In her editorial to the present challenge of the Slovenian journal Sodobnost, Neža Dvorščak provides a thought-provoking tackle compassion within the digital age, the place the struggling of others might be accessed on demand. Echoing Hamlet’s ‘pale solid of thought’, Dvorščak argues that extreme consciousness breeds emotional numbness and compassion fatigue, as struggling loses its standing as an occasion and turns into ‘content material’.
Dvorščak explores the implications of this countless publicity. Every voice could also be real and deserving of consideration, but by means of sheer quantity it dissolves into background noise. Additionally it is a query of type: the unusual montage of subject material served up by social media feeds. ‘Warfare and face serum will not be made equal in which means, but they seem throughout the similar stream, the identical composition of consideration, topic to the identical mechanisms of scrolling, swiping and fleeting pauses.’
How may artwork reduce by means of the din? Not by taking part in into the ruthless logic of algorithms, however by creating an area by which struggling can recuperate period, tangible type and weight. Drawing on Greek tragedy, particularly the refrain, Dvorščak imagines artwork as ‘a laboratory of consideration’ able to ‘reconstructing the circumstances beneath which ache can as soon as once more grow to be an expertise somewhat than merely data’.
Multilingualism in Slovenia
In dialog with Majda Travnik Vode, poet, novelist and playwright Marij Čuk talks about literature, id and the historical past of Slovenia’s minority neighborhood in Italy. Čuk tells how historical past contrived that, although he and his two siblings have been born beneath the identical roof, his brother was registered as born in Italy, his sister in Yugoslavia and he himself within the short- Free Territory of Trieste. His reminiscences of childhood within the village of Dolina are threaded with historical past: Fascist makes an attempt to Italianize the area, the Tito–Stalin break up and the ideological schisms that threatened to tear the local people aside.
For Čuk, language, artwork and tradition are the glue that holds minority communities collectively. ‘Language defines our id; it’s by means of language that I do know who I’m.’ He’s due to this fact appalled by what he sees because the linguistic indifference of central Slovenia as we speak. Now president of the Slovene Writers’ Affiliation, Čuk needs to deliver ‘extra periphery into the centre, and extra centre to the periphery’, advocating a unified Slovene cultural house whose branches lengthen far past the central trunk of Slovenia correct. He hopes the Affiliation will grow to be a mannequin for Slovene society: a spot the place numerous viewpoints coexist and the place tradition helps write new chapters as a substitute of remaining mired in outdated conflicts.
Inexperienced futures in China
Together with journey mishaps and ‘mangled Mandarin’, City Jakša punctuates his travelogue by means of jap China with reflections on its growth mannequin, which appears to herald a technological future directly dazzling and daunting – candy and bitter like tanghulu, the shiny skewers of candied hawthorn berries he buys from a road stall.
Ningbo seems like he’s moving into the longer term, the place money is out of date and the cell phone is king. Washed up in Ningbo as an internet-less ‘tech castaway’, he scrambles to purchase a SIM card, solely to seek out himself surrendering his private data at each flip – a ‘Faustian cut price’ he’s pressured to simply accept.
The glossy bullet prepare to Shanghai prompts comparisons with European railway infrastructure. Over the previous twenty years, China has constructed 48,000 kilometres of high-speed railway from scratch, whereas Slovenia spent years debating the price of a single line, the drugi tir or ‘second observe’.
Whereas China is clearly main the way in which in electrical autos and public transport, Jakša ponders the worth paid for such breakneck progress. As uninterrupted cityscape flashes previous, his considering returns to the European mannequin of growth: the inexperienced belts checking city sprawl, the leafy shade and birdsong afforded by conservation trails. ‘This European mushy energy appeared to me extra enduring and extra stable than all of the concrete pillars I had seen that afternoon.’
Alighting in Shanghai, a glittering showcase of the perfect of ‘Made in China’, Jakša realizes that the inexperienced transition shouldn’t be a matter of know-how, however a query of selecting who we’re, the place we’re headed and the way we want to dwell. ‘Though the prepare to a inexperienced future is working late, we should not miss it. And we should make sure that we board the best one.’
Conversations in The Gambia
Maja Megla recounts a journey to The Gambia, unaware when she books the journey that the nation has grow to be a vacation spot for ‘romance tourism’. At her secluded resort she is repeatedly approached by curious younger males till a resort watchman, Lamin, turns into her companion and information. ‘His presence had a magical impact. No males approached.’ What follows is much less a vacation romance than a gathering of cultures. In the middle of lengthy walks, card video games and countless conversations, Megla and Lamin evaluate their attitudes to intercourse, marriage, faith and household.
Beneath the heat and straightforward smiles, nonetheless, Megla uncovers harsher realities. Invited to have fun the beginning of the cook dinner Koita’s youngster, she is troubled by the exclusion of ladies from the festivities. She additionally learns in regards to the prevalence, regardless of its authorized prohibition, of feminine genital mutilation. A neighborhood doctor, Dr Sulejman – who treats her after a extreme bout of meals poisoning – describes the devastating well being penalties of the observe whereas explaining his personal tireless grassroots work to teach younger individuals about sexual well being.
But the lasting impression is one among extraordinary generosity. Strangers give her items, the resort employees deal with her ‘like household’ and saying goodbye is heart-wrenching. Had her suitcase not already been safely stowed on the airplane, she would have run straight again for just a few extra days of that ‘paradisiacal acceptance, heat and love’.
Assessment by Cadenza Educational Translations
