Subject
Re: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of
hisstudents. ...
hisstudents. ...
From
Date
Body
Dear VN Forum:
Looks like Mr. Báez made this claim before.
It also looks like he just repeated the claim of Alberto Manguel (see below).
Alberto Manguel is the author of (not less than!!) "The History of Reading"
(1998).
"Internationally acclaimed as an anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and
editor, Alberto Manguel is the author of several award-winning books, including
A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. He was born in
Buenos Aires, became a Canadian citizen in 1982, and now lives in France, where
he was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. His most recent book
is Stevenson Under the Palm Trees."
(http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?0676970222&view=print)
The resume of Báez book, "Historia Universal de la destrucción de los libros"
(http://el-nacional.com/Coleccion_Debate/hist_univ-resena.asp), says:
"El escritor argentino Alberto Manguel destaca lo ubicuo de estas destrucciones,
pero también la asombrosa y no siempre predecible naturaleza de los verdugos:
Platón, según Diógenes Laercio, destruyó las obras de Demócrito; Descartes
pidió a sus lectores que quemaran los libros anteriores a su Discurso del
método; David Hume exigió la ook, supresión de todos los manuales de
metafísica; los futuristas propusieron la quema de todas las bibliotecas;
Vladímir Nabokov quemó el Quijote en el Memorial Hall de Harvard ante más de
seiscientos alumnos( Vladímir Nabokov burned the Quijote in the Memorial Hall
of Harvard before more than six hundred students)
The same claim is repeated in Manquel's recent (2004) review of Báez's works,
placed right in Báez's CV, published for all to see at:
(http://www.fernandobaez.galeon.com/cvitae551743.html) (review appended below),
"...; David Hume exigió la supresión de todos los manuales de metafísica; los
futuristas propusieron la quema de todas las bibliotecas; Vladímir Nabokov
(horresco referens) quemó el Quijote en el Memorial Hall de Harvard ante más de
seiscientos alumnos."
Note that Manquel says "(horresco referens)" (Lat.,"I shudder as I tell the
story.").
Where did he get the "story"?
Are his other stories of the same credibility, or they come from his " A
Dictionary of Imaginary Places"?
Do any of the "más de seiscientos alumnos" want to speak out as witnesses???
Báez, not Manquel, however, was theh first to place Nabokov's name next to
Hitler, Saddam, and Goebbels. I think Báez owes a serious apology -- probably
not only to this forum, and not only for this comment.
His many emails are: baezfer@hotmail.com; baez@icnet.com.ve;
baezfer2003@yahoo.es
Victor Fet
***************************************************************
Crónica de una persecución
Por Alberto Manguel
Babelia - 17-04-2004
El deseo de recordar y el de olvidar está detrás de la destrucción de libros.
Fernando Báez recupera la página negra de esta historia. Otro tomo recoge
cuatro siglos de la edición en España.
Desde sus lejanos principios, la historia del libro está iluminada por las
hogueras de los censores. Digo mal: censores implica que la destrucción obedece
siempre a una justificación razonada. Como lo prueba el aterrador y magistral
libro del erudito venezolano Fernando Báez, autor de una excelente Historia de
la antigua biblioteca de Alejandría y de una relación de Los últimos días de
Martin Heidegger, la mayor parte de estos crímenes fueron (y aún son) cometidos
sin justificación alguna: por ignorancia, por olvido, por desidia, por error,
por miedo, por la acción del agua, del fuego y del gusano que todo lo corroe.
La historia del libro está desde siempre acompañada por la historia de su
destrucción.
Felizmente, al mismo tiempo que esta nueva historia universal de la infamia, ha
aparecido una versión paralela que la opone y la sopesa. La Historia de la
edición y de la lectura en España, bajo la dirección de tres notables
catedráticos especialistas del libro y de las prácticas de lectura, narra a
través de unos setenta ensayos (magníficamente ilustrados y acompañados de
documentos la mayor parte poco conocidos), los curiosos avatares de la más
regocijante de las artes humanas.
