I have already spent an inordinate amount of time on Szilárd Demeter, the director-general of the Petőfi Literary Museum (PIM), whose appointment caused considerable distress in Hungarian literary circles. He and his ideological compatriots have been heavily involved in a far-right cultural war that broke out on the pages of Magyar Idők two years ago. The mostly Transylvanian group came to Budapest to end what they considered to be the overwhelming presence of liberals in the world of culture. Many people predicted at the time of Demeter’s appointment that his literary and political views would wreak havoc on Hungarian cultural life. Demeter, who as a teenager spent his weekends in the village of Vlăhița (Szentegyháza) looking for a good fight with boys from the neighboring village, has an irritating way about him, which signaled trouble quite independently of his political views.
Although Demeter’s appointment in December 2018 was met with criticism from the literary world, the more objections were raised the more the Orbán government seemed to be satisfied with his activities. Every time one turned around, Demeter was given another important post. For example, in August 2019 he was named ministerial commissioner “responsible for the integrated development of the Hungarian book and literary collections.” He will apparently prepare and coordinate a real estate investment for the “House of Hungarian Language,” where all institutions connected to Hungarian literature and culture will move. That means the relocation of the Széchenyi Library, which is the national library of the country, PIM, and who knows what else.
However busy Demeter may be, he is obviously a man of boundless energy who is always looking for new projects to lay his hands on. Recently, he decided to establish a literary scholarship specifically designed for middle-aged writers. Apparently, literary scholarships for young writers are already available and the older generation is also taken care of, but writers between the ages of 30 and 60 have been left out. Here I should admit that, with the exception of very few names on the list of the awardees, I’m unfamiliar with these writers’ works. Even János Térey, after whom the scholarship was named, was unknown to me, but I’ve been told that Térey, who died suddenly last summer at the age of 49, was a very talented writer with a considerable opus. His list of awards is impressive. Demeter apparently chose to name his scholarship after him because the poet expressed his desire to bury the ideological differences that exist in the Hungarian literary community. Demeter discussed his decision only with Térey’s widow, who also became a member of the board of trustees, which includes the notorious János Dénes Orbán, another Transylvanian who began Viktor Orbán’s Kulturkampf.
Photo: Matej Pusnik
Right now, because of the recent announcement of the awards, the whole Hungarian literary community is in an upheaval. The scholarship is quite generous. The recipient will receive 320,000 forints a month for two years, and that term may be extended to a maximum of five years. To be eligible, a writer must have published two books already and is supposed to produce another one in the next year or so. After the first two years, the members of the board can decide whether the writer in question deserves another year of financial support.
Several writers who learned about the scholarship opportunity ahead of time said that they wouldn’t accept the scholarship given out by Demeter since he is one of the promoters of Viktor Orbán’s cultural war. Five turned the scholarships down after the winners’ names were released, including Imre Bartók, who is the author of six or seven books currently available in bookstores. He was supposed to represent Hungary on a program to be held in March called “The Night of Literature,” which is being organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. But a day after he withdrew his name from the list of recipients of the Térey scholarship, he was informed that the ministry had withdrawn his nomination, due to a change in the program’s concept. Clearly, Bartók was being punished for not accepting the scholarship. The ministry’s action was followed by a unanimous outcry in the liberal literary community.
Demeter doesn’t have much sympathy for the writers; in fact, he called them “lunatics whose aggressive behavior becomes counterproductive.” As far as Demeter is concerned, the ministry did the right thing. “Somebody made a political statement that he doesn’t want to legitimize what he calls a ‘troll army’ and [the ministry] got the message and modified the concept.”
Why do some commentators find the Térey affair “one of the most sinister moves of the present government’s literary policy,” especially because there are many deserving writers among the recipients who are known not to be friends of the Orbán regime? If I follow Péter Urfi’s logic in 444.hu, the trouble lies in Demeter’s decision to include really talented writers “from the other side” alongside right-wing “comrades” of the regime who have not a shred of literary talent.
