list of mundane things that feel like ancient human rituals
cleaning or wipe your bare feet
breaking off a piece of bread and handing it to someone
putting the weight of a basket on your hip or head
eating nuts or berries while hunched over close to the ground
seeing something startling just out of your line of sight and very quickly stepping or leaping on to a larger object to get a better view
cupping your hands into running water to wash your face
the unanimous protection of a baby or child in a public space where women are present
when an elderly woman laughs and grips your forearm tightly
these are forms of media that i frequently associate with december
books
Devotion, Patti Smith
A Spy in the House of Love, Anais Nin
After Dark, Haruki Murakami
The Woman in the Dunes, Kōbō Abe
Sleepless Nights, Elizabeth Hardwick
Untold Night and Day, Bae Suah
Paradais, Fernanda Melchor
articles/essays
Everything Visible Is Empty: Toshio Matsumoto, Stuart Monro-Mousse Magazine
As a city, Hong Kong confounds. The sheer aggressiveness, people jostling for trains or shouting from afar, somehow feels more intimate than unsettling.
A Mexican Novel Conjures a Violent World Tinged With Beauty, Julian Lucas-NYT
(on Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor)
Our Doppelgängers, Ourselves, Alan Glynn-Lit Hub
Cannibal Manifesto, Oswald De Andrade
Strange Fruit: the first great protest song, Dorian Lynskey-The Guardian
poetry
The Denial of Death, Louise Glück
Funeral Blues, W.H Auden
A Quiet Poem, Frank O'Hara
Giving Up Smoking, Wendy Cope
I Walked Past a House Where I Lived Once, Yehuda Amichai
Last Curtain, Rabindranath Tagore
Perhaps the World Ends Here, Joy Harjo
DO IT SCARED
DO IT FOR THE JOURNEY
BECOME UNGOVERNABLE
CHANNEL THE OTHERWORLDLY
WRITE LOVE LETTERS TO YOUR FRIENDS
WORSHIP THE GOD OF LITTLE JOYS
LAUGH WITH YOUR THROAT BARED
TRUST THE SHARPNESS OF YOUR TEETH
DO NOT FORGET TO SCREAM
People do not realize that when we say Israel is a settler-colonial state, we mean it was literally devised in junction with European imperialism around the turn of the century.
Political Zionism was founded by Theodore Herzl. Originally, Zionists were not specifically interested in the land of Palestine as a colonial project. In fact, Herzl was debating making Argentina the focus of mass Zionist migration, which is quite ironic considering Argentina's colonial and Aryanist past. British-controlled Uganda was also offered as a possibility by Joseph Chamberlain, a Conservative imperialist.
To encourage mass Jewish migration to Palestine, he worked with the British, who had recently drove the Ottoman Empire out of the Levant, and now boasted political dominance in the region, thanks to the Sykes–Picot Agreement between the UK, France, Italy, and Russia which covertly authorized British influence in Palestine, which had become a target of colonial expansion. He specifically wished to collaborate with Cecil Rhodes, a British imperialist who played a lead role in colonizing Zimbabwe and Zambia, and later took inspiration from his time spent extracting wealth from Africa as the founder of mining conglomerate the British South Africa Company.
Herzl’s personal goals for Zionism were colonial. He said in a letter to Rhodes:
“You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews […] How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial […] I […] have examined this plan and found it correct and practicable. It is a plan full of culture, excellent for the group of people for whom it is directly designed, and quite good for England, for Greater Britain [...]”
At that time, Palestine was predominately populated with Arab Muslims and Christians, as well as Arab Jews (Old Yishuv) and Druze. Jews made up around 6% of the population. The Ottoman government specifically released a manifesto at the start of Zionist migration condemning the colonization, stating:
“[Jews] among us […] who have been living in our province since before the war; they are as we are, and their loyalties are our own.”
The Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of parliament, officially established the British Mandate of Palestine, sowing the seeds for the modern state of Israel, by means of the UK's ongoing occupation of the region.
Zionism was never about promoting Jewish culture or safety; it has always been tied up in Western (settler-)colonial expansion. !من النهر إلى البحر
ruia i have a 5 day weekend!! what movies should i watch?? the weather is changing around me and i've been feeling very moody and introspective....
omg this is a mood i can get behind! hopefully you havent seen some of these:
antareen (1994)
asha jaoar majhe (2015)
a death in the gunj (2016)
siddheshwari (1989)
crossing bridges (2013)
sanjhbatir rupkathara (2002)
daera (1953)
aparoopa (1982)
ek din achanak (1989)
arvind desai ki ajeeb dastaan (1978)
shevri (2006)
ethrayum yathra bhagam (2003)
asukh (1999)
bhalo theko (2003)
gaman (1978)
snapshots from a family album (2003)
nirnay (2012)
drishti (1990)
rajnigandha (1974)
lekin… (1991)
hope you enjoy your weekend!!!!
That evening they managed to brew some tea. The handful of leaves that the bear had saved for a special occasion was enough for exactly two cups. They were fortunate to find some candles in the old house, for this meant they could have a real festive tea party.
Though it was dark and cold outside, in that house, around the round wooden table, a miracle took place...
happy upcoming new year!
nothing that a haircut and a wardrobe update and a detox and a sex change and a fake ID and getting medicated and selling all my stuff and faking my death and moving country can't fix
Also similar to this, but does anyone have any reading recs on isolation, loneliness and paranoia that stems from it? Anything similar to how isolation breeds a rather burdening imagination, paranoia, further distance. Fiction, non fiction, articles, essays, poems; I'll take anything
I was listening to the audiobook of The Secret History and realised something: Lafourge says that Richard would be isolated from everyone from the campus once he joins Julian's class, which Richard dismisses. Despite him going to college parties and being acquaintances with Judy, he truly has no one but the classics group. This becomes incredibly evident in the winter he spends in Hampden, having no one to go to for shelter—the result of him choosing to be with the greek class. His isolation takes form of the cold he endured during that time because there is no one he can go to. In the end, it is Henry who saves him, pulling him back into the caverns of the group, and his alienation.
Religious cults in ancient societies
Poison and why it’s so prominent in mystery novels
Methods of forensic investigations throughout the years
Influence of fashion based on past media
The transition to the Renaissance and renaissance philosophy
The pioneers of Pop Art
Artists in times of war
Music and political propaganda
Symbolism in surrealistic art
The Trail of Tears
Dead branches of evolution
Art Fraud
Barbie doll fashion
Southern Asian Empires
Advance of science and maths in Islamic kingdoms
Dark academia and its subtle racism and elitism/classisms
What defines as ‘alien’ in different cultures
Opium War
Modernism in South America
Egyptian revolution
White washing in media
Racial identity in the Caribbean
History of puppetry in Chinese drama
Problems revolving organized crimes
Cuban missile crisis and the Cold War
any true crime case that fascinates you
Your views on immortality
Feral children and the impact of isolation
Themes of self discovery in Albert Camus ‘The Stranger’
Early concepts of feminism in literature and then later on music
Add some of your own in the comments :)