2010/07/16

Governor’s Conference to Move - NYTimes.com

My colleague and alter ego Baltasar Lotroyo has just posted a review of José Saramago's political fable Ensayo sobre la lucidez (available in English as Seeing), in which the government of an unnamed country punishes its citizens for exercising their constitutional right contrary to the desires of the government. At first you may think Saramago's premise is absurd, and it is, as absurd as that of another Saramago novel that Balta reviewed, La balsa de piedra (The Stone Raft), where the entire Iberian Peninsula breaks off from Europe and floats off into the Atlantic.

But as our daily perusal of the newspapers and viewing of newscasts reminds us every day, nothing Saramago made up is more absurd than the things politicans really do while pretending to be defending our citizens' rights.  Balta offers several examples in his reviews of both books (you may enjoy them if you read Spanish). The self-sabotage of the governor of Arizona, pretending to deal with the problem of "illegal" immigration by not dealing with it, is yet another.

Governor’s Conference to Move - NYTimes.com

Recommended for those of you who read Spanish: Balta Lotroyo's review of Ensayo sobre la lucidez and his review of La balsa de piedra.



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