Siguiendo como modelo la ejemplar Histoire de l'édition française dirigida por
Henri-Jean Martin y Roer Chartier de 1982, y limitándose al espacio de cuatro
siglos y medio españoles, este impresionante volumen representa sin duda el
compendio de estudios más completo sobre el tema. Necesariamente algunos de los
argumentos del libro de Báez son repetidos (y ampliados) en esta otra historia,
pero el lector que desespere de lo que Báez muy justamente llama "memoricidio"
hallará sosiego en doctos artículos que analizan, en la Historia de la edición
y de la lectura en España, cuestiones tales como las "nuevas propuestas a un
público femenino" en los siglos XVII y XVIII, o los "usos de la lectura" en el
siglo XIX. Si algo resulta evidente de este encuentro entre el deseo de
recordar y el deseo de destruir es que la generosidad de la memoria nos obliga
a conservar el relato de las prácticas del olvido.
Báez toma como punto de partida (y también como final) la más reciente de
nuestras destrucciones de libros, ocurrida durante el saqueo de las
bibliotecas, museos y archivos de Irak en abril de 2003. "Nuestra memoria ya no
existe. La cuna de la civilización, de la escritura y de las leyes, ha sido
quemada. Sólo quedan cenizas". Con estas palabras, dichas por un profesor de
historia de Bagdad, comienza Báez su libro.
"Los comunicados procedentes de Bagdad son inadecuados, falsos e incompletos.
Todo se encuentra mucho peor de lo que nos han dicho. Hoy estamos próximos a un
desastre". Con estas otras palabras, dichas no por un reportero o especialista
contemporáneo sino por Lawrence de Arabia en 1920, en una carta dirigida a sus
superiores, Báez concluye su encuesta.
Entre ambas citas yacen seis mil años de nuestra historia que incluyen, de ruina
en ruina, la biblioteca de Alejandría, las prohibiciones de los faraones de
Egipto, los crímenes de los biblioclastas de Grecia, los esfuerzos de los
drásticos emperadores de China por eliminar el pasado, la obra de los censores
de Roma, las obras paganas destruidas por los primeros cristianos, las primeras
destrucciones de las bibliotecas de Bagdad, los libros musulmanes y judíos
purgados en España, los códices quemados en México, las hogueras del Santo
Oficio, la censura de la Inglaterra puritana, los incendios y naufragios de
bibliotecas diversas, las obras inmorales o blasfemas prohibidas en el siglo
XIX, el Holocausto nazi, los saqueos durante la Guerra Civil española, las
bibliotecas víctimas de las dictaduras del siglo XX, el terrorismo y la guerra
electrónica. La Historia universal de la destrucción de libros tiene algo de
cementerio.
No la voluntad de destruir libros sino su ubicuidad sorprende en la obra de
Báez. Todas las culturas, todas las épocas participaron. Ni siquiera los mismos
escritores son inocentes. Platón, según Diógenes Laercio, destruyó las obras de
Demócrito; Descartes pidió a sus lectores que quemaran los libros anteriores a
su Discurso del método; David Hume exigió la supresión de todos los manuales de
metafísica; los futuristas propusieron la quema de todas las bibliotecas;
Vladímir Nabokov (horresco referens) quemó el Quijote en el Memorial Hall de
Harvard ante más de seiscientos alumnos.
La tarea de los destructores de libros es colosal y no siempre requiere el
fuego. A veces basta abortarlos o despreciarlos. Dos de los muchos documentos
reproducidos en la Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España ilustran
estas otras tácticas. El inquisidor general Andrés Pacheco, en una carta
dirigida al Rey de España, fechada el 25 de septiembre de 1623, se queja de la
abundancia de libros perniciosos y, precavido, pide que éstos sean censurados
antes y no después de ser impresos. Casi dos siglos más tarde, Carolina
Coronado escribe una carta a Hartzenbusch quejándose del empeño de la sociedad
española en prohibirle la lectura a las mujeres, quienes "después de terminar
sus ocupaciones domésticas, deben retirarse a murmurar con las amigas y no a
leer libros que corrompen la juventud".
Pero también están los que alientan, propagan y defienden la lectura, y la
Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España les hace erudito honor
investigando la tarea de traductores que inventaron ingeniosas maneras de
escapar a la censura, de impresores y libreros que en los siglos XVII y XVIII
propusieron al público nuevas formas del libro, de editores enciclopedistas
decimonónicos cuyos nombres se confunden con su obra (como Salvat, Seguí, y
Montaner y Simón), incluso de periodistas y de magnates de la prensa que, quizá
por razones menos intelectuales que económicas, ofrecieron en las páginas de sus
diarios lecturas para todos.
