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The Ministry Of Pain (2007)

The Ministry of Pain (2007)

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Rating
3.79 of 5 Votes: 4
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ISBN
0060825855 (ISBN13: 9780060825850)
Language
English
Publisher
harper perennial

About book The Ministry Of Pain (2007)

Memory and what might be better forgotten. So, today, 7/11/2010, I unintentionally wound up walking past the tourist trap known as the World Trade Center site, aka Ground Zero, aka whatever it is called. Roughly it had been 8 years, 10 months and five and a half hours, give or take some minutes since I last happened to be in the neighborhood. My first response to realizing we (that would be Karen and I) would be getting to see that spot was annoyance. As in, what the fuck, I wasn't expecting this today (and I wasn't, stupid me didn't put two and two together and realize that the Fulton St. subway stop was the same stop that I used to take to that area, under a slightly different name). Annoyance shifted to wonderment, as in where the fuck are we exactly? And even though we passed the old church and shit it wasn't until we were near Century 21 that I realized oh, shit we aren't just at Ground Zero, we just passed over the spot where I stood and thought really fucked up things and saw some equally fucked up things that left me sort of feeling all fucked up. I sort of pointed this out to Karen in a very inarticulate way, because I don't talk well about this, rather I talk around it. And even as I told her this, and I realized exactly where I was and looked around nothing felt right about the spot. Nothing was as I remembered it. I'm not just talking a few buildings missing, because obviously those were gone, but lots of other details seemed missing, or changed. My memory really only being orientated by the location of a department store. I trust that my memory is relatively accurate of a) that neighborhood as I was aware of it 8 years ago and b) my experiences of that day. The details of the present space and the space in my subjective experience of it are not the same though. I don't know how much of that is change that happened in the actual physicality, change due to differences of perception (the area seemed more open, lighter, airier, but could that just be the absence of those grotesque and decaying monoliths?), or the ways memory is not to be trusted. Is what I remember an edited version, a directors cut that never was aired in theaters and is different from anything anyone will see until the DVD release?In another act of what humans are capable of doing to one another, throughout much of the 1990's the people who used to live in the country once known as Yugoslavia went a little nutso and started to do some horrific and barbaric shit to one another. Raping and killing and death camps and snipers and all kinds of awful things among people who one would call 'civilized' Europeans. Our collective disgust at what happened here is fairly low, even at the time it was happening we didn't show too much concern or interest in it all. And when we started to bomb them in the late 90's at a time when Clinton just happened to be having some PR problems very few people paid any attention that we were bombing some people and blowing up things like hospitals all because our President was having allegation (x) dropped on him (Fuck that Wag the Dog apologetics bullshit, that since it was a movie our President would never actually blow some shit up just to get his ass out of hot-water. He seemed to rev up the bombers all the time when his personal life threatened to mess with his power... in a perfect world he would hang at Hague for these misuses of power, along with the Bushes, and our current War-Criminal in Chief. Wheeee, the typical Yugoslavia rant from me). Anyway, this time in our collective history is a bleak one if you want to look at the way civilized people can treat one another. At the time a popular explanation for it all was the remnants of ancient tribalism, left-over pre-history bullshit that has no place in our clean and shiny Fukayama post-history time. This is an explanation that turns the whole country and it's problems into a capital oh, Other; sort of in the same way that the whole Africa / Darfur 'murdering asshole problems' can be safely cognitively treated in a similar vein (with 75% Dissonance! ). What treating these 'aberrations' as pre-history / tribal-esque problems does is make it something foreign to ourselves. It lets you and I, and yes even you over there, not have to face the awful fact that we may all be potential state-sanctioned mass-murders, SS guards in waiting, that with the right little push we'd kick in our neighbors door and gang-rape their 10 year old daughter, then the mother, torture the son to death and then castrate the father. But if we can make the people who end up doing things like this so different from us that we (as a people) can never let that happen (again), then, well, that is comforting. In my stupid opinion, the events of the former Yugoslavia are much more of a global tragedy than 9/11; but 9/11 has since put on the mask of a grand global tragedy of nightmarish consequences in the form xenophobia and irrationality, while any lessons of Sarajevo have had dirt kicked over them like cat shit in a litter box. Anyway this novel deals with the aftermath of the events that destroyed a country and dispersed its people. The author was one of the people who had to leave, went into an exile and became a person without a homeland. Her novel is about confronting the memories of a place before a tragedy, and a tragedy itself. It's about confronting people who don't want to remember, and those who remember too much. Dubravka Ugrešić is a great and cynical writer. And I wholeheartedly recommend reading her, although I might recommend you start with Thank You for Not Reading.

