Purchases Today

[JBS]

Just ordered. Arkivmusic has this on special this weekend.

[Karl Henning]

The Rilling box of Bach's Cantatas was my last classical music purchase in June. Absolutely love it!

Nice!

[Florestan]

Maria Callas Remastered - The Complete Studio Recordings 1949-1969

[Wanderer]

It is at JPC for a mere 49.95€

Thank you, Harry, that is indeed where I got it from. 👍

Maria Callas Remastered - The Complete Studio Recordings 1949-1969

Very nice! 😎

[Florestan]

Very nice! 😎

I saw that coming. 

[vandermolen]

[KevinP]

OFF-TOPIC ALERT: (I bought this yesterday)





Including the back cover because the title is pretty misleading.

Thirty-four discs is a lot, and while I like renaissance music, after a while it does become, 'Okay, it's polyphony. I get it.'

Still, US$60.

Ordered from a third-party Amazon seller whose past orders have usually taken a month to reach me.

[Karl Henning]

OFF-TOPIC ALERT: (I bought this yesterday)


Including the back cover because the title is pretty misleading.

Thirty-four discs is a lot, and while I like renaissance music, after a while it does become, 'Okay, it's polyphony. I get it.'

Still, US$60.

Ordered from a third-party Amazon seller whose past orders have usually taken a month to reach me.

Zowie! That's a passel!

[KevinP]

It is indeed.

[Harry]

I added a few other disc to my order this morning.

[Madiel]

OFF-TOPIC ALERT: (I bought this yesterday)





Including the back cover because the title is pretty misleading.

Thirty-four discs is a lot, and while I like renaissance music, after a while it does become, 'Okay, it's polyphony. I get it.'

Still, US$60.

Ordered from a third-party Amazon seller whose past orders have usually taken a month to reach me.

Sorry, what's misleading about the title? I'm not getting it. Do you mean you expected a greater proportion of it to be Josquin?

[Traverso]

Damn right I did! I am totally fed up with the World! Nowadays people who want good things for everyone are in minority! Most people just want to ruin everything for everyone!

I am 51 and first time in my life I experience talks of possible power cuts! I thought he energy crises was a 70's thing and in the 21st century problems with energy are "only" environment/climate-related.

Just image how much populistic right-wing parties increase power in many countries. Democracy is dying and not only in the US! 

Thanks to social media everyone has 'a voice and see what the consequences are.
The Karl May books that I devoured as a young man are now also taboo and withdrawn from the market. This is just an example of how far it goes.

[Florestan]

The Karl May books that I devoured as a young man are now also taboo and withdrawn from the market.

Why?

[Traverso]

Why?

Indian books by Winnetou removed from stores after criticism

Are the books about Indian Winnetou racist and a wrong form of 'cultural appropriation'? A heated discussion has arisen in Germany about the fictional chieftain, which comes from the German writer Karl May (1842-1912). Publisher Ravensburger has taken two new Winnetou children's books from the shops for this reason.

The Dutch publisher of the books, Meulenhoff Boekerij, says it is following the German line. The sale of Dutch e-books and books about Winnetou will be stopped, but that still has to be "arranged".

The first Winnetou story dates back to 1875, followed by successful sequels. In the 1960s, several adventure films were made about the character and his experiences, followed by TV series in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2016, new film versions appeared on the German channel RTL. This summer, a new Winnetou film premiered in German cinemas.


The discussion about the sustainability of Winnetou focuses mainly on the publication of two new books, which were published on the occasion of that cinema film. On social media, the publisher was inundated with criticism of the stereotypes in the book series. In addition to the two books, a puzzle and sticker book were also taken from the store.

Ravensburger said in a statement that he acknowledged that the books hurt people. "We have come to the conclusion that the oppression of the indigenous population is being romanticized and surrounded by many clichés." The publisher says it is intensively involved with themes such as diversity and cultural appropriation. Editors will pay more attention to this in other editions, the German company promises.

Several German politicians, especially on the right wing of the political spectrum, and columnists believe that Winnetou's 'cancelling' shows that the discussion about racism and cultural appropriation has gone too far. Winnetou expert Andreas Brenne told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung that the two books make it clear that they are fiction and not an objective representation of indigenous peoples.

The new film also received a lot of criticism, including from critics, but the western can still be visited for the time being.

You can denounce and forbid everything, but it will only lead to more hypocrisy and not to a better world.

