Arnon

Did you buy a lot of books in Istanbul?

Off topic - To Arnon

As a Leonard Cohen admirer you will take interest in the documentary presented below

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/spotlight/cohen/cohen-nfb.html

A friend of mine mails from time to time with Cohen, about poetry.

I would think that most people that live in NYC are capitalists. How can you live in a society like that without capitalism? Why is capitalism such a hot topic at the moment? Is it because people are not completly at ease with how things are going? To me extremism is never benificial.

Tirza critisism on capitalism? Never before was "Dem Reinen ist Alles rein, dem Schweinen ist Alles schwein" so true.

OFF

Hey,Arnon..what I gotta say..What do you think..May be it happens if one you wake up and come in Tbilisi,Georgia?I've just finished "Figuranten"..It's translated in Georgian..

What made the Turkish journalist think Tirza is a criticism of capitalism?

I think commentors should be able to put an avatar up.

Yes, and sometimes a interviewer knows more about the novelist than the author about himself (Arnon the critic of capitalism!). We should collect all possible platitudes about ourselves. Go for it, Arnon!

Arnon

You give me hope. Now you describe yourself as a capitalist , I'm sure one day I'm going to convert you in a true communist.

To Johanes

I strongly appose to Dens' suggestion.

Pjötr

so you're anti-choice, Pjötr?

Reckoner

I have been to Tblisi in 2002.

Calisha

Have you read "Tirza"?

Bernard

Can you describe a person without using platitudes?

To Dens

Not quite. But I do oppose to any suggestion that increases the loading time of any website.
Especially websites that I frequent on a regular basis.

Dens

Do you think of me as an avatar?

I'm afraid I can't, Mr. Arnon. If anything, I look at you as an adopted brother.

Dens

Mr. Arnon's extended family is growing. I want to become his pedicure, maybe I can then treat your feet as well

Mr. Grunberg

Yes, I have. Although it has been a while by now. I remember it stroke me (which happens rarely). I liked Hofmeester's daily thoughts and the charming details about his boring life. I felt identified with Tirza. And my dad has a certain similarity with Hofmeester. Average western family I guess.

I asked the question not as a confirmation of an answer but simply because I seem to be missing some important details. But I hope I finally understood it: you weren't criticising capitalism (which represents free market and trade) and maybe it was the Turkish journalist who didn't read Tirza (in a comunistic system for example Hofmeester might have had an equally routinous and boring life).

Calisha

It’s true: sometimes journalists don’t read the book or just parts of it
But this Turkish journalist was extremely well prepared, as were most of his colleagues in Istanbul.
I can only repeat what I said before: sometimes a reader knows more about the book than the novelist.
I would not say that the interpretation of this journalist was based on a malicious reading of the novel.
His ideas about the novel forced me to think again about my own text.

Maybe the translator injected some capitalistic critisism in it.

Mr. Grunberg

The word "interpretation" made a bell ring. Guess our background defines which aspects we focus on in a novel. And it's so versatile and full of aspects that infinite interpretations can be made. And the Turkish journalists background was probably very different from mine. Maybe he fixated even more on some significant details (which I consider trivial), with the view of a professional reader. I wonder in which language and medium the interview appears., and if it is easily readable from Europe.

@Arnon
I know, I should have written, as an example of this platitude, ‘Arnon, the capitalist’ in stead of ‘Arnon, the critic of capitalism,’ a far lesser platitude.
That is why the opinion of an interviewer or an observant can make one think again about one ‘s own opinions too.
As a novel, I think , a person can refer to different kinds of platitudes as well.
(What a platitude…)

Calisha

Not only background, sensitivity, intelligence, gender perhaps, all these things might influence your interpretation of the text.

To be human is to trade.

To be a capitalist is to trade up.

Cohen

Een liedtekst van Leonard Cohen.

The Old Revolution lyrics

I finally broke into the prison,
I found my place in the chain.
Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows,
all the brave young men
they're waiting now to see a signal
which some killer will be lighting for pay.
Into this furnace I ask you now to venture,
you whom I cannot betray.

I fought in the old revolution
on the side of the ghost and the King.
Of course I was very young
and I thought that we were winning;
I can't pretend I still feel very much like singing
as they carry the bodies away.

Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...

Lately you've started to stutter
as though you had nothing to say.
To all of my architects let me be traitor.
Now let me say I myself gave the order
to sleep and to search and to destroy.

Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...

Yes, you who are broken by power,
you who are absent all day,
you who are kings for the sake of your children's story,
the hand of your beggar is burdened down with money,
the hand of your lover is clay.

Into this furnace I ask you now to venture...