*NB on 12/5/2010 I amended the prologue to this piece and one of my comments at the end at the request of the main source, who felt some of the information to be sensitive.
More than five years ago I was contacted by a Finn called Jani Anttola about his compatriot Marco Casagrande, who was a visiting professor at Tamkang University.
We have corresponded intermittently in the interim and it has long been my intention to publish the following piece in some form. In 2008, I was dissuaded from doing so by close friends who thought what I had written was tantamount to character assassination and based on far too much hearsay. I disagreed but valued their opinions enough to bury the story. Casagrande, meanwhile, left Taiwan later that year. Here, now, is what I wrote with a few minor amendments.
Finally, some of the original Finnish-language materials (newspaper cuttings and interviews with Casagrande) were sent to me during my time at Taiwan News and lost when my e-mail account there was closed. Should I manage to get hold of these in the future, I will put them up.
Portrait of the artist as a killer (2008)
Few people in Taiwan will know the name Luca Moconesi.
His 1997 book ‘Mostarin tien liftarit’ (“The Mostar Road Hitchhikers”) hardly set the world alight, its narrator’s pyromaniacal tendencies notwithstanding.
But this homage to a mercenary’s life in the Bosnian War should be of interest to staff and students in the at Danhsui’s Tamkang University (TKU), where its author was a visiting Professor of Urban Ecology.
Moconesi is the pen-name of Marco Casagrande, an award-winning Finnish architect, who featured in several local news reports for, amongst other projects, leading the clean up and renovations of Taipei’s Treasure Hill community.
His work met with mixed responses but the Taipei City authorities seemed quite taken with the Finn. In 2008, then Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou met Casagrande; and Sebastian Liao, the former commissioner of Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs called Casagrande “an artist who really embraced the idea of community [and] embodied our ideals.” The communities rent asunder by the ethnically-motivated atrocities that marked the war in Bosnia might disagree.
Casagrande’s resume is impressive. In 1999, he and longtime collaborator Sami Rintala were finalists in the Emerging Architecture category of the prestigious Architectural Review awards; the following year, the renowned New York Times critic Herbert Muschamp cited their entry as his personal favorite at the Venice Biennial. Since then, Casagrande has exhibited at shows and museums worldwide. He was back at Venice in 2006, this time representing Taiwan with a Zen garden installation.
I must say that I personally find some of his work quite compelling and moving in a way I find difficult to articulate. It may have something to do with the dialectic of destruction and decay on the one hand, and protection and comfort on the other, that imbues his designs. More on this in a moment.
So much for the artist. Noticeably absent from his official biography is any mention of his activities from 1993-4. For his “gap year,” Casagrande traded his setsquare for a gun, serving as a soldier of fortune with the Croatian Council of Defence (HVO).
War is never fun, but from the outset the Bosnian War was a particularly nasty, complicated, internecine affair. Casagrande’s involvement was born of the schism in the alliance between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), which was the official government force, and the HVO. This latter militia represented the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, a self-proclaimed and unrecognized state of Bosnian-Croats backed by extreme elements in Zagreb who wanted an ethnically cleansed Croatia.
Initially these two forces buried their differences in the face of a common enemy: The invading Serbs. By 1993, however, with the HVO taking heavy losses, they decided to try and capitalize on the virtual pandemonium that had engulfed the country with a land grab against their Bosniak allies. Enter center stage Casagrande and an international array of hobbledehoys, psychopaths and thrill seekers for a year of fun and frolics in southeastern Europe.
Casagrande described the recruitment process in an interview with the Finnish monthly Helsingin Sanomat: “There are big recruiting offices, but you don’t know about them if you are not in the circles. In 1993 I was with my Croatian girlfriend on holiday on the island of Korcula off the coast of Croatia, and met some wounded mercenaries there. I asked them for some address, but they didn’t trust me. I decided to show what I am capable of, to cross a mined area to a radar station. It got me some respect. One of them then escorted me to the headquarters.”
On his return to Finland, Casagrande penned Mostar, a repellent hotchpotch of neo-fascist bravado that sneeringly rubs salt into wounds that, more than 15 years after this tragedy, have yet to fully heal. It is, Casagrande has insisted, a work of fiction; that it took the threat of investigation for complicity in war crimes to elicit this declaration is telling.