Dubravka Ugresic nevével akaratlanul is jó párszor szembetalálkoztam munkám során, s amikor megláttam a könyvtárban ezt a könyvét, fogtam és elhoztam. Fülszöveg olvasása nélkül, csak az érdekelt, hogy végre én is tudjak valamit ezekről a délszlávokról. Elvégre Ulickaja is valahogy így jutott el hozzám (+Isolde rajongása révén), s mennyire nem csalódtam benne.A helyszín Amszterdam, ahol Tanja Lucic az egyetemen kap egy évre óraadói állást. Feladata, hogy Jugoszláv irodalmat tanítson. Egy olyan népről és nyelvről, amely már nem létezik, hisz a háború utáni időkről van szó, s kétséges, hogy valaha létezett-e. A diákok, akik az óráira járnak egy kivételével szinte mind menekültek. Ki önként jött el hazájából, volt akit kergettek, vagy éppen meglépett valami elől, de földönfutónak érzik magukat. Tania eleinte megpróbálja megtalálni velük a közös hangot, megmenteni valamit abból az életből, amit mindannyian ismertek, amiben felnőttek, amiről most azt mondja több új hatalom is, hogy már nincs, sőt nem is volt, ők valami délibábot kergetnek.Aztán persze a helyzet fél év után megváltozik. Ekkor meg az olvasó kaphat egy jó adagot a szlovén, horvát, boszniai, szerb és macedón irodalmak történetéből, de legalábbis a fő motívumaikból. S ha azt gondolnánk, hogy a magyar irodalomtörténet egy rakás lúzerrel és borús témával van teli, nos ezek után úgy tűnik, mi még csak a fasorban se vagyunk az önsajnálat, önmegsemmisítés és öngyűlölet pályáján ezekhez a szomszédos népekhez képest.Mint olyan embernek, aki a jugoszláv határ közelében nőtt fel és akinek az angol nyelvtudásához nagyban hozzájárultak a jugó 1-en csak felirattal vetített sorozatok, azt gondoltam, kicsit több ismerős dolgot fedezek majd fel a regény nosztalgiás részén. Például, hogy több Gusztávot láttam a focimeccsek szüneteiben az ő adóikon, mint a magyar tévén, na meg Balthazar professzorról se esett egy árva mukk se. Ennek ellenére azt kell mondani, hogy a regényben megszólaltatott motívumok azt hiszem hozzánk is szólnak. Esetleg most még inkább, mint a rendszerváltás környékén vagy amikor komolyan dúlt a háború alig 100km-re tőlünk.Eléggé lusta vagyok olvasás közben, nem jegyzetelek, húzogatok alá, de most mégis voltak részletek, amiket megjegyeztem, később bejelöltem, hogy szépen idézgethessek, ahogy azt egy igazi olvasónaplóban kell. Ha másért nem, hát magamnak. Talán ebből is kiderül, hogy mennyire tudunk mi is (ok, lehet, hogy bizonyos kor szükségeltetik) visszhangzani a regény motívumaira.Ilyen vagy olyan módon mindannyian ki voltunk fosztva. Azoknak a dolgoknak a listája,melyeket elvettek tőlünk, hosszú volt és borzalmas. Elvették tőlünk az országot, ahol születtünk, és a normális élethez való jogot. Elvették tőlünk a nyelvünket. Megtapasztaltuk a megalázottság, a félelem és a tehetetlenség állapotait. A saját bőrünkön éreztük, mit jelent számjeggyé, vércsoporttá, csordaállattá csupaszodni… Valami módon mindannyian lábadozók voltunk.Az idegen ország az, ahol senki se vár bennünket, amikor megérkezünkEgyetlen gondom a regénnyel, hogy a végén kicsit sok volt az öncélu filozófálgatás, Ugresic beleírta a kort, amiben a regény született (2003-ban írta a kötetet), mint jövőt, azt hogy a Kelet-Közép és Dél-Európából újonnan kinevelődött fiatalok mire viszik az életben.Mindenesetre határozottan tanulságos volt és lekötött annyira, hogy gyorsabban olvastam el, mint az elmúlt hetek könnyedebb regényeit. Lehet persze, hogy az egész téma nem egy nagy durranás, meg ennél íródtak jobb művek is a témáról, mindenesetre Ugresic meggyőzött, hogy tud valamit.Eredetileg: http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/20...

