I agree too. Elif Batuman has an excellent article on a recent New Yorker about Pushkinpad and efforts to ban Russian books. Rereading Russian Classics in the Shadow of the Ukraine Warhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/rereading-russian-classics-in-the-shadow-of-the-ukraine-war
Great article calling our attention to what's going on. I'm going to look for that New Yorker article. Why do people keep coming back to the practice of banning books? It's a terrible idea and has never really worked--no matter how difficult the language problems may be.
In the interview that is translated in this blog post the Ukrainian Library director was calling on the world to ban Russian books. I wonder if she would agree that Tolstoy's pacifism is worthy of saving?
I made a mistake--the original is in Norwegian, not Finnish. I fixed this on the permanent Substack post. Our overseas correspondents have so much linguistic ability.
It helps to look at Norwegian, Finnish, Czech and German as a four-team sports league engaged in non-stop trades of letters and diacritical marks. Czech is mostly a Slavic language, but the Czechs (and Slovaks) are both allergic to vowels. Finns suffer from a rare deficiency of vowels. German is an aggressive language, which fights to take over other languages, such as Nederlands, Schwitzer Deutch, Schwaebische, Bayerisch, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and others. Norwegian is spoken by nine people, most of whom live in igloos and row long boats across the ocean. Recently, Czech tried to trade its last three "I's" to Norwegian for two growls, a spit, and a diacritial mark to be named later.
I lived in Prague for four years and used to be able to speak and write intermediate Czech. It was a continual aggravation to me that the iPhone doesn’t have a háček for the e or n or an acute accent for the y, all of which are needed quite frequently when writing Czech!
I dealt with Czechs and a few Slovaks in the 1980s whom I recruited to work for us. One of my most important recruits was a Slovak who had information about a Soviet-gauge railway that ended in a camouflage building, 200 kilometers closer to the German border than we had known to exist. Soviet-gauge railways could not travel on Western-gauge tracks, and tanks had to be carried on rail cars to reach the West.
Fortunately, the only time I visited Prague, in 2005, I was able to get by on English and German. Prague was established by Germans.
Very cool story! I lived in Prague from 2014–18, and by then most people’s second language was English, but older people tended to have German for a second language.
In my limited experience, the Czechs have the Germans' good points but are just generally nicer? Prague is a "walkable city" because motorists actually give pedestrians the right of way, unlike Washington DC.
This is true! Drivers respect pedestrians, and not just in no-traffic zones. Amazing. And I agree with you that Czech people are nice. Before we moved there, I was warned that Czechs would be chilly and standoffish, but nothing could be further from the truth. I also love the libertarian attitudes you’d see in Prague. Smoke dope on the street? Whatever. You do you. It was a lovely place to live.
Thank you, Kathleen -- "it is going to be over..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4BuMaGlKp0 -- “Democracy Now” – Feb 15, 2023
Reporter Seymour Hersh on "How America Took Out the Nord Stream Pipeline": Exclusive TV Interview
• Feb. 16 -- Flash: Sy Hersh on Democracy Now -- "It's going to be over."
https://silentpartner.substack.com/p/flash-sy-hersh-on-democracy-now
• Feb. 15 - Of Limited Hangouts -- Of the arts of distraction and obfuscation.
https://silentpartner.substack.com/p/of-limited-hangouts
• Feb 11 -- Three on Sy -- This will only get more intense.
https://silentpartner.substack.com/p/three-on-sy
• Feb 10 -- Blackout! They don't want you to know. https://silentpartner.substack.com/p/blackout
Sy Hersh was right on Vietnam and right about torture in Iraq so I think he should be listened to on this.
I agree too. Elif Batuman has an excellent article on a recent New Yorker about Pushkinpad and efforts to ban Russian books. Rereading Russian Classics in the Shadow of the Ukraine Warhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/30/rereading-russian-classics-in-the-shadow-of-the-ukraine-war
Thank you. I will go to the library for this one.
Great article calling our attention to what's going on. I'm going to look for that New Yorker article. Why do people keep coming back to the practice of banning books? It's a terrible idea and has never really worked--no matter how difficult the language problems may be.
In the interview that is translated in this blog post the Ukrainian Library director was calling on the world to ban Russian books. I wonder if she would agree that Tolstoy's pacifism is worthy of saving?
wild stuff. It's weird how intense cultural extremism seems to have become a default, or at least the default that merits broadcasting.
isn't the whole point of libraries/archives to provide a (hopefully) permanent bulwark against ephemeral crazes? preaching to the choir, i know
It always tells you more about the would-be banner than the attempted banned, n'est-ce pas?
It didn't work for the Catholic Church, either.
Love the last quote 😂👏🏼
Böök is a hell of a name
He is a Library advocate from Finland. The Finnish word for book is Kirja--but yes, I wish his was my name.
You're only 3 consonants and a couple of diaëreses away!
Great catch!
I made a mistake--the original is in Norwegian, not Finnish. I fixed this on the permanent Substack post. Our overseas correspondents have so much linguistic ability.
It helps to look at Norwegian, Finnish, Czech and German as a four-team sports league engaged in non-stop trades of letters and diacritical marks. Czech is mostly a Slavic language, but the Czechs (and Slovaks) are both allergic to vowels. Finns suffer from a rare deficiency of vowels. German is an aggressive language, which fights to take over other languages, such as Nederlands, Schwitzer Deutch, Schwaebische, Bayerisch, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian and others. Norwegian is spoken by nine people, most of whom live in igloos and row long boats across the ocean. Recently, Czech tried to trade its last three "I's" to Norwegian for two growls, a spit, and a diacritial mark to be named later.
And here we are.
What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages? --trilingual
What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages? -bilingual
What do you call someone who speaks 1 language?-American
What do you call someone who speaks all these?-Bill H.
I lived in Prague for four years and used to be able to speak and write intermediate Czech. It was a continual aggravation to me that the iPhone doesn’t have a háček for the e or n or an acute accent for the y, all of which are needed quite frequently when writing Czech!
I dealt with Czechs and a few Slovaks in the 1980s whom I recruited to work for us. One of my most important recruits was a Slovak who had information about a Soviet-gauge railway that ended in a camouflage building, 200 kilometers closer to the German border than we had known to exist. Soviet-gauge railways could not travel on Western-gauge tracks, and tanks had to be carried on rail cars to reach the West.
Fortunately, the only time I visited Prague, in 2005, I was able to get by on English and German. Prague was established by Germans.
Very cool story! I lived in Prague from 2014–18, and by then most people’s second language was English, but older people tended to have German for a second language.
In my limited experience, the Czechs have the Germans' good points but are just generally nicer? Prague is a "walkable city" because motorists actually give pedestrians the right of way, unlike Washington DC.
This is true! Drivers respect pedestrians, and not just in no-traffic zones. Amazing. And I agree with you that Czech people are nice. Before we moved there, I was warned that Czechs would be chilly and standoffish, but nothing could be further from the truth. I also love the libertarian attitudes you’d see in Prague. Smoke dope on the street? Whatever. You do you. It was a lovely place to live.