American editing versus Canadian Editing

I’d been hesitant to post my last review of Murakami’s book of stories Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, mainly because it was so chopped up in the different papers I saw. But, finally, I received a google alert that one of the Canadian sites had printed it, and, lo and behold, I was able to read the whole review as I had sent it off to my editor.

Lesson to be learned: American newspapers like short, choppy reviews of less than 300 words, whereas their Canadian counterparts want something that reads a bit more smoothly, with more details.

For the sake of comparison, here is the review in Canada, here is the review in most American papers.

Are you an intellectual?

I suppose you could characterize this blog as my personal attempt at becoming an intellectual (with all the concomitant eye-rolls and snickers that ensue when someone else makes use of that term) – detailing the books and articles and conversations that I’ve come across while browsing different websites, newspapers and journals here and there (and thus not doing the things I need to be doing to write my doctoral thesis.)

While I obviously don’t include much here about German literature in general, or culture in fin de siècle Europe more specifically, (or, to get right down to it, the interplay between cosmopolity and solitude in Jewish culture in turn of the century Vienna, Prague and perhaps Istanbul) I do tend to think of one of the main requirements of being a literate person is to keep up with public debate, whether it be literary, political or cultural. To that end, I’ve put together these sparse notes of Choses Vues – Things Seen; in order to have something to talk about with other like-minded friends. Now, if only they would actually read this site regularly..

All this to point out an amusing little article in The Common Review about someone who is interested in much the same things as I’ve tried to point out in this site, all the while acknowledging the general laughableness of the whole enterprise.

The journal of an intellectual

The Sunday edition of the New York Times has a fascinating article in their magazine on Susan Sontag’s journals. It’s heartening to see how prosaic and sophomoric some of her entries are – I had the impression of reading things that could have come from my own journals.

As someone who keeps a (semi)regular journal on various notepads and pieces of paper throughout the apartment, I was glad to see that the inner workings of an intellectual whom I have always envied/admired. Plus all the name dropping, and, of course, the cities: New York, Paris, Bled (Yougoslavia) etc.

And finally, on reading other people’s journals:

We rarely do know what people think of us (or, rather, think they think of us).. . .Do I feel guilty about reading what was not intended for my eyes? No. One of the main (social) functions of a journal or diary is precisely to be read furtively by other people, the people (like parents + lovers) about whom one has been cruelly honest only in the journal.

So dig in..