September 29, 2002

The theory is doing the rounds that Osama bin Laden was inspired by Isaac Asimov’s Foundation. In October last year, an item appeared on an authoritative Russian studies website that soon had the science-fiction community buzzing with speculative excitement. It asserted that Isaac Asimov’s 1951 classic was translated into Arabic under the title Al Qaeda. And it seemed to have the evidence to back up its claims.

Parallels are now being drawn between the plot of Asimov’s book and the events unfolding now. Writers have pointed out that the Arabic word qaeda — ordinarily meaning “base” or “foundation” is also used for “groundwork” and “basis”. Was Osama somehow inspired by a Russian-born writer who lived most of his life in the US and was once the world’s most prolific sci-fi novelist (born in 1920 in Smolensk, Asimov died in New York in 1992)?

But there are some similarities between 9/11 and the story of Foundation. The deeper you dig, the more plausible it seems that Al Qaeda’s founders may have borrowed some rhetoric from Foundation and its successors (it became a series) and possibly from other science fiction material.

Science fiction has often featured “evil empires” against which are set utopian ideas whose survival must be fought for against the odds by a small but resourceful band of men. Such empires often turn out to be amazingly fragile when faced by intelligent idealists. Intelligent idealists who are also psychopaths might find comfort in a fictional role model — especially one created by a novelist famous for castigating that “amiable dunce” Ronald Reagan: the president who prosecuted the CIA’s secret war in Afghanistan.

The Empire portrayed in Asimov’s novels is in turmoil. Beset by overconsumption, corruption and inefficiency, “it had been falling for centuries before one man really became aware of that fall. That man was Hari Seldon, the man who represented the one spark of creative effort left among the gathering decay. He developed and brought to its highest pitch the science of psycho-history.” Seldon is a scientist and prophet who predicts the Empire’s fall. He sets up his Foundation in a remote corner of the galaxy, hoping to build a new civilisation from the ruins of the old. The Empire attacks the Foundation with all its military arsenal and tries to crush it. Seldon uses a religion (based on scientific illusionism) to further his aims.

Seldon, like Bin Laden, transmits videotaped messages for his followers, recorded in advance. There is also some similarity in geopolitical strategy. Seldon’s vision seems oddly like the way Osama bin Laden has conceived his campaign.

Dickens books stolen

Three first edition copies of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas carol have been stolen from the Dickens House Museum. Valued at between 20,000 and 30,000, the theft was an act of brazenness as the books were stolen while the museum was open to the public. The display case was cut using a glasscutter with which the thieves also attempted to steal copies of The Pickwick papers displayed in another glass case, but failed in the attempt. Meanwhile, as a security measure, other Dickens’ artifact has been removed from display.

Blasphemy

Michel Houellebecq, an award-winning French author, is on trial for making comments against Islam, but he has denied charges of inciting racial hatred.

While speaking to a literary magazine last year, the writer made anti-Islamic comments while discussing his book Platform and was subsequently sued by four Islamic organizations. France’s Human Rights League has also joined voices with the organizations by saying that Houellebecq’s comments are tantamount to “Islamophobia”.

The author has said that he opposes all monotheistic religions and not just Islam and that as a writer he has the right to criticize religions.

Prosecuting lawyers have said that the fact that an author can express contempt for a religion in a literary magazine constitutes incitement to religious hatred. The defence has said that the case effectively re-establishes the notion of blasphemy, despite the fact that France being a secular state, has no such law.

No stranger to controversy the writer is known for his anarchic views and last year said that he has a ‘gift’ for insults and provocation. If found guilty, Houellebecq who recently won the Impac literary award, faces up to a year in prison and a 52,000 euro fine.

Putin’s wife writes a tell-all

How is life for the wife of Russia’s most popular man? Lyudmila Putin, the wife of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has written a book about Putin’s life, his rise to power and their family life with surprising frankness. In the book she has openly said that she had trouble getting used to his strong will and reticence.

“Vladimir Vladimirovich has certainly been testing me throughout our life together,” Lyudmila says in Vladimir Putin: road to power. “I always had a feeling that he was sort of watching me all the time: What decision — right or not — I would make, whether I would pass one test or another.” The ‘tests’ reveal a cruel side to the man and one example she remembers is when Putin put her on downhill skis. “He never asked my opinion,” she said. “It went without saying that we would start downhill skiing.”

She also reveals that she was distressed when Putin refused to talk about his work while they were courting. He told her he worked for the police till a year later she discovered that he was a KGB officer.

The book covers Putin’s life from 1975 to December 1999 and is the second part of a planned trilogy on the Russian president, based on interviews with the Putins, the president’s friends and colleagues.

Hi-Tech Quran

When master calligrapher Muhammad ibn al-Wahid copied the Qur’an in 1304 in Egypt, little did he imagine that 700 hundred years down the road his work would be made accessible to thousands using latest digital technology.

