Saturday, August 18, 2007

Are you telling me that what Bush calls "the democratically-elected" government of Fu'ad Sanyurah is engaged in censorship? "This week, an Interior Ministry censorship board banned performances of the piece, “How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool’s Joke,” which was to have received its premiere this weekend." (Also, do you notice that articles on cultures and arts in the Middle East that appear in mainstream US media are so deeply ignorant of arts and culture in the Middle East? The other day Sinan Antoon was expressing his outrage that the trashy novel by Saudi writer (influenced by not literature but by US trashy TV shows), the Girls of Riyadh (by Raja' As-Sani`) is coming out in an English translation by a major US/UK publisher. They just have no clue how to navigate through Arab culture because they write about it without knowing Arabic, so rely on people who also don't know Arabic to guide them through Arabic culture.) (thanks Amahl)