Generated by All in One SEO v5.0.0.1, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.

# Author, Daniel Kalder

Gentleman of Letters

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://www.danielkalder.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Posts

- [The Most Beautiful Illusion: An Interview with Alejandro Jodorowsky](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/the-most-beautiful-illusion-an-interview-with-alejandro-jodorowsky) - FILMMAKER, POET, NOVELIST, comics writer, mime, actor, theater director, soundtrack composer, “psychomagician,” Tarot reader: Alejandro Jodorowsky needs no introduction. In this interview conducted via Skype, the 87-year-old creative polymath reflected from his home in Paris upon a multiplicity of topics, ranging from the esoteric library in his childhood home of Tocopilla in Chile, to his
- [Review: Final Incal](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-final-incal) - At the climax of Moebius and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s original Incal series, the protagonist John DiFool encounters God, or somebody very like him: a big, golden, flowing-beareded divine being named ORH. ORH then changes into a cosmic baby as the universe is reborn, a universe-shaking event it is DiFool’s duty to witness. Alas, DiFool promptly forgets all about
- [Frank Zappa: America’s last rebel](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-old-music-gods-are-cashing-out) - Doubtless the fake nonconformist is an American type that goes back centuries, but we surely reached an apex of fraudulence in the early 2020s. How passionately the rioters of Antifa demanded the same things as Fortune 500 CEOs, how righteously millionaire celebrity “activists” raged for the machine. And there was something mournful too, about Bruce
- [The Six Voyages of Lone Sloane](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/the-six-voyages-of-lone-sloane) - Back in 1991 I bought a copy of Philippe Druillet's Nosferatu, a black-and-white one-shot published by Dark Horse in the days when they were still putting out Cheval Noir. In line with the production values of that Euro anthology, it was a piece of crap; square binding and the premium price tag gave the illusion that it
- [Hooked on Hillbilly Horror](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/hooked-on-hillbilly-horror) - When Hillary Clinton finally shuffles off this mortal coil, what words will she be remembered by? My money would be on her“basket of deplorables” comment delivered at a donor event in 2016. That was when she declared that half of Trump’s supporters were essentially beyond redemption: “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it”. You
- [Incidents in the night 2](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/incidents-in-the-night-2) - Last year Uncivilized Books published David B.’s Incidents in the Night, a twisting, meta-textual narrative about death, esoteric history, and the pleasures of hunting for obscure, impossible books. In that volume David B. himself appears as the central protagonist, stumbling through a nocturnal world of myth and Parisian bookstores haunted by yeti in pursuit of copies
- [American politics will be born again](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/american-politics-will-be-born-again) - Whenever I return to Britain from the United States, I am always struck by the compactness of the landscape. The tidy square fields, the orderly rows of homes with little gardens, the narrow ribbons of road curving between hedgerows, small cars weaving through a domesticated landscape dotted with sheep and cows. Even the places that
- [PIETROLINO](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/pietrolino) - Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of the most unique creators in comics, drawing upon a biography, range of interests, and incredibly fertile imagination that makes him truly inimitable. His most famous comics work remains The Incal, created in collaboration with Moebius, and frequently reprinted in ever more expensive iterations by Humanoids. It is justifiably revered, a work
- [DISTRICT 14: SEASON 1](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/district-14-season-1) - Picking up District 14, I was mildly concerned. The first couple of pages show an elephant disembarking at Ellis Island, taking a shower, and then getting ripped off by corrupt officials who want to seize his mysterious seeds. The elephant makes a break for it, fleeing directly into a crime scene where a stag-headed mobster is
- [Graphic Novel “Beirut 1990” is a Timely, Fresh Treatment of War](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/graphic-novel-beirut-1990-is-a-timely-fresh-treatment-of-war) - If the idea of comics-form journalism has yet to go mainstream its advocates can at least point to a few skilled proponents, such as cartoonist Joe Sacco, author of the widely-acclaimed Palestine, or Quebec-born Guy DeLisle whose travelogues, including Pyongyang and Shenzhen, have been both critically and commercially successful. Even so, examples of quality comics-form reportage remain thin on the ground. Last
- [On Design, Books, Kickstarter and Russian Criminal Tattoos](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/on-design-books-kickstarter-and-russian-criminal-tattoos) - Design studio turned publisher FUEL made a splash in 2004 with the publication of their first book The Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia. Since then London-based principals Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell have built up an extremely eclectic list that includes books by the artists Jake and Dinos Chapman, a photographic catalogue of home-made tools from Eastern Europe and an
- [Bibliophile or Bibliomaniac?](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/bibliophile-or-bibliomaniac) - This week I have been moving house, as my landlord decided to sell the building I was living in. It’s been a major pain in the neck, especially as I haven’t found another place yet and will be staying with relatives until I do. But the forced move has also been illuminating, at least insofar
- [X-Men? No, X-Rated: The Secret History of Marvel Comics](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/secret-history-marvel-comics) - As another summer gets underway, so the nation’s movie theaters fill up with blockbusters based on comic books. So far this year we’ve already seen The Amazing Spider-Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past while Guardians of the Galaxy is looming. All of these films are based on characters that first appeared in Marvel comic books. Marvel therefore is indisputably big A review of The Secret History of Marvel Comics
- [Sakkadoo: Russia’s Boris Akunin on “The Way of the Writer”](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/sakkadoo-russias-boris-akunin-on-the-way-of-the-writer) - An interview with Russian author, Boris Akunin.
- [The Road to Muskville, Texas](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-road-to-muskville-texas) - A road trip to Elon Musk's company town in Bastrop, Texas.
- [Existential Miami: a guide](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/existential-miami-a-guide) - Miami isn't just about sea, sex and sun. Sometimes it burns. Sometimes it is a darkness.
- [The Beach That Didn't Exist](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-beach-that-didnt-exist) - Chasing ghosts on Coney Island.
- [Getting Into Death](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/getting-into-death) - Life is short, so don't spend any of it wasting time on things like effective altruism or Christopher Nolan movies. Life is short, so don't spend any of it wasting time on things like effective altruism or Christopher Nolan movies.
- [Are People Really Fleeing Texas?](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/are-people-really-fleeing-texas) - Today we live in a world of narratives, but many of those narratives are false or misleading. This essay takes a close look at the phenomenon.
- [Review: Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-limonov-by-emmanuel-carrere) - A review of "Limonov" by Emmanuel Carrere, a novelized retelling of the controversial Russian author's life.
- [Excuse Me While I Kiss The Dirt: An elegy for the dream tower](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/excuse-me-while-i-kiss-the-dirt) - ‘And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven…’ (Genesis 11:2)Nikolai Sutyagin’s tower, which I visited in STRANGE TELESCOPES, is no more. The following is a narrative of its annihilation, in words, pictures and video.The article below (in Russian) dated Dec 26th tells the
- [Bambi's Mum Had To Die](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/bambis-mum-had-to-die) - When Sergei Eisenstein saw Bambi, he was highly impressed. The great Soviet film director, responsible for such world classics as Battleship Potemkin and Alexander Nevsky, pronounced Walt Disney’s fifth feature-length animated film “a shift towards ecstasy“, which represented “the greatness of Disney as the purest example of the application of the method of art in its very purest form”.
- [Why Doesn't Scotland Love King Charles?](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/why-doesnt-scotland-love-king-charles) - Scotland's complicated relationship with the monarchy, explained.
