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4/25/06: The Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture with Orhan Pamuk
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Introduced by Salman Rushdie & followed by conversation with Margaret Atwood
Discussed: mother courage and Günter Grass, the ruthless limits set on free expression, Miller and Pinter’s trip to Istanbul, the solidarity of writers, the inextricable bonds between free expression and dignity, internal civil wars, the connection between apples and sex, similarities between children and novelists, the Dixie Chick effect, the path from wannabe painter to great novelists.
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 LISTEN
• Entire event
• Salman Rushdie: Introduction
• Orhan Pamuk
• Conversation
>> Read Pamuk's lecture in The New York Review of Books. |
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4/26/06: Writing Faith
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Discussed: maintaining faith as a postmodern writer; why we need religion; unreason as the writer's muse; the American protestant experiment; the gift of the first-person singular and the dream of the "we"; the anxiety of the lonely American; and blasphemy as literary tradition.
 LISTEN
• Entire event (1:25:25)
• Mary Gordon (4:57)
• Faith Adiele (5:15)
• Azhar Abidi (4:21)
• Alaa Al-Aswany (5:50)
• Richard Rodriguez (7:22)
• Colm Tóibín (7:55)
• Discussion (49:35) |
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4/27/06: Exiles in America
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With Chris Abani, Ammar Abdulhamid, Yiyun Li, Greg Palast, Huang Xiang; moderated by Michael Scammell
Discussed: mental suicide; the dynamics and burden of guilt; the courage scale in international censorship; exiled writers vs. exiled writing; negotiating authenticity from a multinational identity; the marginalization of the Internet; and the universal appeal of the exiled writer.
LISTEN
• Entire event |
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4/27/06: Patrick McGrath & Martin Amis
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Discussed: doubt; Pascal’s approach to faith; a plausible refutation of religion; the nepotistic figure of Christ; hadith and the theological gamble of suicide bombings; time and its eternal return; end-time theology, and similarities between Ronald Reagan and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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• Entire event |
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4/27/06: Mixed Media:
Writers on Their Languages
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Writers are in the service of language itself and the specific language of their work. Writers in Basque, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, English, and Serbo-Croatian pay tribute to what is unique and specific about working in each language.
LISTEN
• Entire Event
• David Damrosch
• Bernardo Atxaga
• Raymond Federman
• Dubravka Ugresic
• Hwang Sok-Yong
• Agi Mishol
• Yiyun Li
• Boris Akunin |
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4/28/06: Revolution: A User's Manual
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Discussed: the midwife of history; Galileo Galilei; normality vs. utopianism; the witty, the moving, and the grim; religion as revolutionary force; revolutions that didn't make it; the struggle against cliche; Spain as a model for democracy; liberation theology; and which revolution has the most life left in it.
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LISTEN
• Entire event (1:41:46)
• Christopher Hitchens (8:24)
• Adam Michnik (8:35)
• Gioconda Belli (9:53)
• G. M. Tamás (13:12)
• Balthasar Garzón (14:11)
• Discussion (46:57) |
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4/28/06: Just the Facts: Truth & the Internet
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With Ammar Abdulhamid, Carol Darr, George Saunders, Åsne Seierstad, Susan Tifft; moderated by Jacob Weisberg
For millions, the Internet is now the go-to place for news, opinion, advice, advocacy, outrage, connection, and community. But as information disseminates at lightning speed, what happens to “fact”? When every rumor, prevarication, hallucination, or fantasy instantly goes global, is there any way to detach truth from lies?
LISTEN
• Entire event (57:48) |
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4/29/06: The Global City
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Discussed: the fear of loneliness and the luxury of solitude; beauty in the urban landscape; the community of melancholy and the nobility of failure; the beautiful woman behind City of God; architecture and nostalgia.
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LISTEN
• Entire event
• Suketu Mehta: Introduction
• Alaa Al-Aswany
• Paulo Lins
• Melania Mazzucco
• Carlos Monsiváis
• Orhan Pamuk
• Discussion |
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4/29/06: A Believer Nighttime Event
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With Rodrigo Fresán, Etgar Keret, Yiyun Li, Helen Oyeyemi, Matthew Ritchie, Salman Rushdie, Dubravka Ugresic; moderated by John Hodgman
Discussed: the brain of H. G. Wells, the infrastructure of a good old-fashioned American literary event, the six oaths of the virtuous child, our inevitable biological predisposition toward fiction, Ibsen and Loveborg, imaginary friends, and how to come out of the closet as a political writer.