The small Hungarian book market leaves most writers financially stressed. They feel that they cannot turn down the opportunity for financial aid, even though they find the treatment of Imre Bartók, for example, unacceptable. The claim is that, with offers like the Térey scholarship, the regime is driving a wedge within the liberal group of writers who are the targets of Orbán’s culture war. As one of the writers, Krisztián Peer, noted, such “payments” lead to “separate deals,” which eliminates solidarity. As far as he is concerned, “we are not doing business with this system and its commissars.” But given the grip of the regime on all facets of life, I don’t know how long any individual can maintain such a principled, distancing position. Just as it happened in the Kádár regime, every member of the literary community is being turned into a cog in the political machine.
I wonder if Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, Fredrich Nietzsche, or even Edgar Allen Poe would have taken similar scholarship, and write what was aked in return?
Not many great writers earn good money from publishing and few of them done it for the money.
Emily Dickinson wrote 1,800 poems, less than a dozen were published, but that did not stop her writing, even when she was already unable to get out of bed.
Most writers write because they want to share their thoughts with us the readers and not because of the money they receive from a publisher.
Those writers who did it only for the money never amounted to much.
The art of writing has been referred to as an occupation of ‘unhappiness’. As in the Kadar days the literary actions of the Demeter Publishing Co continues on in the attempt to straitjacket the practice of literature on those whose opinions ‘differ’ from a now new literary zeitgeist. Once again we see that certain powers want to also hold the pens in writer’s hands and take away complete freedom of their movement. Result? Scripts made in perilous association giving it a tint of a sort of ‘hack’ robotic writing which gets spelled out in worthlessness. And of course does not help the image of the writer to those who subscribe to the true craft of what literature really is. Helping Demeter only denies literature’s quest to approach life with honesty not with literary artificiality. Don’t know at this point how far Demeter will go in the Fidesz book business but considering the the type of ‘collections’ he intends to build it doesn’t bode good stories. But there is another side here which will not change regardless of the era or ideological considerations and that is the craft of writing and who those who feel their calling to write…no matter what.… Read more »
‘Friendships in Hungary can be generalized as frequently ‘politically motivated’.
It turns out that in my personal experience and observation here this kind of practice is standardized, accepted and rewarded at ALL levels – even among the liberal intellectuals !!!
The source of the problem is hierarchical thinking and related social processes. Each era in the Hungarian political system and behavior has been polluted by this notion.
A toxic process leading nowhere good.
“Who pays the piper calls the tune”- the HU writers can not expect to receive public money and then write whatever crosses their head. They aren’t money for talent-only but any other condition can be attached to them. Complaining that they are “conditioned politically” is ridiculous, all public money are by default politically conditioned.
Óvoda, you should learn the difference between literature and propaganda. The only condition acceptable for writers may be that they continue writing. Spreading the regime’s ill ideology is what of the propaganda ministry does, it is your work. Result of the policy Orbán and his accomplices try to impose onto our literature is another cultural breakdown. But who does need Hungarian culture? We should be barely educated workers that blindly follow the dictator.
“Spreading the regime’s ill ideology is what of the propaganda ministry does, it is your work. ”
For me it is a labor of love. Not only that I am not paid but if I were to vote I would vote for a law which would direct 10% of everybody’s (myself included of course) monthly income directly to Orban’s family private account. This would cut down the time he wastes in concocting corruption schemes and allow him to fully devote to political issues.
However, these writers (as those academy researchers) seem want to live off public funding. Well, then write (and research) what the public says- (says through it elected representatives, it is a democracy)- that you should write.
It is elementary, there isn’t any decision on how to use the public money which is not political.