Una historia de la edición y de la lectura, y otra de la destrucción de los
libros ¿son la crónica de un arte que muere, o la declaración de principios de
un arte que se niega a desaparecer? Creo que lo último. Las amenazas
pronunciadas contra el libro desde los púlpitos, desde los sillones de
gobierno, desde las oficinas de la industria electrónica, no han hecho, al
parecer, sino alentar nuestro reconocimiento de la lectura como actividad
esencial del ser humano. Que los lectores sean pocos, que lean mal, que
confundan propaganda con literatura importa menos que el arte de leer continúe,
las más veces, a ayudarnos a ser un poco más felices y un poco menos idiotas.
Historia universal de la destrucción de libros: de las tablillas sumerias a la
guerra de Irak. Fernando Báez. Destino. Barcelona, 2004. 416 páginas. 20,90
euros.
Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España: 1472-1914. Dirección de Víctor
Infantes, François López, Jean François Botrel. Fundación Germán Sánchez
Ruipérez. Madrid, 2004. 862 páginas. 71 euros.
******************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Wed 2/16/2005 8:58 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of hisstudents.
...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <SSWEENEY@holycross.edu>
To: <chtodel@cox.net>; <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of
hisstudents. ...
What a bizarre and preposterous claim! I wonder if it stems from some
grotesque mistranslation of a statement about VN having illuminated the
novel for a class or enlightened them about its meaning or something.
>>> chtodel@cox.net 02/16/05 11:53 AM >>>
Message
----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 4:03 AM
Subject: TR : Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his
students. ...
Dear Don (please post),
What "expert" Báez says about my father is utter hogwash. He had best sit
down before he topples onto his left flank. Shame on the IPS for printing
undocumented disinformation.
Dmitri Nabokov
-----Message d'origine-----
De : Sandy P. Klein [mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com]
Envoyé : mercredi, 16. février 2005 04:03
À : spklein52@hotmail.com
Objet : Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his students. ...
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27459
'Biggest Cultural Disaster Since 1258', Says Expert
Inter Press Service (subscription), World - 5 hours ago
... Intellectuals have burnt books in the name of the Bible or the Koran.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his students.
...
IRAQ-US:
'Biggest Cultural Disaster Since 1258', Says Expert
Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Feb 15 (IPS) - One million books, 10 million documents and 14,000
archaeological artifacts have been lost in the U.S.-led invasion and
subsequent occupation of Iraq -- the biggest cultural disaster since the
descendants of Genghis Khan destroyed Baghdad in 1258, Venezuelan writer
Fernando Báez told IPS.
"U.S. and Polish soldiers are still stealing treasures today and selling
them across the borders with Jordan and Kuwait, where art merchants pay up
to 57,000 dollars for a Sumerian tablet," said Báez, who was interviewed
during a brief visit to Caracas.
The expert on the destruction of libraries has helped document the
devastation of cultural and religious objects in Iraq, where the ancient
Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon emerged, giving it a
reputation as the birthplace of civilisation.
His inventory of the destruction and his denunciations that the coalition
forces are violating the Hague Convention of 1954 on the protection of
cultural heritage in times of war have earned him the enmity of Washington.
Báez said he was refused a visa to enter the United States to take part in
conferences.
In addition, he has been barred from returning to Iraq "to carry out further
investigations," he added. "But it's too late, because we already have
documents, footage and photos that in time will serve as evidence of the
atrocities committed," said Báez, the author of "The Cultural Destruction of
Iraq" and "A Universal History of the Destruction of Books", which were
published in Spanish.
IPS: What do you accuse the United States of doing?
FB: In first place, of violating the Hague Convention, which states that
cultural property must be protected in the event of armed conflict.
That is a criminally punishable offence, which is why Washington has not
signed the convention, or the 1999 protocol attached to it. And perhaps it
is one reason the administration of George W. Bush is seeking immunity for
its soldiers.
But it is not only the United States; the rest of the coalition forces are
also guilty.
IPS: But according to the reports, it was Iraqi civilians and not U.S.
soldiers who looted libraries and museums.
FB: But the U.S. army was criminally negligent, failing to protect
libraries, museums and archaeological sites despite clear warnings from
UNESCO (the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), the
U.N., the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and the former head of
the U.S. president's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, Martin
Sullivan.
The Iraqis who went out to loot interpreted the negligence as a green light
to act without restraint.
IPS: So the sin committed by the U.S. was one of omission?
FB: Not only that. There was also direct destruction and looting. In
Nasiriya in May 2004, a year after the formal end of hostilities, during
fighting with (Shi'ite cleric) Muqtada el-Sadr's militants, 40,000 religious
manuscripts were destroyed in a fire (set by the coalition forces).
