Reza Aslan: "Tablet and Pen"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-11-16/reza-aslan-tablet-and-pen
The countries of the Middle East stretch from Morocco to Iran and from Turkey to Pakistan. They speak different languages, practice different faiths and possess different cultures. But all have been shaped in the past hundred years by a common experience of western imperialism and the scars left by a legacy of foreign rule. To many Americans, the region is thought of as a hotbed of Islamic terrorism. Writer and religious scholar Reza Aslan offers a different window to the struggles and conflicts of the middle east through the words of the region’s poets and writers, many translated for the first time in a new anthology.
Guests
Reza Aslan
author of "No god but God" and How to Win a Cosmic War"
Comments
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Are there any Hebrew poets from Israel in this collection?
If your guest says that he wants his work to be a new text book for the Middle East, which includes Pakistan but excludes Israel, does he expect students to believe that Israel does not exist? This would be an intellectual boycott of Israel and he is either disingenuous about his explanation for excluding Israel or intentionally dishonest. For someone who speaks so eloquently about truth and history, this is a glaring inconsistency.
I buy a book each Christmas for each of my children. At least one of them will be receiving your book this year. I'll get it early and read it first!
Stiff With Envy
Coming out,
the cold, gulf water.
Before them I stand.
After then and still having.
Unlike the rest,
muscles pumped rock solid.
I am once again back on shore.
Frozen stiff,
I am seen as the grass.
Green with envy.
Is It Poetry
I enjoyed the show today and the poetry topic...iip
I also got tired of the speakers assumption that everyone in the US was ignorant of literature in the Middle East.
There are more books translated from the Arabic into English in one month than there are English books translated into Arabic in a year.
If the speaker wishes to be taken serioulsy he needs to start speaking factually.
And please leave Edward Said's ideology and anti Western racism home.
The real disgrace here is not the author, Reza Aslan. By excluding all Israeli literature from a Middle Eastern anthology against colonialism, his intentions are transparent. Any moderately knowledgeable person would know that Israelis suffered and died fighting British colonial rule. And as a people with a history of literature and poetry going back 5000 years to the Bible itself, I’m sure they have a lot to offer on the anthology’s unifying theme. His statement that he “couldn’t find” any literature is laughable. He, and his 77 contributing authors and poets, chose not to look.
Sadly, the real disgrace here is the interviewer, Susan Page, who let this out outrageous sophistry pass without challenge. I like to believe that if Diane Rehm was there, she would have pressed him on it at least after the caller raised it, if not before. She would have said, “Really? There’s no Israeli poetry or prose on their struggle for independence?” I hope the next guest interviewer comes with at least some regard for the truth and his or her homework done.
Now I have to see is if Words-without-Borders is like Aslan, who sees no borders except the one around Israel. He is donating all profits from the book to them. Why? Did they commission the text and thereby approve the exclusion? It was years in the making, was it even discussed? What do they think about excluding Israel from the work? Now I must do what Susan Page didn’t do. Too bad I won’t have a nation-wide venue for the results.
Diane, NPR, Susan… is this your best effort?
Without going there, I would welcome and challenge those that commented on the interview, that i thought was an excellent piece, to compile as Reza Aslan did, a book of poety specific to Israeli poets.
Reza Aslan, thank you for such a welcomed refreshing book that opens a window into an otherwise closed room. I just downloaded the ebook and cannot wait to dive in and then share it with my daughter.
You’re missing the point. I, too, would respect Aslan if he called his work what it is: a compilation of literature from Islamic cultures. But he didn’t. He said “it’s from the Middle East” and spouted a nonsense reason for excluding Israel from the region, like it doesn’t exist. That’s dishonest and I, among others, find it offensive.
I would like to thank the Diane Rehm show for inviting Mr. Aslan to speak about his new edited book. It's a much-needed attempt, on the part of both the show and the editor, at educating readers/listeners on non-American cultural and poetic traditions.
I would also like to commend Susan Page on her interviewing and listening skills. The only other person who is better at it (no offense, Ms. Page) is Ms. Rehm herself.
I am not sure why a couple of listeners here were upset with this particular interview. Mr. Aslan was asked a question about why poets from Israel were not included in the collection (he did say that some of the poets in the book were Jewish, I think), and he answered the question fully.
I don't believe it's a host's job to steer a conversation in a direction that's been exhausted.
Quite the opposite, a good host makes sure a debate is not taken over by someone bent on steering it in a particular direction.
Keep up the good work, Ms. Page and Ms. Rehm!
I listened in amazement to Mr. Aslan statement that until the 1960's Hebrew was mainly spoken in Russia, therefore Israeli writers were not included in this book. This makes the declared goal of this book, 'fostering understanding through literature’, seem insincere. Disregarding his unbelievable statement about the Hebrew language, I wonder how Mr. Aslan will explain excluding over 50% of the Israelies, who are Sephardic Jews in the Middle East, with historical backgrounds in the region which date back to over 2000 years ago. I guess for the authors of this book their understanding of diverse cultures through literature can only go so far.