavish little shops, books and posters of books and book presentations and, of course, the bookseller who’s just looking to spark up an intimate conversation on the merits of transcendental meditation. Good. I was never much of a bookshop person. I’ve bought most of my books from charity shops because I could never afford brand new books. I also read a lot of books by borrowing from libraries and, with the world now overrun by the internet, I purchase reduced books online or read them when someone’s posted it on their site. Of course I will buy a book at full price if I absolutely believe in it. But when I was growing up I had to find the most affordable way of gaining knowledge. (more…)
Censoring Books
Monday, August 9th, 2010The practice of censoring literature has always interested me. It happens throughout the world, like, for example, in China.
I have been reading about New Century Press, a Hong Kong publisher who is publishing China’s Best Actor: Wen Jiabao, a book that had been banned in China. These people have made an admirable decision. They’re putting their reputation and maybe even their lives on the line. What their motivation is I do not know but I cannot but respect their decisions. It takes real guts to make a stand on something you believe in. (more…)
