Casting soon for Student X Changne
Season 1: Reedie vs Aggie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8imh12U2o4
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Kundera Finks
October 14, 2008
By Kathleen Moore
Czech-born writer Milan Kundera, the author of acclaimed novels such as "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being," has been accused of informing the communist police about a Western agent while he was a student in the 1950s. Kundera has broken a long media silence to deny the claim, made by a state-sponsored historical institute.The accusations came in an article in the Czech weekly "Respekt," co-written by Adam Hradilek, a researcher at Prague's Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. He says he came across a key police report while leafing through police archives as part of research into the case of a Czech recruited by emigre intelligence in the 1950s.
The 4,000-word article reads like a thriller. It is March 1950, and Miroslav Dvoracek, an anticommunist agent working for Czech emigre intelligence, has just arrived in Prague on an undercover mission to recruit a top employee in a chemical firm. Bumping into an old female friend, Iva Militka, he arranges to leave his suitcase at her dormitory for a few hours.Surprised at the unexpected visit, over lunch she tells her boyfriend, Miroslav Dlask, who in turn tells his friend, fellow student Milan Kundera.And, according to a police report the institute says it unearthed, Kundera goes immediately to the police, who then pay Militka a visit at her dormitory.
The police report, provided by Jiri Reichl of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, states that "the record in the wanted list showed the man is sought for arrest by Plzen regional police. Based on this finding, the above-mentioned officers stayed at the dormitory to guard the said Militka's room. Dvoracek came to the room around 8 p.m. and was detained."Dvoracek initially faced the death sentence. In the end he was given 22 years hard labor, and eventual served 14 years.Idealist Turned OpponentIt's no secret that Kundera -- like many of his contemporaries -- was in his youth an earnest believer in socialist ideals. But like many others, Kundera later transformed into a fierce critic of the communist regime, his novels dealing in a darkly humorous way with themes of betrayal, denunciation, and the erasing of uncomfortable history.
So it's hard to exaggerate what a bombshell the claims represent -- that the young Kundera turned informant to the regime.Kundera, now 79, has lived in virtual seclusion in France for more than 30 years. But he broke a long media silence to give an interview with the Czech news agency CTK, in which he called the story a "lie," an attempt to discredit him before an upcoming international book fair."I'm just astonished by something that I did not expect, about which I knew nothing only yesterday, and which did not happen. It's just not plausible," Kundera said.
"When someone does something like this he has to have some motive for doing it. I know my name is there; how it got there is a mystery. How could I denounce someone I don't know?"To be sure, the institute admits they don't have all the answers. Some of the key people in the case -- like Militka's boyfriend, Dlask, are now dead. There is no police document signed by Kundera. But the institute's Reichl says the researchers are sure the police document is authentic, and is dismissive of Kundera's reaction."I reject the idea that it was some 'assassination' of the author ahead of the Frankfurt book fair opening; that's a construction we couldn't have thought up," Reichl said. "The institute stands by the findings by Adam Hradilek because they're backed up not just by one bit of paper from the archives, as one person has said, but the statements of other people who played a role in the case."Ultimately the case raises more questions than it provides answers. Are the findings genuine -- and if so, what could have led Kundera to inform on someone he didn't know?
The case also raises the question of whether the evidence of denunciation even matters. Speaking from Sweden, Dvoracek's wife, Marketa, says that after all these years, it doesn't make any difference to them who informed on her husband. "I have to say that for Mike it's not in the least bit important if it was someone really famous who turned him in or someone who wasn't famous at all," Marketa Dvorackova said. "He ended up spending 14 years in the uranium mines, that's the main thing."
Kundera himself once asked a question that could also be applied to the case, in the context of his 1967 novel "The Joke," itself a story of communist-era betrayal: "What if history plays jokes?"
By Kathleen Moore
Czech-born writer Milan Kundera, the author of acclaimed novels such as "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being," has been accused of informing the communist police about a Western agent while he was a student in the 1950s. Kundera has broken a long media silence to deny the claim, made by a state-sponsored historical institute.The accusations came in an article in the Czech weekly "Respekt," co-written by Adam Hradilek, a researcher at Prague's Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. He says he came across a key police report while leafing through police archives as part of research into the case of a Czech recruited by emigre intelligence in the 1950s.