- [February Is The Cruelest Month](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/february-is-the-cruelest-month) - “April is the cruelest month” said T.S. Eliot, but having just spent February in Scotland for the first time in 27 years I would beg to differ. I had forgotten how relentlessly miserable the weather can get, what it’s like to be constantly cold and constantly rained upon under a glowering grey sky that gets
- [Please Do Not Disrespect The Dictator](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/please-do-not-disrespect-the-dictator) - I wasn’t planning to experiment with ChatGPT: the tone of the coverage, either hyper apocalyptic or breathlessly techno-utopian, bored me.
- [lone star weird](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/lone-star-weird) - Thus Spake Daniel Kalder No.30The theme of this latest installment of TSDK is the stranger side of my adopted home, Texas. The impetus was a piece I did for UnHerd on the transformation of Austin from the laid back college town featured in the cult classic Slacker into Silicon Valley 2.0. But then I thought
- [Tech Bros Are Destroying Weird Austin](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/tech-bros-are-destroying-weird-austin) - Not so long ago, Silicon Valley was a magical land where unicorns flourished; anybody with an idea and a little luck could become richer than all the kings of folklore....
- [Immortal North](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/immortal-north) - BBC Radio 3 (Kalder as Contributor) As the clock ticks down towards midnight and a New Year looms, it’s hard to escape thoughts of the passage of time, ageing, the meaning of it all. We lose ourselves in Abba and Auld Lang Syne and make our resolutions: to live better, healthier, longer, more fulfilling lives. And
- [Lost Cosmonaut (Sample) - Udmurtia](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/lost-cosmonaut-sample-udmurtia) - 6.My railway carriage contained four humans. Aside from me, there was an old guy in a cheap shiny Russian suit and two women. The old guy liked to touch me. He touched my knee whenever he got up to go to the toilet. ‘Excuse me’ he’d say, and then touch my knee. ‘Excuse me’ he’d
- [Lost Cosmonaut (Sample) - Mari El](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/lost-cosmonaut-sample-mari-el) - 7.What is a Mari Anyway?The most famous Finno-Ugric nations are the Hungarians, the Finns and the Estonians. They are descended from a tribe which, it is believed, emigrated west from the Ural Mountains on the border of Europe and Asia thousands of years ago. Their languages and myths stem from the same roots and display
- [Lost Cosmonaut (Sample) - Kalmykia](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/lost-cosmonaut-sample-kalmykia) - Dirty Police BastardsIIt happened in the bus station, as we were hailing a taxi. No sooner had we sat down, than there was a knock on the passenger window. I turned round and saw a policeman, a piggy bastard with an impertinent grin and beady eyes, and a spidery little moustache growing in spurts from
- [Lost Cosmonaut (Sample) - Tartarstan](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/lost-cosmonaut-sample-tartarstan) - 1.It was my friend Joe who suggested going to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan. He had a thing for the Golden Horde, for Grand Tartary and all that stuff. I didn’t. I had once read a book about the Mongols by some old Oxbridge duffer and it put me off their history forever. Joe, however,
- [Journey Into The Passed](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/journey-into-the-passed) - Scottish writer Daniel Kalder seeks out strange voyages into a disappearing Texas.“The pursuit of nothing is not a bad thing,” Daniel Kalder says. “I don’t mind if I find nothing.”“Nothing” more or less describes what the 34-year-old Scottish writer has found on the first stop of his Saturday morning trek: an abandoned post office painted
- [On Strangeness](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/on-strangeness) - Daniel Kalder is a Scotsman living in Texas, who has spent a lot of time in Russia. In fact, Russia has become ingrained into his psyche after spending the best part of 10 years in the country. Kalder is the author of Strange Telescopes—a book about his encounters with four very different people over the
- [A Ringing Endorsement](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/a-ringing-endorsement) - NB 1: Austin TX is home to a joke-telling robot effigy of Lyndon B. Johnson, which I describe below.Welcome to Ringing Endorsement, wherein Decider speaks to local people of note to get their hearty recommendation of an event, restaurant, or whatever strikes their fancy. This week, Scottish-born “anti-travel” writer Daniel Kalder—whose new book, Strange Telescopes,
- [A Top Ten](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/a-top-ten) - A semi-arbitrary list prepared for the Book Depository website. The top six are pretty much permanent features in my personal pantheon, the last four open to rotation…The Three Stigmata of Palmer EldritchPhilip K. DickThe late Philip K. Dick wrote far too many books, and if your first encounter with his work is—say—The Zap Gun, you
- [Book Depository Interview](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/book-depository-interview) - 1) What gave you the ideas for Strange Telescopes?A combination of research, good fortune and quite possibly Divine Guidance. I had wanted to write about the Diggers of the Underground Planet (a group of individuals who have spent years exploring the underground labyrinth beneath Moscow and were involved with the Nord Ost hostage crisis) for
- [Nuda z podtekstem](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/nuda-z-podtekstem) - Z Danielem Kalderem rozmawia Maciej Robert O tym, jak wygląda prawdziwa Rosja, czego wstydzą się Rosjanie i kogo odwiedza Chuck Norris, mówi nam szkocki podróżnik, autor książki „Zagubiony kosmonauta”Czego spodziewałeś się po Tatarstanie i innych republikach opisanych w twojej książce? Normalności czy nienormalności? Egzotyki czy nudy?Daniel Kalder: Właściwie nie miałem żadnych oczekiwań. Po prostu razem
- [Questions about the new Christ asked by Neil Forsyth](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/questions-about-the-new-christ-asked-by-neil-forsyth) - Esquire Interview (Full Version)How did you find Torop—in those opening moments was he massively charismatic, was there a sense of an overpowering personality?At first he seemed exhausted: he sat slumped in a chair, his eyes were half closed and he spoke in a soft, sing-song voice. But even then he had an extremely powerful presence
- [Going Nowhere](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/going-nowhere) - Lost Cosmonaut, a darkly humorous, haphazard tour around Russia’s dreariest republics has turned out to be a surprise hit for its author, Daniel Kalder. On a stop off in London between trips to the emptiest corners of the world, the anti-travel travel writer talks to Sarah Crown, the editor of Guardian Unlimited Books, about dead
- [A Place In The Slum: An interview with Daniel Kalder](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/a-place-in-the-slum) - “The anti-tourist does not visit places that are in any way desirable. The anti-tourist eschews comfort. The anti-tourist embraces hunger and hallucinations and shit hotels … The anti-tourist loves truth, but he is also partial to lies. Especially his own.”It is with these maxims that Daniel Kalder inaugurates a new type of travel writing. His
- [One small Steppe](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/one-small-steppe) - Daniel Kalder is a shadowy figure, pale and slight. He warns me that he will be wearing black, that he has a beard and a long ponytail. I spot him instantly in the Edinburgh cafe where we have arranged to meet. It would be different, says the 31-year-old writer, if we were in Moscow, where
- [Travelling with an Anti-tourist](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/travelling-with-an-anti-tourist) - Daniel Kalder’s debut Lost Cosmonaut is a nihilistic celebration of four Russian places so far off the tourist trail that most people—including Russians—will never have heard of them. The semi-autonomous republics of Tatarstan, Kalmykia, Mari El and Udmurtia all lie west of the Urals, and thus in Europe, a fact that serves only to make
- [Interview](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/interview) - What is the most quintessential anti-tourism site—the place it would be hardest for a travel agent to write an appealing blurb for?I think the planet Pluto is a pretty rotten place to visit. It’s freezing, very far away, and you have to wear a goldfish bowl on your head if you want to go for
