German teenage novelist Helene Hegemann has a bestseller accused of lifting a key page from the book and blog of another young Berliner. NYT says it “shows that perhaps more than simple cribbing is at work. When another character asks Edmond if he came up with that line himself, he replies, ‘I help myself everywhere I find inspiration.’” So not quite Kaavya Viswanathan, but not attribution-share alike either.
Darryl Campbell’s post on The Bygone Bureau starts with his memory of his preschool teacher wheeling in a TV to watch the reunification of Germany. This is something I’ve been thinking about since we’ve been so lucky to watch extraordinary archival footage this week — why is this footage new to me? I was nine years old, old enough and curious enough to understand the fall of the Berlin Wall’s significance. I can’t remember so much as a passing mention in any of my classes. But not a single teacher in six years of elementary school made any impression that lasted some many years later. If I were cleverer at this moment, I’d find a way to tie this in with Arne Duncan’s appearance on Meet the Press this morning, particularly his comment, “Teachers in the middle don’t get support that they need. And teachers on the bottom, who frankly need to find another profession, that doesn’t happen, either.” It’s really a shame that anyone becomes a teacher for reasons other than fostering the creativity and intellectual capacity of young people. There are people right now, employed as teachers in this country, who couldn’t care less if the Berlin Wall fell or not and they don’t care if your children know about it either way. Maybe they are “nice”, maybe they are “bubbly and outspoken” but they are some of the most dangerous people in the world.
Artists on Tuesday began repainting the largest remaining section of Berlin Wall with the murals they created after the fall of the hated symbol of the Cold War almost 20 years ago. The artists plan to complete the project in time for the 20-year anniversary in November.
For some time I’ve thought about running away this autumn to Berlin to complete the book. As it turns out, enough people have acted on this fantasy to merit a NYT Styles piece (”ultracheap nooks for the aspiring authors who need room only for a laptop.”) Time for Plan B.
Six Bauhaus-style social housing buildings in Berlin are now UNESCO World Heritage sites, “outstanding example of the building reform movement that contributed to improving housing and living conditions for people with low incomes.” Maybe Detroit is next?
Picasso graffiti in Williamsburg. And impressive 3-D looking wheatpaste poster in Berlin.
“The Rise of the Ephemeral City” in Metropolis: “Likely to fail, are the attempts of places such as Manchester, Cleveland, and Detroit to tie their futures to becoming ‘cool.’ With an emphasis on what the Romans would have called ‘bread and circuses,’ leaders in these old industrial centers think cultivating their cultural cachet will lure enough skilled workers and affluent singles to their towns… ‘There are simply not enough yuppies to go around,’ demographer William Frey says.”
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