Jean-Claude Carriere

Le gai savoir: rarement l'expression nietzsch enne se sera aussi bien appliqu e qu' ce livre... sur les livres Du papyrus au fichier lectronique, nous traversons deux mille ans d'histoire du livre travers une discussion la fois rudite et humoristique, savante et subjec-tive, dialectique et anecdotique, curieuse et go teuse. On y parcourt les temps et les lieux, les personnes r elles s'y m lent aux personnages de fiction, on y fait l' loge de la b tise, on y analyse la passion du collectionneur, les raisons pour lesquelles telle poque engendre des chefs-d'oeuvre, la mani re dont fonctionnent la m moire et le classement d'une biblioth que. On y explique pourquoi les poules ont mis un si cle pour apprendre ne pas traverser la route ou comment notre connaissance du pass est due des cr tins, des imb ciles ou des adversaires . Bref, on s'y amuse de la furia litt raire de deux passionn s qui nous entra nent dans leur folle farandole dont chaque tour surprend, distrait, enseigne. En ces temps d'obscurantisme galopant, c'est peut- tre le plus bel hommage qui se puisse imaginer la cul-ture de l'esprit, et l'antidote le plus efficace au d senchantement.

A young woman enters a building in a nameless contemporary European city. She walks into a waiting room where a dozen other people, with briefcases or sheaves of documents, are gathered. Ushered into a large office, she meets Albert Einstein, who is engaged in trying to figure out the equation that explains the universe. He is charmed by her, and agrees to answer her questions. Einstein and the young woman begin discussing the concepts of time and space. He explains his theories about relativity and his responsibility in the creation of nuclear weapons. Einstein also talks about the problem of being famous, about his life in Nazi Germany and how his dreams of worldwide peace were shattered. He appears bright, witty, hugely sympathetic, but also tormented and dreamy.

'The book is like the spoon: once invented, it cannot be bettered' - Umberto Eco. These days it is impossible to get away from discussions of whether the book will survive the digital revolution.

Georg Iwanowitsch Gurdjieff, 1877 in Alexandropol geboren (gestorben 1949 in Paris), war Weisheitslehrer, Dichter, Wunderheiler, Choreograph und Mystiker. Auf seinen unzähligen Reisen durch Osteuropa, Asien und Afrika besuchte er die Zentren esoterischen Glaubens und Wissens. In Mekka und Medina, dem verbotenen Tibet und dem Zweistromland erwarb er das Wissen, aus dem er sein psychologisches Sytem ent-wickelte. In der von ihm gegründeten metaphysischen Schule, dem ? Institut zur harmonischen Entwicklung des Menschen? in Tiflis und Fontainebleau, gab er seine revolutionären Lehren an Schüler aus aller Welt weiter. Aldous Huxley, Arthur Koestler, Sergej Dhiagilew, Katherine Mansfield und Peter Brook sind nur einige der Persönlichkeiten, die der ebenso rätselhafte wie charismatische Magier mit seiner Lehre in den Bann zog.

Translated from the French play 'L'Aide Memoire'. One fatal morning, Jean-Jacques' door is left ajar. A strange woman slips through the crack in his orderly life. Is she a squatter, a wanderer or a woman from his past? As Jean-Jacques' tidy flat is rapidly invaded, his inner space is also beseiged. What started as a comic encounter changes his life forever.

Although Luis Bunuel, one of the great filmmakers of the century, was notoriously reluctant to discuss his own work in public, he wrote - and wrote well - on many subjects over the years. This collection proceeds chronologically, from poetry and short stories written in Bunuel's youth in Spain to an essay written in 1980, not long before his death. Newly translated into English, the writings offer startling insights into the filmmaker's life and thought. The earliest pieces came well before Bunuel joined the Surrealist movement in Paris and created the landmark film Un chien andalou with Salvador Dali. Yet these and the early Surrealist writings reveal the inventiveness of the mind that would later create such masterpieces of cinema as "L'Age d'or", "Los olvidados", "Viridiana", "The Milky Way", "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie", and "That Obscure Object of Desire". Later writings, which include screenplays and reflections on his own and others' films, illuminate many aspects of Bunuel's career, as well as the ways of thinking and perceiving that underlie his unique cinematic style. The final essay by this extraordinary artist sums up his view of the world - still vibrant and full of contradictions - at the end of his life.

A unique dramatization of India's greatest epic poem, fifteen times longer than the Bible, The Mahabharata has played to enthralled audiences throughout Europe, the Far East and America. Regarded as the culmination of Peter Brook's extraordinary research into the possibilities of theatre, the production has been hailed as the 'theatrical event of this century' (Sunday Times). British audiences encountered The Mahabharata, on stage and television, in the late eighties. This volume contains the complete script of Carriere's adaptation in Peter Brook's translation, with introductions by each of them.