.  --------------------------------------------------------------- : http://www.jointnet.org.il/dialogue/iton/literature/ http://www.jointnet.org.il/dialogue/iton/literature/ ---------------------------------------------------------------  :  , , , , ? - . , " , , , , . , , , ." , "New York Times" 1 1972. " , . - , ." , "Less than one"  * . *  --------------------------------------------------------------- - (bigbit@isracom.net.il) --------------------------------------------------------------- () . C, , .  1  , ! , ! , . , , , : ; . . , - . , - . , . -, ; , . , , . - , . . , ! . , .. . , . - : , , , , , . ! . , . , : , . , . 1900. . . " " . , . . . . . . ( - ?). . - . (), . - . "" . - - . ( , , - ). , , , , " " ", ". : , , . . - . ( ) " , - "1OO". : . ? ? ! . , -." 1901. . 1O - . , , . , . . ( ). . : . - , . . (). . - . . - . - , - . "". . ( ) " , , - , , , . . , ." 1902. . . , - . ( ). . "X.". , , . . - 76 . - , , : . ." .". - , . : , , , , , . ( ) " : , . - -. . , , -." 1903. , - . . . ( ). , . , : . , ! , , . , : . . . . ... , , , . . , . ( ) " - , . ""! . , , . - . - , !" 1904. ,  , . , , . . . , -, : - ? , ( : ). , . - - , - . - ; - . NY (): . - . : , -. - . , - . - . () " . , . , - , "". "" , "". , ! , , ." 1905. . , , , ; urbi et orbi : . . , , . . "" : , . (" ") . - , ; , . , , "E MC ", - , ( ) carte blanche . " ". . , la belle dame sans merci, . . , - , - , - , - - . () " , , . - . - , , . . - . . ." 1906. . . . ... . , , . , , . , , , , : " ?" " ". Pardon madame. - , , - . , , , , . , , "". . . . . - . , , : - -. (- ) ", - . , , , - : . , : , , , - ( ); - ." 1907. . ! - . : . ., , - . , , . . , ( - !). "" ( ). 4:O - "" "", : Gloria Mundi . " " - , - . , . : " ." - ... - ... . , .., " ", : , . ( ) " , . , . . , "" , . - , - ." 1908. , . , , . , "" - ; "" - : " ..." : c - ( ?). . , , , . "": , -. . . " ": . : " () ", : . , . - -, . - . . ( ) " , , , , . . , - , , , ..." "- . ." 1909 - . " " ( , - ). , - ( - ): - , - ; . : - ( ). Le grand Paris "". , , - . , , , , , . , , . , , (, ). , " ", "". , ! ! . - . , , "". ( ) " . - -. . - ? . . , , . , , !" 191O - . - . . , , , , . . ( .) , - - . , , , ( - ). . . , , ( ) "-", - " ". . , ( , ). , , : , . , . , . , , " - ..." ( ) "... , , , . , . , - : , , ." 1911 - . , . (. ) : "o" - "". " - ." - : "..." : "C'est tout..." (" ", ?) - , 22. -- . . ( . ?) ( : , , , . , .) . , , . " - !" . , , . "Duineser Elegien" . . - : , , . , - , " " " ". ( ) " - . . . "!" ! - . . : " , ?", : " !"" 1912.  . . , , , . . "" . . . , , , ; - . . - ! . : "! !" (: - .) " - ? - ? - ." (", ...") , . : , . . , . , - , , , ( ) : . - --. , , . , . ( ) " , , , , ! , , ! , ." 1913. . : - . . , - . ! ! ? , . - , ; "North of Boston" Grand Central Station, , , . " "; : ; - La Sacre du Printemps - . . . ( - .) - . - . , , . , , . , . ( ) " . - . , , - ! - ! , , - ! , - . , - !" 1914. ! ! . : , "" , ; , " - sans merci". C'est tout. , , , ; : , ... ! ! . . -. ! - . , , , , ... , , - ; - , ... ( ) 1986  1900. "" ("") 1900 . (), , 14 1900 "". - . . . . 1901. , , 1837 . "" , , , , , . "" . . 1902. - . 1903. (-) . . 1904. - . - . 1905. - . ( ) . . " ". , . 1906. . "". "" , . - . 1907. " ". (TB - , . .). () " " 400000 , (). - . 1908. - . - . 1909. . . : . 1910. . 1911. . , 1913 . . - . 1912. 1 -, , . , , "", "", 1500 ("... ", ," "). . 1913. " " - " " (Swann's way). - - . " " , " ... , ". 1914. 28 , ( ), . 31 ..   1911. .. " " (Duineser Elegien) 1912 , 14 1922 , ( ), 1923 "" . 1913. "North of Boston" 1914 . 1908 .   (1872-1928), , 14 1911 . ( ) (1880-1918), . (1900-1971), . (1788-1824), -. ( ) (1904-1983), . (1906-1989), . (....-....), , . (1885-1962), , . (1855-1926), . (1903-1984), , . (1813-1901), . (1819-1901), (1837-1901). ( ) (1859-1941), (1888-1918). (1856-1924), 28 (1913-1921). (1452-1519), , , , , . (1849-1915), , - (1905-1906). (1903-1966), . (1905-1983), , . (1844-1913), , . (1656-1742), . 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(1868-1912), , 18 1912 ( 33 ), . (1874-1946), . () (1879-1953), (1922-1953), , 1907 - (), " ". (1882-1971), . (1849-1912), . - ( -, ) (1866-1925), , 1912 . (1857-1930), 27 (1909-1913). ( ) (1835-1910), . (1828-1910), , . (1854-1900), . --- (1834-1903), . (1866-1946), -. (1908-1964), -. (1856-1939), -, , . (1874?1875-1963), . (1898?1900?1903?-1989), , (1979-...). (1874-1965), - (1940-1945, 1951-1955), 1912 - . (1860-1904), , . (1875-1965), , , , . (1841-1910), (1901-1910). (1879-1955), -, 1905 . (1854-1915), , , , "" .  * Joseph Brodsky. HISTORY OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY *  (A Roadshow) by Joseph Brodsky The Sun's in its orbit, yet I feel morbid. Act 1 Prologue Ladies and gentlemen and the day! All ye made of sweet human clay! Let me tell you: you are o'kay. Our show is to start without much delay. So let me inform you right away: this is not a play but the end of the play that has been on for some eighty years. It received its boos and received its cheers. It won't last for long, one fears. Men and machines lie to rest or rust. Nothing arrives as quick as the Past. What we'll show you presently is the cast of characters who have ceased to act. Each of these lives has become a fact from which you presumably can subtract but to which you blissfully cannot add. The consequences of that could be bad for your looks or your blood. For they are the cause, you are the effect. because they lie flat, you are still erect. Citizens! Don't neglect history! History holds the clue to your taxes and to your flu, to what comes out of the blue. We'll show you battlefields, bedrooms, labs, sinking ships and escaping subs, cradles, weddings, divorces, slabs. Folks! The curtain's about to rise! What you'll see won't look like a Paradise. Still, the Past may moisten a pair of eyes, for its prices were lower than our sales, for it was ruining cities: not blood cells; for on the horizon it's not taut sails but the wind that fails. 