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Thursday, October 18, 2007

It can be difficult to be John Reed.

Christopher Hitchens called him a “Bin Ladenist” and Cathy Young editorialized in The Boston Globe that he “blames the victims of terrorism” when he puts out a novel like Snowball’s Chance, a biting send-up of George Orwell‘s Animal Farm which he was inspired to write after the terrorist attacks on September 11. “The clear references to 9/11 in the apocalyptic ending can only bring Orwell’s name into disrepute in the U.S.,” wrote William Hamilton, the British literary executor of the Orwell estate. That process had already begun: it was revealed Orwell gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being “crypto-Communists and fellow travelers,” labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals. “I really wanted to explode that book,” Reed told The New York Times. “I wanted to completely undermine it.”

Is this man who wants to blow up the classic literary canon taught to children in schools a menace, or a messiah? David Shankbone went to interview him for Wikinews and found that, as often is the case, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Reed is electrified by the changes that surround him that channel through a lens of inspiration wrought by his children. “The kids have made me a better writer,” Reed said. In his new untitled work, which he calls a “new play by William Shakespeare,” he takes lines from The Bard‘s classics to form an original tragedy. He began it in 2003, but only with the birth of his children could he finish it. “I didn’t understand the characters who had children. I didn’t really understand them. And once I had had kids, I could approach them differently.”

Taking the old to make it new is a theme in his work and in his world view. Reed foresees new narrative forms being born, Biblical epics that will be played out across print and electronic mediums. He is pulled forward by revolutions of the past, a search for a spiritual sensibility, and a desire to locate himself in the process.

Below is David Shankbone’s conversation with novelist John Reed.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

French tennis champion Amélie Mauresmo yesterday won her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Mauresmo was winning 6-1 2-0 when her opponent, Belgian player Justine Henin-Hardenne, retired, citing a stomach complaint.

After winning a rally in the second game of the second set, Henin-Hardenne approached the umpire and complained of feeling unwell. She then consulted her trainer before returning to the court. After losing two points, she approached the net and told Mauresmo she was too ill to continue, ending the game in 52 minutes.

Henin-Hardenne apologized to her opponent, the tournament organisers and a disappointed crowd of 15,452 people. “I’m feeling very disappointed for sure to end the tournament this way. I am feeling very sick and couldn’t stay longer and continue,” she said.

She later told a press conference that she believed anti-inflammatory medication she had been taking for a shoulder injury had made her feel ill and left her with no energy. “I felt it when I woke up, but I tried. I knew at the beginning of the match that I could not win it,” she said.

Henin-Hardenne’s retirement gave Mauresmo her third victory by default in the tournament. She reached the fourth round after Dutch player Michaella Krajicek retired with heat exhaustion. In the semi-final, Mauresmo was again the beneficiary of a retirement when Belgian player Kim Clijsters retired with an ankle injury.

Until now, 26-year-old Mauresmo was the only former world no.1 to never have won a Grand Slam title. She said in a post-match interview that when she returns home to her base in Geneva, Switzerland, she will toast the win with a bottle of 1937 Château d’Yquem wine which she has been saving to celebrate her first grand slam title.

“I bought a bottle about three or four years ago. Very good one. Very old one also. I keep it. I thought, “You know, this one is going to be for my Grand Slam, my first Grand Slam title,”” she said.

Mauresmo’s win comes seven years after the then unseeded player reached the 1999 Australian Open final, the last time she has reached a Grand Slam final. She lost to Martina Hingis and was berated by the press and several players for her muscular build and for acknowledging her then partner, Sylvie Bourdon, believing if they were open about their relationship, people would be less inclined to gossip. At the time, Lindsay Davenport complained that playing Mauresmo was like playing against a male player. While Martina Hingis accused her of being “half a man.”

Henin-Hardenne’s retirement is the first time a player has retired from a women’s Grand Slam final since Brazil’s Maria Bueno retired in 1966 during a final against Australia’s Margaret Smith Court.

Mauresmo is now ranked world no.2 and is the first Frenchwoman to win an Australian Open since Mary Pierce won in 1995. Mauresmo takes home the Australian Open trophy and prize money of $AU1,220,000, while Henin-Hardenne walked away with the runner-up prize money of $AU610,000.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

The hijab, or “Muslim headscarf”, is an item of clothing which is regarded by some Muslims as “compulsory” for women to wear. But for the first time in Britain, a Muslim school has declared that all girl students, including non-Muslims, will be required to wear the hijab.

Ten-percent of places at the Madani High School, a new school, will be allocated to students who are not of the Islamic faith, meaning that there will be 60 places for non-Muslim girls, who will all be expected to wear the headscarf.

The school asserts that it may require the headscarf as part of the uniform. The Commission for Racial Equality responded that the school should consider all pupils when putting together a uniform policy.

Shadow education secretary David Willetts said the move would “harm hopes of integrating communities and drive non-Muslims away”.

Earlier this month Jack Straw called upon Muslim women not to wear the veil (know as a Burqa or Niqab) when meeting with MPs, saying its makes relations between different communities more difficult.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Yesterday, Milan Lu?i?‘s family returned home and found their home ransacked by burglars. It was discovered that the young NHL star’s prized Memorial Cup ring and several valuable tournament watches were stolen from their home in Vancouver, Canada .

Lu?i?’s mother, Snežana, has said that the thieves gained entrance to the family’s home by smashing in the back door.

Lu?i?, 20, who lives with his parents, Dobrivoje and Snežana, is a player for the Boston Bruins and flew to Boston on Wednesday to help out at a rookies camp.

“We don’t know if it was random,” she said. “They went into his room upstairs and took his Memorial Cup ring and three of his Esquire watches.”

Other rooms in the home were ransacked and alcohol was stolen.

“He was very disappointed,” said Snežana, referring to Lu?i?’s reaction when she called her son in Boston shortly after the robbery.

Before Lu?i? flew to Boston. he told Snežana before flying to Boston he was thinking about his memorabilia and recalled how, last summer, former goalie for the Edmonton Oilers, Bill Ranford, was robbed of memorabilia from his New Westminster home.

“So in a way he wasn’t surprised,” Snežana said.

Lu?i? was raised in East Vancouver. He carried the Vancouver Giants to a Memorial Cup victory in 2007. He was awarded as the Most Valuable Player and led the Giants in scoring for the 2006-07 season.

Lu?i? accumulated 27 points and 89 penalty minutes in his play for with the Boston Bruins last season.

According to Snežana the NHL has been advised of the burglary and intends to monitor websites like Craigslist and eBay to see if someone attempts to sell the distinctive ring.

The Vancouver Police Department‘s investigation is ongoing.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Construction workers in Seattle, Washington located in the United States are nearing completion of a new light-rail trolley, but it is not the trolleys that are making the residents of the city laugh, it is the abbreviation that city officials designated for the new transit system.

The new transit system, South Lake Union Streetcar (SLUS) has had an unofficial change in its abbreviation to “S.L.U.T.” by local residents. Some have even designed and sold more than 100 t-shirts saying “Ride the S.L.U.T.”.

City officials admit that they were aware of the notion before they named the system, but did not care enough to rename it and didn’t give the acronym ‘streetcar’ to avoid the outcome. Officials say that streetcar sounded more modern than trolley.

The project, built by Vulcan Development, is costing US$50.5 million to build.