A blueberry or not a blueberry?

This debate seems to come up every so often when North Americans hang around in Sweden long enough. Swedes call these small berries that grow in shrubs along the ground blueberries and this drives the North American visitors insane and they can't understand this concept at all. I will hereby clear the whole mater entirely so that there will never be any confusion again.

Blueberries (Vaccinium Cyanococcous) grow only in North America. What we have in Sweden and call Blåbär, which is often translated literally into English as Blueberry, is in fact properly called a Bilberry (Vaccinium Myrtillus). If the two species were put side by side it would be obvious that they are not the same and once a person has tasted them it will be even clearer.

In Medias Res: I'm not Stiller (Max Frisch)

Frisch comes recommended to me by a beautiful German who tends to recommend really good books from her culture. Of course Herr Frisch was Swiss but that is beside the point. So "Stiller" so far has been quite interesting.

It begins on a train in Switzerland where a man is detained and accused of travelling under a false passport. He is then accused of abandoning his family and having lived on the run for over six years. He denies all this and further denies that he is in fact this hunted man named Stiller. How does one prove identity?

Well I'm not done with the novel yet, nor am I half way through, I do however recommend the book and am enjoying it.

Here is a link to a page on Max Frisch (The author).

Introducing: The Frankfurt School....

No bloggerism today no sir. Read this link and think think think about it.

and... Props to Adorno.

Frankfurt School

Book Review: Tender is the Night

I admit first off that the last time I touched a book by Fitzgerald was junior year of high school and that at that time I could probably not understand a lot of what was going on. However as a whole I did not appreciate his stories or his prose style....then I was twenty three and decided to give this American favorite another try.

All I can say is that I was impressed and depressed all at the same time. The amount of pain and heartache in the book is enough to make anyone shudder. Then take into account that the novel may as well be a portrait of Fitzgerald's European experience it makes it even worse. I have to say that I recommend it even though its a painful read.

Book Review: The Invention of Morel

I use wikipedia a lot. Whether searching for books or just exploring various topics such as Foucault's philosophy, its my tool for gaining a background understanding on a topic. Of course it helps that everything has to be read carefully and further investigated before trusting whatever source was used. Still its a nice place for references.

With all that said, I have to admit that when it comes to genres of fiction my favorite has to be magical realism. The most common authors in this genre have to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende (House of Spirits, as recently she seems to have sold out for airport pop fiction), and Salman Rushdie (Satanic Verses). A name that many may not have heard about is Adolfo Bioy Casares. His most famous work is a short novella titled The Invention of Morel.

The story deals with a condemned man who has escaped his imprisonment and while on the run from the law has learned of an island that is cursed with a pest. He chooses to go to the island anyway as if he doesn't die, then at least no one else will follow him there out of fear. Once he reaches the island he finds out that there is more at work than just a pest. He discovers that a scientist invented a machine that records people and projects their images. The machine works on tide and wind power and thus the recordings are played over and over. The man also discovers that once you have been recorded, you will die and your essence will have been transferred to the film. So what does he do when he learns of this and falls in love with one of the early victims? He adds himself to the mix.

An excellent novel if you can get your hands on it.

A Film Review: Life is a Miracle

This blog hasn't been responsible for much recently besides introducing the blog from last post. So I thought I'd try something new. I've been a fan of movies now for a long time and also I do a lot of reading. So at least once a week this blog is going to have a book or film review.

For those unfamiliar with European film (as the hollywood hegemony continues in its notoriety) I introduce Emir Kusturica and his masterpiece "Life is a Miracle." The story deals with the ethnic conflicts that ripped the former Yugoslavia apart. It is two things at once, a romance and a sort of comedic tragedy. I believe black comedy is the way they would put it in swedish. One interesting aspect is how he deals with the war itself, never showing any battles but just letting the audience view it through the eyes of the protagonist Luka. Kusturica is somewhat of a genius and I would have to recommend his other movies as well as this one. If you like "Life is a Miracle" then check out "Black Cat, White Cat" and "Underground."

The amount of politics that is on display is also quite interesting to follow in the film as well, but I am not going to give away too much.

A shout out...

I don't usually send links to other blogs very often but I read this one at least once a week so I thought I'd pass it on.

http://www.monbiot.com/

Hope anyone reading gets as much out of it as I do.