13 de Setembro de 2019.
A Polish writer of science fiction, philosopher and futurologist. Lem was born in Lviv to a family of a laryngologist. Between 1940 and 1941, after the occupation of Lviv by Soviet troops, he was not allowed to study at Lviv Polytechnic, as he wished, and due to his father’s connections was accepted to study medicine at the Lviv Medical Institute. In 1946 Lviv was no longer on Polish soil and Lem, like many other Poles, was resettled to Krakow where he took up medical studies at the Jagiellonian University. He received a certificate of completion of studies, nonetheless refused to take the final exams in order to avoid obligatory military service. Lem made his literary debut in 1946 with a […]
11 de Setembro de 2019.
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was a French writer from the 18th century. His masterwork is the epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, published in 1782. Today, there are several cinematographic adaptations of the book. For a long time considered as scandalous and immoral, the novel was until recently read behind closed doors. It deals with the libertine sexuality of two nobles, la Marquise de Merteuil et le Marquis Valmont, in the time of the coming Revolution. Scholars often highlight how common and ‘normal’ was the life of Laclos. He was a good husband, a good father, and a successful officer. So, a lot of questions abound about how he could have written such an audacious and blazing novel and how paradoxical […]
9 de Setembro de 2019.
A prolific observationalist of the changing nature of the early 20th Century. George Orwell, whose real name is Eric Arthur Blair was born in India in 1903. He was the son of a lower civil servant who was serving in India. As a boy, he was very academic and was able to get into prestigious schools back in England. He joined the Imperial Police in Burma, but soon became disparaged as he realized how much the Burmese detested living under British rule. This experience would lead to him releasing one of his great novels, Burmese Days. After resigning from the police, Orwell went to immerse himself with the lower classes in Paris and London working as a dishwasher and picking […]
7 de Setembro de 2019.
Massimo Gramellini is an Italian journalist of the contemporary era whose talent is to turn real stories and event unforgettable forever. He was born in 1960 and he started his career as a sports journalist for an important Italian newspaper. However, he became famous when his professional focus moved into politics. Gramellini documented and investigated the “Mani Pulite” (Clean Hands) season, a period when lots of scandals about the corruption between politics and entrepreneurship were discovered and which changed the development of the Italian politics. In 1993 he was sent to Sarajevo as a reporter during the civil war. From 2005 to 2017 he has been the Assistant Director of “La Stampa” newspaper and since that moment is a collaborator […]
6 de Setembro de 2019.
Físico português Gaspar Barreira, que morreu em Junho, foi homenageado durante visita ao Laboratório Europeu de Física de Partículas, em Genebra. Uma delegação de mais de 50 pessoas, incluindo empresários, engenheiros e cientistas, terminou uma visita de dois dias ao Laboratório Europeu de Física de Partículas (CERN), na Suíça, para reforçar a participação de Portugal em novos projectos. Até porque continuam as obras para melhor o desempenho do grande acelerador de partículas deste laboratório, o LHC, e fala-se da construção do seu sucessor. A visita, que incluiu reuniões de trabalho, terminou esta quarta-feira com a participação do ministro da Ciência, Tecnologia e do Ensino Superior, Manuel Heitor, e do secretário de Estado da Internacionalização, Eurico Brilhante Dias. Em declarações à […]
5 de Setembro de 2019.
Marguerite Duras and her book “ Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein” Marguerite Duras was born in 1914 in Gia Dinh next to Saigon in the French Indochina. She is a writer, novelist, playwright, and essayist. She became famous in 1950 with the book “The Sea Wall” (Un barrage contre le Pacifique). This book is largely inspired by the life and adolescence of Marguerite Duras in the French Indochina. After this first success, she will publish many new novels. Her style is close to the New Roman, with strange sentences construction, deconstructed characters, storyline, and timeline. The main topics are the wait, love, sensuality, and alcohol. In 1984 she published another great success “The lover” (L’Amant) an auto-fiction about her […]
3 de Setembro de 2019.
An Austrian author of the 21st century: Marc Elsberg If you are interested in scientific thrillers, Marc Elsberg’s books are always a brilliant choice. It doesn’t matter if you choose Blackout, Zero or Helix – they’re all interesting, exciting and teach you a lot. This is why I like his work and why I always enjoy reading any book he wrote. He was born in 1967 in Vienna, grew up in the surroundings of Baden in Lower Austria and studied Industrial Design at the University for Art in Vienna. Later on, he worked in the marketing business as a creative director while he was starting to write his first book, a satirical novel called “Saubermann”. After three more books, he […]
1 de Setembro de 2019.
A very well known writer in Finland. Kari Hotakainen started his career as a reporter and became a full-time author in 1996. He has written many novels, poetry books, children’s books, radio dramas, newspaper columns, plays, and one TV-series. He has received some literature prizes for his work, for example, the Finlandia Prize for the novel Juoksuhaudantie (Battle Trench Avenue). The same book was later made into a movie. For me, the most meaningful book written by Kari Hotakainen is Satukirja (Storybook). The book is considered for children and young adults, but I think that it suits all ages. All the stories are very imaginative and different. It is a huge possibility, that after reading one story you become addicted […]
31 de Agosto de 2019.