And when soldiers found out that the Sumerian city of Ur (in southern Iraq)
was the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, they took ancient bricks as
souvenirs.
IPS: You also accuse soldiers from other countries, besides U.S. troops.
FB: That's right. In late May 2004, Italian Carabinieri were caught trying
to smuggle looted cultural artifacts over the border into Kuwait. And the
British Museum reported that Polish forces destroyed part of Babylon's
ancient ruins, to the south of Baghdad.
IPS: Can we suppose that these events are part of phases of the conflict
that have already been left behind?
FB: No. More recently it was found that Polish troops drove heavy vehicles
near the Nebuchadnezzar Palace, which dates back to the sixth century B.C.,
and then covered large areas of the site with asphalt, doing irreparable
damage. There were also attempts to gouge out bricks at the Gate of Ishtar.
To that is added the collapse of ancient walls due to the continuous passage
of U.S. trucks and helicopters, and walls spraypainted with graffiti, like
"I was here" or "I love Mary".
IPS: Can we expect the situation to improve with time?
FB: Another accusation that can be made against the United States is that it
has created a less safe country overall, by generating the conditions for
cultural destruction, which will be even worse in future years, due to the
situation of legal insecurity.
In the days of the looting of Baghdad, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld went so far as to say that looting "isn't something that someone
allows or doesn't allow. It's something that happens."
Today Iraq is like a golf course for the world's terrorists, and its
cultural treasures will not be safe in the future.
IPS: What impact has there been on the United States?
FB: One of its reactions was to rejoin UNESCO, which the U.S. had withdrawn
from during the era of (Ronald) Reagan (1981-1989) on the pretext that the
U.N. agency served as "a communist front".
Experts at the U.S. state and defence departments are trying to mitigate the
damages. U.S. military police helped Iraqi police track down the Lady of
Warka, dubbed the "Mona Lisa of Mesopotamia", a 5,200-year-old marble
sculpture that is one of the earliest known representations of the human
face in the history of art.
IPS: How significant are the losses?
FB: The Lady of Warka may be worth 100 or 150 million dollars. A Sumerian
cuneiform tablet or an Assyrian stela can fetch 57,000 dollars at the
border.
Some Iraqis have been purchasing books at used-book markets in Baghdad to
return them to the libraries.
But the damage is incalculable. In the Baghdad National Library, around one
million books were burnt, including early editions of Arabian Nights,
mathematical treatises by Omar Khayyam, and tracts by philosophers Avicena
and Averroes.
IPS: Thousands of relics were also lost from the National Archaeological
Museum.
FB: The initial reports spoke of 170,000 objects, but 25 major artifacts as
well as 14,000 less important ones actually disappeared. An amnesty for the
looters led to the recovery of around 3,500, according to the U.S. colonel
who led the investigations, Matthew Bogdanos.
But besides the national museum and library, the Al-Awqaf library, which
held over 5,000 Islamic manuscripts, university libraries and the library of
Bayt al-Hikma also suffered. At least 10 million documents have been lost in
Iraq altogether.
(Báez has said his research into the destruction of libraries and archives
was first motivated by his painful childhood memories of a flash flood that
wiped away the library in his hometown, San Félix in southeastern Venezuela.
He cherished the municipal library because since his parents worked, he had
often been left with relatives who worked there, and spent his days reading.
His research culminated in "A Universal History of the Destruction of
Books", which documents the catastrophic loss of books during wars, like the
Library of Alexandria, which burnt down in 48 B.C., or the burning of
millions of books by the Nazis.)
IPS: Do you believe military forces have been the worst enemy of books?
FB: No, actually I don't. I believe intellectuals are the worst enemies.
Intellectuals have burnt books in the name of the Bible or the Koran.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his students.
Destroyers like Adolph Hitler or Slobodan Milosevic were bibliophiles.
Saddam Hussein himself, an archaeologist and philologist, published three
novels. Joseph Goebbels, the genius of Nazi propaganda, was a philologist.
And many of those who have led the U.S. to war in Iraq are academics. It is
a paradox: the inventors of the electronic book returned to Mesopotamia,
where books, history and civilisation were born, to destroy it. (END/2005)
Send your comments to the editor
Letters to the Editor: read what others say about the IPS Service
----- End forwarded message -----
Looks like Mr. Báez made this claim before.
