This is Marlene Nourbese writing towards the end of Zong!, in an epigraph of sorts: To not tell the story that must be told, I employed a variety of techniques: —I white out and black out words (is there a difference?). —I mutilate the text as the fabric of African life and the lives of [...]
So let’s say you’ve gone through every one of your favorite TV shows. Worse still, it’s been days since your favorite fashion blog made a new post. And for some reason (I’m discreet enough not to probe) you have decided to take time off Facebook and the Internet in general. And your only options are: [...]
Philosophers have always been fascinated by laughter. They’ve asked all sorts of questions about it. Do animals laugh? Which part of the body is responsible for laughter? Can God laugh? What is the link between laughter and madness? These philosophers–from Plato to Nietzsche–realize one truth about laughter, that it is as strange as it is ordinary. Of [...]
Occasionally, I pass by little shops–in the rue de Seine, for example. Dealers in antiques or small second-hand booksellers or vendors of engravings with overcrowded windows. No one ever enters their shops; they apparently do no business. But if one looks in, they are sitting there, sitting and reading, without a care; they take no [...]
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. A bewitching little book. No use trying to figure out what it is. Is it a collection of poems, a series of vignettes, a novel, a travel guide, an ethnographic commentary, a bureaucratic document, a lineup of fireside tales, a meditation? What I can tell you is that it’s a rewrite or, [...]
Open City, Teju Cole‘s first novel, is an unusual read. I find myself drawn to the small things in the novel. Take for example the simple act of walking. In Open City, walking is a strange activity. It carries with it the possibility or even the necessity of wandering, of losing one’s way, of meeting [...]
What is Clear? A Transparent Novel. A story in a perspex box. You can see through Clear. I am guessing because you kinda know how its going to end. It’s about David Blaine. Isn’t it? And the televised starvation stunt. It’s on Wikipedia for Chrissakes! A rather comprehensive wiki entry too. In 2003, David Blaine [...]
The dead man’s chest began to swell, his life-giving veins began to throb, and his body filled with breath. Then the corpse sat up, and the young man spoke. “Why, I implore you, now that I have drunk of the cups of Lethe and am swimming in the marshy water of the Styx, why do [...]
As the slave trade dwindled to a close, the 19th century saw a steady stream of immigrant workers transported from India to the Caribbean islands. Forced by circumstance, men and women deserted homeland to confront head on the uncertainty of life in exile. In Sea of Poppies, Amitav Ghosh explores this corner of history. The [...]
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[turns white] …I hate when I do that. You terrestrials don’t have to worry about that condition. Sure, I hear you might stutter occasionally, or slip in the Freud, or insert the pause of um, like, uh…. but at least you don’t have to worry about inking yourself. It’s kind of like an underwater Turret’s [...]
We move through life in chapters, as we learn to read them. Every lesson is not understood, Before we turn the page. As youth we move briskly through the book of life, Only skimming the text. Rushing to the next happenstance. Decreasingly illiterate, Nonetheless, remarkably unwise. Hastily making choices, Re-sculpting the pre-sent, before our eyes, [...]
After a good day of novel reading and cafe lounging, I ended up at the Salvation Army not far from my house. At the thrift shop, anything can happen. You could find the first artist print of a fairly popular American painter. Or you could spend a couple hours sniffing dust and Febreeze and find [...]
When the behind-the-scene video is cool enough to be an official video, you know it’s all going to be worth the wait. “Princess of China” is a song from Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto album. I’ve read enough fairytales to expect princesses to have their castles, ball gowns, and enchanted rings. But it’s Rihanna and she’s the Princess [...]
Songs of Solomon. Isoken did not leave the staff room of Patricia Primary School when the closing bell rang. Everyone else did. It would appear that she was inspecting the attendance booklet on her desk. Actually, her mind had taken her elsewhere, perhaps, to the room she was renting at no. 15 Furniture Rd. The [...]