[Florestan]

Indian books by Winnetou removed from stores after criticism

Are the books about Indian Winnetou racist and a wrong form of 'cultural appropriation'? A heated discussion has arisen in Germany about the fictional chieftain, which comes from the German writer Karl May (1842-1912). Publisher Ravensburger has taken two new Winnetou children's books from the shops for this reason.

The Dutch publisher of the books, Meulenhoff Boekerij, says it is following the German line. The sale of Dutch e-books and books about Winnetou will be stopped, but that still has to be "arranged".

The first Winnetou story dates back to 1875, followed by successful sequels. In the 1960s, several adventure films were made about the character and his experiences, followed by TV series in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2016, new film versions appeared on the German channel RTL. This summer, a new Winnetou film premiered in German cinemas.


The discussion about the sustainability of Winnetou focuses mainly on the publication of two new books, which were published on the occasion of that cinema film. On social media, the publisher was inundated with criticism of the stereotypes in the book series. In addition to the two books, a puzzle and sticker book were also taken from the store.

Ravensburger said in a statement that he acknowledged that the books hurt people. "We have come to the conclusion that the oppression of the indigenous population is being romanticized and surrounded by many clichés." The publisher says it is intensively involved with themes such as diversity and cultural appropriation. Editors will pay more attention to this in other editions, the German company promises.

Several German politicians, especially on the right wing of the political spectrum, and columnists believe that Winnetou's 'cancelling' shows that the discussion about racism and cultural appropriation has gone too far. Winnetou expert Andreas Brenne told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung that the two books make it clear that they are fiction and not an objective representation of indigenous peoples.

The new film also received a lot of criticism, including from critics, but the western can still be visited for the time being.

Madness on stilts.

You can denounce and forbid everything, but it will only lead to more hypocrisy and not to a better world.

Agreed.

[Jo498]

They have gone mad but the only books withdrawn so far were a some of children's books accompanying a recent movie (now in the theaters) about the "young chief Winnetou", not the late 19th century May novels. I have not seen that movie and I actually dislike them "freeloading" on the famous name and books by another author. But it is beyond ridiculous.

Karl May, if anything, erred on the side of the "noble savage myth". Of course, these books are filled with clichées but the author was obviously deeply moved by the tragic fate of the "red man" and this is completely explicit in these books. Even the native opponents (obviously there are always some good and some bad guys) are often influenced/used by white villains and virtually all the Indians are described as proud and brave (incl. the villains) while this is rather different in his other large cluster of books taking place in the (also "dying") Ottoman Empire of the 1880s. The "western arrogance" shows more clearly here (for some reason he particularly hates Armenians, they are always double dealing villains and he made some unfortunate remarks as an old man when the Armenian genocide took place), although there is also a lot of good humour and compassion with people suffering from corrupt petty regional leaders etc. and, again considering that this is barely above penny dreadful literature, a fairly decent understanding of the problems of the faltering multicultural Empire with its many factions (e.g. in the book taking place in Kurdistan) and the Western powers meddling there.

As I said, I don't know details about these recent "adaptions" (probably little overlap besides names and places) but I can hardly imagine that they would use crude early/mid 20th century "redskin" clichées.
And Ravensburger giving in to a few idiots complaining on the internet might backfire...

[Karl Henning]

Yeesh.

[Florestan]

How about James Fenimore Cooper? Should he too be forbidden?

Anyway, in Romania you can sell, buy and read Karl May's books without any restriction or complaint. Heck, they were translated, published and very popular among kids and teenagers long before 1989.

[Traverso]

How about James Fenimore Cooper? Should he too be forbidden?

Anyway, in Romania you can sell, buy and read Karl May's books without any restriction or complaint. Heck, they were translated, published and very popular among kids and teenagers long before 1989.

What else comes out of this self-proclaimed "renaissance" that wants to make a clean sweep of all that is wrong.I fear that womanizer James Bond with his greedy hands may be the next victim.

[Florestan]

What else comes out of this self-proclaimed "renaissance" that wants to make a clean sweep of all that is wrong.I fear that womanizer James Bond with his greedy hands may be the next victim.

Jules Verne, Alexandre Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, Paul Feval, Eugene Sue etc etc etc --- pretty much any classical writer of adventure fiction could be (mis)construed as racist, sexist, mysoginistic and what not. Heck, even Shakespeare or Cervantes. 

Sometimes (often, actually) I feel only too grateful that I live in Romania, a backwater country where the latest social and cultural developments of the Western world have not (yet) taken root.