It also looks like he just repeated the claim of Alberto Manguel (see below).
Alberto Manguel is the author of (not less than!!) "The History of Reading"
(1998).
"Internationally acclaimed as an anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist and
editor, Alberto Manguel is the author of several award-winning books, including
A Dictionary of Imaginary Places and A History of Reading. He was born in
Buenos Aires, became a Canadian citizen in 1982, and now lives in France, where
he was named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. His most recent book
is Stevenson Under the Palm Trees."
(http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?0676970222&view=print)
The resume of Báez book, "Historia Universal de la destrucción de los libros"
(http://el-nacional.com/Coleccion_Debate/hist_univ-resena.asp), says:
"El escritor argentino Alberto Manguel destaca lo ubicuo de estas destrucciones,
pero también la asombrosa y no siempre predecible naturaleza de los verdugos:
Platón, según Diógenes Laercio, destruyó las obras de Demócrito; Descartes
pidió a sus lectores que quemaran los libros anteriores a su Discurso del
método; David Hume exigió la ook, supresión de todos los manuales de
metafísica; los futuristas propusieron la quema de todas las bibliotecas;
Vladímir Nabokov quemó el Quijote en el Memorial Hall de Harvard ante más de
seiscientos alumnos( Vladímir Nabokov burned the Quijote in the Memorial Hall
of Harvard before more than six hundred students)
The same claim is repeated in Manquel's recent (2004) review of Báez's works,
placed right in Báez's CV, published for all to see at:
(http://www.fernandobaez.galeon.com/cvitae551743.html) (review appended below),
"...; David Hume exigió la supresión de todos los manuales de metafísica; los
futuristas propusieron la quema de todas las bibliotecas; Vladímir Nabokov
(horresco referens) quemó el Quijote en el Memorial Hall de Harvard ante más de
seiscientos alumnos."
Note that Manquel says "(horresco referens)" (Lat.,"I shudder as I tell the
story.").
Where did he get the "story"?
Are his other stories of the same credibility, or they come from his " A
Dictionary of Imaginary Places"?
Do any of the "más de seiscientos alumnos" want to speak out as witnesses???
Báez, not Manquel, however, was theh first to place Nabokov's name next to
Hitler, Saddam, and Goebbels. I think Báez owes a serious apology -- probably
not only to this forum, and not only for this comment.
His many emails are: baezfer@hotmail.com; baez@icnet.com.ve;
baezfer2003@yahoo.es
Victor Fet
***************************************************************
Crónica de una persecución
Por Alberto Manguel
Babelia - 17-04-2004
El deseo de recordar y el de olvidar está detrás de la destrucción de libros.
Fernando Báez recupera la página negra de esta historia. Otro tomo recoge
cuatro siglos de la edición en España.
Desde sus lejanos principios, la historia del libro está iluminada por las
hogueras de los censores. Digo mal: censores implica que la destrucción obedece
siempre a una justificación razonada. Como lo prueba el aterrador y magistral
libro del erudito venezolano Fernando Báez, autor de una excelente Historia de
la antigua biblioteca de Alejandría y de una relación de Los últimos días de
Martin Heidegger, la mayor parte de estos crímenes fueron (y aún son) cometidos
sin justificación alguna: por ignorancia, por olvido, por desidia, por error,
por miedo, por la acción del agua, del fuego y del gusano que todo lo corroe.
La historia del libro está desde siempre acompañada por la historia de su
destrucción.
Felizmente, al mismo tiempo que esta nueva historia universal de la infamia, ha
aparecido una versión paralela que la opone y la sopesa. La Historia de la
edición y de la lectura en España, bajo la dirección de tres notables
catedráticos especialistas del libro y de las prácticas de lectura, narra a
través de unos setenta ensayos (magníficamente ilustrados y acompañados de
documentos la mayor parte poco conocidos), los curiosos avatares de la más
regocijante de las artes humanas.
Siguiendo como modelo la ejemplar Histoire de l'édition française dirigida por
Henri-Jean Martin y Roer Chartier de 1982, y limitándose al espacio de cuatro
siglos y medio españoles, este impresionante volumen representa sin duda el
compendio de estudios más completo sobre el tema. Necesariamente algunos de los
argumentos del libro de Báez son repetidos (y ampliados) en esta otra historia,
pero el lector que desespere de lo que Báez muy justamente llama "memoricidio"
hallará sosiego en doctos artículos que analizan, en la Historia de la edición
y de la lectura en España, cuestiones tales como las "nuevas propuestas a un
público femenino" en los siglos XVII y XVIII, o los "usos de la lectura" en el
siglo XIX. Si algo resulta evidente de este encuentro entre el deseo de
recordar y el deseo de destruir es que la generosidad de la memoria nos obliga
a conservar el relato de las prácticas del olvido.
