Swedish papers publish Mohammed cartoon

At least three Swedish newspapers have published a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog, after an alleged plot to murder the artist, Lars Vilks, was uncovered in Ireland, AP/Ynet reports. The cartoon was not, however, published on the newspapers' websites.

A Man Called Haavikko

In Hbl, Pia Ingström reviews a new biography of the Finnish poet Paavo Haavikko. An excerpt from the review [my tr.]:

All autumn two men have been fighting in public over the spiritual estate of Paavo Haavikko. During Haavikko’s last year, his – self-appointed? – spiritual son Mauno Saari worked on his biography of the poet, in close cooperation with the aged giant. After his father’s death in October 2008 the fleshly son, Heikki Haavikko, tried to the last to prevent Saari from publishing the book, among other things claiming that as Haavikko’s heir he should share the copyright in the text, which is based primarily on Saari’s interviews with his father.

In a long article published in Helsingin Sanomat’s monthly supplement (October 3), Minna Lindgren describes the febrile attempts of Mauno Saari and his wife, Pirkko Turpeinen, to make themselves indispensable in the care of the increasingly ailing Haavikko... In a detailed interview for the weekly magazine Apu (October 7) Saari for his part tells how the son did his best to isolate his father from his friends Saari and Turpeinen during his final months.

The book, A Man Called Haavikko, appeared in early October, and Saari managed to include much of this autumn's public quarrel between its covers. The result is a sordid soap from the heights of cultural life, and a thrilling combination of high and low. Somewhere in the middle are a couple of hundred pages of the essay-like “conversational biography” the book was once intended to be, with Saari as administrator of Haavikko’s spiritual testament and chronicler of a life that contained both greatness and tragedy.

Hannu Marttila has more here.
See also in this blog: Finland as a question, Russia as reply

Abba in Latma's Studio

The video now has 600+ comments.

Bildt responds

On his blog, Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt has now responded to the Aftonbladet article. But his response hinges on the lame "freedom of speech" argument that is used by the left:

På sina håll i Israel har man begärt att vi på ett eller annat sätt skulle ta offentligt avstånd från denna artikel eller t o m ingripa för att förhindra att en sådan artikel skulle kunna publiceras.

Men så fungerar inte vårt land – och skall inte heller göra det.

It's disappointing.

Bildt silent on anti-Semitic article

Not strictly speaking a literary topic, perhaps, but in view of our earlier coverage of the issue of anti-Semitism in Norwegian public and intellectual life, it seems at least consistent to mention the outrage that was provoked by a recent article published in the mainstream Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet which repeated accusations against Israel's defence forces, or sections of them, of murdering Palestinians in order to steal their internal organs.

The article appears to reflect a belief that is common among left wing circles in Sweden, and it has been roundly condemned in some quarters, including Svenska Dagbladet, which has also published in one of its blogs a statement disclosing that the Swedish embassy in Tel Aviv has sent out a message from Ambassador Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier reminding the world that "Aftonbladet's cultural page does not speak for all Swedes", and calling the article "as shocking and appalling to us Swedes as it is to Israeli citizens."

One of the most troubling aspects of the whole affair is possibly the fact that so far Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, has remained silent on the issue, apparently preferring to make no comment.

Update: the Swedish government has distanced itself from the statement by Elisabet Borsiin Bonnier.

The Jerusalem Post comments that the Aftonbladet item

reads more like an opinion article than a straight journalism piece, and it attempts to connect claims he heard in the West Bank in 1992 that Israeli soldiers were illegally removing organs from Palestinians killed in fighting with a campaign for Israeli organ donors, supposed illegal purchases of organs in Israel in the early 2000s, and the recent story of American Levy Izhak Rosenbaum who was accused of illegally trafficking Israeli organs.

The skills gap

Something that translators might want to bear in mind when dealing with publishers nowadays: according to a new report by the U.K.'s Skillset council, the move to digitization in the publishing industry has "exposed existing skills gaps", some of which the report calls "critical". The Bookseller quotes Random House CEO and chairman Dame Gail Rebuck as saying:

"There are those who know the [publishing] business really well — often those who are more experienced, middle-management types — who are very uncomfortable with the wholly changing digital landscape.”