Mocanesi’s unit is depicted as having a strong neo-nazi agenda and “Mostar” is brim full of bigoted vitriol directed at practically every group of “undesirables:” Muslims (“perverts and pigs”), Jews, homosexuals (“faggots”), communists, Swedes and Slovenes (“a hysteric nation of shitpants”).
And they do not stop at verbal abuse. Otto “a devout Nazi and anti-Semitic … slashes a Swedish Jew’s face up;” Bismarck revels in the “cleansing of some nearby Muslim villages [where] the boys are now comparing rape stories;” and Moconesi and the gang take some holiday snaps with an compliant local, “distorting the dead man’s face for funny expressions.”
The text contains numerous references to rape (“a soldier’s right, if not duty,” according to one comrade), the execution of prisoners (“war is war”) and violence against civilians (“Fifteen thousand Muslims – all straight to paradise. Fuck, we are doing them a favor. Allahu Akbar – fuck them”).
But just as the reader is thinking Moconesi bereft of a conscience, the mercenary shows his sensitive side: “I don’t want to speak up for war crime, I just state that sometimes things get out of hands.” So that’s all right then.
In one passage Moconesi’s “idol” Markus, “a neonazi, who … had over a hundred confirmed kills,” holds court at the dinner table with an anecdote about an obdurate pensioner: “That grandma, we call her the Superbitch. Fuck, what a bitch, she just would not die. I had shot in the room with a PKM [a Russian light machinegun], a hand grenade had been thrown in there and when we stormed in, the bitch was still alive. Well, Kurt shot her in a neck with a pistol. Fuck what a bitch.”
In another, Moconesi contemplates cannibalism: “We have also toyed around with the idea of eating a Muslim soldier. What an experience it would be to cut a deceased up and arrange the platoon a party of a different kind.”
Moconesi’s reflection on the destruction of the UNESCO-listed Mostar Bridge is perhaps the most striking passage of all: “The symbol of Mostar’s Muslim culture is a bridge built by the Ottomans, a world widely admired and highly reputed architectural creation. The Croatian TV news was there to witness the great moment when the bridge was demolished into the river Neretva.”
A “great moment.” The perversity of the talented young architect penning a “novel” where the protagonist celebrates the demolition of a 440-year-old masterpiece of engineering is obvious. As this interview shows, Casagrande clearly has a fascination with the violence and “horror” inherent in ruins, which as interesting as it is artistically, seems grotesque as a prescriptive methodology. Does he view the destructive act as the ultimate in the architectural process, the end toward which “design” is always working?
Casagrande rejects the idea of the designer actively designing as a nonsense. The design, he contends, chooses the designer, which – although a distinct point– has something of Barthes’ remark that “le texte me chosit” about it. Casagrande has termed his thinking the theory of the Third Generation City, where human nature has ruined the urban condition and the architect is simply there to interpret some atma-type general will or consciousness, ala Wittgenstein in one of his more mystical moods. Perhaps Casagrande sees the Mostar destruction as meshing with and justified by this rather vague philosophy.
Inquiries into Casagrande’s activities in Bosnia seem to have been few and far between, and when questions have been asked, they have hardly been probing. In a TV interview in Finland for example, Casagrande was asked about a passage in “Mostar” which depicts members of the platoon dousing a Serb prisoner in petrol and setting him alight. The act is caught on camera and then printed on T-shirts for posterity.
Prodded as to why the narrator calls this incident “amusing,” Casagrande dismissed it as “punk” literature, designed to provoke, evasions with which the interviewer seemed satisfied.
Elsewhere several Finnish-language magazines broached the subject of war crimes without trying to get to the crux of the issue: How much of Mocanesi is there in Casagrande? Are we to believe that a book about a group of right-wing paramilitaries during the Bosnian War did not draw on the author’s experiences as a member of a group of right-wing paramilitaries during the Bosnian war?
Back in 2008, when I started putting this piece together, with the intention of sending it to Taipei Times, I tried to contact Casagrande at TKU. He failed to respond to several phone calls and e-mails. I can’t say for sure but it would not surprise me if his Taiwanese employers knew nothing of his Balkan sojourn.
While there is no concrete evidence that Casagrande committed war crimes, there is a fair bit of circumstantial to suggest he may have been a party to them. At the very least, it’s safe to presume that a man who is paid to fight in a war has to demonstrate an aptitude for his work; and when pressed by Finnish interviewers on whether he took lives in Bosnia he has, tellingly, stonewalled.