Báez toma como punto de partida (y también como final) la más reciente de
nuestras destrucciones de libros, ocurrida durante el saqueo de las
bibliotecas, museos y archivos de Irak en abril de 2003. "Nuestra memoria ya no
existe. La cuna de la civilización, de la escritura y de las leyes, ha sido
quemada. Sólo quedan cenizas". Con estas palabras, dichas por un profesor de
historia de Bagdad, comienza Báez su libro.
"Los comunicados procedentes de Bagdad son inadecuados, falsos e incompletos.
Todo se encuentra mucho peor de lo que nos han dicho. Hoy estamos próximos a un
desastre". Con estas otras palabras, dichas no por un reportero o especialista
contemporáneo sino por Lawrence de Arabia en 1920, en una carta dirigida a sus
superiores, Báez concluye su encuesta.
Entre ambas citas yacen seis mil años de nuestra historia que incluyen, de ruina
en ruina, la biblioteca de Alejandría, las prohibiciones de los faraones de
Egipto, los crímenes de los biblioclastas de Grecia, los esfuerzos de los
drásticos emperadores de China por eliminar el pasado, la obra de los censores
de Roma, las obras paganas destruidas por los primeros cristianos, las primeras
destrucciones de las bibliotecas de Bagdad, los libros musulmanes y judíos
purgados en España, los códices quemados en México, las hogueras del Santo
Oficio, la censura de la Inglaterra puritana, los incendios y naufragios de
bibliotecas diversas, las obras inmorales o blasfemas prohibidas en el siglo
XIX, el Holocausto nazi, los saqueos durante la Guerra Civil española, las
bibliotecas víctimas de las dictaduras del siglo XX, el terrorismo y la guerra
electrónica. La Historia universal de la destrucción de libros tiene algo de
cementerio.
No la voluntad de destruir libros sino su ubicuidad sorprende en la obra de
Báez. Todas las culturas, todas las épocas participaron. Ni siquiera los mismos
escritores son inocentes. Platón, según Diógenes Laercio, destruyó las obras de
Demócrito; Descartes pidió a sus lectores que quemaran los libros anteriores a
su Discurso del método; David Hume exigió la supresión de todos los manuales de
metafísica; los futuristas propusieron la quema de todas las bibliotecas;
Vladímir Nabokov (horresco referens) quemó el Quijote en el Memorial Hall de
Harvard ante más de seiscientos alumnos.
La tarea de los destructores de libros es colosal y no siempre requiere el
fuego. A veces basta abortarlos o despreciarlos. Dos de los muchos documentos
reproducidos en la Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España ilustran
estas otras tácticas. El inquisidor general Andrés Pacheco, en una carta
dirigida al Rey de España, fechada el 25 de septiembre de 1623, se queja de la
abundancia de libros perniciosos y, precavido, pide que éstos sean censurados
antes y no después de ser impresos. Casi dos siglos más tarde, Carolina
Coronado escribe una carta a Hartzenbusch quejándose del empeño de la sociedad
española en prohibirle la lectura a las mujeres, quienes "después de terminar
sus ocupaciones domésticas, deben retirarse a murmurar con las amigas y no a
leer libros que corrompen la juventud".
Pero también están los que alientan, propagan y defienden la lectura, y la
Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España les hace erudito honor
investigando la tarea de traductores que inventaron ingeniosas maneras de
escapar a la censura, de impresores y libreros que en los siglos XVII y XVIII
propusieron al público nuevas formas del libro, de editores enciclopedistas
decimonónicos cuyos nombres se confunden con su obra (como Salvat, Seguí, y
Montaner y Simón), incluso de periodistas y de magnates de la prensa que, quizá
por razones menos intelectuales que económicas, ofrecieron en las páginas de sus
diarios lecturas para todos.