Wrong about Orbán again! That creature is busy with really everything in our country. Watching every single citizen’s payment of 10% would not give him more time, but less. Besides that you underestimate the level of greed – he just wouldn’t stop his criminal activities. And what you write about public funding is as undemocratic as the funding Éva wrote about today. We are not talking about democratic elected representatives, since the scholarship is not granted by parliament. Anyway, a parliament that is elected by rules that one single party invented for its own benefit only, that is elected without equal votes, without possibility of a fair campaign, with a state party, that is campaigning with tax money day in day out while other parties have to remain silent most the time, in elections that are forged and that is over-representing less than half of the population with 2/3 of MPs is not democratic. Besides that in any democracy the state is owned by the government, but the state is made up by all individual citizens. In favour of your ill ideology you accept all crimes of the regime and declare that it is democracy if the ruler destroys democracy.… Read more »
Ovidiu’s vision of a 10% additional tax on Hungarians as a way to curb Orban from addition thievery is incomprehensible to me. Of course being a pretty classical American conservative I am adverse to taxation except for infrastructure, defense, basic health care, public education up through secondary school (but not post secondary education unless it is linked to a form of required national service for military, health care, educational, or social services). The truth of the matter is social inequality is inherent to market economies that are not socialized. The only real question for myself and many other conservatives in accepting social inequality is the basic levels of supports necessary to prevent social disruption in a society. I would say that Andrew Yang the Democrat candidate for US President is really the only candidate honestly discussing the future of work in the USA and the massive elimination of jobs to robotics and AI. There are other aspects of Yang’s politics I don’t support at all, and he has about much understanding of international affairs as does Trump. But giving tax dollars to politicians to be less corrupt is mind blogging to me. I would add it is equally mind blogging… Read more »
Re: that ‘generous scholarship’.
Looks to be making a pact with the ‘king’s shilling’. All that will be likely to follow is compromise and the great one which always rears its head and never far away from endeavors… corruption. Just distorts the writing process that’s if it is to be legit.
10% to Orban’s bank account????? Government is to be working for the people not the rulers. Make them better readers. Better to have the 10% go to publishing kid’s books. One would have to be ‘The Stupids Step Out’. Kids book can sometimes teach alot to adults. 😎
“10% to Orban’s bank account????? Government is to be working for the people not the rulers.”
In an ideal world, which means not in this one. In this one you have to be realist and practical. As Singapore for instance :
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/10/world/asia/10singapore.html
Come on say it clearly: If Orbán would get 10% of our income he has more time to spread his hate and carry on his destructive “work”. That is important to you.
“Of course being a pretty classical American conservative”
You are a classical-liberal not a right/conservative. I have already explained you from where this American confusion of terms comes. US has never had a genuine conservative party/movement, its political history started with a liberal constitution. You are leftist (hence not surprising that you are here on Eva’s blog) but not of the Jacobin-left type (reincarnated in the modern “progressives” who insist in using the state, positive-rights, to advance “equality”), instead you are of the classical-liberal type, negative rights, minimal state.
But different means aside, fundamentally, morally, you are on the same side of the room as the progressives, and that’s the on the left side, not on the right one.
“We are a violent warrior nation, win, lose, or draw.”
You were. Now you are a laughingstock. Discounting “diversity”, you are a nation of obese white men watching Netflix and eating potato chips while celebrating gay-marriage and fighting not the Indians but for men’s rights to share the bathrooms with women. Get real, that America died long ago.
So speaks Magyar warrior, amazing.
The guy still stuck in Mom’s basement thinks he knows America.
Ovi
Sure, you are on the far right, ie. when you are a fascist everyone is on your left, ie. a leftist.
And btw what kind of great ideas, development or any positive change for the Hu society in has the Felcsutian regime produced since 1998?
(I know two but I’m not telling).
Ovi
Interesting idea, but it would make his wealth legit, while currently it’s proceeds of crime and some day, god willing, he and his mafia may be called to justice.
@Invidious, 4:06 am
Wrong again! That is not the way art and literature work. And by the way, the “piper” (as you call the criminal Orban clique), does not “own” the money, despite what they think.
How can you get things so screwed up?
Not too much OT – sorry, only in German:
A scathing review of the hate that is openly published in the net, especially against women or other outsiders:
https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/wie-der-hass-wieder-gesellschaftsfaehig-wird-kolumne
Reading this I had to think of our trolls immediately – hating gays, migrants, Greta, you name them, all kinds of opposition to the “White Majority” …
That this kind of hate ended before in physical force and killings is well known – not only Germany, but Kambodja and of course Hungary too.
And of course lynchings in the “race wars” in the USA.
PS:
We’ll probably move to a smaller house near Gran and on the way there passed one of the Richter Gedeon complexes several times. Every time I have to think of how Hungarians thanked this pharmacist for his service to their health – by shooting him and throwing his body into the Danube, together with many others …
Typical Hungarian:
They built a monument for him after WW2 – which has already been desecrated by idiots like *** insert troll name here***.
