Subject
Re: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of
hisstudents. ...
hisstudents. ...
From
Date
Body
Dear Victor and List,
I didn't know this claim from Manguel. Could I add that the "man of 30
000 book's library" who lived in Tahiti before dwelling in France
didn't mention Zembla in his dictionnary, and seems rather unfair with
Borges in his little book "Chez Borges" (he was a reader for the
argentinian author in Buenos Aires)-
(Sorry for the broken English)-
AA
Papeete
-----Original Message-----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 08:53:59 -0800
Subject: Re: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of
hisstudents. ...
> 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 -----
----- End forwarded message -----
I didn't know this claim from Manguel. Could I add that the "man of 30
000 book's library" who lived in Tahiti before dwelling in France
didn't mention Zembla in his dictionnary, and seems rather unfair with
Borges in his little book "Chez Borges" (he was a reader for the
argentinian author in Buenos Aires)-
(Sorry for the broken English)-
AA
Papeete
-----Original Message-----
From: "Donald B. Johnson" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 08:53:59 -0800
Subject: Re: Fw: Nabokov (1899-1977) burnt "El Quixote" in front of
hisstudents. ...
> 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 -----
----- End forwarded message -----