His last journey

Reading obituaries for the late Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski reminded me of the one book of his that I've read: Meine Reisen mit Herodot (Travels with Herodotus, which is not yet available in English, it seems).

Kapu?ci?ski tells stories of his many trips to Asia and Africa as a foreign correspondent, starting in the 1950s. In a wonderful illustration for the synchrony of the asynchronous (Ernst Bloch), he juxtaposes those stories with his reading of the reports of the first known "modern" historian, namely Herodotus. His colleague's method of 24 centuries back was to collect stories and memories of past times on his long journeys all over the known world, and to record them faithfully - just the way Kapu?ci?ski does. In both streams of narrative, there is at least one common denominator: humanity.

Writing this, I note that I seem to have taken to travel literature of sorts lately. While Pamuk's Istanbul admittedly stays in one place, it recalls that place's journey through time. The Art of Travel on the other hand may be categorised quite unequivocally. But there is even more in the To Read pile of books ... so I guess that commits my travelling firmly to the armchair variety. Which is of course much more environmentally friendly than any other kind of trip.

Imperial melancholy

Ironically, it was on the way home from Athens that I finished reading Orhan Pamuk's (*1952) celebrated book Istanbul - Memories of a City. I can tell you without exaggerating that this is the most absorbing book I've read in some time. It is an autobiographical record of the author's youth & coming of age in a city torn between the memories of past imperial grandeur and its somewhat dingy & peripheral present. The pervasive mood is that of h�z�n, or melancholy, that is a consequence of this contrasting experience, combined with modern Turkey's thrust towards westernisation.

If the English translation (Maureen Freely) comes even close to the original, then the language alone truly deserves of the Nobel Prize. Pamuk's prose is rich, dense & precise, yet descriptive to the point of being voluble. Unfortunately, careless editing disturbs that favourable picture too often.

For me, this book offers important insights into modern Turkey's Befindlichkeit, at least so far as that of its urban, westernised elite is concerned. Anatolia is virtually absent from Pamuk's book, whereas predominantly French authors & artists appear to have had a downright formative influence. It is a revelation to observe the apparent impact of the decline of the Ottoman empire on everyday life, even half a century after the fact. My theory is that this may be due to the relatively early & painful loss of an old empire following WWI, which evidently was an extraordinarily traumatic experience compared to that of other European "competitors".

Highly recommended reading! I am looking forward to seeing Istanbul again with new eyes in March.

Heroes

Here's me in an early display of heroic gallantry, protecting my little niece Lili against the fearsome beast that was our first dog Prinzli.

To Hydra by hydrofoil

Following a friend's recommendation, my first conference-free day in Athens was spent out of town: I took the hydrofoil to get to the Aegean Mirtoan island of Hydra. That was two firsts rolled in one: I never rode a hydrofoil before, and I never was on a Greek island either. Hydra is very scenic, but the claim that there are no cars there is a sham - I saw them! All three of them ... nevertheless, apart from garbage disposal, everything else is transported on donkey's backs. Not that anything else would be possible, given the extreme narrowness of the "streets". So, I just spent a pleasant few hours walking about, taking pictures and having an excellent lunch of freshly caught squid & greek salad (what else?) at the Ostria Caf�. My new Shuffle was providing the soundtrack all along, and still is after more than 12 hours on a single charge!

Tomorrow will be dedicated to sightseeing (Akropolis, here we come!) / shopping, and on Sunday, the Monastiraki flea market will have caught my attention before I have to leave this great place again.

Pappenheimers Propaganda

Ein Gespr�ch mit bedrohten W�rtern

In den stillen Winkel eines antiquierten Buches hatten sich Pappenheimer und Pfennigfuchser verdr�ckt, als ich sie zuletzt traf. Gleich beim ersten Lesen machten sie einen niedergeschlagenen Eindruck; gaben ihre Depression auch sofort zu. �Traun!�, riefen sie unisono, und da ich verst�ndnislos guckte, schob Pappenheimer vorsorglich eine �bersetzung nach: �F�rwahr!� Meinen Kommentar, auch diese Wortwahl t�ne ziemlich altert�mlich, quittierte er mit einem Seufzer. Er wies hin�ber in die Abteilung G, wo die Kollegen Grisette, Galan und Gendarm aschgrau auf dem Boden hockten. Irgendwie angestaubt sahen sie aus. �Das ist ja unser Problem�, meinte Pappenheimer. Kaum jemand benutze sie noch. Zwar seien sie viel distinguierter im Munde zu f�hren als die neudeutschen �quivalente, doch d�rfe man sich nichts vormachen: Sprachsoziologisch betrachtet, seien sie schlimmer dran als das abgeh�ngte Prekariat. Ein Dasein ohne Perspektive. Wiederbelebung ausgeschlossen.