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" حين تكون محاصرا بين خيارين .. العودة الى هناك وتكون ميتا , أو البقاء هنا وتكون مهزوما ! " هذه هي اختصار حياة اللاجيء الذي ترك وطنه الذي تضربه الحروب والفتن والصراعات ورحل الى اللامكان حيث ينتقل من مكان لآخر باحثا عن البقاء على أمل العودة ولكن تطول الغربة وتمر الأيام فيفضل أن ينسى.. هو الغير منتمي الى هنا أو هناك. غربة الأصدقاء , وغربة الأهل وتفرقهم في المهجر , غربة اللغة , غربة النفس.. مشاعر كثيرة ومواقف لأول مرة اتعرف عليها بهذا التدفق الشعوري عن حياة اللاجئين. حياتهم صعبة وقاسية جدا نفسيا قبل كل شيء , الجميع يقسو عليهم.الكاتبة وهي تحكي عن حياة امراة كرواتية تكاد تكون هي نفسها الكاتبة , رحلت عن الدولة اليوغسلفاية اثناء الحرب ونزحت الى أوربا متنقلة بين فرنسا وهولندا ومن وظيفة لأخرى ومن مسكن لأخر , والجميع يتركها أو يتفرقوا في الغالب بدون سبب سوى الحيرة والتيه. حتى بعد ان تفككت الدولة الشيوعية واضحت بلادها منفصلة لم تستحسن فكرة الرجوع الى بلدها لأسباب كثيرة , ارجحها أنها لم تعد تشعر بأنها تنتمي الى هناك أو الى اي مكان , ومن سياق الرواية يُفهم أنها من الباكين على الدولة القومية. تهتم الكاتبة بالاسترسال في شرح العلاقة المعقدة بين اللاجئين وبعضهم , وبينهم حين يعودون _ولو على سبيل الزيارة_ وبين اهل وطنهم. كيف هو الاختلاف بين اللاجيء واللاجئة , وأيهما الأكثر صمودا ومن الأكثر انهزامية وجنوحا للاستسلام ! وللغرابة أن اللاجئة هي الأكثر صمودا ! عن اللحظات والذكريات التي لا سبيل لها الا أن تّنسى .. !الرواية عبارة عن مشاعر متدفقة عن حياة اناس تصادف ان قابلت البعض منهم في مصر خاصة الفلسطينيين , والسوريين مؤخرا ولكني لم اعرفهم عن قرب كما عرفت من الرواية. كما أنها شجعتني للتعرف أكثر عن تاريخ الدولة اليوغسلافية ومعاناة أهلها التي مازالت مستمرة في بعض اجزائها حتى الآن وفي البعض الآخر يعيشون فوق الرماد.
—محمـد بــدر

шкода, що так мало перекладів з неї можна знайти, – дубравка угрешич мені подобається в усіх своїх іпостасях: іронічній, інсайдерсько-літературній, публіцистичній, феміністичній, міфотворчій (чи то пак міфоперетворювальній) – і в цій новій, трохи сумній і трохи жорстокій, присутній у "міністерстві болю". емігрантський досвід із війною за плечима (здається, ex-yu – це моя нова канада) – саме по собі діткливе, але вона розмотує цю тему в зовсім проникливий бік, коли "не знаходити собі місця" стає перманентним модусом існування, і чого тільки ми не готові зробити, щоб ненадовго цього відчуття позбутися. гірка й хороша книжка вийшла, може, особливо хороша тому, що резонує з оберемком речей, які я собі іноді думаю (а хто не?).
—verbava

Kimlik bunalımı üzerine yazılmış güzel bir kitaptı. Kitabın konusunu burada yazmak veya karakterleri anlatmak gereksiz çünkü özeti okuyunca zaten anlarsınız. O yüzden ben biraz daha "Ben ne anladım." tarzı bir anlatım izleyeceğim. Yazar, birbirinden değişik dinlerin, dillerin, kültürlerin vs. bir araya toplandığı bir ülke olan Yugoslavya'nın dağılmasından sonra o ülkenin kimliğini taşıyan Yugoslavların (O ülkede yaşamış Hırvatlar, Sırplar, Boşnaklar vs.) ülkelerini kaybettikten sonra başına neler geldiğini bir dil bölümünde ki öğrenciler ve öğretmenleri üzerinden anlatıyor.Savaşın ardından meydana gelen psikolojik ve kültürel yıkımın üzerine sert ama isabetli tespitler yapmış. "Bizim" dediğiniz bir şeyin kaybolması üzerine "onun" yerine ne koymanız gerektiğini soruyor. Geçmişteki anıları unutmalı mı veya güzel olanları hatırlamaya devam mı etmeliyiz. Bu gibi sorulara cevap ararken aslında bir kadının psikolojik olarak karakterini yenilemesini de okuyoruz. Hikaye pek yetkin olmadığım bir coğrafyanın yetkin olmadığım yakın tarihinin olayları üzerine olunca ufak bir tarih araştırması da yapmak şart oluyor. Tito kim, bugün var olan hangi devletler Yugoslavya'ya bağlıydı? vs.Kendi kültürümüz Balkan milletleri ile oldukça yakın ve benzer olunca kitabı okurken geçen bazı isimleri ve olayları da yakın bulabilirsiniz. Türk kahvesi gibi. Yazarın dil üzerine fikirlerini kitap boyunca irdelemesi, hikayelerin anlatımları üzerine tartışması da kitabı çok boyutlu, katmanlı bir eser haline getirmiş. Pek uzatmadan şunu söylemeliyim, "Acı Bakanlığı"nın dilimize kazandırıldığı için ne kadar sevindiğimi anlatamam. Tavsiye ederim.
—oguz kaan

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