This morning I thought of posting a comment, stating that Stefaan De Clerck turned out to be a reliable informer during your visit to Kortrijk. (Will there be such an emergency government? Come and see next week in the next sequel: The Emergency Government)

Arnon and Jan T

Did you read my entry of yesterday evening under 'She grabs my head'?

It said more or less the same thing.

I thought of contacting Yves De Smet, saying he was right. Everything was known in advance.

@Lila L
Yes thank you, but I read De Morgen daily on paper and/or on the internet.
By the way, have you noticed, De Dolle Mol in no longer what it used to be, a pitiful shame.

@Lila L
But do not despair, there are still enough nice places around. For example two week ago I visited Den Haag and I found a similar sense of ‘old’ conviviality in De Zwarte Ruiter (www.zwarteruiter.nl) and Café Cremers (http://www.theagenda.nl/v38420_grand-cafe-cremers.html) to mention only a few; I try to avoid the bullies…Consider this comment as an antidote.

Lila

I read it now, thanks, and of course everything was known in advance. More often than not this is the case.

Jan T

I think I am ready for the antidote.
The Dolle Mol is now subsidized by our one and only mister Bert Anciaux. How not to be cynical in this world ...

Arnon

I can only think of all those people that argue over these things at home, that are in a state of alarm, that fight with friends and family, all those discussions and then this orchestrated show. In the press they talk about the deficit of the Belgian compromis. And let this deficit be the Belgian compromis. Maybe I should agree with all the rest and surrealism is the only way to describe the country I live in ...
I hope all this excitement will slowly fade away ... I guess this hope is idle.

@Lila L
By Bert Anciaux? Now everything is bright and clear to me. Their desperate fight for ‘street credibility’ by using grotesque ‘street’ vocabulary to mask their common bourgeois origins. Indeed those guys must be pretty desperate for attention and credibility. Enough now.

@ Arnon

I have just read your piece in 'De Morgen'. Congratulations with your decision. I thought it to be a horrible charade. A pity A.F.T. has such a small sense of humour, though his attitude was probably more inspired by taking advantage of the opportunity for more public attention than real anger. Verdonk was his perfect partner.

One could ask the question if politics does not lead to paralysis by definition.

To answer your question from the Europe entry:
No, because politics is orchestrated.
(Proven again by the mayor.)

Funny though, how politicians say to strive to do some good for the country and end up doing bad with a chaos like this.

Off topic: cordon litéraire

Mieke, why congratulations for this decision?

Isn’t it also a bit sad?

I mean the part about forever keeping quiet about other authors from the Netherlands. Which means that it’s over with such brilliant, outrageous and funny letters like the last one to Jeroen Brouwers.

And this only because some people – the wrong people – appear to have no sense of humour, no sense of proportion, no ability to deal with criticism, no intelligence? Why give in to them?

Okay, there are enough other writers, people and subjects to write about, but still. It’s like rewarding the people who hate you, while punishing the people who love your work. Or like outdoing those who overreact by overreacting yourself on an even larger scale.

I mean, anybody could see that A.F.Th.’s reaction only proved that he is indeed a confused man who is not really in his right mind.

So I don’t entirely understand such a solemn and dramatic vow: why reject a whole nation as a result of one bad experience with a literary prize, a whole fuss about nothing?

And by the way, does the cordon also include the NRC and other papers and magazines that publish your pieces, Arnon?

Furthermore, if from now on you will keep quiet, you eliminate the risk that some writer will not want to share the room with you at an event. In other words: your first vow (no more critical words about authors from the Netherlands) doesn’t lead to the second (no more attendances at literary events in the Netherlands).

(Unless of course you will continue to write to Flemish authors, which further complicates matters if you will continue to attend the Golden Owl ceremony, since that is held outside the cordon.)

But maybe the motivation runs the other way around: you no longer want to attend the ceremonies, and in order not to be considered cowardly at those events, you decide at once to refrain yourself from further letters to collegues who may end up at the tables?

Anyway, in part I can understand that you no longer want to bother, probably those writers aren’t worth it anyway.

And I hope that you will continue to be as outspoken as before on other subjects. No one else knows how to be so deliciously malicious.

Enjoy your exile.

That’s a shame. You are as much a public figure as you are a writer. Maybe you don’t care about being a public figure, but I think it can be a noble task. Someone needs to address this self congratulatory establishment in the way you do, it is a shame if this negative voice chooses to be silent.