Hijra Means Everything
“Hijra” is the key with which to unlock Arundhati Roy’s The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, an intricate, convoluted “Hijra” means “hermaphrodite” in Urdu, the official language of both Pakistan and the northern Indian region of Kashmir, a place that is itself a blended organism with both Hindu and Muslim limbs. If you look up “Urdu” in […]
Default
I don’t know who “Jonno” is. Maybe I missed it. Maybe it’s no one, maybe everyone. But poet Audre Lorde wrote him, wrote her a beautiful poem. From Lorde’s collected works.
Whose Wife
From “The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde.”
A Belly for Twins
Kiki Petrosino wrote one of the most haunting books of poetry I’ve read in a while. It’s called “Witch Wife” and contains many off-set poems, such as the one pictured above. Domesticity and its domesticized discontents. Books have been written about it, and they are good.
On Pink
Pink’s having a moment. So much so that New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology is hosting an exhibition on the color’s transformation. In a piece published by “The New York Times” about the exhibit, its curator presents pink as the color of androgyny, a topic that’s been coming up repeatedly in my recent readings. Pink […]
The Decisive Moment
When I read photo-father Cartier-Bresson’s quote, underlined above, I thought of Instagram and its social media derivations, which increasingly dictate how humans interact with image. I wondered if Cartier-Bresson would consider the daily barrage of photographs on social media, many of them technically “good”, as resulting from “decisive moments.” When he wrote his oft-quoted words, only […]
The Fear-Based Market
This story, published on the front page of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, delivers good news, of sorts. Gun sales in the U.S. have slowed during the Trump era, hence the “Trump slump.” Gun makers attribute this phenomenon to the fact that buyers no longer fear gun control, so are not motivated to stock up on […]
Knowledge vs. Understanding
Writing is survival for Audre Lorde, and for the many of us who cling to her words.
Imminent Haunt
Yes, yes. Moments of imminent haunt. Such as now, with a full moon in Piscis fast approaching. Time to malinger. From “H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald.
Cure
As quoted by Helen Macdonald in “H is for Hawk.” I think loneliness is an invention of urbanity, of History’s suddenly crowded core. There is no lonesomeness on the grassy plain, or, for that matter, in the dark concrete city heart, so long as singleness is read as the manifestation of singularity of setting, of […]
Gawk
“No, I haven’t read it,” the bookstore owner said from behind the counter, peering at the book in my hand: “Less,” by Andrew Sean Greer. By his tone, it was evident he did not intend to either. Too best-seller-y perhaps, too bright the colors on its cover. To be fair, the cover was bright, even […]
Dessert
I may not believe in dessert but oh do I believe in this.
Perfidious Samosa
As a poet one can only pray to write couplets akin to “sly snacks”. And present them as “perfidious samosas.” From Arundhati Roy’s “The Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”
Unpacked
So true this fallacy. From “Less” by Andrew Sean Greer
Within Reason
As far as requests go, Unnameable Books in Prospect Heights makes a reasonable one.
Litera-story
Above, evidence of the type of cultural history that is difficult to learn outside of literature. From Arundhati Roy’s “Ministry of Utmost Happiness.”
Utmost Hapiness
I knew Jennifer Egan was speaking at Greenlight Bookstore on Fulton Street last night, but that’s not why I went. Sure, it was good to see what a Pulitzer Prize winning author looks like, but that’s not why I went. I went to get a book I’d been waiting on for a year. It had […]
Good Gore
Sometimes a story is so good it doesn’t matter how it’s told. The facts against a flat surface remain dense, flamboyant, no matter how simply they are thrown. Which is not to say that Paul French’s “Midnight in Peking” is a poorly told, simple read. Quite the contrary. The Edgar Award-winning true-crime tale is the […]
Done For
Feels good to read. Especially this. From Colette Bryce’s “Selected Poems.”
The Universal Teat
If you have not read “Grapes of Wrath” and for some reason plan on doing so, stop reading this. If, on the other hand, you would like to be spared the load but are curious about its classical buzz, read on. “Grapes of Wrath” is like a fat Oreo: delicious chocolate crunch on each end, […]