The 4,000-word article reads like a thriller. It is March 1950, and Miroslav Dvoracek, an anticommunist agent working for Czech emigre intelligence, has just arrived in Prague on an undercover mission to recruit a top employee in a chemical firm. Bumping into an old female friend, Iva Militka, he arranges to leave his suitcase at her dormitory for a few hours.Surprised at the unexpected visit, over lunch she tells her boyfriend, Miroslav Dlask, who in turn tells his friend, fellow student Milan Kundera.And, according to a police report the institute says it unearthed, Kundera goes immediately to the police, who then pay Militka a visit at her dormitory.
The police report, provided by Jiri Reichl of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, states that "the record in the wanted list showed the man is sought for arrest by Plzen regional police. Based on this finding, the above-mentioned officers stayed at the dormitory to guard the said Militka's room. Dvoracek came to the room around 8 p.m. and was detained."Dvoracek initially faced the death sentence. In the end he was given 22 years hard labor, and eventual served 14 years.Idealist Turned OpponentIt's no secret that Kundera -- like many of his contemporaries -- was in his youth an earnest believer in socialist ideals. But like many others, Kundera later transformed into a fierce critic of the communist regime, his novels dealing in a darkly humorous way with themes of betrayal, denunciation, and the erasing of uncomfortable history.
So it's hard to exaggerate what a bombshell the claims represent -- that the young Kundera turned informant to the regime.Kundera, now 79, has lived in virtual seclusion in France for more than 30 years. But he broke a long media silence to give an interview with the Czech news agency CTK, in which he called the story a "lie," an attempt to discredit him before an upcoming international book fair."I'm just astonished by something that I did not expect, about which I knew nothing only yesterday, and which did not happen. It's just not plausible," Kundera said.
"When someone does something like this he has to have some motive for doing it. I know my name is there; how it got there is a mystery. How could I denounce someone I don't know?"To be sure, the institute admits they don't have all the answers. Some of the key people in the case -- like Militka's boyfriend, Dlask, are now dead. There is no police document signed by Kundera. But the institute's Reichl says the researchers are sure the police document is authentic, and is dismissive of Kundera's reaction."I reject the idea that it was some 'assassination' of the author ahead of the Frankfurt book fair opening; that's a construction we couldn't have thought up," Reichl said. "The institute stands by the findings by Adam Hradilek because they're backed up not just by one bit of paper from the archives, as one person has said, but the statements of other people who played a role in the case."Ultimately the case raises more questions than it provides answers. Are the findings genuine -- and if so, what could have led Kundera to inform on someone he didn't know?
The case also raises the question of whether the evidence of denunciation even matters. Speaking from Sweden, Dvoracek's wife, Marketa, says that after all these years, it doesn't make any difference to them who informed on her husband. "I have to say that for Mike it's not in the least bit important if it was someone really famous who turned him in or someone who wasn't famous at all," Marketa Dvorackova said. "He ended up spending 14 years in the uranium mines, that's the main thing."
Kundera himself once asked a question that could also be applied to the case, in the context of his 1967 novel "The Joke," itself a story of communist-era betrayal: "What if history plays jokes?"
Friday, July 20, 2007
Canadian Wins Ernest Hemingway Prose Contest
By SVKCVB
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
A Canadian has won the Third Annual Ernest Hemingway Festival ‘Prose for Papa’ fiction writing contest. William Dexter Wade, a graduate of the University of Colorado and currently a Senior Scholar in Linguistics at the University of Manitoba, earned the $500 cash first place prize with his submission The Poet, which will be published in the forthcoming festival magazine. Dr. Wade has published a paper, chapter, or monograph once a year, on average, during a thirty-year academic career. Turning to fiction in retirement, he has a short story, with a coincidental Hemingway focus, entitled Take No Prisoners, Write No Adverbs included in the Silver Anniversary Anthology of the Manitoba Writers Guild and is nearing completion of a novel. He lives in Manitoba, Canada.
Second place was awarded to Megan Williams, a lecturer in the English Department at Santa Clara University, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her winning entry Horse Graveyards is part of a collection of stories she is writing about Maine and Pennsylvania.The third place prize goes to Sun Valley resident, W.W. Kirchherr for his submission The World of Parmenides. A retired professor of mathematics and computer science at San Jose State University, California, he has written short stories as a hobby for years but has never had any published. He is originally from Chicago.