- [Poland Diary](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/poland-diary-guardian) - Monday 3rd NovemberI did not know that I was famous when I arrived in Poland, and as I spent the first couple of days probing the remote borderlands and discussing John Denver in broken Russian with the celebrated Polish author Andrzej Stasiuk. I had no way of finding out. I only started to suspect something
- [Requiem for a Tyrant](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/requiem-for-a-tyrant-the-spectator) - Tearing down the statue of a megalomaniac dictator is usually a joy reserved for the citizens of a newly-liberated country. But when President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan ordered the removal of Ashgabat’s notorious Neutrality Arch last month, he was probably the only individual feeling liberated. For over ten years this monument to his predecessor Saparmurat
- [Vissarion Christ: Siberian Saviour](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/vissarion-christ-siberian-saviour-arena-magazine) - Vova the taxi driver wasn’t happy about abandoning me in Petropavlovka, a village separated from the nearest city by over a hundred miles of silent, snow-covered Siberian forest. He said that its inhabitants belonged to a sinister cult which permitted children to starve while a crooked Messiah lived in luxury atop his holy mountain. I
- [Daniil Kharms: Today I Wrote Nothing](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/daniil-kharms-today-i-wrote-nothing-guardian) - For decades Daniil Kharms was known in Russia only as a children’s writer. In fact, he was the last genius of the Soviet avant-garde, providing a link from the giants of Futurism to the underground artists of the 1970s and bestselling controversialist Vladimir Sorokin today.In 1927, just as his colleagues were being encouraged to forget
- [The Bizarre Guide to Russia](https://www.danielkalder.com/travels/the-bizarre-guide-to-russia-bizarre-magazine) - When most people think of Russia just a few images come to mind: vodka, mafia and children getting caught in the crossfire between nutjob terrorists and government security agents in their school. But beyond these surface impressions there’s a vast land for the traveller to discover; not for the common tourist perhaps, but rather for
- [Andrei Platonov: Russia's greatest 20th-century prose stylist?](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/andrei-platonov-russias-greatest-20th-century-prose-stylist-guardian) - An anti-Stalinist author who died in obscurity in 1951 may be the greatest Russian writer of the last century, his English translator Robert Chandler explains to Daniel KalderStalin called him scum. Sholokhov, Gorky, Pasternak, and Bulgakov all thought he was the bee’s knees. But when Andrei Platonov died in poverty, misery and obscurity in 1951,
- [The 'Lost' Books of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/the-lost-books-of-aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-publishing-perspectives) - When Aleksandr Solzhenistyn died aged 89 in August 2008 his reputation had been in flux for a long time. Even so, most obituaries acknowledged the power and significance of The Gulag Archipelago and his novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, although he was nevertheless dogged to the grave by accusations of anti-Semitism,
- [The Truth About Fort Hood](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-truth-about-fort-hood-coliseum) - “Every thing is what it is, and not another thing.”Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752)Like everybody else, when I first heard about the shootings at Fort Hood I immediately rushed to judgment, assuming that anybody opening fire on soldiers on an army base in Texas expected to die. Thus the shooter was either a soldier who had
- [Requiem for a Russian Mobster](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/requiem-for-a-russian-mobster-coliseum) - Is it just me, or has 2009 been exceptionally rich in the deaths of legendary figures? In August, Ted Kennedy was finally reunited in heaven with Mary Jo Kopechne. In July a much more interesting man, Harry Patch, the last veteran of World War I, died aged 111.Only a few days after Kennedy expired, Sergei
- [The End of the World is Here Again (The Spectator)](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-end-of-the-world-is-here-again-the-spectator) - Last weekend Roland Emmerich’s wrathful CGI God was at it again, killing billions in the name of the Holy Box Office in the film 2012. Having already caused carnage with aliens, an ice age and Godzilla, this time Emmerich took his cue from the Ancient Mayans, whose ‘long calendar’ purportedly stops in 2012. But not
- [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Was My Father](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/aleksandr-solzhenitsyn-was-my-father-the-times) - “The name cuts both ways. It’s an inalienable fact of life in my performing career. I don’t think about it a great deal but I am often reminded that others naturally think about it perhaps more than I do.”Ignat Solzhenitsyn is sitting with me in a restaurant on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The son of
- [Turkmenistan's Tragicomic Publishing Revolution](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/turkmenistans-tragicomic-publishing-revolution-publishing-perspectives) - When the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was invented in 1925, the literacy rate among its mostly nomadic population was somewhere between 2-3%. By 1970 not only had universal literacy been achieved, but the country had acquired its own national literature and mini-canon of “great authors,” many of them writing in forms—novels, plays, film scripts—that had
- [A Short History of Turkmen Literature](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/a-short-history-of-turkmen-literature-publishing-perspectives) - Turkmen literature began in the 18th century, thanks to Makhtumkuli (1733–1813) who composed mournful, painful poems about injustice, the decline of morals and the general harshness of life. Then came poets such as Mollanepes and Kemine whose works remain popular among Turkmen today. Makhtumkuli’s own poetry remained totally unknown in the West until the mid-1990s,
- [Nas asas do tédio](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/nas-asas-do-tedio-folha-de-sao-paulo) - Especial Para a FolhaBerlim hoje é celebrada por sua posição de vanguarda na cultura e na música, pelo design e pela arte vibrantes, e também como um ponto de encontro brusco e atraente entre o oeste e o leste. Tudo isso se justifica, mas para mim Berlim também é fascinante como centro de algo mais:
- [Paradise, Texas](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/paradise-texas-another-magazine) - In Paradise: A Pilgrimage in Seven StagesIHow to reach Paradise? This question has plagued mankind for millennia. In fact, the ancients largely despaired of entering heaven, which they knew was reserved for the gods and the semi-divine, or in the case of the Egyptians, those whose souls were so bereft of sin that they weighed
- [Сила диктаторского художественного слова](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/сила-диктаторского-художественного) - Туркменский президент Гурбангулы Бердымухаммедов – очередной тиран, пробующий себя на поприще печатного слова Скончавшийся после продолжительной душевной болезни диктатор Туркмении Сапармурат Ниязов, он же «Туркменбаши», предпринял не одну попытку овеять себя славой. Не последней среди них числится написанная им «Рухнама», то есть «Книга духа» – двухтомное бессвязное сочинение на историческую, автобиографическую и псевдофилософскую тематику, которое
- [Last Postcard from the Golden Age](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/last-postcard-from-the-golden-age-traveller-magazine) - Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan was the showpiece of Turkmenbashi’s Golden Age. Originally a village, then a Russian fort, subsequently a dusty soviet settlement, the city had been transformed once again by gas money into a grandiose fusion of Stalinist monumentalism and oriental fantasy. Cluttered with palaces, temples, towers and chubby golden statues of the
- [Paradise Has Relocated](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/paradise-has-relocated-foreword-to-the-book-and-gallery-show-by-photographer-sandy-carson) - (Foreword to the book and gallery show by photographer Sandy Carson)I well remember the media build-up to the assault from Hurricane Ike that wiped out so much of Galveston, Texas on September 13th, 2008. “A great destruction is coming!” we were told, and the authorities ordered the locals to abandon their homes that they might
