Interface News Reporter | Intern reporter Li Yanhui Reporter Huang Yue
Interface News Editor | Yellow Moon
Every Saturday, the "Culture Weekly" summarizes and presents to you the major events and small events worth knowing about in the foreign literary and art circles, publishing circles, and bookstore industry in the past week. This week we look at Salman Russidi's new work, the Venice Biennale, the Paris Olympics and more.
01 Salman Rusidi's new book "The Knife" is published, responding to attacks with literature
Indian-British author Salman Rushdie's new book, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, has been published, which tells the story of the author's own assassination in 2022. In August 2022, Lusidi was attacked at an event in New York, stabbed in multiple parts of the abdomen and neck, and underwent emergency surgery and was treated in the hospital for six weeks.
In "The Knife," Russidy not only recalls the harrowing experience of being attacked, but also recounts his love affair with his wife, the American poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths, whom he credits with owing much of his recovery and good mental state. In a recent interview, Rusidi said: "I wanted to write a book about love and hate, and the former triumphed over the latter. So it's a book about both of us. ”
He also mentioned that he is still adjusting to the physical effects of the attack: when he speaks, he feels a tugging sensation on the side of his mouth, which is the result of nerve damage in his neck, he loses sensation in the fingertips of some fingers on his left hand, he is permanently blind in his right eye, and his body feels intermittently tired. But Russidy's voice had regained its original vitality, and his mind was as nimble as ever.
Roussidi mentioned that he considered naming the memoir "A Knife in the Eye" to represent the damage caused by the attack, but ultimately decided to use the word "knife" as the title of the book, explaining that the "knife" can have many meanings, from a weapon to an artistic expression in books, movies and paintings. "Language is like a knife that pierces the truth. "I want to respond to this attack with the power of literature, not just with my work, but with the entire field of literature." ”
In a recent interview with CBS, Mr. Rusidi recalled the scene at the time of his assassination: the black-clad assailant flew toward him like "a stocky missile," the last image he saw with his right eye. Joining Mr. Russidy that day was Henry Reese, the host of the event and co-founder of the City of Asylum, a nonprofit that protects writers. After the incident, he rushed to help Rusidi along with the audience and took control of the attackers. In his book, Russidy writes that he would not have been able to write about these experiences without Reese and the audience, "On that morning, I experienced the best and the worst parts of human nature almost simultaneously." ”
In an interview with The Observer, Reese said, "When something terrible happens, the importance of writing becomes a very real question." The violence of that day made everyone realize what it really meant to put themselves in danger because of speech. He (Lucidi) was very brave to be able to expose all this again and record this public and private matter. ”
The New York Times review also noted that "The Knife" is a heartfelt, sincere memoir, unlike Rusidi's 2012 memoir, Joseph Anton. Joseph Anton, a book about his life-threatening and hiding after the publication of The Satanic Verses, is written in the third person. Rusidi said he wanted that early work to "read like a novel," but "The Knife" is different, "It's not a novel, I mean, if somebody stabs you, it's a very personal thing." ”
Hadi Matar, the man suspected of assassinating Russidi, was arrested immediately after the incident and has been in custody and charged with attempted murder. In January, his lawyer successfully asked the judge to postpone the trial on the grounds that Rusidi's memoirs had been published.
Russidy, who will celebrate his 77th birthday in June, has published more than a dozen novels and is internationally acclaimed. His second novel, Midnight's Children, won the Booker Prize in 1981 and the Booker of Bookers in 1993 and the Booker of Bookers in 2008. In 1988, the novel The Satanic Verses was published, in which some of the references to Islam and Muhammad were deemed "blasphemous," and the following year Iran's former religious and political leader, Ruhorlah Musavi Khomeini, issued a fatwa (Islamic decree) calling for the execution of Rushidi and offered a multimillion-dollar reward. After that, Rusidi lived under the close protection of the British government until 1998, when Iran quashed his death sentence. Even so, he still receives death threats from time to time.
02 Venice Biennale: The opening of the Israel Pavilion is delayed, and Margaret Atwood writes anti-war poetry
The Venice Biennale 2024, which will be held in Italy from April 20 to November 24, is billed as an event "rooted in a world full of conflicts and divisions today." The Art Newspaper commented that the global art festival would be filled with "war, refugees and destruction."