Mein aufmunternder Hinweis auf die j�ngste Initiative des Sprachdenkmalpflegers Bodo Mrozek verfing nicht. Seit Mrozek in zwei B�nden sein �Lexikon der bedrohten W�rter� vorgelegt habe, f�hle er sich wie endg�ltig eingesargt, knurrte Pappenheimer. Und dann noch dieser �ffentliche Wettbewerb im Internet, bei welchem bis Ende Februar jeder hergelaufene Naseweis einen unmassgeblichen Vorschlag f�r ein bedrohtes Lieblingswort einreichen k�nne. Ihm sei ganz bl�merant zumute, wenn er sich auf jener Liste stehen sehe, eingezw�ngt zwischen Pantoffelheld und Pappenstiel, und im weiteren Umfeld ges�umt von ephemeren Szene-Ausdr�cken wie �Pogo� und �Popper�, die doch, mit Verlaub, in eine ganz andere Liga geh�rten. Einen Redaktor der �S�ddeutschen Zeitung� habe er k�rzlich auf diese Missverh�ltnisse hingewiesen, fuhr Pappenheimer, ein Grinsen unterdr�ckend, fort, und dieser sei denn auch entschieden kritisch mit der Website www.bedrohte-Woerter.de ins Gericht gegangen, habe die Betreiber ob ihrer Taubheit f�r Nuancen ger�ffelt und Falschmeldungen wie das zwar in seiner Bedeutung ver�nderte, aber gewiss nicht gef�hrdete Allerweltswort �geil� angeprangert.

Ob er derlei nun auch von mir verlange, wollte ich wissen. Pappenheimer blickte verschmitzt. Die NZZ gelte doch als gebildetes Blatt, meinte er mit einer Wendung ins Vertrauliche. Was ein Ceterum censeo sei, wisse ich dann ja wohl. Sollte mir wirklich daran gelegen sein, ihn nachhaltig aufzumuntern, dann m�sse ich eben k�nftig im Feuilleton den Cato geben. Nein, nicht um zur Vernichtung der Neologismen aufzurufen, welche heuer die alten W�rter von ihren Pl�tzen verdr�ngten. Das sei v�llig zwecklos, denn die W�rter �nderten sich ja auch deswegen, weil sich die Welt ver�ndere. Andere Dinge, andere Namen. Aber jemanden wie ihn gebe es immer. Wenn ich nun jeden meiner Artikel mit dem Ausruf �Ich kenne meine Pappenheimer!� beschl�sse, sei das f�r mich v�llig ungef�hrlich, f�r ihn aber eine grosse Hilfe. Er sah mich dr�ngend an. Ich schlug das Buch eilig zu.

Joachim G�ntner in der NZZ.

Karl Kraus on the web

"... das beabsichtigte Einspinnen des Erdballs in ein Netz elektrischer Wellen ist ein so verlockendes Phantasma, da� es, zur Wahrheit geworden, als eine Gro�that �berquellenden Erfindergeistes bezeichnet werden m��te."

Professor Victor Loos in Fackel #130, p. 10f., 1903; login using bla_bla / p5JPV6Pri

The wait is over ...

Wait, no, it's only just begun! Apple has just presented The Phone 2.0, or rather the iPhone (roll over, Cisco!). This is the phone to end all phones - Apple has truly re�nvented this ancient device. It may be a bit on the large side, but it's all screen, no keys / buttons. Everything touchscreen, and it runs OS X! Oh wow - stop me gushing. The thing has 5 hours talk time, is a widescreen iPod with 8GB (music, video, photos), sports GSM Quadband, EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 and it kills every Blackberry within shooting range. Did I mention that it runs OS X, a multitasking desktop UNIX OS? And it costs next to nothing, especially seeing how I stocked up on AAPL options last week ... the only bad thing? It's going to be available in Europe in Q4. So, the wait has only just begun.

Lumberjack h.c.

For some inexplicable reason, chopping wood is one of my preferred manual activities, so I chopped away this afternoon. Aye, this was all my doing!

A classless society ...

Lufthansa certainly ain't! In fact, they have a myriad of booking classes that reminds one of the Indian caste system, and it's equally despicable. If you buy a deep discount ticket from Swiss, which is now part of Lufthansa, then you're akin to a jet set dalit: there's no way to get an upgrade.

For my future reference, here are the booking classes that do not allow Miles & More upgrades within Europe: X / T / E / L / I. For intercontinental flights, the same applies to classes X / W / E / T / I. Incidentally, these are subcategories of economy class. The eco ticket in V class that I booked yesterday for my trip to Athens in two weeks' time fortunately allows for miles upgrades.

Quirky pleasures

Food posts are anathema to blog critics, but I don't care much about them, so I keep them coming occasionally. Also, there's the food tag introduced with this post. Speaking of tags: you may have noticed those creeping up here lately - the reason for that is that I finally was allowed to switch over to the new version of Blogger. This was a bit of an issue because my blog is not hosted on blogspot, but that works now. Since blogger now offers custom domains, I have another decision to make.

But back to the food post: I've extended my foray into English wines, hence the title. We've tasted the Chapel Down Pinot Noir 2003 in combination with a raclette. To everybody's surprise, it turned out to be a rather pleasant, light wine! Obviously expectations were not exactly excessive, but they were matched. Nonetheless, I don't think I'll go through the pain of buying it at Fortnum & Mason's & bringing it back home again ... it was just a quixotic experiment that earned a few good laughs. There's still another bottle of white Chapel Down in the fridge, waiting for the next occasion. Maybe I'll play this album that I just downloaded from Magnatune.

Oh yes, before I forget: Happy New Year!