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LISTEN
• Entire event
• Jonathan Ames
• Sam Lipsyte
• Salvador Plascencia
• Shirin Neshat
• Discussion |
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4/29/06: HOWL for 50 Years
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With Bernardo Atxaga, Frank Bidart, Staceyann Chin, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Etgar Keret, Lyubomir Levchev, Robert Polito, Mani Rao, Jason Shinder, Ko Un
Poets
and writers from many countries celebrate one of the founding documents
of the global counterculture and honor Allen Ginsberg’s lifelong
commitment to freedom of expression.
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4/29/06: Whose News?: A Global Perspective on What Makes News and Why
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With Juan Luis Cebrián, Adam Michnik, Gianni Riotta, Ĺsne Seierstad; moderated by Nicholas Lemann
How are journalism and news media influenced by cultural and political
factors that vary widely from one region to another? Do media moderate
or reinforce these differences?
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4/30/06: Amartya Sen & Salman Rushdie
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Discussed: Transcultural migration, Indian verbosity, the recent or not-so-recent invention of Indian identity, freedom's economic components, class similarities in the victims of Hindu/Muslim violence, the unholy alliance between Islamic extremism and Western parochialism, the clash-of-civilizations thesis.
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• Entire event |
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4/30/06: Duong Thu Huong with Robert Stone & Antoine Audouard
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Discussed: accepting the fate of the troublemaker; writing as moral imperative; writing vs. table tennis; truth and beauty; William James and war as a companion for humankind; fighting the foreign but not the internal enemy in Vietnam.
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• Entire event (51:08) |
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4/30/06: Henning Mankell & Vera B. Williams
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4/30/06: Suitable for Children
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With Francesca Lia Block, Tonya Bolden, David Grossman, Hanna Jansen, Anne Provoost; moderated by Arthur A. Levine
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4/26/06: Faith & Reason: Writers Speak
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At a moment when faith and reason can seem hopelessly antagonistic, literature remains a vehicle through which differences may be explored and reconciled.
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LISTEN
• Salman Rushdie: Introduction
• Chinua Achebe
• Martin Amis
• Gioconda Belli
• E. L. Doctorow
• David Grossman
• Elias Khoury
• Yusef Komunyakaa
• Toni Morrison
• Zadie Smith
• Duong Thu Huong
• Ayu Utami
• Jeanette Winterson
• Salman Rushdie |
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4/26/06: Honor Killings: When Families Commit Murder to Save Face
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With Necla Kelek, O. Z. Livaneli, Ritu Menon, Ayu Utami; moderated by Robert Pollock
 LISTEN
• Entire event (1:02:06)
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4/26/06: BenettonTalk Young Writers Series: Melania G. Mazzucco with Jhumpa Lahiri
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Discussed: reconstructing a family story from narrative fragments and documentary artifacts, the metaphor of two boats, the impact of emigration on contemporary Italian culture, the universal legend of immigration, the process of adapting Vita for the screen.
LISTEN
• Entire event |
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4/27/06: BenettonTalk Young Writers Series: Helen Oyeyemi and Esmeralda Santiago
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Discussed: reading Shakespeare as a child and pretending to be precocious, the reality of imaginary friends, Jimmy and the sudden death of an imaginary friend, the horror and aftermath of interviews, the difference between depression and carrying water for two miles, getting published, a Tilly-Tilly/Beloved smackdown.
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• Entire event |
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4/27/06: Tell That Story Again:
Writing Myth Now
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With David Grossman, Milton Hatoum, Anne Provoost, Jeanette Winterson; moderated by Colum McCann
Working with myth—seeking new meaning in mankind’s oldest stories—is one of the greatest literary challenges. Writers who have rewritten myths for modern audiences discuss the complexities of making them new.
