Radio România Internațional

Tag: International Book Fair

  • International Book-fair Bookfest

    International Book-fair Bookfest

    “Landscape after hysteria by Mircea Cartarescu and “Why is Romania different? a volume coordinated by Vintila Mihailescu are among the most successful volumes launched at the International Book-fair, Bookfest.



    Mircea Cartarescu, one of the most appreciated Romanian writers and a Nobel prize favourite, hits the limelight again two years upon the launch of his novel Solenoid, with another volume of social-political articles printed by Humanitas publishing house.



    “Landscape after hysteria is a compilation of journalistic texts that have been published in the past ten years. They entail a general ethical and civic significance in spite of being taken out of their political context. But lets find out more about this volume from the author himself.



    Mircea Cartarescu: “Ive always regretted my decision to get into social-political writing. Actually I started writing for a living shortly after I got married because I needed money. I also did it out of some sort of a complex because many of my colleagues had already been into publishing in late 1990s. They would be boldly telling their opinions standing up tot a system and the government in power at that time, whereas I preferred living in my ivory tower. This attitude of mine attracted a lot of flak and I got blamed for being insensitive and impervious to things that otherwise should have impressed me. That prompted me to take up social-political writing but the huge burden I felt at first eventually and gradually turned into some sort of curiosity. Colour me curios but I am interested in a great deal of things. For instance, I spent almost a year with the mystery of a Malaysia plane whose wreckage hasnt been found even today. All of a sudden curiosity gets the best of me and try to figure out what actually happened. And the same went with the social-political writing, because back in the time of the communist regime and after it I went completely apolitical. Then I suddenly got the urge to know what happened in that area as well.



    “A true writer assimilates human suffering of any kind and tries to turn it, as if by alchemy, into beauty. Not transient and futile beauty, but the kind of beauty that saves the world, as Dostoyevsky put it. As an intellectual, the writer can become involved politically, socially and morally in the life of the community and may be, in fact should be, a mouthpiece for that good and truth and a fighter against the demons that have haunted and will forever haunt the human being. As an artist, however, the purpose of the writer is to forge beauty out of all this. If a writer fails to produce quality work, his or her civic courage will not be as close to the soul of his or her readers, writes Mircea Cartarescu.



    “Why is Romania different?, historian Lucian Boia used to wonder in 2013 in a well-known essay that sparked a lot of controversy in intellectual circles. This question gave rise to this book coordinated by Vintila Mihailescu and published by Polirom. Born at first as a response to Lucian Boias work, this book goes beyond more or less ephemeral controversies. The outcome is that, motivated by a principled and strategic reticence vis-à-vis the public phenomenon of Romanian exceptionalism, a number of anthropologists, sociologists, political commentators, historians, university professors and researchers try to provide an answer to the question “Why is Romania the way it is?.



    Vintila Mihailescu: “ If I were to talk about the stakes here, I would say that it all stems in discontent. And I dont think Im mistaken if I speak in the name of al the authors who contributed to making it. Its an intellectual dissatisfaction, but also a citizens one, in the sense that its the civic responsibility that an intellectual should have towards a certain type of exceptionalist discourse, but in a nihilistic version. Which could be translated as: “We cannot do or change anything, whatever we may do, we are different from all the others. This means that if, for instance, we talk with a taxi driver, no matter the situation, the answer would be ‘this is how Romanians are. This sentence-like conclusion has turned into a permanent state of mind and a foundation for all our actions, be they cultural or political, and that, I think, is bad. From this perspective, this type of discourse, which promotes an aggressive and negative type of exceptionalism, starts to gain ground, and it has become rather dominant in the public discourse. And its not ok that professors and intellectuals in general support this urban myth.

  • The Gaudeamus International Book Fair

    The Gaudeamus International Book Fair

    More than 300 exhibitors, 700 different events and a record number of 125,000 visitors have confirmed the fact that the Gaudeamus International Book Fair is the leading event on the domestic book fair market. The guest of honour of the fair, which took place between the 18th and the 22nd of November, was the Group of Francophone Embassies, Delegations and Institutions in Romania (GADIF), while its honorary president was Victor Ieronim Stoichita, an art history researcher and professor.



