The joke that was the decision to press charges against satirist Sabina Guzzanti – in poorer taste than any of Guzzanti’s ‘vulgar’ jabs at Italy’s ruling classes (Vatican included) – has been shelved by justice minister Angelino Alfano. The Italian press, which in its own topsy-turvy way seems to take more offence at satirists like […]
These are exciting times with banks crashing, insurance companies being nationalised (by GW Bush!) and so forth. Back on page 33 of today’s Guardian there is an article headlined “Merrill Lynch boss to get $11m payoff after nine months’ work.” The same man, John Thain, was given $15 million just for taking the job. He […]
In the same year that Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel topped the album charts with Bridge over troubled waters, Gil Scott Heron recorded his debut album A New Black Poet – Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. The difference couldn’t be more stark, both in terms of outlook and reception. Simon and Garfunkel were at the […]
Sarah Loud,head of digital publishing at Pan Macmillan, has published a much talked about Publisher’s manifesto for the 21st Century over at The Digatilist. It’s a long piece, and well worth reading. It starts with a fairly common position, that in this social-media/internet/mobile entertainment world the days of the book are numbered. “More and […]
The fledgling discipline of Walking Studies finally looks set to emerge onto the world stage as more and more scholars start to take it seriously, no longer regarding it as an unscientific field of study, or at best an adjunct to Running Studies. In the early years of this globalised new millenium it has started […]
Sad news was reported on Friday, that American writer David Foster Wallace has apparently comitted suicide, at the age of 46. TMO’s very own Shane Barry wrote two perceptive pieces on DFW back in January 2006 (link), approaching the American writer’s work with caution through his collection of stories Oblivion. We reprint the second piece […]
Orhan Pamuk is interviewed in the latest edition of Venerdi di Repubblica magazine, here in Italy, and discusses the lengthy writing process he undertook for his new novel The Museum of Innocence, which will be published later this year (the Turkish version coming first, will be unveiled at this year’s Frankfurt book fair, where Turkey […]
With the speed for which it is world-renowned, the Italian justice system is coming to terms with the words spoken by comedian/activist Sabina Guzzanti from the stage of Piazza Navonna during a protest staged on the 8th of July. It appears that the Procura di Roma will ask the Minister for Justice Angelino Alfano (who […]
Susan Bassnett is a leading representative of the translators are great school of thought, a school which holds that translators are as good – oh, hell, why not come out and say it – actually better than original (or rather, “original”) writers. I wouldn’t deny that translation is a creative activity – not after working […]