Hamlet, the most famous Dane of them all, was both fictional and glum. Yet, Sally Laird argues in her Opinion piece for the latest issue of Prospect, real Danes in modern Denmark are the happiest people in the world (according to the best recent investigations into such matters).
They’re not the most economically successful, or the cleanest-living, or the most demanding. But a national emphasis on shared experiences and a “gift for being properly ceremonious without being solemn” have created a society happier simply to be itself than anywhere else on earth.
It’s also a place that might, just, remind the rest of us that man can hand on more than misery to man—given half a chance and a properly assembled plate of herring sandwiches.
One piece in our latest issue that’s sure to provoke debate is Alexander Fiske-Harrison’s account of contemporary bullfighting in Spain. It’s a topic close to the author’s heart, and he eloquently defends the modern spectacle of the bull-ring as an art form while acknowledging the moral compromises inherent in a festival that has slaughter at its heart.
As Fiske-Harrison has explored in his previous postings on this blog, what it means to behave “well” towards animals is a very different business to what it means to behave well towards other people. Given, however, that our behaviour towards animals does not simply exist in an ethical vacuum, most modern societies find themselves in a peculiar position: horrified by bull-fights or fox hunts, yet economically predicated on the industrial rearing and slaughter of many millions of animals.
Can such contradictions be reconciled? Can we justify our pleasure in either the spectacle of a bullfight or the savour of a steak dinner? As ever, let us know your thoughts below.
The migrations of the 20th century have long provided rich pickings for literature—including around half of the winners of the Booker prize since its inception. Yet, argues Kamran Nazeer in our lead review this month, social and technological change are ushering in a new era that art has only tentatively begun to explore: a world of shared, instant information, greater mobility and awareness on the part of most immigrants, and with few of the seemingly irreversible dislocations of 50 years ago.
Comparing Eva Hoffman’s 1989 memoir of her 1959 departure from Poland for Canada, Lost in Translation, with her recent novel of a 21st century migrant in Europe, Illuminations, Nazeer explores this transition and its consequences for writers—the new challenge they face; the loss of the binary oppositions so central to older works; and the newer, subtler traumas to be explored today.
As ever, share your own thoughts and experiences below.
It’s that warm, apathetic time of year again. There’s nothing in the papers, and precious little going on elsewhere—so we troop onto boats, planes, cars and trains headed for relaxation and pleasure; and we search for a book or four to see us through the workless days and balmy nights. But what to pack? Aside from the compulsory paperback bestseller or two, what could and should we be reading this Summer?
To probe this vital matter properly, we invited an expert panel of readers, writers and thinkers to tell us what they’ll be taking on holiday with them—and what they will, at all costs, be leaving untouched. Respondents included Ian Rankin, Chris Cleave, Gideon Rachman, Nicci Gerrard, Julian Gough and Dominic Sandbrook, and you can read their responses here, among others.
My own vacation preferences are for one absurdly heavy tome—the kind of historical, philosophical work you can only satisfactorily chew through given the run-up of a vacant week and plenty of sleep—mixed with some novels of the science-fiction/thriller variety that I’ve spirited away from the office shelves when no-one was looking. But I digress. What will you be reading; and what would you like to see left safely on the shelf?
With the biggest and most expensive Olympic games in history set to unfurl across Beijing in just over a week’s time, our latest issue contains a special guide to the political and cultural landscape of the games by David Goldblatt, Prospect’s resident expert on all things sporting, no matter how obscure (underwater swimming competitions and pigeon shooting, anyone?).
For our online edition, we’ve also included David’s special supplementary guide to Olympics past, from Athens 1896 to Athens 2004; as well as a feature on China’s critics, in which author Christian Tyler interviews China’s most famous democratic activist, Wei Jingsheng; and Hong Kong-based entrepreneur Jimmy Lai writes of his hopes and fears for the future of his nation.
Barack Obama’s ability to raise money from literally millions of supporters online has already, and justifiably, attained the status of legend: it’s the kind of watershed in campaigning that only comes along once in a generation. Despite all the coverage, however, I hadn’t quite realised how impressive his online edge over Hillary Clinton has been over the last twelve months until I typed both their names into google trends. The result, which portrays as a graph the number of times each of their names has been entered into google as a search term, can be seen here.
Then again, if all Hillary’s supporters could spell, we might have seen something rather different…
Obviously, the Democratic primary contest has hogged the bulk of the US news cycle. Still, google’s current Obama/McCain match-up must be of concern to Republicans: it shows a worse-than two-to-one deficit online. George Bush, meanwhile and predictably enough, trails both candidates. And don’t even ask about Gordon Brown, who as far as the internet is concerned has barely crept ahead of a certain predecessor even after a year in power.