A Polish-British writer, most famous for Heart of Darkness (1899). Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski is known rather as Joseph Conrad which is a combination of his two names. He went to Marseilles as a seventeen-year-old boy to work as a sailor. When he returned from his voyages to the Caribbean and South America, he had troubles with his citizenship, as a resident of the Russian Empire, he was obligated to do military service. Without permission from the Russian authorities to serve on French ships, Joseph fell into debts and consequently he attempted to commit suicide. Later on, he went to Great Britain and began serving in the British merchant navy. After a few years, he received the rank of captain […]
29 de Agosto de 2019.
I’ll talk about the Belgian writer Herman Brusselmans. Why him? To reply in his own style: because this dickpick is probably the most f*cking interesting choice of them all. That’s right. I didn’t choose him because his oeuvre is close to my heart. Neither his high pitched literary style. Still, he is one of the greatest writers of Belgium. How did this come to be? Well, to start with, he is (unlike many colleagues) in front of the media. He keeps himself in the picture through talk shows and columns, where he likes to mock other celebrities and comments on certain situations. This provocative talk is also very typical for his books. The overall style elements are a Highly autobiographical […]
24 de Maio de 2019.
My favorite tradition of all in the U.K is the Notting Hill Carnival. Traditions in the UK vary depending on which part of the country you are from. Traditional religious festivities such as Christmas and Easter have less religious connotations attached to them due to an ever-increasing secular society. Corporate interest and late-stage capitalism have also averted the traditions of these celebrations, towards culture and industry of shopping and consuming. The traditions that occur in my family household, are quite simple nowadays. If you are from a religious family, then you might attend midnight mass on the 24th of December, however, we just drink some prosecco and watch a Christmas film or an episode of Only Fools and Horses, a British […]
22 de Maio de 2019.
12 dishes on Christmas Eve and buckets of water on Easter Monday, those are just an example of how we celebrate this special time in Poland. Christmas Christmas in Poland is celebrated for 3 days starting from Christmas Eve. Dinner starts with the first star in the sky, which refers to the Star of Bethlehem which the three kings saw on the way to the Infant Jesus. When the whole family is ready, we start by sharing wafer and make wishes, then we can start eating. Traditional dinner on this day consists of 12 meatless dishes and trying each of them should guarantee happiness during the next twelve months. Typical dishes, for example, are beetroot soup with small dumplings stuffed […]
20 de Maio de 2019.
This celebration involves many unique and joyful rituals, including plenty of homemade delicacies. The first sign of approaching Easter is a large number of branches and dried flowers being brought to the church. One week before Easter, Palm Sunday takes place (according to Catholic tradition, the day marks Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem). Since palm trees are rare in Poland, churchgoers often bring ‘palms’ made of colorful woven dried branches. On the Saturday before Easter Sunday, Poles paint hard-boiled eggs (called pisanki). Some use store-bought kits which make the coloring and decorating easier, others continue to make dyes in the traditional way – with boiled onion skins. Another Saturday activity is the preparation of Easter baskets: lined with a white lace […]
17 de Maio de 2019.
How to Polish people celebrate Christmas, Carnival, and Easter There are many traditions of Christmas and Easter in Poland but just a few around Carnival. The greatest number of Christmas traditions concern Christmas Eve. According to tradition, on the table should be twelve dishes, where the only kind of meat is fish. Everyone around the table should try all of the dishes. The most typical dish is carp which can be served in various versions, usually fried. Other traditional dishes are beetroot soup with ravioli, herring in sour cream, poppy seed cake or sauerkraut with mushrooms. Typically one place setting should be left free for an unexpected guest which symbolizes every hungry or alone person who spends Christmas without family […]
15 de Maio de 2019.
Christmas and Easter in France. The main celebration of Christmas in France is on the evening of the 24th of December. This is also on the eve that the presents are offered. Most of the time, it is simply a long family dinner which lasts until the early morning of the 25th. It begins as a basic aperitif with champagne and white wine. After we eat some seafood, that is called foie gras, then a trou Normand is served. It is made of vanilla ice cream and calva. In the part of France from which I am from, the biggest Carnival is the one of Dunkerque. It takes place from January to March. Nevertheless, the main and noisiest part of […]
13 de Maio de 2019.
The traditions are getting more and more commercialized. People from the Netherlands are proud of their traditions but most of all it is just about earning money In general, we really don’t celebrate Christmas as a big tradition in the Netherlands. Of course, we decorate our houses and city streets with a lot of lights. And most of the people do also have a nice Christmas tree at home and spend Christmas dinner together, but that’s all. No presents underneath the Christmas tree or the belief in Santa Claus. Carnival is quite big in the Netherlands and especially in the southern provinces. The names of the cities change to some funny traditional names. Through the whole year, people prepare the […]