Una historia de la edición y de la lectura, y otra de la destrucción de los
libros ¿son la crónica de un arte que muere, o la declaración de principios de
un arte que se niega a desaparecer? Creo que lo último. Las amenazas
pronunciadas contra el libro desde los púlpitos, desde los sillones de
gobierno, desde las oficinas de la industria electrónica, no han hecho, al
parecer, sino alentar nuestro reconocimiento de la lectura como actividad
esencial del ser humano. Que los lectores sean pocos, que lean mal, que
confundan propaganda con literatura importa menos que el arte de leer continúe,
las más veces, a ayudarnos a ser un poco más felices y un poco menos idiotas.
Historia universal de la destrucción de libros: de las tablillas sumerias a la
guerra de Irak. Fernando Báez. Destino. Barcelona, 2004. 416 páginas. 20,90
euros.
Historia de la edición y de la lectura en España: 1472-1914. Dirección de Víctor
Infantes, François López, Jean François Botrel. Fundación Germán Sánchez
Ruipérez. Madrid, 2004. 862 páginas. 71 euros.
******************************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum on behalf of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Wed 2/16/2005 8:58 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of hisstudents.
...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" <SSWEENEY@holycross.edu>
To: <chtodel@cox.net>; <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of
hisstudents. ...
What a bizarre and preposterous claim! I wonder if it stems from some
grotesque mistranslation of a statement about VN having illuminated the
novel for a class or enlightened them about its meaning or something.
>>> chtodel@cox.net 02/16/05 11:53 AM >>>
Message
----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 4:03 AM
Subject: TR : Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his
students. ...
Dear Don (please post),
What "expert" Báez says about my father is utter hogwash. He had best sit
down before he topples onto his left flank. Shame on the IPS for printing
undocumented disinformation.
Dmitri Nabokov
-----Message d'origine-----
De : Sandy P. Klein [mailto:spklein52@hotmail.com]
Envoyé : mercredi, 16. février 2005 04:03
À : spklein52@hotmail.com
Objet : Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his students. ...
http://www.ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27459
'Biggest Cultural Disaster Since 1258', Says Expert
Inter Press Service (subscription), World - 5 hours ago
... Intellectuals have burnt books in the name of the Bible or the Koran.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his students.
...
IRAQ-US:
'Biggest Cultural Disaster Since 1258', Says Expert
Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Feb 15 (IPS) - One million books, 10 million documents and 14,000
archaeological artifacts have been lost in the U.S.-led invasion and
subsequent occupation of Iraq -- the biggest cultural disaster since the
descendants of Genghis Khan destroyed Baghdad in 1258, Venezuelan writer
Fernando Báez told IPS.
"U.S. and Polish soldiers are still stealing treasures today and selling
them across the borders with Jordan and Kuwait, where art merchants pay up
to 57,000 dollars for a Sumerian tablet," said Báez, who was interviewed
during a brief visit to Caracas.
The expert on the destruction of libraries has helped document the
devastation of cultural and religious objects in Iraq, where the ancient
Mesopotamian kingdoms of Sumer, Akkad, and Babylon emerged, giving it a
reputation as the birthplace of civilisation.
His inventory of the destruction and his denunciations that the coalition
forces are violating the Hague Convention of 1954 on the protection of
cultural heritage in times of war have earned him the enmity of Washington.
Báez said he was refused a visa to enter the United States to take part in
conferences.
In addition, he has been barred from returning to Iraq "to carry out further
investigations," he added. "But it's too late, because we already have
documents, footage and photos that in time will serve as evidence of the
atrocities committed," said Báez, the author of "The Cultural Destruction of
Iraq" and "A Universal History of the Destruction of Books", which were
published in Spanish.
IPS: What do you accuse the United States of doing?
FB: In first place, of violating the Hague Convention, which states that
cultural property must be protected in the event of armed conflict.
That is a criminally punishable offence, which is why Washington has not
signed the convention, or the 1999 protocol attached to it. And perhaps it
is one reason the administration of George W. Bush is seeking immunity for
its soldiers.
But it is not only the United States; the rest of the coalition forces are
also guilty.
IPS: But according to the reports, it was Iraqi civilians and not U.S.
soldiers who looted libraries and museums.
FB: But the U.S. army was criminally negligent, failing to protect
libraries, museums and archaeological sites despite clear warnings from
UNESCO (the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), the
U.N., the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute and the former head of
the U.S. president's Advisory Committee on Cultural Property, Martin
Sullivan.
The Iraqis who went out to loot interpreted the negligence as a green light
to act without restraint.
IPS: So the sin committed by the U.S. was one of omission?
