The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi blast off in just a few short hours—but despite transcontinental fanfare, Russia’s severe censorship and anti-homosexuality laws have already (rather predictably) overshadowed this year’s Games. Over 200 authors have signed a petition with the international PEN Center, including the likes of Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Günter Grass, in an open letter condemning Putin’s recently passed gay propaganda and blasphemy laws. In Guernica, an interview with investigative journalist Masha Gessen on Russia’s shrinking public space and the “personal catastrophe” of self-imposed exile. Masha Gessen edited OR Books’ recently published Gay Propaganda: Russian love Stories, putting faces to those affected by the oppression (read excerpts here). Amid political controversy, the PEN Center brings light to an often-overlooked element of contemporary Russia: what’s the literary scene like today? We’ll give you a primer: check out three contemporary Russian women poets or ten wonderful Russian novels you probably haven’t read yet.
The problem of censorship isn’t unique to Russia, however: free speech has a grim outlook the world around. Again in Guernica, an iconic 1980 piece by Chinese dissident Hu Ping, translated for the first time into English by Eric Abrahamsen: On Freedom of Speech. Elsewhere on the site, Yiyun Li and Emily Parker chat about self-censorship and examples of journalistic activism about China. Problems in the Ukraine persist, and not just on the streets: how has the ongoing crackdown affected voices of protest? In Cuba, foggy censorship doctrines make for a paranoid and overly cautious artistic class—here’s why explicit censorship might be a (slightly) better thing.
It seems as if every week we bring news about beleaguered libraries—and this week is no exception. Translationista (and Asymptote contributor!) Susan Bernofsky tours the doomed-to-perish NYPL stacks and finds them too essential to forget. In Brooklyn, book thieves make a serious dent in the Brooklyn Public Library’s collection: the library is down to 3.3 million titles, compared to 4.1 million in 2009. In Canada, too, libraries face demise: the country’s environmentally-focused fisheries libraries may be shut down. Meanwhile, the Pew research center collects data on how we use libraries today (here are ten fun facts, including a heartening truth about how much Americans appreciate their libraries!). Lemony Snicket, Unfortunate Event-chronicler, has launched an annual prize to comfort over-stressed librarians. Another week, another digital archive to plunder: introducing the Getty Trust’s Virtual Library, including over 250 free titles published since 1966.
Speaking of digital archives, the French Revolution’s 14,000-plus images are fair game thanks to a dual effort by Stanford University and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. For a blast of nostalgia, admire legendary French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s original watercolors for his children’s-lit chef d’oeuvre The Little Prince, or revisit claustrophobia by checking out German-language legend Franz Kafka’s own doodles and illustrations from 1907-1917. Manga illustrators realize true history in their iconic collaborations between image-and-text—making graphic drama out of literary giants. Fittingly, amid all this imagery, be sure to peruse Words Without Borders’ latest issue, featuring graphic novels from all across the globe.
Humans have a complicated relationship with their hometowns. Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk tours Istanbul with the New York Times. Japanese author Haruki Murakami has angered residents of Nakatonbetsu, a Japanese town: they aren’t the litterers he makes them out to be! Palestinians of African descent face a startling amount of racism in their home country, and at Narratively Mariya Karimjee writes on being Pakistani in Texas. Chinese “Bachelor Societies” of yore make a return amid China’s fading one-child policy, while Chinese ex-pats in Japan face difficulties of alienation.
Finally, after a politics-heavy update: here’s an open letter to an open letter to an open letter.