A priceless treasure of the British Library, the seven volumes of this copy of the Quran which have been inked in gold, have been computerized and can be browsed using touch screen technology that gives the impression that one is turning pages on the computer screen.

British prime minister Tony Blair said on the occasion, “This Qur’an is an object of beauty as well as faith,” and that, “It is excellent that the UK’s national library has enabled so many people to appreciate such a magnificent work.”

Images from the work will be put on the library’s Website (www.bl.uk) and also sold on CD-ROMs which can be used on home computers.

In the past the library has computerized major texts from Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism using, ‘Turning the pages’ technology. This particular project was funded by the Noon Foundation, a charitable body set up by Indian-born ready-meals entrepreneur Ghulam Noon.

Muggled?

If it’s not stalkers than it is rivals who are hounding JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books. In 1999, Nancy Stouffer, a children’s author claimed that Rowling had plagiarized her work to create the world-famous Harry Potter book. A federal judge has rejected Stouffer’s claims and fined her $50,000, saying that she “perpetuated a fraud... through her submission of fraudulent documents as well as through her untruthful testimony”.

Stouffer claimed that she wrote several books in the 1980s, including The legend of Rah and the Muggles, and a series about Larry Potter. Some of these books were released last year, but sales were poor and many stores refused to stock them. The judge in his ruling questioned the timing of Stouffer’s work as he said that a title page and other materials supposedly dating back to the 1980s used technology not in existence at the time. He also found that Stouffer had produced invoices for sales not made, and submitted an old advertisement that was later altered to include the word “Muggles”.

The word “Muggles” has been central to the case as Stouffer’s initially complained against Rowling’s use of the word in the Harry Potter books, saying her “Muggles” in The legend of Rah and the Muggles came first.

In Rowling’s books, “Muggles” is the word for non-magical humans and in Stouffer’s book “Muggles” are mutated nuclear holocaust survivors whose dark land becomes a happy place after they end up caring for orphaned twin boys.

Meanwhile, two years on from the publication of the fourth Harry Potter book there is no sign of the fifth instalment. But as Rowling suffers from the most talked about writer’s block in the world, undeterred Hollywood gears up for the second instalment of the Harry Potter film, due on November 15 and of course the backlist of Potter books continues to sell well.

Grotter or Potter?

It seems plagiarizers have run out of books to plagiarize, and the current hot favourite is none other than the Harry Potter series. A Russian author, Dimitri Yemetz, is insisting that his creation Tanya Grotter is not a copy of Harry Potter.

His book Tanya Grotter and her magical double bass features striking similarities to the world’s favourite wizard who also wears round spectacles. Grotter flies a magic musical instrument, has a mole on her nose and attends the Abracadabra school for young witches.

As a team in London contemplates a lawsuit, Yemetz defends Grotter by saying, “The character is a cultural reply rather than plagiarism,” and that “the characters and the stories in the book are Russian folklore based on Russian culture and traditions.”

The Russian publisher of the Potter books called Tanya Grotter “outrageous” and “a serious violation of copyright”. He claims that people are buying the books in the mistaken belief that it is the much-awaited fifth instalment of the Harry Potter books.

Hitchhiking to the silver screen

The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy is being made into a film by the director of the hilarious Austin Powers films. Written by the late Douglas Adams, The hitchhiker’s guide is a humorous and beloved fantasy novel about the travails of it hero Arthur Dent. Adams died in May last year at the age of 49.

Goethe prize awarded

Awarded every two or three year the Goethe prize has been given to literary critic, Marcel Reich-Ranicki for his life’s work. Widely known as the “pope of German literary criticism”, Reich-Ranicki, 82, is credited with reviving criticism. While giving out the award, the jury said that Reich-Ranicki “greatly contributed to the wider public’s interest in literature” through his works and his TV appearances. For 13 years he hosted a literary programme that was watched by millions.

The author of a best-selling work himself, Reich-Ranicki described the prize, as “the highest distinction I could have received”. The Goethe award, which is awarded on the birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, carries a stipend of 50,000 euros (32,000). Past winners have been German writers Herman Hesse (1946) and Thomas Mann (1949), and the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1930).

Guardian longlist out

Judges and reading groups at bookshops in London, Glasgow, Brighton and Oxford are paring down the longlist of books in the running for the Guardian First Book Award. The prize aims to recognize and reward first books in any genre and offers a prize that includes an advertising package in the Guardian.

The most distinctive feature of the new longlist is the intriguing mix of authors it boasts. Sandra Newman is one who travelled to Kathmandu to become a professional gambler and wrote The only good thing anyone has ever done, about a dysfunctional Californian family. Louise Walsh is another who runs a secondhand book shop and wrote her book in the male voice of a gay man.

Also for the first time in the award’s history, women outnumber the men. The Guardian First Book Award started out 37 years ago as the Guardian Fiction Award, with prize money of 200 guineas (220).

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