Regardless of his precise role, this is a public interest issue: Marco Casagrande’s colleagues, his students, and their parents, had a right to know that this charming young intellectual was once a hired killer.
Dude, we talked about this last time I was in TW, and I have to say my feelings haven’t changed. Whilst I hardly think it’s ‘character assassination’ to point out that this guy seems to be a bit of a wrong ‘un, the facts seem to be a little bare on the ground.
The ‘facts’ are: He taught at Tamkang and he served as a mercenary. I was always pitching this as a public interest story. You are obviously one of the friends I mention at the outset and I respected your (and others’) opinions enough to shelve it. I’m putting it up here because I still think it is of interest, I worked hard on it, and because I can.
I don’t accuse him of anything, though I do say he served with right-wing paramilitaries. even here though, I don’t go into details about the HVO and similar groups, many of whom have been convicted of or are facing war crimes charges. The peg of the piece – if there is one (you obviously think it tenuous at best) – is that a professor at university who has served as a mercenary is a legitimate public interest story if – as appears to be the case – those who have the right know nothing about his background.
Finally, I can’t flat out deny that part of the reason I wrote it is because of an antipathy to what I think MC stands (or at least stood) for but let’s be honest, how about your good self with CDE? Was it just altruistic moral crusading untinged by any slight smugness at banging a toerag to rights?
Good to see you on here. Keep giving me grief by all means!
“Few people in Taiwan will know the name Luca Moconesi.” I’d dare say you’re correct, and thanks for bringing this to our attention. I don’t think this is a character assassination; you’ve simply explained what his writing was about. How much has the author distanced himself from the work?
I doubt that people knew his background here in Taiwan, for example, his students and employers. Why don’t you talk to them and see if they care? As you probably know, Taiwan’s media can be quite insular. International news is often relegated to a sidebar, or it’s about something like Tiger Woods and the women he’s banged. Having said that, I’ll say I am a person who is from Taiwan and this bugs me. It’s gutsy of you post the information; good for you.
.-= Patrick Cowsill´s last blog ..Camping in Taipei =-.
Not sure about gutsy but cheers for the kind words. I did think about asking the university if/what they knew at the time but in the end decided against it as I thought that would really look like a witch hunt.Like you I’m pretty sure that students, parents and colleagues didn’t know and for the reasons you give.
When they book came out he did several press and TV interviews and was fleetingly asked about some of the more unsavoury (take your pick) passages. He said it was all just to shock and none of it was true. The Finnish press did a really bad job of grilling him and didn’t take it seriously enough.
Thanks to your rant I actually read the book.
Turned out most of your quotes are from the people Marco describes in the book and not from himself.
Surely you mean “Luca”? We shouldn’t conflate author and protagonist after all. Serious question: Are either of the quotes I have attributed to him from other characters? If so, I will quite happily correct them. The only two I can see are the cannibalism and mostar bridge quotes. None of the other ten or so short quotes are attributed to him as far as I can see. In fact in most cases I make it clear they were not from him.
The quotes from Casagrande himself are, as I make clear, not from the book.
Are you Finnish Andy (or do you read Finnish) ? If not, is the book available in English? Sorry if you didn’t like the rant. I didn’t think it too unfair.
Only two things are facts in here:
1. You haven’t read the book
2. You haven’t met the writer
What do you call this kind of false journalism?
If backstabbing a great architect and educator http://www.architizer.com/en_us/people/profile/marco_casagrande/ is what you need to do to “work hard” your name up in the blogs you are nothing else that abusing the great freedom of internet and working against its democracy. What is next?
I hope you are not American, I would be ashamed.
My wife is Finnish. I know the book good and obviously you are OUT. Is Al Gaida your source?
Jake A.G., Twin Cities
Dear “journalist”,
After these childish accusations agains the Hitchiker character, you might get familiar with Mr. Casagrande’s recent writings:
– http://issuu.com/sweetsecret/docs/cicada
– http://issuu.com/c-lab/docs/human
Among many, many others. As I am sure you do know, or at least feel, is that Mr. Casagrande is one of the leading young thinkers in the architecture world. This, I assume, you really feel – because one thing that really sweats through your writing is jealousy. I am sure Freud has a rather clinical name for your actual writing condition. It seems that you just can’t handle Mr. Casagrande’s fame and sharp writings – the very contrast to your pathetic pamphlets. I recommend that you will stick with more “entertaining and funny stuff”.