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• Entire event |
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4/27/06: An Evening Without
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Readings: Anthony Romero reads Tariq Ramadan; Martin Amis reads "Graham Greene" from Visiting Mrs. Nabokov; Russell Banks reads Graham Greene's Our Man in Heaven; Liev Schreiber reads Dario Fo's prologue to Elizabeth: Almost by Chance a Woman; Barbara Goldsmith reads Farley Mowat's My Discovery of America; Salman Rushdie reads Czeslaw Milosz; Gioconda Belli reads Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel lecture; Padma Lakshmi reads Dorris Lessing's In Pursuit of English; Naomi Shihab Nye reads Mahmoud Darwish; Debra Winger reads Pablo Neruda; Eloy Urroz reads Carlos Fuentes' Where the Air Is Clear; Todd Solondz reads Nelson Mandela's 1962 court address.
LISTEN
• Entire Event (1:36:24)
• Larry Siems, Anthony Romero (08:21)
• Martin Amis (06:23)
• Russell Banks (11:22)
• Liev Schreiber (08:16)
• Barbara Goldsmith (11:27)
• Salman Rushdie (08:39)
• Gioconda Belli (12:10)
• Padma Lakshmi (07:48)
• Naomi Shihab Nye (05:24)
• Debra Winger (03:46)
• Eloy Urroz (07:07)
• Todd Solondz (06:29) |
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4/28/06: BenettonTalk Young Writers Series: Etgar Keret & George Saunders
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Discussed: the inspiration for "Actually, I've Had Some Phenomenal Hard-Ons Lately," writing as surfing, Keret's wife's waddle, screenwriting to meet women, understanding the Holocaust, schmoozing, the big purpose of fiction, and holding on to ambiguity while living in the Middle East.
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• Entire event
• Introduction & reading by Anthony Rapp
• Conversation |
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4/28/06: The Limits of Tolerance?: Multiculturalism Now
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With Pascal Bruckner, Necla Kelek, Richard Rodriguez; moderated by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Can the Enlightenment ideal of tolerance survive the pressures of profound cultural differences aggravated by religious extremism? A diverse group of American and European observers look at multiculturalism today.
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• Entire event |
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4/29/06: BenettonTalk Young Writers Series: Rodrigo Fresán & Jonathan Lethem
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Discussed: monolinguistic American writers, “A Day In The Life” from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, narrative emulating collage, narrative as a posteriori knowledge, almost killing Jorge Luis Borges, being kidnapped, childhood and death, the relation of artists to neoteny.
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• Entire event
• Lili Taylor reads from Kensington Gardens by Rodrigo Fresán
• Conversation |
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4/29/06: Women Poets from the Middle East
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Readings and discussion from Venus Khoury-Ghata, Marilyn Hacker, Lisa Katz, Agi Mishol, Naomi Shihab Nye; moderated by Nathalie Handal
LISTEN
• Entire event (1:13:19) |
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4/29/06: Hwang Sok Yong & Ko Un
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Readings and conversation with two of the leading Korean writers of the postwar period, novelist Hwang Sok-Yong and poet Ko Un. Moderated by Janet Poole.
LISTEN
• Entire event (1:06:20) |
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4/29/06: Idols & Insults: Writing, Religion, and Freedom of Expression
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With Juan Luis Cebrián, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Nilüfer Göle, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Tariq Ramadan; moderated by Ian Buruma
Writers from several countries discuss the shifting and increasingly perilous terrain surrounding art and religion.
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• Entire event |
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4/30/06: Author to Author Reading
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Hosted by Staceyann Chin and featuring readings by Oyeyemi, Perdomo, and teen writers representing Hanging Loose Press, Girls Write Now, Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, and the PEN Writing Institute.
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• Entire Event
• Staceyann Chin
• Willie Perdomo
• Teen writer from Hanging Loose Press
• Young writers from Girls Write Now
• Staceyann Chin |
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4/30/06: Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Philip Gourevitch
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 Discussed: Islamic Enlightenment, burning The Satanic Verses, living as a Muslim atheist in Holland, liberal betrayal, the Prophet Mohammed as a moral guide for contemporary culture, Christian and Muslim provincialism.
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• Entire event
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4/30/06: Hanna Jansen & Tonya Bolden
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4/30/06: Zadie Smith & Kurt Andersen
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 Discussed: conceptions of the true world; post–White Teeth guilt and Protestant worry; the benefits of self-reinvention; dead white males; and a defense of gangsta rap.
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• Entire event
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