- [Authors, Social Media and the Allure of Magical Thinking](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/authors-social-media-and-the-allure-of-magical-thinking-publishing-perspectives) - So anyway, I’ve got a great idea. Times are hard for publishers, therefore publicists should write books. No, really: they know what’s hot better than anyone. So they should write—maybe Harry Potter knock—offs like Percy Jackson, or political hate books on the villain of the hour. It doesn’t matter—just write something hot. What’s that? Writing
- [LONE STAR LUNCH: In Search of William S. Burroughs' Pea Field](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/lone-star-lunch-in-search-of-william-s-burroughs-pea-field-sabotage-times) - I’d been interested in Edinburg, Texas (they dropped the ‘h’ in the 1930s) ever since I’d bought a souvenir mug in a junk shop that read: Edinburg: Gateway to the Future. In fact, located as it is in the Rio Grande Valley 19 miles from the Mexican Border, it’s more like a gateway to drug
- [I Was A True Crime Addict](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/i-was-a-true-crime-addict-guardian) - A few years ago I took a break from my excessively wholesome diet of quality literature to go grazing in the world of trash. I read celebrity biographies, airport thrillers, detective stories—even new age twaddle like Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist. Some discoveries gave rise to new reading habits, while others—such as the Coehlo—led only to
- [A Short Tour of the Juarez- El Paso Border](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/a-short-tour-of-the-juarez-el-paso-border-ria-novosti) - I met Sgt. Ron Martin of the El Paso police department early in the morning, and was about to climb into his car when I found my way blocked by an assault rifle, propped up against the backseat like a faithful dog awaiting its master. A thorny issue of etiquette presented itself: Do I push
- [Juarez: City of Fear](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/juarez-city-of-fear-the-spectator) - “We’re not going to die, are we Dan?” asked my friend Joe, a CBS radio reporter, shortly before we crossed from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico, murder capital of the world.“Nah,” I replied. “Our guide is a priest. It’s a Sunday. The Narcos will respect that.”I was lying to make him feel better. In February
- [Criminal Incidences](https://www.danielkalder.com/weird/criminal-incidences-examiners-com) - 1Elgin officer sentenced for possession of child pornographyAttorney General Greg Abbott’s campaign against sex offenders and online sex predators in Texas claimed another scalp Monday when a Bastrop County Jury sentenced 48 year old Orvin Roger Miller to three years in prison for three third degree felony counts of child pornography possession. Prior to his arrest
- [Moscow By Night](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/moscow-by-night-publishing-perspectives) - In summer 2004 Akashic books published Brooklyn Noir, an anthology of crime stories set in New York’s most heavily populated borough. Although initially intended as a one-off, the book was so successful that the publisher was soon inundated with proposals from authors wanting to subject their own cities to the same hard-boiled treatment. Six years
- [Joel Osteen: The New Face of Christianity](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/joel-osteen-the-new-face-of-christianity-the-observer) - Forget Billy Graham and Jimmy Swaggart—the most popular and influential pastor in the US is Joel Osteen. On the surface he is modest and quietly spoken, but his belief in the “prosperity gospel” is changing the way people pray.“The praise and worship brought me here,” says Natalie, sitting beside me in the fifth row of
- [Review: Sandcastle and Robot](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/review-sandcastle-and-robot-the-dabbler) - The other day I was watching a Channel 4 news segment about the now ubiquitous “occupy” facemasks, in which they dragged around the aged hippy & magician Alan Moore, introducing him to various youthful idealists/scrofulous layabouts camped outside St. Paul’s as the “man behind the mask”. As the Channel 4 voice patiently explained, the grinning
- [The Secret Afterlife of Roy Orbison](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-secret-afterlife-of-roy-orbison-the-dabbler-sabotage-times) - Had he lived, Roy Orbison would have been 75 this year. Here, Daniel Kalder writes about the Big O’s transcendental power…For me, like most people, memory is intricately intertwined with music. Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 was a hit the year I started school, and so the song always resurrects those early experiences of classroom
- [Explaining Philip K. Dick's Exegesis](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/explaining-philip-k-dicks-exegesis-the-guardian) - The private papers documenting his cosmic illumination by a pink laser have long gilded the PKD legend. Published at last, do they shed much light for the rest of us?Philip K Dick rewired my brain when I was a mere lad, after I plucked Clans of the Alphane Moon at random from a shelf in my local
- [Mr Blair Goes to Kazakhstan](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/mr-blair-goes-to-kazakhstan-the-spectator) - Ah, Tony Blair—you can’t keep a good hustler down. One minute he’s singing the praises of formaldehyde at the opening of a methanol power plant in Azerbaijan (£90,000 for a 20-minute talk), the next he’s accepting a gig ‘consulting’ in Kazakhstan. For his advice on ‘issues connected with policy and the economy’, he could reportedly
- [Storytelling is a Deadly Business: Krzhizhanovsky's "The Letter Killers' Club"](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/storytelling-is-a-deadly-business-krzhizhanovskys-the-letter-killers-club-the-millions) - Anyone who has ever strolled into a Barnes & Noble and felt a certain despair at the sight of all those books lying on tables and shelves, many of them not very good, all of them emitting that silent, deathly scream: please decipher our inky squiggles and bring our stories to life, will identify with
- [Happy New Apocalypse!](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/happy-new-apocalypse-catholic-herald) - With apocalypse fever receiving a boost from all those alleged Mayan prophecies surrounding 2012, Daniel Kalder undertakes a brief survey of the history of Catholics and the End Times.Exiled to the Isle of Patmos, St. John wrote the Book of Revelation in a state of fevered anticipation. He could hardly have imagined the wildly destabilizing
- [Boris Akunin Interview](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/boris-akunin-interview-publishing-perspectives) - Grigory Chkhartishvili, AKA Boris Akunin, is an international publishing phenomenon. A scholar of Japanese language and culture, and a former literary translator, he wrote his first novel at the age of 40 and in the 13 years since its publication has sold twenty million copies of his books in Russia alone. Daniel Kalder interviewed him
- [The Wild World of Vladimir Sorokin](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-wild-world-of-vladimir-sorokin-publishing-perspectives) - At the London Book Fair earlier this month, Russia was featured as Guest of Honor. Nearly every Russian writer of distinction was in attendance, save for one: Vladimir Sorokin. It’s no surprise, since anyone who has followed Sorokin’s career knows he has hardly been one to follow the crowd. Yet this weekend, Sorokin will appear twice
- [Robert Irwin: The Dabbling Dervish](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/robert-irwin-the-dabbling-dervish-the-dabbler) - Robert Irwin is an English writer who has written six novels and numerous studies of different aspects of Islamic culture. He is also the Middle Eastern editor of the Times Literary Supplement and has been instrumental in shaping the list of the hyper literary and thoroughly esoteric publisher Dedalus. While still a student at Oxford
- [Review: Drawings from the Gulag by Danzig Baldaev](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/review-drawings-from-the-gulag-by-danzig-baldaev-the-dabbler) - Drawings from the Gulag begins unexpectedly, with a headshot of a proud homo-sovieticus from one of the USSR’s eastern minorities. Wearing thick soviet spectacles and a soviet suit, and with impeccable posture, this man gazes at you, the reader, with firm resolve. Here is a stalwart Comrade-of-the-Month, whose portrait would be placed at the entrance