Again, sorry! The link had an error – this should work:
https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/wie-der-hass-wieder-gesellschaftsfaehig-wird-kolumne-a-19f42e25-a4b2-47a1-87e9-e82a789fba82
wolfi, I have explained that to you already few times. Hate is the creative emotion, love is merely procreative. Your hate, fear and loathing of the ‘paraszt’ has filled many (granted mindless) comments here. Greta too is angry 24/7 and fueled by hate (but she will outgrow it when -finally !- puberty hits, and she will become ‘all you need is love and flowers’)
Poor ovoda – transferring its hate onto others again. I pity the bunkó paraszt who work their a**es off to make O1G’s friends and family into billionaires – but still have to bring their own toilet paper into hospitals …
If you want to see hate look at that picture from 444 – or just in the mirror …
PS:
Your obsession with Greta is really disturbing – but for you little fascist creature of course everybody is a marxist-globalist, even the Pope or Obama.
You really are the perfect deterrent example … 🙂 🙂
Latent pedophilia.
And I do wonder when Ovika1G is going to hit puberty and outgrow its hate.
Re that song – it was written and performed first almost 25 years ago by Rammstein – do you know at all what it means? 🙂 🙂
Here’s some help: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_hast
and on that Ukrainian band:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Colorados
BRAINTARD LOOZER ··· In a way I feel sorry for SHEEPMAN, wearing his patheticity on his sleeve, like some sniveling teenager trying to prove his worth amongst a gang of mockers.
Our wannabe intellect tries to equate Greta Thunberg, whose criticisms are valid and are not the equivalent of hate, to people like SHEEPMAN himself, a racist who festers this website.
MAGYARKOZÓ
Zsolt Hanula attempted to explain the US Democratic party primary system to Hungarians in an Index article this week (https://index.hu/mindekozben/poszt/2020/01/28/a_nap_rejtvenye_mit_abrazol_a_terkep/) He compared Biden support to Sanders support by state in an electoral system he calls “értelmetlensége.” Hanula really does not provide the Hungarian public really any understanding of the role and power of State governments within the US federal system in the USA or within the two dominant political parties in the USA, and does not explain that the political parties in the USA are completely private organizations regulated really only by some tax laws. He does not explain that in fact the primaries themselves can be overruled by the convention itself in the situation of what is called a brokered convention (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokered_convention ).
Articles such as this really only add to the confusion in the minds of the Hungarian public. For the most part many Americans don’t understand that the two political parties are not written into the US Constitution. Nor do many people understand that the political parties make their own rules. For the most part Americans do not understand the European parliamentary system in comparison to the US system at all.
off-topic, Peter Eckstein Kovacs — former senator in the Romanian parliament (1990-1992, 2000-2008) and once an influential figure in UDMR/RMDSZ (the party/organization of the Romanian Hungarians) –blames Orban for the incident in Ditrau/Ditro. That is, he blames it on the influence of the local (Romania) Hungarian media which has come entirely under the control of Budapest. According to him, it is in its entirety controlled now by Budapest/Fidesz, and the same can be said of the UDMR/RMDSZ itself. This is, according to him, the explanation : the influence of the anti-foreigners/anti-migrants- discourse in the Hungarian-language media in Romania (owned de facto by Budapest), also the explanation for the hesitant, delayed reaction of the leaders of UDMR/RMDSZ, which allowed the situation to escalate.
as a side note, according to Eckstein, there are millions of euro poured by Orban into buying Romanian language (!) private-local newspapers with the purpose of influencing the Romanian public – it is done through a firm in Oradea/Nagyvarad (Bihor/Bihar county).
(link, in Romanian, https://www.rfi.ro/social-117859-cum-ajuns-discursul-anti-migranti-al-lui-viktor-orban-la-ditrau)
I don’t read Romanian, but assuming goggle translate got the article right it certainly was an interesting position linking Fidesz directly to the demonstration on the basis of immigration fear promoted in the Hungarian media. The Mayor of the town who also gave many interviews was extremely upset with the priest who organized the march on city hall, and argued in several different articles the priest fanned the flames of hostility towards the Siri Lankan bakers. He also discussed the mass exodus of younger people from Romania to the EU for higher pay.