FB: Not only that. There was also direct destruction and looting. In
Nasiriya in May 2004, a year after the formal end of hostilities, during
fighting with (Shi'ite cleric) Muqtada el-Sadr's militants, 40,000 religious
manuscripts were destroyed in a fire (set by the coalition forces).
And when soldiers found out that the Sumerian city of Ur (in southern Iraq)
was the birthplace of the prophet Abraham, they took ancient bricks as
souvenirs.
IPS: You also accuse soldiers from other countries, besides U.S. troops.
FB: That's right. In late May 2004, Italian Carabinieri were caught trying
to smuggle looted cultural artifacts over the border into Kuwait. And the
British Museum reported that Polish forces destroyed part of Babylon's
ancient ruins, to the south of Baghdad.
IPS: Can we suppose that these events are part of phases of the conflict
that have already been left behind?
FB: No. More recently it was found that Polish troops drove heavy vehicles
near the Nebuchadnezzar Palace, which dates back to the sixth century B.C.,
and then covered large areas of the site with asphalt, doing irreparable
damage. There were also attempts to gouge out bricks at the Gate of Ishtar.
To that is added the collapse of ancient walls due to the continuous passage
of U.S. trucks and helicopters, and walls spraypainted with graffiti, like
"I was here" or "I love Mary".
IPS: Can we expect the situation to improve with time?
FB: Another accusation that can be made against the United States is that it
has created a less safe country overall, by generating the conditions for
cultural destruction, which will be even worse in future years, due to the
situation of legal insecurity.
In the days of the looting of Baghdad, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld went so far as to say that looting "isn't something that someone
allows or doesn't allow. It's something that happens."
Today Iraq is like a golf course for the world's terrorists, and its
cultural treasures will not be safe in the future.
IPS: What impact has there been on the United States?
FB: One of its reactions was to rejoin UNESCO, which the U.S. had withdrawn
from during the era of (Ronald) Reagan (1981-1989) on the pretext that the
U.N. agency served as "a communist front".
Experts at the U.S. state and defence departments are trying to mitigate the
damages. U.S. military police helped Iraqi police track down the Lady of
Warka, dubbed the "Mona Lisa of Mesopotamia", a 5,200-year-old marble
sculpture that is one of the earliest known representations of the human
face in the history of art.
IPS: How significant are the losses?
FB: The Lady of Warka may be worth 100 or 150 million dollars. A Sumerian
cuneiform tablet or an Assyrian stela can fetch 57,000 dollars at the
border.
Some Iraqis have been purchasing books at used-book markets in Baghdad to
return them to the libraries.
But the damage is incalculable. In the Baghdad National Library, around one
million books were burnt, including early editions of Arabian Nights,
mathematical treatises by Omar Khayyam, and tracts by philosophers Avicena
and Averroes.
IPS: Thousands of relics were also lost from the National Archaeological
Museum.
FB: The initial reports spoke of 170,000 objects, but 25 major artifacts as
well as 14,000 less important ones actually disappeared. An amnesty for the
looters led to the recovery of around 3,500, according to the U.S. colonel
who led the investigations, Matthew Bogdanos.
But besides the national museum and library, the Al-Awqaf library, which
held over 5,000 Islamic manuscripts, university libraries and the library of
Bayt al-Hikma also suffered. At least 10 million documents have been lost in
Iraq altogether.
(Báez has said his research into the destruction of libraries and archives
was first motivated by his painful childhood memories of a flash flood that
wiped away the library in his hometown, San Félix in southeastern Venezuela.
He cherished the municipal library because since his parents worked, he had
often been left with relatives who worked there, and spent his days reading.
His research culminated in "A Universal History of the Destruction of
Books", which documents the catastrophic loss of books during wars, like the
Library of Alexandria, which burnt down in 48 B.C., or the burning of
millions of books by the Nazis.)
IPS: Do you believe military forces have been the worst enemy of books?
FB: No, actually I don't. I believe intellectuals are the worst enemies.
Intellectuals have burnt books in the name of the Bible or the Koran.
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of his students.
Destroyers like Adolph Hitler or Slobodan Milosevic were bibliophiles.
Saddam Hussein himself, an archaeologist and philologist, published three
novels. Joseph Goebbels, the genius of Nazi propaganda, was a philologist.
And many of those who have led the U.S. to war in Iraq are academics. It is
a paradox: the inventors of the electronic book returned to Mesopotamia,
where books, history and civilisation were born, to destroy it. (END/2005)
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