- [Gorbushka- Moscow's One Stop Shop For Firearms And Pirate CDs](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/gorbushka-moscows-one-stop-shop-for-firearms-and-pirate-cds-sabotage-times) - My favourite record shop was not a shop, but a once illegal open-air market in Moscow, Russia that went by the name ‘Gorbushka’.Legend has it that in the early ’90s you could buy just about anything at Gorbushka—guns, ammo, possibly even a small nuclear device. Its main business however had always been pirate CDs, tapes
- [Review: Whispers in the Walls and Pandemonium](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/review-whispers-in-the-walls-and-pandemonium-coliseum) - My interest in comics ebbs and flows. So much that is published is embarrassingly bad, but I still love the medium, and so I want there to be books that are good. English language comics publishing remains dominated by superheroes, an exhausted genre which was great when the stories were aimed at young lads, but
- [The Post-Moebius Upholders of a Proud French Comic Book Tradition](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/the-post-moebius-upholders-of-a-proud-french-comic-book-tradition-the-guardian) - In March, Jean “Moebius” Giraud died. This was a sad day for comic readers as Giraud was probably the finest artist ever to work in the medium. He could draw anything, in any style, and his work was always exquisite.More than that, Giraud possessed a remarkably free imagination. In the 1970s he co-founded Métal Hurlant, an influential
- [China City Stories: an interview with Ra Page](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/china-city-stories-an-interview-with-ra-page-the-dabbler) - Despite its rise China remains an enigma for many in the West. As fiction can provide a way to get under a culture’s skin—the short story doing so in immediate and concentrated fashion—we thought Shi Cheng: Short Stories from Urban China sounded intriguing.The anthology is an upcoming production of short story and poetry specialist, Comma
- [Meet The Toughest Clerics Who Ever Lived](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/meet-the-toughest-clerics-who-ever-lived-the-catholic-herald) - Daniel Kalder says that St Ignatius set a high standard when a cannonball tore open his legEarly Christian practice emphasised asceticism and poverty, but the idea of radical withdrawal from the world in pursuit of God did not emerge until the third century AD. By that time hermits and ascetics already existed, but they lived in
- [When Writers Censor Themselves](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/when-writers-censor-themselves-the-guardian) - The suppression of literature is an ancient tradition that probably started with the invention of writing and which thrives today all over the world. In the west we generally venerate those authors who stand up against acts of silencing by the authorities. But what are we to think when an author suppresses himself?The easiest form
- [PP Appreciation: Ex-Marvel Man, Pariah, Blogger Jim Shooter](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/pp-appreciation-ex-marvel-man-pariah-blogger-jim-shooter-publishing-perspectives) - Is the best blog in publishing written by a 60 year-old former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics? I think so. Though he may not be a household name, in the world of comics Jim Shooter is a legend. He sold his first script at age 13, and by the age of 28 was editor-in-chief of Marvel
- [Red Plenty Book Review](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/red-plenty-book-review-dallas-morning-news) - While the “Russia” shelves of American bookstores groan under the weight of heavy tomes on the horrors of Stalin and the Gulag, the relatively liberal period that followed has attracted little interest from authors, scholars and publishers. This neglect is unsurprising as Khrushchev’s reign included much less slavery and killing, so the story is not
- [One-Armed Gunslingers and Germans in Teepees: A Brief Guide to the Euro-Western](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/creative_dkalder) - The Western is the quintessentially American genre. However played out it might seem at times, it offers an incredibly versatile context for near-mythic narratives about good and evil, tales of man against nature, man against man, man establishing civilization in the wild, and the sins man commits when establishing that civilization. From Zane Grey to Cormac McCarthy, even
- [Early Jodo Vs. Late Jodo](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/early-jodo-vs-late-jodo-the-dabbler) - Looking for more bande dessinée lunacy? Then read on…Recently I reviewed The Incal, the epic psychedelic space opera from the all-round holy madman Alejandro Jodorowsky and French comics master Moebius. It is, as I said, good to a consciousness-scrambling degree. But Jodorowsky has many other works available in English, and today I draw attention to two of
- [Notes From The Underground: The Rise and Fall of Russian Literature](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/notes-from-the-underground-the-rise-and-fall-of-russian-literature-open-skies) - In Moscow, a statue of the national poet Aleksandr Pushkin stands at the heart of the city, mere minutes’ walk from a monument to Feodor Dostoevsky. Metro stations carry writers’ names, and across Russia the homes of famous authors have been converted into museums.In Russia the written word has power, and relations between writers and
- [Book Review: ‘In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire’ examines the roots of Islam](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/book-review-in-the-shadow-of-the-sword-the-birth-of-islam-and-the-rise-of-the-global-arab-empire-examines-the-roots-of-islam-dallas-morning-news) - Since the 1990s, when Islamic extremism replaced the Soviet Union as the main geopolitical foe of the West, there has been an explosion in publishing about Islam. Some of those books have been polemics, while others have highlighted the religion’s more appealing aspects.What perhaps all these volumes have in common is that the authors accept
- [Pussy Riot and Russian "Art Protest"](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/pussy-riot-and-russian-art-protest-sabotage-times) - In April a shitty punk band with the excellent name of Pussy Riot attained worldwide fame by performing their less than awesome track “Holy Shit” inside Moscow’s Church of Christ the Saviour, which until the mid-1990s was the site of an open air swimming pool. “St. Maria, Virgin, Holy Mother, Drive Putin Out!” they sang,
- [Russian Author Dmitri Kosyrev, aka Master Chen, on His Asian Alter-ego](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/russian-author-dmitri-kosyrev-aka-master-chen-on-his-asian-alter-ego-publishing-perspectives) - MOSCOW: Russia’s Dmitri Kosyrev is a journalist and has written primarily about Asia for such publications as Pravda, Independent Newspaper, and New Newspaper. He also occasionally writes about wines, food, and cigars. Master Chen, his fiction-writing alter ego, writes historical spy novels set in Asia, often working in elements of jazz, love, and politics. Publishing
- [Yale U. Press Digitizes Stalin’s Massive Personal Archive](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/yale-u-press-digitizes-stalins-massive-personal-archive-publishing-perspectives) - Over the last two years Yale University Press and the Russian State Archive for Social and Political History have been quietly digitizing Stalin’s personal archive, consisting of thousands of documents, letters, and books, that passed through the Soviet leader’s hands. Vadim Staklo, the editor overseeing the project appeared earlier this month on the BEA panel
- [The Incal](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/the-incal-the-dabbler) - There comes a point in every individual’s lifetime when he or she must face the inevitable question: should I read a 307 page mystical- psychedelic Chilean-French science fiction tarot epic that was originally published in the same format as a Tintin book?The answer is to be found between pages 188-201 of Alejandro Jodorowsky and Jean
- [A Hit Man at 13](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/a-hit-man-at-13-the-spectator) - WOODVILLE, TEXAS: After a long wait in the visiting room of the maximum security wing of the “Gib Lewis Unit” Rosalio Reta finally arrived for our interview. Framed in the doorway, he looked about five feet tall, but projected an air of menace. The demonic face tattoos helped. That face was the last thing many
