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3:31 P.M., Saturday, November 16th, 2002
I'm reading Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald now, for my modern lit class. I'm finding it hard to crack. The author has his first person protagonist describe the Austerlitz character describing European archetecture for the first 20 pages. Seriously, 20 pages about European archetecture. Now I'm about 50 pages in and most of what's happened is that the protagonist and Austerlitz have talked about buildings. There's a bit about a Freemason temple that has potential but so far nothing has come of it. The style of the prose reminds me a lot of Pale Fire; it has the same kind of seemingly intentional distant acedemia. I never was able to finish Pale Fire. With this, as with that, I find it difficult to keep my eye on the page without wandering off in some daydream.

Austerlitz won the National Book Critics Circle award. Anthony Lane of the New Yorker said it was an "easy read". The guy has spent 50 pages talking about buildings. I'm going to plow forward in hopes that it picks up; for the time being I find myself once again wondering exactly what makes a great novel?

Eric | link

12:18 A.M., Thursday, October 31st, 2002
My essay on the fall of teotihuacan here:
Teotihuacan.

Read all about it.

Eric | link

6:50 P.M., Friday, October 11th, 2002
Two books that I like are being made into movies in 2003:

The Human Stain by Philip Roth
and
The League of Extrodinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore.


I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Eric | link

6:50 P.M., Friday, October 11th, 2002
According to a new poll, New York gubernatorial candidate Democrat H. Carl McCall is trailing in third place in upstate New York, behind Republican incumbent George Pataki and Independence billionaire Tom Golisano. The poll, conducted by the Sienna College Research Institute, finds that upstate 16.3 percent of voters favor McCall, while 20.4 percent of voters favor Golisano and 44.1 percent favor Pataki. State-wide, the poll numbers were Pataki, 43.2 percent, McCall, 26.1 percent, and Golisano 11.3 percent. The election for governor is four weeks away.

Pataki, whose once 30 percent lead over McCall has shrunk to 17 percent, has outspent McCall six times over on the campaign. Wealthy businessman-cum-political-candidate Golisano, also, has outspent McCall.

"It is sorry that a two-term governor who has been giving away billions to upstate can't pull above 44 percent ... I think that is pathetic," McCall said. "We are right where we want to be right now ... the goal is to be where we want to be four weeks from now."

"The election is four weeks away, which is a lifetime in politics," added McCall's spokeswoman Marissa Shorenstein.

According to the analysis provided with the Siena poll, "McCall's problem is a lack of support upstate and in the suburbs coupled with Pataki's strong showing in New York City, It is going to be a tough four weeks for McCall.

Eric | link

11:51 P.M., Wednesday, October 2nd, 2002
Switzerland Expels Gypsies

Wednesday, Oct. 2 - Switzerland has decided not to grant asylum to several dozen Roma, also known as Gypsies, and are expected to do the same to the more than 400 Roma who have been smuggled into their country. The Roma, most of whom come from Romania, have been trying to find asylum in France, Austria and Italy before ending up in Switzerland, because of prejudice and discrimination in Romania.

"We want to send a clear signal," said Brigitte Hauser, spokesperson for the Federal Refugee Office of Switzerland, adding that people suffering "genuine political persecution" would still be welcome in Switzerland.

Most people blame the influx of Roma in Switzerland to the recent toughening of immigration policy regarding gypsies by Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior for France. Also blamed is a new law in Austria that prevents some asylum seekers from staying in government shelters.

Roma are apparently fleeing Romania in large numbers because persecution has made it difficult for them to find jobs, or schools to send their children. Romania, a country with 24 million people, is estimated to have between five hundred thousand to one million Roma. The Roma community has an unusually high unemployment rate.

Swiss Federal Refugee Office representative Dominique Boillat said "We know there are difficulties for the Roma people [in Romania] such as access to jobs or for the children to go to school, but this is not a reason for asylum in Switzerland."

Switzerland says that 46 Roma will be flown back to Bucharest, Romania by the end of the week. The remaining approximate 400 are expected to be similarly deported soon. They reportedly paid about 730 swiss francs (roughly $500 USD) per person to be smuggled into Switzerland.

Eric | link

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