On the opening day of the biennale's pre-exhibition, the artists and curators of the Israel Pavilion announced that they would not open the Israel Pavilion unless a ceasefire agreement was reached in the Gaza Strip. In fact, Israel's participation in the Venice Biennale has been the subject of controversy. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out in October last year and is still ongoing. On the 18th local time, the health department of the Gaza Strip said that the current Israeli military activities in the Gaza Strip have caused more than 33,000 Palestinians to die and more than 70,000 to be injured.
Western cultural figures have repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Writer Sally Rooney has spoken out on several occasions on Israeli-Palestinian issues, criticizing the inaction of the Israeli and Irish governments. At the National Book Award last November, writers issued a joint statement calling for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip. Director Spielberg also publicly expressed his condemnation of the killing of innocent women and children in the Gaza Strip. Ahead of this year's Venice Biennale, more than 23,000 artists and creative industry workers signed an open letter calling for the demolition of the Israel Pavilion. They also mentioned that at the last Biennale due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russian artists and curators chose to withdraw.
Ruth Patir, an Israeli artist who was expected to attend the Venice Biennale as a regular participant, said that as an artist and educator, she was staunchly opposed to cultural boycotts, but that "in an era that ignores the value of life, it is difficult to show a work that talks about the fragility of life." Curators Mira Lapidot and Tamar Margalit noted that they chose to move forward after the new Israeli-Palestinian conflict, arguing that "even in times of war and terror, art is often seen as a luxury, but it is essential to building understanding between people." But, they also said, "[War] brings only suffering, loss and destruction." Exhibitions and pavilions can wait to reopen, art can wait, but women, children and people living in hell cannot. Lapido noted that she wants to show a different side of Israel, "We are Israelis, but we do not represent our government." More importantly, we are desperate to be able to alleviate the conflict in the Gaza Strip. ”
In addition, author Margaret Atwood's poem about war, The Disasters of War: A Sequel, will be featured at the Venice Biennale. In his poem, Atwood emphasizes the human toll of war, both visible and intangible, and that "all are deadly." The title of the poem comes from the series of engravings by the painter Francisco de Goya, Los Desastres de la Guerra (The Disasters of War). At the Biennale, Atwood's New Poetry co-features one of the prints in the series, an exhibition that aims to highlight the uselessness of human conflict and also includes more than two hundred other works.
03 In preparation for the Olympic Games, the police in Paris, France "cleaned up" the homeless gathering place
On the 17th of this month, the 100-day countdown to the 33rd Summer Olympic Games, which will open in Paris, France, coincided with the expulsion of hundreds of homeless people from Paris from their gathering place in the south of Paris.
This has sparked condemnation from local charities that the authorities are trying to evict refugees, asylum seekers and homeless people from the capital ahead of the Olympics in an effort to create a better image of the city during the Games.
This is not the first time that French police have "cleared" a gathering area for the homeless, as people living at a gathering point near the Olympic Village in Paris were evicted last year. Volunteer Jhila Prentis said that over the past few months, these gathering points have been cleared at an increasingly rapid pace, "and we can only conclude that the authorities are working hard to clear these areas to welcome the tourists and media who arrive during the Olympics." "More than 50 percent of those deported have refugee status, many have jobs, and they deserve decent housing." ”
The gathering point for the French police "clean-up" is located in an abandoned bus company headquarters on the banks of the Seine. It is reported that as many as 450 people have made their homes here. According to reports, 50 women and 20 children were also reported to have been evicted, and at least 10 children attended local schools. Among adults, many have legal refugee status, required legal documents, and jobs in France, but they are unable to find suitable housing.
Paul Alauzy, a spokesman for a humanitarian organization, said the Olympics affected the most vulnerable group in Paris — the homeless. "In France, they are all foreigners," he noted. If you are Sudanese, you will not be able to find a house even if you have the appropriate documents – the landlord will not accept you. ”
Resources:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/13/salman-rushdie-knife-attack-survival
Hatps://vv.nighttime.com/2024/04/14/Books/Salman-Rushdie-Knife-Interview.html
Hatps://vv.nighttime.com/2024/04/15/Books/Review/Salman-Rushdie-Knife.html
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/apr/14/no-one-comes-back-margaret-atwoods-anti-war-poem-debuts-at-venice-biennale
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/apr/16/artists-refuse-open-israel-pavilion-venice-biennale-ceasefire-gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/17/hundreds-evicted-france-squat-paris-olympics