With kind regards,
Tim
Thanks for the links guys. There wasn’t much there with which I wasn’t already au fait, though. In fact Tim, it looks like you have not properly read either the material in the links you sent or my post; perhaps both. I refer and link to several of the works. It’s odd that you and Jake should focus on Mr Casagrande’s works as I don’t think I anywhere speak of them in disparaging terms. Quite the converse: I trumpet his credentials and even say that I find his work compelling.
As for me being subconsciously jealous of Casagrande’s achievements, who knows? Perhaps you are right. I definitely am a frustrated writer, though I’d like to think not as bad as you imagine. And, yes, I would love to be as successful as Casagrande, though I didn’t think these considerations informed what I wrote. Still, if it’s subconscious, I might be hard pressed to tap into it without some expert assistance. If that’s what you’re trying to provide, thanks.
Tim, can one “accuse” a fictional character of anything?
Jake: “Only two things are facts in here:
1. You haven’t read the book
2. You haven’t met the writer”
As neither of these propositions is contained within my text, saying they are the only two things that are “facts” is meaningless. Besides, even if they were, the claim would obviously be false. The text is littered with “facts”, even in your misconceived sense of the word. Take for example: “In 1999, he and longtime collaborator Sami Rintala were finalists in the Emerging Architecture category of the prestigious Architectural Review awards.” Do you accept that this corresponds to an existing state of affairs?
Most important – and this, alas, is something I had trouble getting across to even some of my native-speaking (unlike Jake of Minneapolis-St. Paul) friends – the statements about the book are fact. Whether or not the book is fiction is by the by: That character A says “X” is a fact. If it isn’t, please show me my mistake and – I reiterate – I will gladly amend it. Incoherent blather (“My wife is Finnish. I know the book good and obviously you are OUT”) does not constitute a rebuttal, except perhaps in the school playground. I note Andy has yet to respond. Or perhaps he has.
Finally: “What do you call this kind of false journalism?” Since you’ve already slipped the conclusion into the premises, or begged what is in question, I suppose I will have to call it “James Baron’s ‘false journalism’”.
Again, thanks for the comments but let’s try and stick to those all-important facts, rather than what you are projecting.
Oh, and Jake, well spotted. I was indeed a covert al-Qaida operative until you rumbled me.
Terve Andy – luin itsekin kirjan. (paras seikkailu sitten Papillonin!)
I read the book James and checked out the research on the topic in Finnish media etc. Moconesi has not been accused of any crimes and also these stories that you are describing in your article are in book either black humor or stories that he describes as other soldiers telling. The book itself if rather entertaining and full of black humor. Don´t be so serious James!
Moconesi is the Hemingway of architecture – war has been a great experience for him and seems to give constructive energy and deeper understanding to his later works. In the book he is not a monster, but an effective soldier – which is not a crime. NP
Bit confused mate. Moconesi is a character in a book, so it would be pretty difficult for him to be accused of anything, let alone be ‘the Hemingway of architecture’ (a bizarre analogy, considering 1) Hemingway opposed the fascists and 2) Didn’t participate in Spain in a military capacity).
I fear we are going round in circles here. You haven’t refuted anything I’ve said. For the umpteenth time, I make it clear when these stories are from other people (again, shouldn’t that be ‘characters’?) As for me being too serious and it all being a bit of lighthearted fun, I must admit I am a bit of a stiff when it comes to tittering about fascism, ethnic cleansing and the murder of unarmed civilians. I guess I’m just a bit old-fashioned that way.
Perhaps you could recommend the book to the people of Srebrenica. If they don’t like it, just tell ’em to lighten up a bit. I’m sure’ll they’ll see the funny side.
This article seems to be a lie.
Firstly your “informant” Jani Anttola was himself fighting in Bosnia working for the Muslim Army BiH – sponsored by the very same people who some years later were hunted down as terrorists. Anttola himself wrote a book “Black Widdows” which did not gain too much popularity…probably the reason of all this bad-mouthing.
Secondly the “quotes” that you are twisting in your article are not quotes from the main character of the book at all (as Andy pointed out, or who ever who can actually read Finnish), but his observations of the cruel war, telling rather brutally what he has been witnessing as other people talking. How the war is. The book is about his survival…not becoming the war.
