three reviews of angnes callard’s open socrates. two good ones in dutch, this one by bas heine (nrc) (archive) but the other i can’t find again and this horrible one in times.

i don’t know why i was never interested in watching this, the plot probably. but it’s great. or the first series is. it’s funny. it’s smart. it’s moving. and jason bateman is very good and so is julia garner. i’ll get back to you about the second series because well, second series… i am already worried about it.

there many things to love in this interview with the german writer julia schoch in de groene, but it’s in dutch so. what she says about the first sentence being the engine. and what she says about sex in novels and about knausgard in response to a question about overrated authors:

Ik vind hem vreselijk saai. Het is zo alledaags, al die banale dialogen: ‘hallo’, ‘goedemorgen’, ‘hang je jas daar maar op’. Zeshonderd pagina’s vol. Dat verveelt me mateloos. Ik hou meer van compacte, geconcentreerde boeken. (…) Veel schrijvers zijn een beetje verliefd op zichzelf.

in cold climates it’s important that you know where to hang your coat when you come inside. it took me years to learn that. in winter people look at you expectedly when they come into your house or they stand there awkwardly with their coat in their hand waiting be told where they can put it. it’s the beginning of hospitality to tell someone where they can hang their coat, or you can take their coat from them.

when i first arrived back in europe, if i went to someone’s house and they said, can i take your coat? i would be suspicious. maybe they want to steal my coat? how will i know where it is if i decide to leave suddenly? responding with, no it’s ok i’ll keep it with me, is a faux pas on par with saying no thanks when they ask if you want coffee, and they always do, although it’s acceptable to ask for tea. just don’t expect it to be tea. it will be a glass of warm water and you will be handed a box with teabags in it. some of them will be from the previous century. there will be many flavours with names thought up by marketing graduates. on the other hand if someone comes to your house and they ask for tea when you offer them coffee, as you must, do not say, sure! milk?

Kwame Anthony Appiah writes, in Experiments in Ethics (2008), that ‘the act of framing — the act of describing a situation and thus of determining that there’s a decision to be made — is itself a moral task.’

gummbah