Slavoj Žižek contributes ‘20 Years of Collapse’ to the New York Times – and watch his Cooper Union talk

Slavoj Žižek contributes to the New York Times on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

TODAY is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During this time of reflection, it is common to emphasize the miraculous nature of the events that began that day: a dream seemed to come true, the Communist regimes collapsed like a house of cards, and the world suddenly changed in ways that had been inconceivable only a few months earlier. Who in Poland could ever have imagined free elections with Lech Walesa as president?

Read the complete Op-Ed article here.

And watch Slavoj Žižek at his recent Cooper Union talk in New York about his latest book First as Tragedy, Then as Farce – before a bomb scare cut it short - on Democracy Now! here.

Chris Harman 1942-2009

We are saddened to hear of the death of Chris Harman, author of A People’s History of the World. There is an announcement below from the SWP and an obituary online here by Alex Maass. An obituary from Alex Callinicos is here.  And you can see the growing number of tributes to him here.

Supporters and readers of Socialist Worker as well as socialists from around the world will be sad to hear the tragic news that Chris Harman died last night in Cairo where he was speaking.
Our condolences go out to Talat, his partner, his children and all his family and friends.
Chris Harman was a towering figure on the left in Britain and he made an immense theoretical and personal contribution to the Socialist Workers Party. He was editor of International Socialism Journal and
was previously the editor of Socialist Worker for over two decades.
He was also an influential and highly respected figure on the international left.
He was greatly loved and will be sorely missed. We will let comrades know about the funeral as soon as we know any details.
There will be a full obituary in the next issue of Socialist Worker.
If you would like to send any messages of condolences please send them to martins@swp.org.uk and we will make sure they are forwarded to Talat and his family.
In comradeship
The SWP Central Committee
© Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.

Listen live to Shlomo Sand on Start the Week with Andrew Marr

Shlomo Sand is on Start the Week this morning of 9 November discussing the invention of the Jewish people with Andrew Marr. Listen live -and repeated later - here.

Tonight, Professor Sand will be ‘In Conversation with The New Statesman’ discussing his book The Invention of the Jewish People with Labour MP Denis MacShane. This is a free public event chaired by Jonathan Derbyshire,  Culture Editor of The New Statesman at Borders Bookshop, 122 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H OJR. For more information, click here, or call +44 (0)20 7379 8877.

Wu Ming’s Manituana, an “incisive, rabid adventure”, sizzles “with a kind of lefty jazz”: Todd McEwen’s review for the Guardian

Todd McEwen reviews Wu Ming’s Manituana for the Guardian:

The mysterious Italian collective mix history with video-games:

Most efforts of this sort have been intent on producing bad novels – Naked Came the Stranger? The horror, the horror! Wu Ming, on the other hand, squeeze every potential for incisive, rabid adventure they can out of the popular novel. Their books sizzle with a kind of lefty jazz: they’re linguistically and culturally hip, historically astute, with a heart worn challengingly on the sleeve…

Manituana unspools mesmerisingly like an old Hollywood movie, ducking the common mishaps of the historical novel – there is not a single longueur. The descriptions of American abundance are worthy of Washington Irving, with a fall chill punchy as a stanza of Longfellow or a Remington painting of woods. The story is governed by the Indian sense of time, always returning to the reckoning of autumn. But events develop and are communicated at surprising speed: messengers are hunted bloodthirstily through forests, and in Molly Brant’s powerful, ornate telepathies Brant and his comrade Lacroix learn the fate of their people before it occurs, although Brant refuses to accept it…”

Read the full review here.

Shlomo Sand: London Tour

Shlomo Sand will be in London from the 9th – 12th of November to promote The Invention of the Jewish People. For more information see the events listings below:

November 9th (18.30)

‘In Conversation with The New Statesman’ event at Borders Bookshop.  Professor Sand will discuss his book with the Labour MP Denis MacShane in a public event chaired by Jonathan Derbyshire,  Culture Editor of The New Statesman.

Details: Borders Bookshop, 122 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JR

http://www.newstatesman.com/2009/11/professor-sand-denis-jewish

(Free and open to the public / Borders Bookshop Tel: +44 (0)20 7379 8877)

November  11^th (18.30)

Professor Sand’s only UK lecture on ‘The Invention of the Jewish People’ at SOAS

Details: The Brunei Lecture Theatre, Brunei Gallery, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

e-mail for further information: shlomosandsoaslecture@verso.co.uk

November 12th  (19.00)

An evening with Professor Sand and Professor Avi Shlaim, author of ‘Israel and Palestine’, in conversation at the Frontline Club.

Details: The Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ   (Tel: +44 (0)20 7479 8950)

(Tickets £10-12.50) http://frontlineclub.com/events/2009/11/avi-shlaim-in-conversation-with-shlomo-sand.html

Wu Ming’s Manituana reviewed in both Independent and Daily Mail

A wonderful review of Manituana in today’s Independent by Boyd Tonkin:

The cabal’s greatest, most mesmerising trick of all has been to fashion novels of true originality and page-riffling appeal. How do they do it? The official version speaks of the sturdy virtues of co-operative work, with each individually-authored section given close scrutiny by other members of the collective until a final draft pleases the whole pack. … [Manituana is] a fast-flowing, densely peopled, richly decorated story of a precious way of life, and thought, on the brink of the modern abyss.

