thu 27 jul 2006 12:47:00 — raamgracht
het schandaal
[from an email to a friend]
thank god today it's a bit cooler. it's actually cloudy!
so is this butterfly time? how do you know what the names of the butterflies are?
there are herons in amsterdam too, they stand on top of the rooves of cars. big gray birds with long beaks, long necks, long legs, just standing on cars looking like they have nothing to do, like they're on welfare or something. i thought they were storks, but somebody said they're herons. fuck if i know.
i told pani that she should try to translate stanislav lem's last book herself, since she's the one who wishes she could share it with her non-polish friends. she could probably do it linguistically, but she doesn't have tons of sticktoitiveness. she's a floater.
sok returned my copy of "het schandaal" yesterday. he found my assertion that it was "not a literary masterpiece" quite an understatement. he said it was a very good story that was embarrassingly badly written. he was so offended by its cliche-riddenness that he almost put it down -- but then he wanted to see how it ended. hmm. interesting.
i asked him if he thought at least the premise was credible (the conspiracy theory that the dutch government in exile was ordering the assassination of its own resistance fighters). i expected him to think that was a pile of left wing bullshit. but he said "very credible. completely credible. it's a TRUE story."