The Book and Beyond

Mislite li da možemo naučiti živjeti tako da napustimo ideju o svijetu nakon smrti, o nepovredivosti majčinstva, svetosti spolnosti, zatrovanost nacionalizmom, žeđ za beskonačnom slobodom i poštovanje industrije u zamjenu za ograničenje rađanja sa svrhom očuvanja ljudske vrste pri čemu bi se seks upražnjavao za zabavu, a sve to podrazumijevalo bi postojanje svjetske vlade, kontroliranu ekologiju i obrazovanje iz zabave?I da sve to moramo učiniti prije isteka dvadesetog stoljeća?Pa, baš i ne moramo. Samo, ukoliko to ne učinimo, naša će civilizacija biti uništena za trideset godina. I to je sve.Između ostalog, po zanimanju sam prorok. To jest, predskazujem budućnost i plaćen sam za to.Naravno, postoji tu i jedna kvaka. Nisam varalica, stoga je moja korisnost i više nego upitna. Kako ne prelazim rukom preko kristalne kugle, ne pružam usluge pratitelja kroz svijet duhova, nemam dara za otkrivenja i potpuno sam lišen mistične intuicije, nikome ne mogu reći koji će konj pobijediti na utrci, ...

Rad će postaviti pitanje nudi li danas Mreža alat za “osnaživanje čitatelja”, kako je najavljivala hipertekstualna teorija devedesetih. Interaktivnost kao “prirodan” oblik pismenosti postala je ideologem razumijevanja elektroničke pismenosti. No je li danas uistinu riječ o demokratizaciji čitanja-pisanja putem odabira smjera, “kretanja” virtualnim prostorom teksta? Rad će naglasiti razliku između Web 2.0 žanrova i koncepcije hiperteksta te razliku tekstualne i vizualne pismenosti. Ono što ćemo ovdje nazvati “topografskom proizvodnošću” bitno se razlikuje od “distributivne proizvodnosti” kakvu danas susrećemo na Mreži. Mreža nije orijentirana isključivo na proizvodnju virtualnog dérivea, trodimenzionalnog prostora kretanja, već je riječ prvenstveno o komunikacijskom kanalu. Umjesto topografije, za Mrežu će biti ključno povezivanje bilo kojih dviju točaka i uspostavljanje kanala “distribucije”. Temelj distributivne strukture jesu mrežni protokoli, prvenstveno TCP/IP protokol koji omoguća...

When the news broke out that the military successfully neutralized the most wanted terrorists since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, there was a wave of excitement, thrill, tears and patriotic riots in front of the White House. The Washington Post reports several thousands of young Americans rushing to the fence of the White House, in a spontaneous display of jubilation, dancing and cheering ‘USA!’. Not long passed before there were T-Shirts celebrating Bin Laden’s death being sold. President Obama addressed the nation, claiming that justice has been served. Relief flooded through the American world, even in the euphoric moment, as if they have been searching for some crumb of comfort, or partial closure ever since that awful morning of 9/11. The emotional and psychological wounds of the 9/11 tragedy become thus more evident, from ten years ago, when the image of the great world in its image crushed so profoundly that it become something new, an unknown and fearful o...

Daily Lament How hard it is not to be strong, how hard it is to be alone, and to be old, yet to be young! and to be weak, and powerless, alone, with no one anywhere, dissatisfied, and desperate. And trudge bleak highways endlessly, and to be trampled in the mud, with no star shining in the sky. Without your star of destiny to play its twinklings on your crib with rainbows and false prophecies. – Oh God, oh God, remember all the glittering fair promises with which you have afflicted me. Oh God, oh God, remember all the great loves, the great victories, the wreaths of laurel and the gifts. And know you have a son who walks the weary valleys of the world among sharp thorns, and rocks and stones, through unkindness and unconcern, with his feet bloodied under him, and with his heart an open wound. His bones are full of weariness, his soul is ill at ease and sad, and he’s neglected and alone, and sisterless, and brotherless, and fatherless, and motherless, with no one dear, and no close frie...

You want your author to be appreciated, to be read. Yes, why not, to be respected. As a writer at least, if not as a person. And the author’s image, not just the work, is in your hands. That’s the way it works in English at least, where translation tends to be decentralized. I’m not referring to commissions obviously. In that sense translation is like any kind of creative writing – you choose your project, you shape it, you develop it, you pitch and promote it, and you pitch and promote the image of the author that goes with it. So the question: what to do when your author is not an especially attractive character, not a good person, a bad husband, for instance, a bad father?For instance, Eligio Zanini was a bad husband and a bad father. He abandoned his family when two children were small and a third was on the way. He never contacted them again, though he lived just down the road. When his son died in a car accident at the age of seventeen and the parents were supposed to go down to ...

Due to their self-reflexive propensity, postmodern fiction and metafiction, in particular, have been relentlessly criticized of solipsism and of an indifference to relate to the extralinguistic world. While the novel is deemed to pause in its trajectory to examine itself, to examine its conventions and rejections of them, to address its future uncertainties and its at-present struggles, it has become a misprision that all it can bestow to its readers is an understanding of itself. The basic argument unravels as follows: language is devoid of reality, therefore, literature does not contain reality either; now more than ever, fiction recognizes that it is a self-contained artifact which can only engage in a representation of itself, having no interest in proffering its readers anything but an understanding of itself. The novel in the postmodern period has faced the crisis of representation, when linguists and theorists alike unmask the insufficiency of language and its inability to repre...