And in the Daily Mail:

JOSEPH BRANT is chief of the Mohawks, part of the Six Nations of the Iroquois, a conferation of native indians in North America. For years they have lived peacefully side by side with the English colonists — until revolution comes. Allegiances begin to fall apart, and in 1775 Brant sets off for London to beg the King for a more robust show of support against the rebels. Wu Ming is a collective of Italian fiction writers, and one might think this could lead to a disjointed narrative, but this is far from the case. In seamless prose — thanks, no doubt in some part, to translator Shaun Whiteside — they have produced a highly compelling epic ofgreat beauty and power.

Also – have you investigated the Manituana website? Wu Ming have created an interactive website that offers background to the deeply researched novel, as well as ways of extending the world of Manituana. It includes:

• An animated trailer introducing the book: http://www.manituana.com/section/73
• A collection of introductory and ‘side’ stories that developed from the novel:http://www.manituana.com/section/76
• A series of ‘placemarks’ created using Google Earth, showing key sites from the novel:http://www.manituana.com/section/74
• A board game and a graphic novel inspired by the book: http://www.manituana.com/section/101
• Audio files from the many musicians who have been inspired by the novel to make music about it:http://www.manituana.com/suoni.php
• A chronology of the history behind the novel: http://www.manituana.com/section/80
• For those who want to go further into the world of the novel there is a ‘level two’, where, to gain access, you have to answer a question to prove you have read the novel: http://www.manituana.com/section/83
• Plus any news about reviews, etc: http://www.manituana.com/news.php

David Revill finds “heroes to push our boundaries” in Alain Badiou’s Pocket Pantheon: Reviewed in THES

The gathering of great thinkers in Alain Badiou’s Pocket Pantheon: Figures of Postwar Philosophy convinces David Revill that our modern minds need expanding. From his review for the Times Higher Education Supplement:

As in Badiou’s major works – Being and Event, Theory of the Subject and Logics of Worlds – what implicitly emerges from Pocket Pantheon is a refreshing reassertion of the radical possibilities of philosophy – not only in retrospect, but today. “The trouble is that, nowadays,” he writes, philosophy is reduced to little more than a lifestyle option: “keep fit and be efficient, stay cool … So we revive ‘values’ that philosophy has always helped us get rid of: obedience …, empty religion …, and I could go on.” Instead, what philosophy can offer is the expansion of the human mind towards its potential, “exposing … the human animal to that which exceeds it”.

Inasmuch, then, as Pocket Pantheon incidentally provides a kaleidoscopic – or, more precisely, teleidoscopic – view of some of Badiou’s own preoccupations, we see that maitres a penser, whether or not we dare use the phrase, have not breathed their last. Badiou and his “pantheon” remind us that a relevant as well as rigorous philosophy remains attainable, not to mention urgently needed.

Read the full review here.

Job opportunity at Verso London: MARKETING EXECUTIVE AND OFFICE MANAGER

An opportunity has arisen for an efficient, highly organised person to join the world’s pre-eminent radical publisher, Verso, at our offices in Soho, London. Responsibilities include marketing our humanities and social science academic titles, managing the day to day running of our busy office and assisting Verso staff. You will be balancing reception duties, marketing work and general office management as well as dealing with authors, suppliers, press and academics on a daily basis, so good communication skills and a willing attitude are essential. Experience in book publishing is preferable, though not required. Graduates welcome. Please apply by sending a CV and short covering letter by 30th November to:

Rowan Wilson, rowan AT verso.co.uk

Wu Ming’s Manituana: in harmony with Dissident Voice for Ron Jacobs

Ron Jacobs, the author of The Way The Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground, reviews Manituana for Dissident Voice:

Manituana is a true fourth world novel. It pits the original peoples of a nation against those who come to colonize it. It is the story of the multiple indigenous nations that existed on the American continent before the Europeans came and destroyed them. It is the story of India and the British Raj and it is the tale of the Algerian people and the French Republic’s colonization of that land. it is also the story of Israel and its ethnic transformation of Palestine into a Western settler state. In short, it is the tale of every people that has seen its land taken over by a European people as intent on making it their own as its original inhabitant are on preventing such an occurrence. This is also the story of America’s indigenous people being manipulated by the European colonists for the Europeans’ own ends. We see a mirror of this situation in today’s manipulations of the indigenous peoples in the lands the west wants as its own today: the Shia vs. Sunni conflict in Iraq and the manipulation of tribal conflicts in Afghanistan are but two examples that come immediately to mind. Manituana evokes the dangerous conceit of men who believe it is their destiny to rule the world…

The first novel of a trilogy that Wu Ming is calling the Atlantic Triptych,Manituana is virtually seamless and the translation is impeccable. It defines what the booksellers mean when they list something as literary fiction. It is a quality story that includes characters of depth, a good deal of action, a consistently thoughtful context and thought-provoking concepts — all presented in a fictional form.

Read the full review here.

Listen to Wu Ming talk about Manituana on The Strand, BBC World Service, here.

And continue the story of Manituana on the novel’s website.

Listen to Ghada Karmi and Jacqueline Rose speaking at Psycho-Political Resistance in Israel-Palestine

Listen to the podcast of Psycho-Political Resistance in Israel-Palestine held at Birkbeck College 15 – 16 October 2009.

Ghada Karmi, author of In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story, spoke about International Support and Involvement in Psycho-active Work/Acknowledgement. Listen here.

Jacqueline Rose, author of The Last Resistance, spoke about The Politics of Apology and other forms of Acknowledgement; Denial in the Face of Atrocity. Listen here.