The three winning entries can all be read on-line at www.ernesthemingwayfestival.org.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
A Canadian has won the Third Annual Ernest Hemingway Festival ‘Prose for Papa’ fiction writing contest. William Dexter Wade, a graduate of the University of Colorado and currently a Senior Scholar in Linguistics at the University of Manitoba, earned the $500 cash first place prize with his submission The Poet, which will be published in the forthcoming festival magazine. Dr. Wade has published a paper, chapter, or monograph once a year, on average, during a thirty-year academic career. Turning to fiction in retirement, he has a short story, with a coincidental Hemingway focus, entitled Take No Prisoners, Write No Adverbs included in the Silver Anniversary Anthology of the Manitoba Writers Guild and is nearing completion of a novel. He lives in Manitoba, Canada.
Second place was awarded to Megan Williams, a lecturer in the English Department at Santa Clara University, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her winning entry Horse Graveyards is part of a collection of stories she is writing about Maine and Pennsylvania.The third place prize goes to Sun Valley resident, W.W. Kirchherr for his submission The World of Parmenides. A retired professor of mathematics and computer science at San Jose State University, California, he has written short stories as a hobby for years but has never had any published. He is originally from Chicago.
The three winning entries can all be read on-line at www.ernesthemingwayfestival.org.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Willy Mason
from Npr.org
April 16, 2007
"Signed myself out today / Sent a letter far away," Willy Mason sings on "We Can Be Strong."
It's never entirely clear where he was, but a later reference to "a sterile room" provides a clue that it wasn't a luxury hotel. Later in the song, he's back on his mother's couch, wondering what happened to all those friends who chose to go to college and were so disillusioned that they dropped out and vanished.
An earlier generation subscribed to the idea of turning on, tuning in and dropping out, but the voice of "We Can Be Strong" is so numb and confused by life on earth in 2007 that finding the right knob to tune out is too taxing.
The wonder of "We Can Be Strong" is that it isn't nearly as depressing as its lyric. It helps that the New Englander is far from a typical young alt-folkie — he's recorded for Bright Eyes' label and toured with Beth Orton and Death Cab for Cutie — and his stripped-wood voice implies resilience more than defeat.
The song's arrangement feels craggier and more rugged than that of the average singer-songwriter ballad. (Having Rosanne Cash pitch in on harmony doesn't hurt; her voice conveys nothing but strength.) Anti-anthems rarely sound this anthemic.
April 16, 2007
"Signed myself out today / Sent a letter far away," Willy Mason sings on "We Can Be Strong."
It's never entirely clear where he was, but a later reference to "a sterile room" provides a clue that it wasn't a luxury hotel. Later in the song, he's back on his mother's couch, wondering what happened to all those friends who chose to go to college and were so disillusioned that they dropped out and vanished.
An earlier generation subscribed to the idea of turning on, tuning in and dropping out, but the voice of "We Can Be Strong" is so numb and confused by life on earth in 2007 that finding the right knob to tune out is too taxing.
The wonder of "We Can Be Strong" is that it isn't nearly as depressing as its lyric. It helps that the New Englander is far from a typical young alt-folkie — he's recorded for Bright Eyes' label and toured with Beth Orton and Death Cab for Cutie — and his stripped-wood voice implies resilience more than defeat.
The song's arrangement feels craggier and more rugged than that of the average singer-songwriter ballad. (Having Rosanne Cash pitch in on harmony doesn't hurt; her voice conveys nothing but strength.) Anti-anthems rarely sound this anthemic.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Shannon Manning's New Antithesis, huh?
I would like to see assembled a cabal of politically and comically sentient artists who want to strive together to create something aesthetically abrasive and beautiful at the same time, something that grooves in, grows out of and builds on the concerns and culture of our own times. Something that requires a manifesto. This is an approach to a manifesto, which I hope will take many forms. I would love to see smart, passionate people who are varied, differently-minded yet united in spirit, who share some basic beliefs about the use and abuse of life and power. People who are starting to wonder if it is enough to just make people laugh are asking the right questions.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Found our secret little Conference, did you?
Like to be listed as a cyber performer? Send us your link and we just might put you on the A-list.
Like to be featured as the Union's Director/Founder? Send Dr. Rowan your photo and we might post your likeness.
rowan.mayhewphd@gmail.com
Like to be featured as the Union's Director/Founder? Send Dr. Rowan your photo and we might post your likeness.
rowan.mayhewphd@gmail.com
Monday, March 19, 2007
Elements of the Emerging Art Form - Blogologism
Converging Arts: Acting and role playing, journalism, short fiction, ventriloquism, collage, parody, stage direction, and blogging.
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