hi jostein, thanks a ton for filling in the details. basically nobody here knows exactly what happened and the only 'information' we have here is his version of things. but we did get the impression that his words were taken out of the initial context in which they were said/written i.e., for a norwegian audience. but it does seem a little naive not to expect controversy when talking about something as contentious as the recent war between israel and lebanon.
i think i'll start with the 'safer' Sophie's World. regards, subash On 12/5/06, Jostein Øksne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Subash, > > If you mean specifics about what he refers to in the article, here goes: > > During the Israeli/Hizbollah war in Lebanon this summer, many who > sympathise with Israel in Norway had a hard time. The reactions were > all over the place, from anger with Israel and/or Hizbollah, to deep > worries that this conflict would spread to other neighbouring > countries, primarily Syria and Egypt. Jostein Gaarder vented his > frustration in a newspaper article. The normal Norwegian reaction to > his kind of rhetorics is to incite a debate where the opponents > gradually put polarised language away and dig more deeply into subject > matter. IOW, the intial article is meant to rouse people into healthy > discussion. Gaarder's article, however, didn't go down well with the > local jewish community at that time. Some person there had it > translated to English, and it was published both in Israel and in > other countries. > > Taken out of the context of a national political/ethic debate, the > article looked very rude and demeaning to jews. Gaarder withdrew from > the debate when he understood he had put his foot in it. He has spent > months trying to repair his reputation, and from this interview he > seems to have some work to do yet. :-) > > I haven't read any of his books, but according to my wife who has read > several, the plot in "The Solitaire Mystery" is better than the one in > "Sophie's World". But there's always something special with the book > he's most famous for I suppose. > > The other Jostein :-) -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
