💡 SPOTLIGHT

García Márquez's final novel and the eternal beauty of the unfinished

The late Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author's sons have published his draft novel “See You in August” against his will. Yet no work of art is ever really finished. And excerpts and fragments are suited to our anxious times, writes William Ospina in Bogotá-based daily El Espectador.

I struggle to understand the quibbling over whether or not it was right to publish En agosto nos vemos ("See You in August"), the draft of a novel by the late Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. In our time more than ever, it is absurd to think that a work of art must be finished. Indeed, who can tell when a work of art really is complete? As someone observed, "finished" is a way of saying you're tired of the work.

If it is for the author to decide, we'll find that certain literary classics are unfinished because their authors considered them so. One is Virgil's Aeneid. The Roman poet asked his friend and patron, Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, to destroy it. And we owe its very existence to the fact that he loftily ignored the request.

This year, 2024, is full of anxieties and horrors, like the "beacon of black lights" described by Colombian poet León de Greiff. The only light may be the unflinching lucidity of that murky fantasist Franz Kafka, who died 100 years ago. Some 20 centuries after Virgil, Kafka, too, asked his friend Max Brod to burn everything he had written. Practically everything he wrote was unfinished — which would be a fitting title for an edition of his complete works!

Brod also refused. Except Kafka did not want his writings destroyed because he considered them incomplete. Rather, he saw them as flawed, unsatisfactory or even useless — which is different. Any author can feel that about any of his or her works. The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges said it best when praising the incomplete: "A good poem is one that may be improved, because you could never make a bad one better."

It is said (and if it isn't true, it should be) that Michelangelo left an unpolished fragment on the crown of his David sculpture, so that a tiny piece of it would remain connected to the quarry the stone came from — or its "ancient, original disorder" as the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin put it. The list of unfinished works is thus long and admirable.

For works of art, an unfinished quality adds to their attraction, giving them mystery and intrigue and fueling conversations on their flaws and virtues. We love and are fascinated by the unfinished symphony — and not just Austrian composer Franz Schubert's. A memorable chapter of German writer Thomas Mann's novel Doktor Faustus has a professor elaborating on why German composer Ludwig van Beethoven's "Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111" has no third movement. [...]

— Read the full article by William Ospina for El Espectador, translated into English by Worldcrunch.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• U.S. reports death of senior Hamas military leader Marwan Issa: One of Hamas’ top leaders Marwan Issa died in an Israeli airstrike according to U.S. White House official, Jake Sullivan. As deputy military commander, Issa would be Hamas's most senior leader to die since the war began on Oct. 7. Israeli media sources have reported that Issa was killed in a strike on a tunnel complex under the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza last week. Follow Worldcrunch’s coverage of the situation in the Middle East here.

• Europe must shift to “war economy,” says top EU official; Putin invites Eastern Ukrainians to “home family”: Europe must strengthen its defense capabilities and shift to a “war economy” mode in response to the threat posed by Russia, European Council President Charles Michel said. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin rallied the war effort in Ukraine at a Monday night victory celebration in Red Square after his stage-managed reelection. He invited eastern Ukrainians to come back to their “home family.”

• Trump fails to secure bond for $454 million judgment in civil fraud case: Donald Trump's efforts to secure a bond to cover a $454 million judgment in a New York civil fraud case has been rejected by 30 surety companies, inching him closer to the possibility of having his properties seized. The former U.S. president must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or post a bond to stave off the state's seizure while he appeals Justice Arthur Engoron's Feb. 16 judgment against him for misstating property values to dupe lenders and insurers.

• Gambia votes to reverse landmark ban on female mutilation: Gambia has taken steps towards lifting a ban on female circumcision, a move that could make it the first country in the world to reverse legal protections against the practice for millions of women and girls. Politicians in the West African nation’s parliament voted to advance the controversial bill, which would repeal a landmark 2015 ban on female genital mutilation that made the practice punishable by up to three years in prison.

• Hong Kong passes tough security law: Hong Kong has passed a tough security law that authorities say is necessary for stability, but which critics fear will further endanger civil liberties. Article 23 targets new offenses like external interference and insurrection, and penalties that include life sentences. It was fast-tracked through its final stage by the city's pro-Beijing parliament in less than two weeks. More on Hong Kong here.

• China property giant Evergrande accused of $78bn fraud: Chinese property giant Evergrande and its founder, Hui Ka Yan, have been accused of inflating revenues by $78 billion in the two years before the firm defaulted on its debt. Hui also faces being banned for life from China's financial markets. Back in January, Evergrande was ordered to liquidate by a Hong Kong court.

• “Where are the women?” Michelin Guide gets heat on new stars: The prestigious Michelin Guide added 52 new starred restaurants in France, the highest of any country, yet critics noted that only six women were among those recognized. Follow Worldcrunch’s coverage of all things food & beverages here.

🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Madrid-based daily El País dedicates its front page to Gaza with a headline reading “Spain warns of the ‘real and direct’ risk of terrorism due to the war in Gaza.” ​​Spain’s National Security Council warns of potential terrorism threats as the war in Gaza continues, now exceeding 31,000 deaths. It also warns there is an increase in circulation in Europe of weapons and explosives because of the war in Ukraine. It says there is an increase in “the terrorist threat, violent extremism and the emergence of new movements that promote a radical and violent ideology.”

📰 STORY OF THE DAY

Bashar Al-Assad, still running from his father's shadow

Recent changes in Syria's security apparatus are yet another step in President Bashar al-Assad's years-long effort to escape the shadow of his father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, more than two decades after his death, reports Feras Dalaty in Arabic-language independent digital media Daraj.

🇸🇾 In Syria, reports emerged recently about restructuring the security apparatus of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, including changes in top positions, reassigning or replacing top officials. In January, Kifah Melhem notably replaced Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk, 76, as head of the National Security Bureau. One theory is that the changes are part of Bashar al-Assad's years-long effort to escape the shadow of his father, former President Hafez Assad, more than two decades after his death and his perceived victory in a global war.

🎖️ Replacing Mamlouk with Melhem is Assad's most recent step in the process of isolating the old guard, who were appointed by Hafez Assad. This process began more than two decades ago, when Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father and began to put in place a “new generation” that has run the country in an era of war and blood. His decisions and actions aim not only to uproot his father’s legacy, but also to write a dark chapter in Syria's history.

🇷🇺🇮🇷 The shadow of his father has apparently triggered something in Assad's mind. That included chants of his supporters he heard during his speeches when the civil war began more than a decade ago: “They fought you, and forgot who your father was!” In recent years, after what he perceived a “victory” in Syria’s civil war, a “global war”, Assad has distanced himself from his father’s shadow. Yet Assad's regime has become merely a front; Russia and Iran virtually control his regime, despite the unprecedented economic slide.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

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