By Jonathan Goldman. Kevin Birmingham’s new The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses is itself embattled, having caused a kerfuffle within the Joycean scholarly community. At issue is the author’s argument, taking up five of his 300-plus pages, that throughout the composition of Ulysses (and before, and after) Joyce was suffering from syphilis. The book, a history of Ulysses‘s composition and legal troubles, upsets a tradition of scholarly skirting around the question of Joyce’s syphilis, and some academics are not pleased. More...

By Steven G. Kellman. From a prison cell in Nigeria in 1995, the novelist and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa wrote to PEN USA: "I’ve often envied those writers in the Western world who can peacefully practice their craft and earn a living thereby." Shortly after sending off his letter, Saro-Wiwa was hanged by the military régime of General Sani Abacha. For many writers throughout the world, marshaling words on a page still imperils their lives. The Freedom to Write Committee of PEN International monitors more than 500 cases of persecuted writers each year. They include: Nobel Peace Prize-winner Liu Xiaobo, who is serving 11 years in a Chinese prison; Nguyen Xuan Nghia, a Vietnamese poet, novelist, and essayist who is serving six years for dissident writing; and Mohammed al-Ajami, who is serving 15 years in Qatar for composing two poems critical of the emir. It is not so for American authors, though a peculiar paradox is at play. Philip Roth, returning from a trip to Communist-controlled Prague, expressed it in his observation: "There, nothing goes and everything matters; here everything goes and nothing matters." Suppression is the compliment a dictatorship pays to the moral authority of its authors. More...

By Torsten Wiesel. Overseas scholarships that encourage scientists to return to their home countries are helping to rebuild science in Latin America, says Torsten Wiesel. It takes a long time for a country to build a strong base in science, but only a short time to destroy it. Germany was a sad example. It was a world leader in the sciences for more than a century, until its science base was demolished during the Nazi era, and the country ceded its position to the United States. It has taken decades for Germany to rise again to its current level of excellence. More...