- [An Interview With Mikhail Shishkin](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/an-interview-with-mikhail-shishkin-publishing-perspectives) - Mikhail Shishkin made his literary debut in 1993 and swiftly went on to win acclaim as one of the greatest living contemporary Russian writers. He is the first author to win all three of the major Russian literary prizes—the Russian Booker, the Big Book Award, and the National Bestseller Award—while his work has been translated
- [Eine Kleine Rammsteinmusik](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/eine-kleine-rammsteinmusik-the-dabbler) - Daniel Kalder praises some German originals who seem to have sprung fully-formed from the head of Wotan.I first encountered Rammstein in an almost empty cinema on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street, during an afternoon matinee of the largely unloved David Lynch movie Lost Highway. Balthazar Getty had just broken into a house, a porno starring his lover
- [Legends of Russian Rock](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/legends-of-russian-rock-the-dabbler) - Today we enjoy some samples from around about 4000 years of Russian rock. What it lacks in groove it makes up for in lyrical folkiness…Among the titans of Russian rock, few are more legendary than Boris Grebenshikov, founder and sole constant member of the group Akvarium. This year he has been touring with the latest
- [Book Review: Maidenhair](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/book-review-maidenhair-dallas-morning-news) - Russia has one of the world’s great literary traditions, which for many is defined by bearded sages who write philosophically and morally committed mega-tomes. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn fit that mold, and not uncoincidentally was the last Russian author to attain global fame.Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, American audiences still expect Russian writers
- [Surprising Catholic Converts](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/surprising-catholic-converts-the-catholic-herald) - The most influential figures in the history of Catholicism have been converts. I think we can agree that Saint Paul, Saint Augustine and the Emperor Constantine are all pretty important guys, but not one of them was born into the church. In the UK likewise some of the most prominent Catholics started their spiritual journey
- [End Times Scenarios from Non-Abrahamic Religions](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/end-times-scenarios-from-non-abrahamic-religions-the-catholic-herald) - If you’re reading this, then you’re probably very scared. The world is about to end—on December 21st to be exact. No Christmas Turkey for you. Sorry, but it’s a fact: the Mayans said so. How did they know? Oh, something about calendars.On the other hand, perhaps the world won’t end. I mean, it’s had so
- [Canonizing Russian Literature for the World](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/canonizing-russian-literature-for-the-world-publishing-perspectives) - At 125 volumes, “The Russian Library” seeks to establish a Russian literary canon by offering the books in English to be read by the world. Former Penguin CEO and current Overlook publisher Peter Mayer has loved Russian literature for decades. Last June, following Russia’s turn as Country Focus at BookExpo America, he announced what is
- [David B., Master Cartoonist](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/david-b-master-cartoonist-the-dabbler) - Cartoonist David B. is ‘an exceptionally gifted artist who…reveals hidden truths inexpressible in another medium’. Quite a claim—but what think you?In earlier installments of these BD reviews I have tended to focus on psychedelic science fiction, the bizarre, or indeed the barely coherent. I like that type of stuff, since I prefer comics that remain
- [Waco: What Happened Next](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/waco-what-happened-next-esquire-magazine) - Twenty years ago, in rural Texas, 53 adults and 23 children were incinerated after a firefight with the FBI. The tiny sect of the Branch Davidians, and its charismatic leader David Koresh, was suddenly world famous. And, dead. Or was it? 20 years on Daniel Kalder revisits Mt Carmel, the notorious “cult compound” nine 9
- [Timur Gareev: Zen Master of Blindfold Chess](https://www.danielkalder.com/reportage/timur-gareev-zen-master-of-blindfold-chess-ria-novosti) - Austin, Texas, October 9 (RIA Novosti) – A motorbike-riding, parachute-jumping recent attendee at Nevada’s Burning Man festival who counts the illusionists David Copperfield and Harry Houdini among his heroes, Timur Gareev admits he is not your typical chess grandmaster:“I’d say I’m like an explorer,” the 25-year-old from Uzbekistan says. “It’s like a novelty for the
- [Turkmenistan: Proudly Maintaining the Tradition of Dictator Literature](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/turkmenistan-proudly-maintaining-the-tradition-of-dictator-literature-publishing-perspectives) - At the dawn of this century, the late and unlamented dictator of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov became a favorite of news editors hungry for weird stories to fill column inches. Styling himself Turkmenbashi, “the Father of All Turkmen,” the eccentric dictator imposed a series of seemingly arbitrary whims upon his post-Soviet populace, famously banning (for instance)
- [The Strange World of Your Dreams](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/the-strange-world-of-your-dreams-the-comics-journal) - “Comics are more like dreams than any other medium,” says “comics archaeologist” Craig Yoe in his introduction to The Strange World of Your Dreams, the latest book issued through his imprint at IDW. I am not sure about that grand claim; I have read the same thing said about movies, and no doubt many Surrealists thought
- [Vanishing Act: How Lou Reed Did Death](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/vanishing-act-how-lou-reed-did-death-the-dabbler) - Although he may not have racked up the body count of a Nick Cave or Johnny Cash, the late Lou Reed sang about death more often than many a popular musician. Indeed, he did it often enough that what I originally thought would be a single piece examining how his approach to the subject of
- [Review: Alejandro Jodorowsky's Pietrolino](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-alejandro-jodorowskys-pietrolino-the-comics-journal) - Alejandro Jodorowsky is one of the most unique creators in comics, drawing upon a biography, range of interests, and incredibly fertile imagination that makes him truly inimitable. His most famous comics work remains The Incal, created in collaboration with Moebius, and frequently reprinted in ever more expensive iterations by Humanoids. It is justifiably revered, a work
- [A Government Commission](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/a-government-commission-ria-novosti) - AUSTIN (Texas), June 16 (Daniel Kalder for RIA Novosti) – In the early 1990s Russia was awash with mystics, fortune tellers and messiahs as the collapse of the Soviet Union had opened up a Pandora’s Box of hitherto forbidden beliefs.After seven decades of state-supported atheism, all the world’s religious possibilities flooded the country at once,
- [Journey to the Centre of the Turkmen Universe](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/journey-to-the-centre-of-the-turkmen-universe-guardian) - Two years ago I met a man from Ashgabat in a McDonald’s in downtown Moscow. We chatted for a while and once he was relaxed enough, I decided to ask about some of the bizarre stories emanating from his homeland:‘Is it true that gold teeth are banned in Turkmenistan?’ I asked.‘Complete bullshit,’ he said.‘What about
- [Glaubensstreit auf heiligen Hainen](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/glaubensstreit-auf-heiligen-hainen-russland-magazine) - Drei finno-ugrische Völker leben heute in ihren eigenen Staaten: Finnland, Ungarn und Estland. In den Weiten Russlands finden sich verwandte Völker, die aber völlig unbekannt sind – zum Beispiel die MariDie Geschichte der Mari, früher Tscherkessen genannt, ist nicht wirklich eine glückliche. Im 6. Jahrhundert zunächst von den Ostgoten unterjocht, wurden sie später von den
- [Tall Tales](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/tall-tales-powells-com) - I’m reading a biography of Jerzy Kosinski at the moment: he was a holocaust survivor who wrote The Painted Bird- a best- selling autobiographical novel about his horrifying experiences as a child in occupied Poland. According to Kosinski he spent years wandering around on his own, abused by almost everyone he came into contact with.
