euro|topics - Hubert Spiegel

21/11/2008

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Spiegel, Hubert

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 29/08/2008

The endangered book?

In view of the success of electronic devices for reading books such as Amazon's "Kindle", the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung asks whether "the printed book, our culture's most important medium, is menaced. ... So far only one thing seems certain: anyone who has anything to do with books, be it writing, printing, binding, publishing, transporting, selling or reading them, will be affected in one way or another by the new technology. ... It is not just the economics of the book market that will change. An unprecedented upheaval is threatening to radically alter the long-standing profanation of the written word. ... The cult of the book has its oldest and deepest roots in religion. The process of Enlightenment and secularisation has not destroyed this cult, but simply given it new roots. Anyone who picks up Amazon's e-book reader cannot fail to be impressed in the first hours and days by the technical possibilities offered by the device. Then when he goes back to his bookshelf, the aura of the book appears to him as tender and vulnerable as the wings of a butterfly."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 13/10/2006

Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's other voice

"Pamuk is not only Turkey's most important contemporary literary voice, he is also one of the few internationally acclaimed representatives of Turkish cultural life," writes Hubert Spiegel. "However, he can't escape the danger of being perceived as a representative of Turkey in the West while being regarded as an agent for the West in his own country. Not only do his books illustrate this dilemma, they revel in it, tirelessly portraying the fascinating interplay between cultures and traditions across the centuries. If Pamuk is a mediator between the cultures, then he is a very unique one. He is less interested in the often cited - if exaggerated - similarities between the West and the Islamic world and more interested in the convergence points of the differences between these cultures. They form the starting point for his novels. Pamuk uses them to create incredibly complex stories that are full of innuendo and sometimes not easy follow."

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