In the tragic civil war of Bosnia everybody was fighting with everybody – Serbs with Croats and Musmims, Croats with Muslims and Serbs and Muslims even with other Muslims.
This text is a cheap attempt to attack the writer of the book by twisting his sayings and trying to portray him as “war criminal”. His case has been carefully studied in Finland and he has clearly made no crimes.
What you should ask is: what did the author find in the war that makes him now able to breathe so much life into his designs?
Cheap, James Baron.
Marita Jaakonsaari
“Secondly the “quotes” that you are twisting in your article are not quotes from the main character of the book at all”
Bloody hell – I give up. I’ve answered this charge umpteen times. Funny that neither you nor any of the others who are lambasting me here have failed to extend this courtesy to me. If anyone is ‘lying’ I’m afraid it’s you guys by claiming I have written things that I patently haven’t. If you can’t be bothered to read the piece and the comments following it carefully, the what is the point of continuing this inane tit-for-tat (would that you actually had a ‘tat’)?
FOR THE LAST TIME (to everyone else, please excuse the puerility of uppercasing but it seems some people’s skulls are so thick that there’s no other way of ramming it home) I DID NOT SAY THE MAIN CHARACTER SPOKE THESE LINES. I MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR WHO SAYS WHAT. FOR THE ONES I DO ATTRIBUTE TO THE PROTAGONIST, IF YOU SHOW ME WHERE I AM WRONG I WILL HAPPILY AND CONTRITELY AMEND. SURELY THE VERY FACT THAT I HAVE SAID THIS THREE OR FOUR TIMES NOW AND HAVE NOT GOT A RESPONSE SPEAKS VOLUMES. WHY IS NO ONE SHOWING ME THE EXACT QUOTE THAT I HAVE MISATTRIBUTED BUT CONTNUING TO TROT OUT THE ARGUMENT THAT I HAVE? REPEATING THE SAME THING AGAIN AND AGAIN DOES NOT MAKE IT TRUE.
And please Marita et al, don’t give me this just portraying the sorrow of war claptrap. The characters are not unsympathetically drawn. If you want to hammer home the tragedy of war, you don’t make war criminals sounds charismatic and cool. Besides, MC has said that the book was intended to be provocative. How exactly does that fit with your claim that it was merely “observations of the cruel war”.
Disingenuous, Marita Jaakonsaari.
Sad to see my dear late grandma’s name in such a context.
p.s. Did Jani really serve on the other side? Well, blow me down – I never knew. Next you’ll be saying he worked for the UN! Would that be the army of the legitimate government? The one that was composed entirely of Bosniaks, rather than the El-Mudžahid rabble with which its is commonly and very often deliberately conflated by nationalst Serb apologists and their supporters. The one that made sod all difference militarily and was actually unneeded, unwanted and shunned by the local forces? The one that showed up years after the onset of the conflict? Just thought I’d check. The myth that Al-Qaida had some serious presence and influence during this sorry affair has been throughly discredited, I’m afraid. Don’t let facts get in the way of your irrelevant argument though. Glad to hear those evil terrorists were hunted down though before they could take the region over.
so now you don´t know that antola was fighting for the bosnian muslims in the war? in your original version of this text you admitted clearly that the article is biased and based on antola’s information – and that you are aware he did the same war but for muslims. did you not also say that you must write this piece so that the taiwan students know more about their professor. you think they can not read wikipedia? and what is this about moconesi’s family then — that they need to know about your article? you seem to need a lot of excuses to talk shit behind back. why don’t you call the guy and try to do real journalism?
* 1993:
Casagrande, Mario – Paolo (Marco Casagrande)
Satnik / Zapovjednicka Grupa
Intervencijska Grupa Stranci / Brigada Kralj Tomislav, HVO
-> Akcija: Gracac, Pisvir, Posusje, Jablanica, Mostar, Gornji Vakuf
1995:
Casagrande, Marco
Satnik
Diverzancijska Grupa / 3. Bojna / 1. Gardiska Brigada “Ante Bruno Busic”, HVO
-> Oluja: Kupres – Bugojno – Jajce, Livno – Shipovo – Mrkonjic Grad
As it seems he was paricipating actually in the liberation of bosnia in -95, when HVO was allied with the armija bih. the bosnian muslims would never have gained freedom without federation with the croats and the military help of NATO internationals.