- [A Brief Note on Cross- Cultural Communication](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/a-brief-note-on-cross-cultural-communication-powells-com) - Yesterday I mentioned that I was at a wedding in Michigan recently. While I was there, I met a lot of new people and found myself telling many of the old stories again. That can get tiring, even when I’m talking to interesting characters. That’s why, as a foreigner, I am always looking for something
- [The Bat Hotel](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/the-bat-hotel-powells-com) - Last week I was in Deerborn, Michigan to attend the wedding of one of my best friends. I was glad to be present, but still, I was a bit disappointed that the ceremony was not being held in nearby Detroit, where I hear there’s a lot of industrial decline and some really scary neighborhoods. But
- [The True Centre of the Universe](https://www.danielkalder.com/travels/the-true-centre-of-the-universe-powells-com) - Frank Zappa once said that the most common element on the planet is stupidity. I suspect it’s boredom. I got bored today myself. Maybe you did too. If so, we’re not alone: last year some guy at the Vatican published a paper on the ‘Empire of Boredom’, suggesting that ennui could be the major existential
- [The Joy of the Wasteland](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/the-joy-of-the-wasteland-powells-com) - Hello. My name’s Daniel Kalder. I am the author of LOST COSMONAUT, a blackly humorous ‘anti-travel’ book about my wanderings in four surreal (but real) wastelands. It also contains a manifesto for Anti-tourism, which you can read at my website www.danielkalder.com. Over the next five days I’ll be contributing daily dispatches to Powell’s about Russia,
- [Daniel Kalder: The Nervous Breakdown Self-Interview](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/daniel-kalder-the-nervous-breakdown-self-interview) - So, I hear you’ve written another book.That’s right. It’s called The Infernal Library and it’s a study of dictator literature, that is to say books written by dictators, that is to say the worst books in the history of the world. I trace the development of the dictatorial tradition over the course of a century, starting with
- [Death Wish: Why Are We So In Love With Apocalypse?](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewer/death-wish-why-are-we-so-in-love-with-apocalypse) - It’s impossible to avoid the apocalypse these days. Whether we encounter the End in the form of news reports on Global Warming, or fears of Iran getting bomb, or plague panics such as H1N1, we seem to be living in a high point of apocalyptic anxiety, with horrible Doomsdays lurking round every corner.And yet, the
- [From THE SHYMKENT DECLARATIONS](https://www.danielkalder.com/travels/from-the-shymkent-declarations) - (Excerpts from the resolutions passed at the first international congress of Anti-Tourists at the Shymkent Hotel, Shymkent, Kazakhstan, October 1999)As the world has become smaller so its wonders have diminished. There is nothing amazing about the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, or the Pyramids of Egypt. They are as banal and familiar as
- [Russia Bans the Koran](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/russia-bans-the-koran) - While Geert Wilders and assorted online provocateurs may like to talk about banning the Koran as an extremist text, few take the idea seriously. Well, except in Russia perhaps, where on September 20th a court in the Russian city of Novorossiysk banned the holy book of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims.To be fair, the court
- [Review: Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life by Jonathan Sperber](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-karl-marx-a-nineteenth-century-life-by-jonathan-sperber) - In his introduction to Karl Marx: A Nineteenth Century Life, Jonathan Sperber stresses that he doesn’t believe Marx was a prophet or that he has much to say to our age at all. He is a historical figure who was acting in a specific context, and his thoughts should be understood that way.And so the reader
- [Does Putin's New Literary Assembly Bode ill for Russian Writers?](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/does-putins-new-literary-assembly-bode-ill-for-russian-writers) - Pushkin: Not a BelgianRussia has a long history of revering writers; it also has a long history of censoring, exiling, corrupting and, on occasion, killing writers. The Tsarist and Soviet authorities recognised that the written word was powerful and thus dangerous – a view widely held in the country until the 1990s, when authors suddenly discovered
- [For Instant Christmas Spirit, Blow Here](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/for-instant-christmas-spirit-blow-here) - A Seasonal Kalder Klassik:Four years ago, I spent Christmas in Texas for the first time. Shortly beforehand I’d been driving around in the desert out West, and I have vivid memories of the return journey which, late at night, brought me through Johnson City, the birthplace of Lyndon B. Johnson.Now, Johnson City is a place
- [The Curious Russian Afterlife of Steven Seagal](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/the-curious-russian-afterlife-of-steven-seagal) - A Kalder klassik, to coincide with Seagal’s announcement he plans to run for governor of ArizonaLong, long ago—for about 15 minutes—Steven Seagal was a big deal in Hollywood. His movie “Under Siege” made a lot of money. But that was pretty much it. Next came a string of big-budget flops followed by a lengthy and
- [Incidents in the Night by David B.](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/incidents-in-the-night-by-david-b) - Last year Uncivilized Books expanded our knowledge of the enigmatic oeuvre of French cartoonist David B. by releasingIncidents in the Night. Although it is the most recent of David B.’s books to be issued in English, Incidents was initially published as three volumes between 1999 and 2002 and is thus older than everything American readers
- [Dictator Lit: The Poetry of Ayatollah Khomeini](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/dictator-lit-the-poetry-of-ayatollah-khomeini) - Perhaps the most famous literary critic of the 20th century, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1902-1989) was renowned for his vehement loathing of the work of Salman Rushdie. Indeed, the Ayatollah (or Imam, as he liked to be known) loathed the Satanic Verses so much that he called for Rushdie’s execution. Now Rushdie may be a bit
- [Movie Nights with Stalin](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/movie-nights-with-stalin) - Stalin, like all murderous totalitarian tyrants, was big on secrecy. It’s therefore probably a safe bet to assume that he would not have been best pleased had he learned that one day his personal papers would be searchable from anywhere in the world on a machine called a “computer,” and that a bearded Scotsman working
- [Kremlin Kids Gone Wild!](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/kremlin-kids-gone-wild) - Life is not easy for the offspring of dictators. Look at Gaddafi’s kids, who are either dead, in prison or in exile. Bashar al-Assad would have been an ophthalmologist if his elder brother hadn’t died. But now he has to kill thousands or be killed himself. Even Kim Jong-un, allegedly the supreme overlord of 24
- [On Russian Balconies](https://www.danielkalder.com/feuilletons/on-russian-balconies) - On a recent visit to Istanbul I stayed in an apartment looking out on the Bosphorus. Every morning I’d get up and see the sun sparkling on the surface of the water as birds circled languidly overhead. At night it was even better, as the thumping techno from the pleasure boats and the call of
- [Lost Territories](https://www.danielkalder.com/weird/lost-territories) - I SoulIt is well-known that when Lenin died in 1924 his brain was extracted from his skull and subsequently dissected by Soviet scientists who sought to reveal the source of his genius. Less well-known is that while his embalmers were excavating the rest of his innards they found his soul dispersed throughout his torso. This is
- [Ask the Expert: Anti-Tourism](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/ask-the-expert-anti-tourism) - Daniel Kalder is the author of two of my favorite books of the 21st Century: Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-Tourist and Strange Telescopes: Following the Apocalypse from Moscow to Siberia. His newest book, The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy, will be released on March 6, 2018.In our Q&A, Daniel discusses some
- [10 Things I Learned From Reading Terrible Books Written by Dictators](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/10-things-i-learned-from-reading-terrible-books-written-by-dictators) - The 20th century’s most infamous dictators were also authors, often prolific ones, complementing the atrocities they visited on humanity with crimes against literature. For his new book, The Infernal Library: On Dictators, the Books They Wrote, and Other Catastrophes of Literacy, Daniel Kalder read the significant works from this benighted subgenre, from the vast theoretical corpus
- [An Interview with Portugal's Expresso Newspaper](https://www.danielkalder.com/kalder-as-interviewee/an-interview-with-portugals-expresso-newspaper) - Was there anything in Salazar’s writings that impressed/surprised you?I wouldn’t say that anything “impressed” me, beyond that one of his books, Doctrine and Action, was published in the UK by Faber in 1939, the same house that published my first two books 67 and 69 years later respectively—so he and I share something in common.In
- [Death Sentences](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/death-sentences) - Daniel Kalder spent almost a decade reading the books of history’s worst tyrants so that you wouldn’t have to. Here he selects some of his favorite sentences written by dictators.Colonel Gaddafi: “Freedom of expression is the right of every natural person, even if a person chooses to express his or her insanity.” Many dictators proclaimed
- [Tradition and the Individual Tyrant](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays/tradition-and-the-individual-tyrant) - The dictators of the 20th century were firm believers in the power of the written word. Lenin had read the theories of Marx and the Russian radical tradition but it was Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s novel What is to be Done? that caused him to abandon chess and other “distractions” to dedicate himself full time to revolution.