    Its organiser, Radio Romania, through its Media Cultural Centre, is the only radio station in the world to develop such an extensive programme aimed at promoting written culture. Now in its 22nd year, the fair had three main themes: childrens literature, great inter-war writers and Romanian contemporary literature. Daria Ghiu, from Casa Radio publishing house, explains:



    Daria Ghiu: “As far as childrens literature is concerned, in the Radio Prichindel collection, which we expand every year, we launched the audiobook and the illustrated text of Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland. This year its the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first edition of this famous book and there is even a website dedicated to this anniversary. Exhibitions have also been staged, including one in London about the first editions of the book and how the story has been illustrated over the past 150 years, including by Salvador Dali. The text is not easy to illustrate, because it is such a complicated, playful and spectacular text and its difficult to create something new. The product we launched is based on a radio dramatisation from 1968, a version that is well known to almost all generations of radio listeners. Our package includes a CD and a book illustrated by a young artist, Ana Botezatu. I was surprised how good the illustration was. It uses collage and it reminds me of avant-garde art and Dadaism, I even compared the artist with Hannah Hoch. The result is something completely new.



    One of the books launched by the Humanitas publishing house at this years Gaudeamus fair is called Our Imaginary Friends and brings together leading literary figures in Romania such as Serban Foarta, Elena Vladareanu, Emil Brumaru, Marin Malaicu-Hondrari and Antoaneta Ralian. This book by multiple authors teaches us that a child can live in his or her own world for a few days, but can also remain in this world forever, that some parents can themselves see the imaginary friends of their children and that you can be 91 years old and still wonder whether you are in fact your imaginary self. The coordinator of this interesting volume, Nadine Vladescu, tells us more:



    Nadine Vladescu: “I was very happy that Antoaneta Ralian, who is 91 years old, accepted our invitation to be part of this book. She wrote about her imaginary friend, a young man called Marcel, which is her masculine alter ego and is somehow inspired by Marcel Proust. She talks about Proust beautifully and with a lot of depth, using a very personal kind of psychoanalytical approach. In this book, we also find out about other imaginary friends, just as interesting as Marcel. Its a very successful heterogeneous mix. As the critic Tania Radu wrote on the back of the book, the content of the book is a very natural mix. There are 13 different stories and 13 very different imaginary friends, from an imaginary balloon to a snail who is also a prince, the young man called Marcel, the woman as goddess, the adored woman, a very likeable pig who plays the bassoon, a spirit who can take any form, a mischievous doll, an alter ego in the mirror, and, at the head of this table around which the writers imaginary friends are gathered, sits God himself. I wont divulge whose friend he is, but will let readers find out.



    The frACTalia publishing group was established this year, at the initiative of a group of Romanian writers and graphic artists. Iulia Militaru, one of the initiators, tells us more about the titles launched by the group at Gaudeamus:



    Iulia Militaru: “While some publishing houses close down, others have record sales. At the end of the day, its all about how you manage things. We hope we will make it on this market and strike a balance between what we publish and how much profit we make, because there is always this problem. We didnt set out to make a profit from the sale of our books, but out of passion. This year at Gaudeamus, we launched our publishing house and presented several books of poetry, two debut works and a new edition of an older work.



    The poetry books in question are by Razvan Pricop and Octavian Perpelea, as well as a new edition of Andra Rotarus debut work to mark ten years since debut.

  • November 21, 2015 UPDATE

    November 21, 2015 UPDATE

    The new Government of Romania, headed by the independent Dacian Cioloş convened on Saturday in an informal meeting. The talks focused on next year’s public budgets, the sector priorities for the coming months, the improvement of the institutions that manage the European fund absorption and on outlining the principles for an administrative reform. According to the PM, such informal meetings will be held on a regular basis, at the weekend, and will focus on the priorities in the governing programme. The technocratic cabinet headed by Dacian Ciolos was sworn in early this week.



    As many as 150 book launches and cultural events were organised on Saturday as part of the Gaudeamus International Book Fair, organised by Radio Romania. The fair ends on Sunday. This year’s edition is held under the motto “The Most Read Book Fair from the Most Listened to Radio.” Gaudeamus brings together over 300 publishers and 700 events. The guest of honour in this year’s fair is the Group of Francophone Embassies, Delegations and Institutions in Romania.



    The Brussels metro remains shut until Sunday after the Belgian authorities raised the terrorist alert status to the highest level, warning people to avoid crowds because of a “serious and imminent” threat, news agencies report. One week after the Paris attacks, perpetrated by ISIS members, and with one of the suspects, based in Brussels, still at large, the city was placed on the top level, 4, of the government’s threat scale. Meanwhile, Turkey announced having arrested a Moroccan-born Belgian citizen suspected of having searched for targets for ISIS in the attacks in the French capital city.



    The US Secretary of State John Kerry is traveling to the Middle East on Sunday, Washington announced. During the three-day tour, Kerry will have meetings in Abu Dhabi (the United Arab Emirates), Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and in Ramallah, West Bank. Talks will focus on the situation in Syria, particularly on the fight against the terrorist group ISIS, and on the recent Israeli-Palestinian violence. According to AFP, after the attacks in Paris the US is trying to strengthen the international coalition against the Islamic State.