currently reading:
except for palestine: the limits of progressive politics by marc lamont hill & mitchell plitnick
palestine: a socialist introduction, ed. by sumaya awad & brian bean
on my non-fiction reading list:
the question of palestine, edward said
the hundred years’ war on palestine, rashid khalidi
palestinian identity, rashid khalidi
ten myths about israel, ilan pappé
the ethnic cleansing of palestine, ilan pappé
on palestine, noam chomsky & ilan pappé
blaming the victims: spurious scholarship and the palestinian question, ed. by edward said & christopher hitchens
the case for sanctions against israel, ed. by audrea lim
justice for some: law and the question of palestine, noura erakat
freedom is a constant struggle, angela davis
the butterfly's burden, mahmoud darwish
on my fiction reading list:
minor detail, adania shibli
enter ghost, isabella hammad
salt houses, hala alyan
men in the sun, ghassan kanafani
an ongoing list
Glenn Miller; an alcoholic drink composed of bourbon, scotch, maraschino cherries and a slip of something literally golden.
Enoki Mushrooms; mushrooms brought in a plastic box-marinated with garlic, spring onion, soy sauce and chilli sauce.
Sushi mix; a combination of Indian food and sushi, shoved into a laptop fitted for that purpose. The entree consisted of a sushi bento box inside the laptop, while the mains-a larger bento box of more varieties (rice, soup, large sushi-all heavily saturated in colours) were outside the laptop in a similar crevice.
Pistachio macarons; macarons with pistachio filling, resemblant of the ones in Coles that I really wanted to try
Ramen rice; a mixture of ramen with traditional Indian rice and curry that I made for a friend.
Buffet course; the first course was this strange baked cream roast chicken in bread and when you opened it and the waitress also poured a little crouton soup. The second one was this beef dish that looked genuinely so extravagant—the beef was carved like a flower petal on top of the rest of the dish which was a mix between a tartare and something cooked with lots of fruits/vegetables and garnishing
[LATEST] Donut Pistachio Tiramisu; Two or three Krispy Creme donuts that were used as the lady fingers of a tiramisu. Pistachio crumble. The cream that used heavy cream, sugar that melted into cream and vanilla extract. Coffee powder. And I left TeeVee snacks on the counter but never used it.
Tahini Al-Jamil saying ‘I had never felt quite so seen as when she saw me’ sounds like something straight out of a dark academia novel, where the protagonist is describing their ‘friend’ who they’re definitely NOT in love with
btw you will miss this in 5 or 10 years. memory will smooth these circumstances down like a river stone, and you will find yourself longing for a shade of light or a moment of this particular innocence. you don't know about what happens next, and one day that will be the most alluring thing of all. don't leave it all for nostalgia. have a nice night now, whatever night it happens to be.
The weight of my unknown ancestors burns in my mind-a rocky burden. I try to remember anything yet only ghosts spill out of my mouth. Where did they go? Whatever happened to them? Are they proud of me? Are they proud of what I've done? What I've done to get here? When they watch they are witness to their own memories crammed into a modern body. I am simply a young girl. Not the fragments of my family. I exist watching every little move for an answer, they are waiting to give me it all, waiting for me to come back home. I am struggling with the door.
-ANCESTRAL CRISIS 12.08.2021
AND IF YOU MISSED A DAY, THERE WAS ALWAYS THE NEXT, AND IF YOU MISSED A YEAR, IT DIDNT MATTER, THE HILLS WERENT GOING ANYWHERE
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.
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
The development of Lynch's body of work is informed by a realist's optimism that there is an exit from the linguistic labyrinth and that this exit is richly available to us [...] His use of language—and of cinematic vocabulary—suggests that, once we understand that we ourselves have created cultural forms and that they only have the meaning we give them, we are free to understand the forces in the universe that are truly larger than we are and how they connect us to a greater reality.
Martha Nochimson, The Passion of David Lynch