Pirates of the new EU

One of the large number of "fringe" political groupings that scored a success in Sunday's Euro-elections was Sweden's Pirate Party, which secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote.

In the Aftonbladet newspaper, author Jan Guillou attacked his colleague Lars Gustafsson, saying that "the author, or indeed anyone who is active in cultural life, who votes for the Pirate Party is the sheep who votes for the wolf."

There are more reflections on the topic here.

Going Google

The Bookseller's managing editor Philip Jones writes in his blog that the UK Publishers Association held seminars this week to explain to members why the Google Settlement matters to them:

As is becoming increasingly clear there is no easy option available to non-US publishers. (I'm not sure there is an easy route for US publishers either, but at least they got to have a say in the drawing up of the Settlement.)

Perhaps most bizarre is that all publishers must actively opt out, otherwise they will find themselves bound by the agreement. As publishers are finding out, there is almost no good reason to opt out, since Google could then carry on its digitisation process, and opting out would put the onus back on the individual publisher to pursue its own legal challenge—hardly advisable. Even objecting to the settlement at the Fairness Hearing, set for New York on 11th June, means you are bound by the agreement.

Those publishers who do decide to opt out will have to do so by May 5. At the seminars it was announced that Google could start advertising a digitized book offer consumer service in the United States via the Google search engine as early as July.

See also: The Digibooks Row

Nordic Voices Reviewed Again

Blowing our trumpet and banging our drum, we note that we received another favourable review - this time from BiblioBuffet:

Nordic Voices in Translation is a wonderful blog devoted to “the English translation of the literatures of the Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. And also Estonia.” Their translations include not only literature but pieces from new works be they fiction, drama, poetry and criticism. This is a rather impressive site.

Thanks, BiblioBuffet.

See also: Nordic Voices Reviewed

The Digibooks Row

In a new move on a topic that may be of direct interest to readers of this blog, especially translators whose titles frequently go out of print, Google is currently preparing to finalize and fully implement its book digitization program. Having reached a $125m agreement with the US Authors' Guild and the Association of American Publishers aimed at finally settling the class action suit that raised serious charges of copyright infringement in relation to Google's Book Search, the company is now waiting for the court decision which will allow it to go ahead. As The Register notes, not everyone in the world of Web 3.0 (aka the "Data Web") is happy with the likelihood of Google acquiring what they see as a virtual monopoly on international library digitizing:

Having settled with the authors and publishers, it can exploit its financial power from within a protective legal barrier, for the class action suit covers the entire class of authors and publishers," [Harvard University libraries head Robert] Darnton wrote. "No new entrepreneurs will be able to digitize books within that fenced-off territory, even if they could afford it, because they would have to fight the copyright battles all over again. If the settlement is upheld by the court, only Google will be protected from copyright liability."

Since trumpeting Darnton's words hither and yon, the press had been all but quiet on the matter. But then, early last week, Wired tossed up a blog post entitled "Who's Messing With the Google Book Settlement? Hint: They're in Redmond, Washington." The New York Law School recently asked the court for permission to voice its concerns on the matter, and Wired took enormous pleasure in pointing out that the law school's Google Book Settlement project is funded solely by Microsoft.

The New Books from Finland

The new Web-based version of Books from Finland, the magazine of translated Finnish fiction, poetry, sociology and criticism which has appeared more or less continuously since 1966, is now online. This reincarnation of the journal replaces the paper version, which will no longer be published.

First impressions are mixed - the selection of material is good and varied, but the visual aspect of the site still looks to be in need of some attention. On my screen, at any rate, the orange lettering of the smaller headings is practically invisible, though I guess it may vary from one graphics card to another.

A note on the site does point out that the new operation is still in beta and won't be fully up and running until April, so perhaps it's better not to be too critical. One major useful innovation is a page that allows the reader to browse the magazine's already existing online archive alphabetically by author. I'm told that this feature is due for expansion, and that when it's completed it will provide links to work by hundreds of Finnish writers.