Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked QuestionsI am German, have lived in the U.S. for five years (the last three in Los Angeles, CA – nothing to do with the entertainment industry, though), relocated to Germany in the summer of 2003 and currently live in Frankfurt.
You'll find my email address on my contact page. Before you write, though, please do me a favor and check whether your questions or comments are already addressed on this page; particularly if they don't concern a specific author/artist or item reviewed. Thanks a lot!
It is a reference to Greek mythology, which I discovered in my very early childhood and have been fascinated with ever since. Both Themis and Athena were Greek deities:
Themis was a Titan (i.e. one of the deities preceding the reign of Zeus and his progeny); she presided over the law: "themis" actually means "law" in Greek. Similar to the Roman goddess of justice, who adopted Themis's image, she was often depicted blindfolded and holding a pair of scales. I have chosen her name as the first part of my screen name because I consider justice an essential (albeit sadly, way too often lacking) element of society: Without equal access to justice, there can be neither lasting peace nor freedom and democracy in any meaningful form.
Athena was Zeus's daughter, and the sister of Aphrodite (the goddess of love). She was the patron of wisdom and warfare, as well as the patron goddess of the city of Athens, which was named for her. While the precise origin of her name is unknown, some believe that it may derive from the Greek words "ather" (sharp) and "aine" (praised). Athena has been my personal heroine and my role model practically as long as I can remember. While the fact that I am a mere human provides some consolation over the fact that I will always fall woefully short in comparison to the wisdom exhibited by her, I very much hope that I am at least not entirely unworthy of her example.
Legend has it that Athena used to have a friend, a girl named Pallas (literally: "maiden"), whom she killed by accident and whose name she took by way of retribution and in her slain friend's honor. Henceforth, she was known as Pallas-Athena. I think it is therefore only appropriate if I combine her name with that of Themis, so as to give expression to the two attributes which I consider most important, both in society and in every idividual: justice and wisdom.
If you want to find out more, Behind the Name is a good site to look at, not just with regard to Greek names. This page is the one where you find explanations about names from Greek mythology. Lastly, here are some suggestions for further reading for those who are truly interested in Greek (and/or Roman) mythology.
I have loved books, music and movies ever since I was a kid – they are my number one source of inspiration, consolation and entertainment. Each story that I read, each movie I watch, and each piece of music I listen to offers me a new and different perspective on life. Many also open my eyes to worlds other than my own ... foreign countries and cultures, societies and people of centuries gone by, and creatures not constrained by the physical limitations of the world we know. I started to write reviews on Amazon.com in 2001, to find a new focus for my creative writing. However, on Amazon's site, like every other customer reviewer I am subject to the limitations imposed by that company: for example, I am limited to a maximum review length of 1000 words, and I have to give every item I review a star rating between 1 (lowest) and 5 (highest). On my own site, I can do away with such limitations. In particluar, I have decided to forego any rating system, be it expressed in stars or otherwise. I trust that you will be able to gauge my enjoyment of the item I am reviewing, and the degree to which I recommend it, even without seeing a given number of stars next to the review title. More fundamentally, though ... these are my reviews – so shouldn't it be a natural consequence that I am displaying them on my own website, too?
No. But I cooperate with a friend, The LofotenMoose (formerly known as The LiteraryMoose). If you find some of the things on my site of interest to you, then I strongly recommend that you visit his site, too. A word to the wise, though: You'll need a standards-compliant browser to properly access lofotenmoose.info; preferably Opera, though Mozilla Firefox also works, at least after a fashion. The Moose is a fiend for CSS, and his page's code is way beyond anything that Internet Explorer can handle ...
No – this is a hobby. I am not sure whether, if I ever accepted to write a review for money, this would not compromise my judgment in some fashion.
Absolutely not.
It's strictly a matter of my personal tastes. There are enough websites and guides already that are making their recommendations on the basis of the actual or assumed cultural value of the items in question – I feel that I neither need to, nor do I have the inclination to add my site to that particular pile. This is, of course, not to say that I don't value talent, quality and uniqueness/individuality; on the contrary, those are the very elements that I am looking for first and foremost. But all of those are, at least to a certain extent, subjective criteria: One person's straightforward style, for example, is another person's wooden composition. Therefore, I think that any recommendations (regardless whether mine, the LiteraryMoose's or those of the people who are paid for this kind of thing, such as critics and teachers: indeed, especially any recommendations made by critics and teachers) should merely be a starting point to your own journey; be it Modern Irish Literature, the great films noirs of the 1940s and 1950s and their modern progeny, the music of Tangerine Dream, French Literature of the 19th century, guitar gods and their legendary instruments, or the literature of the Old South and its dramatizations. Don't cling too slavishly to what is "supposed" to be a "classic," a "must-read," a "must-own" or [insert appropriate similar term]. Yes, I'm occasionally using those words, too. And yes, I do mean every one of them whenever I do use them. But again, this is always based on my own subjective criteria; and I never use such terms outside the context of a detailed review of the item in question. It would make me infinitely much happier to have persuaded you to give the book/movie/album in question a try based on the entire contents of my review than just because I have declared it a "must-own" item (or because anybody else has done so).