- [Review: Foligatto by Nicolas de Crécy and Alexios Tjoyas](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-foligatto-by-nicolas-de-crecy-and-alexios-tjoyas) - There are not many comics which feature bloated, castrated opera singers as the lead character.In fact, it’s quite possible that there’s only one: Foligatto, by writer Alexios Tjoyas and artist Nicolas de Crécy, which was recently published by Humanoids. As you might expect, Foligatto is an extremely unusual work. In fact, it’s so unusual that
- [Review: The Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-the-zhivago-affair-the-kremlin-the-cia-and-the-battle-over-a-forbidden-book) - Nadezhda Mandelstam, widow of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, once noted a “remarkable feature” common to Soviet leaders: “their boundless, almost superstitious respect for poetry.”Indeed, as Peter Finn, a former Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post, and his co-author Petra Couvée point out in their new book The Zhivago Affair, in the Soviet Union
- [Review: The Romanov Sisters](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/review-the-romanov-sisters) - The extent to which readers will enjoy Helen Rappaport’s The Romanov Sisters will most likely depend on one or two important factors.First, it will help if you haven’t spent much time reading about the Russian Revolution, or if you have, that you enjoy hearing familiar details retold. After all, the tale of the last imperial
- [Here Be Deplorables](https://www.danielkalder.com/reviews/here-be-deplorables) - A few years ago I was at a wedding in Delaware when the father of the bride, on learning that I lived in Austin, asked whether Texans still wore spurs and had guns holstered at their hips. I assumed he was joking: this successful businessman had to know that Texas is home to NASA, Dell
- [Podcast: The Killer's Canon](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/podcast-the-killers-canon) - There are a lot of very good, very long books out there: Middlemarch, War and Peace, Don Quixote, the Neapolitan Novels. And then there are the very long books you probably won’t ever want to read, like Leonid Brezhnev’s memoirs, Saddam Hussein’s hackneyed romance novels, or the Kim family’s film theory. This show is about
- [The Worst Sponsorship Deal in the History of Pro Sports?](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/the-worst-sponsorship-deal-in-the-history-of-pro-sports) - (Daniel as Contributor) While I was promoting my third book, The Infernal Library, I met producer Gary Waleik and did a couple of fun things with him for the sports-themed NPR radio show Only a Game, although I have close to zero interest in sport. The first of these explored Colonel Gaddafi’s brief sponsorship of a
- [Chess City: A Monument to an Impossible Dream](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/chess-city-a-monument-to-an-impossible-dream) - (Daniel as Contributor) Radio producer Gary Waleik and I had so much fun working together on the Gaddafi piece that we later collaborated on a story about Chess City, the fantastical vanity project of the former president of Kalmykia, Kirsan Iliumzhinov. Gary did a great job tracking down people who had actually played chess there, as
- [Lost in the Stacks](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/lost-in-the-stacks) - (Daniel as Contributor) I did a ton of podcast and radio interviews when The Infernal Library came out. In the early stages I even did a radio tour, which involved answering the phone during early morning “drive time” radio shows across the US to talk about the book for 5-10 minutes before people arrived at their offices. This
- [The Digital Human: Protection](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/the-digital-human-protection) - BBC Radio 4 (Daniel as Contributor) Aleks Krotowski explores living in a digital world.Listen here
- [Cornerstones: Siberia](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/cornerstones-siberia) - Cornerstones: SiberiaBBC Radio 3 (Daniel as Presenter)Daniel Kalder conjures up the vast landscapes east of the Urals, where taiga becomes tundra. Siberia is more a state of mind than a place, given how the term encompasses not only the endless forests of the taiga but also that which lies beyond them, where the trees dwindle,
- [Digitising Stalin](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice/digitising-stalin) - BBC Radio 4/BBC World Service (Daniel as Presenter) For Stalin, privacy was key. So how would he feel about his secrets being revealed? The Stalin Digital Archive is the result of a collaboration between the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI) and Yale University Press. As it approaches completion, the implications of this

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.danielkalder.com/) - Thus Spake Daniel Kalder: Essays, reviews and marginalia by the author of The Infernal Library, Strange Telescopes and Lost Cosmonaut. Sign Up Today!
- [Cookie Policy](https://www.danielkalder.com/cookie-policy) - This page provides comprehensive information about how we use cookies on our website to enhance your browsing experience, improve website performance, and deliver personalized content. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit our site. They help us understand how visitors interact with our website, allowing us to offer
- [Gallery](https://www.danielkalder.com/gallery) - Jump to a SectionBad Books by Terrible People Glimpses Through a Strange Telescope What the Anti-Tourist Saw Jump to a SectionThe Infernal Library Strange Telescopes Lost Cosmonaut As Contrubutor Bad Books by Terrible People Books by dictators in my collection that I consulted for The Infernal Library, plus some interesting studies. See The Infernal Library under
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.danielkalder.com/privacy-policy) - What Information Does This Site Collect? Newsletter or Essays (the blog): If you voluntarily sign up for Daniel Kalder’s newsletter or blog, this site will record your name and email address. You can refuse to supply personal information, but that will exclude you from certain related activities such as receiving newsletters, blog updates, and other
- [Books](https://www.danielkalder.com/books) - Jump to a SectionBad Books by Terrible People Glimpses Through a Strange Telescope What the Anti-Tourist Saw Jump to a SectionThe Infernal Library Strange Telescopes Lost Cosmonaut As Contrubutor The Infernal Library ‘A mesmerizing study of books by despots great and small.’The Washington PostA harrowing tour of “dictator literature” in the twentieth-century, featuring the soul-killing
- [Welcome](https://www.danielkalder.com/welcome) - Hello, my name is Daniel Kalder.I’m a writer, originally from Scotland, who now lives in Texas after spending 10 years in the former USSR. I am the author of three books, including the pioneering work of anti-tourism Lost Cosmonaut, the apocalyptic memoir-travelogue Strange Telescopes and The Infernal Library (UK: Dictator Literature) a cultural history of books written by despots.
- [Contact Daniel Kalder](https://www.danielkalder.com/contact-daniel-kalder) - Notice: JavaScript is required for this content. Agent:Jim RutmanSterling Lord Literistic LLC65 Bleecker StreetNew York, NY 10012Phone: 212-780-6050Fax: 212-780-6095Email: info@sll.com
- [Cookie Policy (EU)](https://www.danielkalder.com/cookie-policy-eu) - [cmplz-document type="cookie-statement" region="eu"]
- [Voice](https://www.danielkalder.com/voice) - A selection of radio broadcasts and podcasts for the BBC and elsewhere, usually with me as a contributor or interview subject. Immortal North BBC Radio 3 (Kalder as Contributor) As the clock ticks down towards midnight and a New Year looms, it’s hard to escape thoughts of the passage of time, ageing, the meaning of
- [Essays](https://www.danielkalder.com/essays) - Or more accurately, “essays etc.” Here you will find a selection of essays, reviews, features, feuilletons and the occasional experimental piece. You can also find archives for specific publications here, here and here. The Road to Muskville, Texas A road trip to Elon Musk's company town in Bastrop, Texas. Continue Reading Frank Zappa: America’s last rebel Doubtless the fake

## Categories

- [Essays](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/essays)
- [Reviews](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/reviews)
- [Feuilletons](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/feuilletons)
- [Reportage](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/reportage)
- [Travels](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/travels)
- [Kalder as interviewer](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/kalder-as-interviewer)
- [Kalder as interviewee](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/kalder-as-interviewee)
- [Weird](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/weird)
- [Voice](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/voice)
- [Russia](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/russia)
- [America](https://www.danielkalder.com/category/america)

## Tags

- [Travel](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/travel)
- [Austin](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/austin)
- [Texas](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/texas)
- [Elon Musk](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/elon-musk)
- [Weird](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/weird)
- [California](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/california)
- [UnHerd](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/unherd)
- [reviews](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/reviews)
- [death](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/death)
- [New York](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/new-york)
- [Lou Reed](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/lou-reed)
- [Beaches](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/beaches)
- [Russia](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/russia)
- [literature](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/literature)
- [Comics](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/comics)
- [Marvel Comics](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/marvel-comics)
- [music](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/music)
- [war](https://www.danielkalder.com/tag/war)