– this is fantastic:
do your homework again. this is a great architect.
Sorry David, I guess irony doesn’t come across that well in text, though I think a native speaker might have picked up on it (maybe you should think about that before you wade in, guns blazing – you end up looking silly). Of course I know all about Jani Anttola and his background.
Before casting aspersions, I think it behoves you to follow your own advice and do some research. I clearly state:
“Casagrande’s involvement was born of the schism in the alliance between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), which was the official government force, and the HVO.”
Even your own favoured Wiki McKnowledge makes it clear that when MC signed up, the two sides were already engaged in open hostilities. Yes, he was still around after the 94 ceasefire between the two sides but I hardly think you could describe his time in the Balkans as “participating in the liberation of Bosnia”. If that was the case, why did he join a force that represented a basically nonexistent state declared into existence by Zagreb?
As for the ‘trojan horse’. Yeah fantastic. Apart from the fact that it is utter shite. You have a cheek telling me to “do homework”, then sending me links to stuff about Taiwan. Real effective “positive terrorism” that was. Loved the roadside rabble being encouraged (and then still hardly a vociferous response) to chant “加油! 加油!” MC’s explanation of the Trojan Horse was very enlightening too, because I’m sure not many people know about that myth (note: irony).
And Ma’s (strange no one mentioned the obvious 馬 link which I’ve seen alluded to elsewhere) appearance on the steps of City Hall was in no way scripted, of course (note: irony). What’s that? The C-Lab sweater he was wearing? Ah …
Six years down the line, how many of these proposals do you think have had any prescriptive effect? What a hilarious load of facile, embarrassingly formulaic crap.
If you want examples of serious works by MC, how about checking the links to the them I posted IN THIS ARTICLE! I’ve stated clearly several times that I find them interesting.
I’m really starting to wonder if anyone here is bothering to even look at the original post here. Note the lead photo from the trojan horse event. Maybe I’d seen this stuff already? I’ve tried to eschew wanton abuse here but this time I can’t help myself: you are a prize muppet.
I don’t expect you to address any of my responses to your strawmen points. No one else has. For this reason, I may have to close these comments down soon.
Oh and what exactly does this mean:
“and what is this about moconesi’s family then”
?
Ah, I see. My bad: it should read ‘their parents’ (the students’). Amended.
Of course we now teacher Marco is warrior. We are all his soldier. He teach us respect for nature and love people in nature. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE. He live in ruin with nothning like monk. http://teafactory.blogspot.com/ He is best professor. Great experience to great man. you little experience to no man.
James Baron is blind dog who bark in shadow when smell great man walk by.
‘James Baron is blind dog who bark in shadow when smell great man walk by’.
Genius. Woof!
Casagrande IS the Hemingway of Architecture!!!
His work is so poetic, so sensitive – nobody comes even close. He is carrying the BIG CHANGE with him!
Hemingway my ass.
You should read Casagrandes book, maybe you would find all its killing antisemitic rhetorics and sieg heils very poetic too. I have the book and it is just discusting. By the way all these phrases in this Baron’s article are just like the guy wrote it his book. It is a fact that he was mercenary in a same unit with rapists and murderers, and he really enjoed the killing. I know here in Finland this man would have never been to become a professor or anything in university.
Lord Byron. Poet Warrior!
Nonsense “Artist”. Marco was my Professor in Aalto University Department of Environmental Art. Urban Acupuncture was the best studio that I had in Finland. He builds a living link between environmental art and architecture. Great guy!
hmm. I have read this book. I didn´t feel any “sieg-heils” and definately there is no war-crimes. I remember when this issue was raised up in Finland and Moconesi was found clearly not quilty to any crimes what so ever. No charges was never even pressed. Some communist journalists wanted to blame him, but it went to nowhere. He was just a young soldier in a wild war and the book tells his story – special guy. You saying that you want to tell his story to students and parents is ridiculous. You don’t think the parents can read? The sole purpose of your writing is the CHARACTER ASSASSINATION of Moconesi and your only motive is raise your own glory as a biased blogger.
You can not even read Finnish – how can you comment a book? There is no way of understanding the book based on a couple biased comments of extractions from the big text, and even them falsified. You must read the whole book to get the picture and read it carefully, the truth is out there.
I really like the comment “Casagrande is the Hemingway of Architecture”. I don’t know much about houses but the young man is a LEGEND! God bless!