1900. A quiet year, you bet. True: none of you is alive as yet. The '00' stands for the lack of you. Still, things are happening, quite a few. In China, the Boxers are smashing whites. In Russia, A.P.Chekhov writes. In Italy, Floria Tosca screams. Freud, in Vienna, interprets dreams. The Impressionists paint, Rodin still sculpts. In Africa, Boers grab the British scalps or vice versa (who cares, my dear?). And McKinley is re-elected here. There are four great empires, three good democracies. The rest of the world sports loin - cloths and moccasins, speaking both figuratively and literally. Upstaging "Umberto's" in Little Italy, in the big one Umberto the Ist's shot dead. (Not all that's written on walls is read). And marking the century's real turn, Friedrich Nietzsche dies, Louis Armstrong's born to refute the great Kraut's unholy "God is dead" with "Hello, Dolly." The man of the year, though, is an engineer. John Browning is his name. He's patented something. So let us hear about John's claim to fame. ( John Moses Browning ) "I looked at the calendar, and I saw that there are a hundred years to go. That made me a little nervous for I thought of my neighbors. I've multiplied them one hundred times: it came to them being all over! So I went to my study that looks out on limes and invented this cute revolver!" 1901. A swell, modest time. A T-bone steak is about a dime. Queen Victoria dies; but then Australia repeats her silhouette and, inter alia, joins the Commonwealth. In the humid woods of Tahiti, Gauguin paints his swarthy nudes. In China, the Boxers take the rap. Max Planck in his lab (not on his lap yet) in studying radiation. Verdi dies too. But our proud nation, represented by Mrs.Disney, awards the world with a kid by the name of Walt who'll animate the screen. Off screen, the British launch their first submarine. But it's a cake-walk or a Strindberg play or Freud's "Psychopathology of Everyday Life" that really are not to be missed! And McKinley's shot dead by an anarchist. The man of the year is Signore Marconi. He is an Italian, a Roman. His name prophetically rhymes with "Sony": they have a few things in common. ( Guglieimo Marconi ) "In a Catholic country where the sky is blue and clouds look like cherubs' vestiges, one daily receives through the air a few wordless but clear messages. Regular speech has its boring spoils: it leads to more speech, to violence, it looks like spaghetti, it also coils. That's why I've built the wireless!" 1902. Just another bland peaceful year. They dissect a gland and discover hormones. And a hormone once discovered is never gone. The Boer War (ten thousand dead) is over. Elsewhere, kind Europeans offer railroad chains to a noble savage. A stork leaves a bundle in a Persian cabbage patch, and the tag reads "Khomeini". Greeks, Serbs, Croats, and Bulgars are at each others' throats Claude Monet paints bridges nevertheless. The population of the U.S. is approximately 76 million: all of them having sex to affect our present rent. Plus Teddy Roosevelt's the President. The man of the year is Arthur Conan Doyle, a writer. The subjects of his great toil are a private dick and a paunchy doc; occasionally, a dog. ( Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ) "Imagine the worst: your subconscious is as dull as your conscience. And you, a noble soul, grab a Luger and make Swiss cheese out of your skull. Better take my novel about the Hound of the Baskervilles! It'll save a handful of your brain cells and beef up your dreams. For it simply kills time and somebody else!" 1903. You may start to spy on the future. Old Europe's sky is a little dim. To increase its dimness, The Krupp Works in Essen erect their chimneys. (Thus the sense of Geld breeds the sense of guilt.) Still, more smoke comes from London, from a smoke-filled room where with guile and passion Bolsheviks curse Mensheviks in Russian. Speaking of Slavs: The Serbian King and Queen are done by local well-wishers in. Painters Whistler, Gauguin, Pissarro are gone. Panama rents us its Canal Zone. While bidding their maidens bye-bye and cheerio, the tommies sail off to grab Nigeria and turn it into a British colony: to date, a nation's greatest felony is if it's neither friend nor foe. My father is born. So is Evelyn Waugh. Man of the year, I am proud to say is two men. They are brothers. Together, they sport two heads, four legs and four hands-which brings us to their bird's four wings. ( The Wright Brothers ) "We are Orville and Wilbur Wright. Our name simply rhymes with 'flight'! This may