No. I list those awards, first, because it would be plainly uncourteous to the honorees who have received them not to mention major distinctions such as these on a page dedicated to their work. Second, to the extent that the awarding bodies are composed of professionals of the respective field, an award may be an indication that the honoree(s) in question (or their work) deserve(s) a closer look. But particularly in the literary field and in the movie industry, the number of existing awards has grown exponentially in the recent past (click on the "More" links at the end of the "literature awards" and "movie awards" lists on my featured links page to see what I mean); and at the same time, virtually every institution sponsoring or handing out an award is run according to its own set of politics, which all too often get in the way of the award process itself. – This is, perhaps, to a certain extent unavoidable; nevertheless it irks me no end to see major distinctions handed out again and again for work product that I consider inferior (or sometimes, just plain trash), while superior efforts and their creators are passed over – sometimes repeatedly, and occasionally even until it is too late and a half-baked posthumous award is all that remains to make up for prior omissions. That of course doesn't mean that I always and in every respect disagree with the awards handed out in, say, Hollywood or Stockholm. In many cases, I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically agree with the decisions made. But this all merely underscores the point I have made earlier: Just as, in my book, critics, teachers and other so-called authorities don't have the last word on what is a "classic," a "must-own" or any other type of outstanding work, so, too, I won't read a book, listen to an album or watch a movie solely because it (or its creator) has won an award; not even if it is the highest honor existing in the respective field. Such an award will almost certainly pique my curiosity, and were I ever to meet an honoree decorated thereby, I would congratulate them on their success (and I would mean every word, too). But nothing in the world can make me like something that, in my personal opinion, simply does not live up to its hype – and this is true to an even greater extent for merely commercially, but not critically successful works.
Partly. One thing that annoys me almost as much as unjustified hype for mediocre output is the effect that this has on works that do not benefit from a major marketing campaign, be it because (for whatever reason) their publishers don't consider them "mass-marketable," or be it because they haven't caught the eyes of of one of the almighty editors and/or critics in one of the big literary institutions, such as the major publishing houses and the large media companies. In my own little way, I'm trying to remedy this by trying to direct the attention of the visitors of my site to the works and websites of a few authors who have at least as much (or more!) to say than some of the beneficiaries of the aforementioned marketing campaigns.
To answer the last question first, no, I don't think so. As I said above, I am not getting paid for my reviews, and I suspect that if I ever accepted payment, this might very well impact my judgment, even if only subconsciously so. The same is true with regard to reviews or other forms of promotion that are solicited directly, such as by way of email requests.
In one way or another, I discovered all of the authors mentioned on the "featured authors" page of my site through Amazon.com – but by the time I decided to buy any of their books, they and/or their publishers had done the intial step of getting their books out into the market, and those steps had not included emails soliciting reviews; at least not, emails to me (otherwise, I would very likely have turned them down and would not be featuring them on my site). And while some of these authors have now become personal friends or acquaintances, with others I had not exchanged a single word before I obtained their permission to be included them on my "featured authors" page. Thus, neither the contents of that page nor any of my reviews is the result of a debt of any kind, be it a monetary one, a debt of gratitude or friendship, or an obligation assumed when I accepted to review a work sent to me unsolicitedly. I have every intention of keeping it this way.
She might be without country, without nation, but inside her there was still a being that could exist and be free, that could simply say I am without adding a this, or a that, without saying I am Indian, Guyanese, English, or anything else in the world. Sharon Maas: Of Marriageable Age.
Through our maps, we willingly become a part of their boundaries. If our home is included, we feel pride, perhaps familiarity, but always a sense that this is ours. If it is not, we accept our roles as outsiders, though we may be of the same mind and culture. In this way, maps can be dangerous and powerful tools. Debbie Lee Wesselmann: Trutor and the Balloonist.
I believe in such cartography – to be marked by nature, not just label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings. We are communal histories, communal books. ... All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps. Michael Ondaatje: The English Patient.
Maybe your country is only a place you make up in your own mind. Something you dream about and sing about. Maybe it's not a place on the map at all, but just a story full of people you meet and places you visit, full of books and films you've been to. I'm not afraid of being homesick and having no language to live in. I don't have to be like anyone else. I'm walking on the wall and nobody can stop me. Hugo Hamilton: The Speckled People.
Copyright 2001-2009: Themis-Athena, all rights reserved.