“You can not even read Finnish – how can you comment a book? There is no way of understanding the book based on a couple biased comments of extractions from the big text, and even them falsified.”
Did James say he can’t read or understand Finnish? I can’t remember reading that he did. I F-4 a search through this blog and I can’t find him writing this. Can you show us where? I’m just thinking I missed something. Thanks.
.-= Patrick Cowsill´s last blog ..Historical Cheng De 承德 Road =-.
You seem to be a bit confused Seppala. There is no such person as Luca Mocanesi so how could he be accused, let alone cleared of war crimes? Do you mean Marco Casagrande? or someone purportedly knowledgeable about this subject, you demonstrate a flimsy grasp of the facts.
Once again (must be the fifth time now), please point out the specific falsifications and I will remove them and apologise. The truth is indeed out there. Watch, if not this space, another one on this site.
Highly impressive. Judging of a book you can´t read. Judging art you can’t understand. Judging man who is doing his best.
Moconesi is fiction. Casagrande is real. James Baron is FAKE.
What a NAZI blog. Casagrande is a wonderful artist and obviously a powerfull writer. Free mind and inspiration for thousands of people including all my students. There is always the conservative and bitter art-hater, like you Baron. Somebody who always wants to stop others creativity and their free expression. Somebody who wants to get a bit of others fame and control, dictate what they are saying – as a Fascist. James Baron is a Fascist. Freedom, art and creativity is your enemy.
Dear, eli rakkaat: S.H., AA, Seppälä
Please learn English, and please learn how to read.
Eli opetelkaa Englantia ja opetelkaa lukemaan.
Casagrande, like Marquis de Sade, is a fringe phenomenon in the huge world of literature. Such fringe phenomena are unsavory but necessary for a variety of reasons, one of them being the exploration of immoral acts. They have their niche, their audience, and even an army of interpreters (in the case of Sade). Casagrande’s book can be bad art or good art, but if you concentrate on its moral perversity, it means that you missed the point.
Moreover, you called him a “hired killer” in the last sentence of your article, which is slander. He was a mercenary, a soldier who gets paid for fighting, nothing more, nothing less. Maybe you believe that every professional soldier is a killer, so it’s just a metaphor. Doesn’t it make your article a piece of fiction too?
Thanks Marko. Yours is about the first sensible criticism I have read and the points you raise are important ones. I have long being interested in the relationship between art, truth and morality and am pretty much in agreement with you about the amoriality of art. That said I feel your analogy with De Sade is misleading, as is the contention that Casagrande’s book is just art. It is clearly embued with (at the very least) firsthand accounts. All this is really by-the-by, though. My point is, and always has been, that MC wrote this book, that it filled with unpleasant vitriol (whether or not it is immoal is another issue) and that not many people in Taiwan knew about it. It is a definite human interest story.
I also accept that “hired killer” may have been slightly hyperbolic, though it clearly isn’t slander, which is spoken. Libel is what you mean. I don’t think this fits that description under most defintions of the term. Libel usually entails more than just falsity. Under U.S laws, for example, it would have to be shown that the subject was caused harm or, as they have it in the U.K., that they were brought down in the estimation of their peers. That this is not the cas should be amply demonstrated by the strength of the backlash against me from MC’s friends and associates.
Finally, I’m not sure why you think the use of metaphor would make a piece of prose fiction. Are non-fiction scribes and journalists prohibited from using such stylistic devices? Conversely, does a work of fiction suddenly cease to be so if it is devoid of metaphor?
Anyway, once again, thanks for the intelligent feedback.
James, I didn’t know about the slander/libel difference, thanks for pointing it out. And you are right about it being a definite human interest story, as shown by the number of reactions here.
A few days ago, I mentioned Casagrande to some of my editor friends here in Croatia, since he has not been translated into Croatian. They refused to touch such controversial material. Fears linger for decades after a war, it seems. I am sure I will find someone to publish it, though. Do you know if there is an English translation somewhere? Or is it only in Finnish?
I’m pretty sure it’s available only in Finnish. I have copies of pages with the passages I’ve cited. I had intended to have them translated independently but the way things developed after I met Casgrande, I don’t really see the need anymore.
Personally, I would welcome translations into other languages, though perhaps not for the same reason as you.
All the best in beautiful Croatia. Hope to make it out there again some day.