Well it is time to watch the Super Bowl here with old friends, until tomorrow.
Eckstein is a Jew and does not represent Hungarians. RMDSZ was mostly a Jewish party until it was (mostly) purged by Orban.
Szent Bűnöző, thank you for pointing out the anti-Semitism of the Orbán regime and yourself.
Ovi
Tnx for the link.
No surprises, though it’s amazing how incredibly provincial Orbàn is, he’s out of his depth the moment he steps across the border – his policies in Transylvania
– have worsened the standing of the Hu minority in the eyes of the Ro majority and the Ro political elite,
– have accelerated the exodus of Huns from Ro,
– have corrupted and divided the He communities there.
What better recipe for liquidating the Hu minorities in the neighboring countries.
Suddenly ovoda is no longer a friend of O1G?
As I’ve said before there is no solidarity among our fascists – funny in a way! 🙂 🙂
Another terror attack in London. This time the attacker -who was eventually shot dead by the police- was armed with a machete and got to stab few people. He has been under surveillance as well as a potential terrorist !
But hey, at least the Brits have all those delicious choices of ‘ethnic food’.
An inconvenient truth.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/13/white-people-make-up-largest-proportion-of-terror-arrests-figures-show
Time to ship all those dangerous terroristic hetero white Christian males out of the UK and build a gulag for them in Antarctica. Cornish pasties are just not worth the danger they bring.
I’ve good news for you, Óvoda! Johnson got his will and no more evil Romanians will be admitted to the UK next year. Johnson wants to replace them with better people from Pakistan and Nigeria.
Ovoda, try to think for a moment (yes, I know it’s difficult for you …):
Who ruled the UK for the last years – and reduced the money for the police?
One of your right wing friends maybe
@all:
When the going gets tough suddenly there is no more solidarity between the right wingers/fascists in different countries/different groups. I’m waiting for zolidiot and ovoda to write on the bakery …
An incident you forgot to report about:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/woman-boy-window-escape-hate-crime-omagh-police-arrest-a9313711.html
Don’t forget, it is your ideology of hate that makes these things happen. You are not better at all than these criminals in Omagh or London.
Ovi
You are trawling for such news the whole continent from Sweden to Sicily, but even if you put these cases all together they can’t match the number of knifing and killings in Hu.
Granted, the killings of partners, neighbors or old pensioners doesn’t qualify as terrorism, but this doesn’t make much difference to the victims, their families and the scared communities. Much higher probability aside, it’s much more worrisome and terrifying if you have to fear your neighbors.
Official Chinese statistics:
As of February 1 [2], 2020
dead: 304 [ 361] up 18.8%
serious condition: 2110 [ 2296] up 8.8%
other condition: 11638 [14073] up 20.9%
discharged: 328 [ 475] up 44.8%
confirmed infection: 14380 [17205] up 19.6%
suspected infection: 19544 [21558] up 10.3%
under medical observation: 137594 [152700] up 11.0%
dismissed from observation: 8044 [ 10055] up 25.0%
If the rate of mortality (18.8%/day) will not change, every wo/men on Earth will be dead in 98 days, since
361*1.188^98 = 7,753,867,674
Chinese government rejects the idea that a Wuhan research lab created the novel virus:
“Coronavirus conspiracy debunked by Wuhan researcher”
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202002/02/WS5e36b2b7a31012821727432e.html
“Indian scientists recently published a non-peer reviewed paper suggesting scientists had artificially inserted genes from the HIV virus into the coronavirus, thus making it susceptible to anti-HIV treatments.”
Shi Zhengli, a researcher from the institute [Wuhan Institute of Virology] bets her “life that [the outbreak] has nothing to do with the lab.”
Source:
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn above
“A second Wuhan coronavirus patient is being treated with a combination of HIV/AIDS and flu drugs that officials from Thailand’s Ministry of Health say were successful in treating another infected patient, Thai officials said at a news conference Monday.”
https://edition.cnn.com/asia/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-02-03-20-intl-hnk/h_ce1faa4eebfc9b93c4e01cb4eb94f8c0