Here’s a challenge, though. Can you think of another politican who might rival Obama in the google stakes; or is he truly the world’s most sought-after political figure? Come to think of it, is there someone else whom Obama-mania may be toppling from even His lofty perch?
I’ve visited China six times in the last six years, and every time I’ve gone I feel like I’ve visited a different place. The pace of change is simply incredible, as is the scale of variations between its mountains, plains, towns, cities and regions. China is a crowded, dazzling nation, and one that has begun to enthrall the world. Yet, for those of us on the outside, understanding what it means to be Chinese today, and what it might mean to be Chinese in the future, can seem unassailably alien questions.
The barriers to understanding are at once linguistic, cultural and political. China is ancient, yet there are deafening silences in its official history. Its culture is among the world’s richest, yet it remains constrained by official channels narrower and more zealously regulated than those in any other similarly affluent, influential nation. This month, I met one of China’s most significant modern authors, Ma Jian—a writer who has worked from Britain in self-imposed exile since 1997—and discussed his monumental recent fictional account of the 1989 Tiananmen protests and their aftermath, Beijing Coma.
Beijing Coma embodies many of the contradictions of modern Chinese self-exploration. A work quietly raging at the suppression of both historical accounting and individual rights, it won’t be printed in mainland China; its greatest impact is likely to be in the English translation crafted by Ma’s wife, Flora, which will make its way both online and through the international reading world. Yet it’s a delicate, hopeful book, which suggests the enduring force of introspection, and the ways in which a thoroughly Chinese literature might come to address those events forbidden from public discourse—and unlock the lessons they contain.
In this month’s lead opinion, David Frum—former special assistant to George W Bush—looks back at the internal politics of the Bush administration in the light of Scott McClellan’s incendiary recent memoir, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong with Washington (PublicAffairs).
McClellan cuts, Frum argues, a sad and sympathetic figure despite the bitter tone of his memoir. Here was a man clearly deficient in his job as White House press secretary, yet compelled to discharge his duty day after day; an official at once supported and ensnared by his bullying, chummy and ruthless commander-in-chief, who selected his inner circles on the basis of loyalty rather than competence.
It was a cynical form of failure. As Frum explains, the gravest internal defects of the Bush administration were the products of conscious design. Yet in trying to correct these, Bush’s successor faces perhaps the most problematic paradox of government—that there is no wholly successful way of running a White House.
Catch it while you can: Prospect contributor Alexander Fiske-Harrison can be found at the Jermyn Street Theatre until the end of this month starring in his new play The Pendulum. A historical drama set in 1900s Vienna, Fiske-Harrison takes the lead as one lieutenant Friedrich von Leiben, a soldier whose marriage to a young artist of Jewish ancestry is threatened by a climate of increasing suspicion and prejudice, as well as by his own jealousy.
The play has received good notices thus far, although there have also been some slightly consternated notes struck about how “relevant” its tale is to the present day. The Guardian, for example, muses that “if there are contemporary parallels, they are not obvious.” It’s a question the author may well be glad people are struggling to answer. As he put it to me:
I wanted to write something better than the drear recycled themes parading themselves as relevance so that I could act in something with some genuine drama. “Blood and sperm on the stage, darling,” as someone once said to me.
What with press deadlines, I haven’t made it to Jermyn Street yet myself, but I’m looking forward to a slice of modern drama that won’t include soliloquies which could have been taken from the leader pages of the Independent. Although I hope the author has been restrained enough to interpret his interlocutor’s advice figuratively…
This via a good friend of mine currently working in China: a BBC report suggesting that, even in matters of popular enthusiasm, nothing will be left to chance at the People’s Games:
Beijing Olympic chiefs are introducing an official cheer for patriotic spectators to spur on Team China at the Games, Chinese media reports. The authoritative, four-part Olympic cheer, accompanied by detailed instructions, will be promoted on TV, in schools and with a poster campaign. It involves clapping twice, giving the thumbs-up, clapping twice more and then punching the air with both arms. The cheer is accompanied by chants of “Olympics”, “Let’s go” and “China”. The Beijing Olympic Organising Committee has hired 30 cheering squads who will show spectators how it is done at Games stadia, reports Xinhua state media.
A committee official said the simple chants and gestures were designed to help spectators cheer for their favourite athletes in a smooth, civilized manner. The Ministry of Education is also arranging special training sessions in schools for the 800,000 students who are expected to attend the Games. Li Ning, president of the Beijing Etiquette Institute, told the Beijing News that the cheer was in line with general international principles for cheering, while at the same time possessing characteristics of Chinese culture.
You can see the results in action here, or brush up your Mandarin with a beautifully illustrated guide here.
Repeat after me: 奥运, 加油, 中国 !
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