/lit/ - Literature

pdf where?

This was my favourite part

>>21264551
I wouldn’t know it’s one of the few books I had to buy

>>21264547

I've tried discussing it in the past but no one else here has read it. It even has BURGERPUNK aesthetic as Atta describes how they train for the hijacking and the planning involves going from one American retail district to another and how they're all the same. Also the jumping back and forth between first and third(?) person past/present tenses is done reasonably well and isn't too gimmicky. And it's short, /lit/ posters really should read it.

It's insidious because it humanizes them. Atta, Marwan and the third guy are like a pack of normal guys with stock differing traits. Atta is the stoic "oldest child", Marwan is more extroverted, and Ziah is the young one who's a total horndog.

The end of the story also purports to reproduce part of Atta's thesis. I don't know if this is a real reproduction, but I don't know how Kobek would have gotten his hands on a copy short of getting special permission to go into the German reading room where it's on deposit (I didn't find any other locations on worldcat). I don't imagine the university would have wanted the thing publicized, but I don't think they would have destroyed it either, it's a notable part of the historical record. Maybe Kobek's fragment is just a fabrication.

I don't remember the Saddam story very well except that his servant is a completely loyal, faithful lapdog who isn't very bright, and that's exactly what makes him useful. At one point Saddam tests him and if the guy had hinted anything other than total obedience (he did not), Saddam would have just taken out the gun he had nearby and shot the guy on the spot.

>>21264862
OP here, apparently the professor isnt allowed to publish it but can show you

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/09/what-can-we-learn-about-mohamed-atta-from-his-work-as-a-student-of-urban-planning.html

"I met with professor Machule at his office in Hamburg, where he keeps the only known copy of Atta’s thesis under lock and key. While Machule acknowledges that publishing the document would be in the public interest, he worries Atta’s father, a retired EgyptAir attorney who maintains his son’s innocence, would sue if the document were published without family consent. But Machule was willing to walk through the thesis with me. I sat in the spot where Atta gave his thesis defense in 1999,and together we made our way through the German document section by section. Machule translated portions of it and responded to my questions. The thesis was also heavy on visuals—photographs, maps, and sketches of proposed redevelopments."

>>21264551
Just buy it, anon.

>>21264988

Neat, thanks for sharing. Obscure/notorious theses are a topic of personal interest. I once read my estranged aunt's doctoral thesis in the reading room where it is kept (it wasn't very good, but I was curious). And then there is the question of whether Cioran's thesis on Bergson even exists anymore. Your account suggests to me that Kobek gave an "imaginary" passage.

>>21265012
This

>>21265389
Thank you Semiotext(e)!

>>21265394
They should find another site to sully, these evil cowards

>>21264862
Have you read I hate the internet?

I listened to it in German translation and it felt superr*ddit but I’m thinking about giving it another chance in English after I liked atta so much

>>21265394
Are you really that poor?

>>21265582
Not poor just don’t like em

>>21265563

I've slightly considered it, but it's not a priority.

Bump

>>21264547
I love this book. Thanks for posting Kobek, faith in /lit/ restored.
>>21264862
>I've tried discussing it in the past
Must have missed that, would have jumped in right away. All Kobek I've read is ripe with Burgerpunk. The section where he's in the cinema watching Jungle Book was hilarious. Kobek can be extremely, sardonically funny.

>>21265042
nta but yes, the thesis isn't readily available. Did you write one? Would it count as obscure/notorious?

>>21264547
ATTA