The Arts Fuse Newsletter, January 22
Coming Attractions, Debut of a Masterful Translations Column, Aaron Rodgers Documentary, The Rabbis Go South Podcast, Boston Festival of Films from Iran, and a Remembrance of David Lynch
From The Editor's Desk:
Proud to report that, as the Boston Globe cuts back on its coverage of books, recently deep-sixing a page of arts coverage that included New England literary news, this magazine muscles up. Guggenheim and Berlin Prize Fellow Tess Lewis, a translator from French and German, will be contributing a bimonthly column dedicated to spotlighting recently published translations of literary works that deserve more attention and readers. The first installment huzzahs translations and adaptations by Ranjit Hoskote, Robert Chandler, and Douglas J. Penick. Lewis says the feature will appear twice a month or every two months … depending. Let’s hope for more rather than less.
The column’s premiere gives me an opportunity to recommend a book and a virtual event, part of Brookline Booksmith’s Transnational Literature Series. On January 28, translator Luke Leafgren will discuss (with writer, translator, and scholar Ammiel Alcalay) the publication of Nasser Abu Srour’s The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on the Meaning of Hope and Freedom. Srour is a Palestinian who has been incarcerated since 1993 for his alleged involvement in the death of an Israeli intelligence officer during the first intifada. The book is a reflection on the nature of power, violence, fear, and the survival and extermination of others. Examples of Israel’s inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners are provided, but most of this lucid narrative is a powerful, at times even lyrical, meditation on coming to terms with captivity. “In prison, my wall is me,” Srour writes, “and I am my wall.”
Accepting that claustrophobic psychological endpoint takes an act of rebirth. Over time, Srour learns to cultivate a stoic hopelessness that stands as a proud defense, a prophylactic for a voice that speaks of the humiliated, the silenced, and the dead. In his magisterial 1990 study Writers in Prison, Ioan Davies asserts that “much of the influential literature of Judeo-Christian civilization was composed under conditions of incarceration or involuntary exile”. He goes on to argue that “it is impossible to understand Occidental thought without recognizing the central existence of prison and banishment in its theoretical and literary composition.” Poignant and pointed, The Tale of a Wall is a noteworthy addition to a tradition of writing that chronicles the degenerating contours of our civilization — from the perspective of a prison cell.
—Bill Marx, Editor-in-Chief
Archive: From the Editor's Desk
Coming Attractions Through February 3 — What Will Light Your Fire
Compiled by Arts Fuse Editor
Our expert critics supply a guide to film, visual art, theater, author readings, and music. More offerings will be added as they come in.
Book Column: Spotlighting Masterful Literary Translations
By Tess Lewis
One of translation’s greatest powers — its ability to take a text out of one historical period, literary tradition, language and set of conventions and transplant it into another — is a delicate procedure.
Television Review: “Aaron Rodgers: Enigma” — An Abstruse Athlete
By David Daniel
Given all of the athlete's inner turmoil and outer accomplishments, this Netflix portrait of Aaron Rodgers is as close to a standard sports documentary as a Cybertruck is to a F-150.
David Lynch, Prince of Darkness — A Personal Remembrance
By Peg Aloi
It is impossible to think that anyone could have been exposed to David Lynch’s work — its generous vision, so far-reaching in its scope, so recognizably rooted in the modern human condition, so sensitive to the mysteries that surround life and death — and not come away changed, haunted, and awed.
Podcast Interview: Amy Geller and Gerald Peary on Making “The Rabbis Go South”
By Bill Marx
The seven part podcast tells the story of a little-known episode in the fight for desegregation: 16 rabbis were invited by Martin Luther King to be part of the 1964 civil rights march in St. Augustine, Florida.
Film Reviews: The Boston Festival of Films from Iran — Veiled Threats
By Peter Keough
The power of cinema persists at the Boston Festival of Films from Iran.
Help Keep The Arts Fuse Lit!
Precious few independent online arts publications make it to double digits. Please give us the resources the magazine needs to persevere at an essential cultural task.
Keep the Fuse lit and support our 70+ writers by making a donation.
The Arts Fuse also needs underwriting for the magazine to continue to grow.
And…tell your friends about the in-depth arts coverage you can’t get anywhere else.
Questions, comments, concerns?
Editor-in-Chief
Bill Marx
wmarx103@gmail.com
