Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Visiting my Fifteen Year Old Self (1)

Visiting my Fifteen Year Old Self

A new collection of short stories 

 

همراه با پانزده سالگی‌ام

 (1)

نخستین بازدید

امروز اولین روزی بود که با پانزده سالگی ام قدم زدم. کنار دریاچه. دلم برایش تنگ شده بود. می خواستم بشناسمش. در آن لحظه های زودگذر و بی دوام، که تکه هایی از آن تا اکنون در ذهنم ماندگار مانده بود. مثل سرخ شدن های مداومش در رویارویی با هر چیزی که تکراری و روزمره نبود!

Read more: 

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Sound of Metal, a "Hope" in today's cinema

Sound of Metal is a 2019 American drama film directed and co-written by Darius Marder and starring Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff and Mathieu Amalric. It tells the story of a drummer who begins to lose his hearing.

The film had its world premiere in the Platform Prize program at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2019. It was released theatrically on November 20, 2020, and began streaming on Prime Video on December 4, 2020, by Amazon Studios. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Ahmed and Raci's performances, as well as for the sound design.

Watch an official trailer

Monday, December 28, 2020

Art and the Nocturnal Imagination:

 Art and the Nocturnal Imagination: Painter, Poet, and Philosopher Etel Adnan on Dreaming and Creativity

 

Adnan writes:

"I always thought that dreaming was the honor of the human species. The logic of dreams is superior to the one we exercise while awake. In dreams the mind at last finds its courage: it dares what we do not dare. It also creates: from nightmares to fantastic calculations… and it perceives reality beyond our fuzzy interpretations. In dreams we swim and fly and we are not surprised.

[…]

Dreams spill over on our days. For some people they never stop spilling: the visionaries, the hobos, and all those who speak to themselves, aloud, in the big cities."

Saturday, December 26, 2020

How to Live with Our Human Limitations

 How to Live with Our Human Limitations: Physicist Brian Greene Reads and Reflects on Rilke’s Profoundest Elegy

“Not because happiness exists, that over-hasty profit from imminent loss, not out of curiosity, or to practice the heart… But because being here is much, and because all that’s here seems to need us.”
 

from “THE NINTH ELEGY”
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Why, if it could begin as laurel, and be spent so,
this space of Being, a little darker than all
the surrounding green, with little waves at the edge
of every leaf (like a breeze’s smile)—: why then
have to be human — and shunning destiny
long for destiny?…

Oh, not because happiness exists,
that over-hasty profit from imminent loss,
not out of curiosity, or to practice the heart,
which could exist in the laurel…
But because being here is much, and because all
that’s here seems to need us, the ephemeral, that
strangely concerns us. We: the most ephemeral. Once,
for each thing, only once. Once, and no more. And we too,
once. Never again. But this
once, to have been, though only once,
to have been an earthly thing — seems irrevocable.

[…]

Earth, is it not this that you want: to rise
invisibly in us? — Is that not your dream,
to be invisible, one day? — Earth! Invisible!
What is your urgent command if not transformation?
Earth, beloved, I will. O, believe me, you need
no more Spring-times to win me: only one,
ah, one, is already more than my blood can stand.
Namelessly, I have been truly yours, from the first.
You were always right, and your most sacred inspiration
is that familiar Death.
See I live. On what? Neither childhood nor future
grows less… Excess of being
wells up in my heart.

 

Monday, December 21, 2020

The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate by Ted Chiang

 The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate  by Ted Chiang 

 

"Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity."
--Arabic Proverb

In medieval Baghdad, a penniless man is brought before the most powerful man in the world, the caliph himself, to tell his story. It begins with a walk in the bazaar, but soon grows into a tale unlike any other told in the caliph's empire. It's a story that includes not just buried treasure and a band of thieves, but also men haunted by their past and others trapped by their future; it includes not just a beloved wife and a veiled seductress, but also long journeys taken by caravan and even longer ones taken with a single step. Above all, it's a story about recognizing the will of Allah and accepting it, no matter what form it takes.

"Paper Menagerie" by Ken Liu

 Read Ken Liu's amazing story that swept the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards

Ken Liu's incredible story "Paper Menagerie" just became the first work of fiction to win all three of SF's major awards: the Hugo, the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award. And we're proud to be able to reprint the whole story, right here at io9. Here's your chance to find out what all the excitement is about, and discover one of science fiction's fastest rising stars.  

Read Paper Menagerie here.

Sunday, December 20, 2020

—V (formerly Eve Ensler


 

I am so deeply grateful to CODEPINK for always being there on the frontlines — for refusing tyranny and oppression and for always reminding us that there are alternatives to war. I am grateful for their wild creative spirit and their courage in bringing truth to power.
—V (formerly Eve Ensler

(Photo Credit: Paula Allen)


Why Doing Good Makes It Easier to Be Bad

 Why Doing Good Makes It Easier to Be Bad

 What makes people who seem so good in public act so bad in private?

When humans are good, we give ourselves license to be bad.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

How to Criticize with Kindness

 How to Criticize with Kindness

 Philosopher Daniel Dennett on the Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently

 “Just how charitable are you supposed to be when criticizing the views of an opponent?”

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

NASRIN

 NASRIN was secretly filmed in Iran by women and men who risked arrest to make this documentary. It is an immersive portrait of the world’s most honored human rights activist and political prisoner, attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, and of Iran’s remarkably resilient women’s rights movement. In the courts and on the streets, Nasrin has long fought for the rights of women, children, religious minorities, journalists and artists, and those facing the death penalty. In the midst of filming, Nasrin was arrested in June 2018 for representing women who were protesting Iran’s mandatory hijab law. She was sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Featuring acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, and journalist Ann Curry. Narrated by Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman.

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 331

 Memories in Diaspora # 331
 
 "این نمایشنامه سه اپیزودی درباره زنی است که در مقطعی زمانی و مکانی با عمق مفهوم تنهایی روبرو می شود. عشق، پاسخگو نیست. انسان معلق است در یک هستی پرتضاد، فرو هشته و آویزان در فضا.  زن، سفری اسطوره ای را در پیش می گیرد تا زندگی را در این مقطع بشناسد. تا بتواند به زندگی ادامه بدهد."

Saturday, December 5, 2020

The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

 The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

By  Fyodor Dostoevsky

This Poem by Frida Kahlo is Heartbreaking, Raw & Incredibly Accurate.

 A Poem by Frida Kahlo

I’m not going to ask you to kiss me,

neither ask for forgiveness when I believe that you have done wrong,

or that you have made a mistake.

Nor am I going to ask you to hug me when I need it the most,

or to invite me to dinner on our anniversary.

 ’m not going to ask you to go around the world

to live new experiences, much less

ask you to give me your hand when we are in that city.

I’m not going to ask you to tell me how pretty I am,

even if it’s a lie or that you write me anything nice.

Nor will I ask you to call me to tell me

how your day was or tell me you miss me.

Read more....

 

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Indian Resistance and Thanksgiving Declarations

 Indian Resistance and Thanksgiving Declarations

A Hopi Indian named Sun Chief said:

I had learned many English words and could recite part of the Ten Commandments. I knew how to sleep on a bed, pray to Jesus, comb my hair, eat with a knife and fork, and use a toilet. … I had also learned that a person thinks with his head instead of his heart.

 

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 329

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره ۳۲۹

 Memories in Diaspora # 329

 مثل یک مرغ کرچ از بستر برجستم پرپر زنان/ عزت گوشه گیر
 پشت دیوار خانه صدای باد می آید. صدای حرکت ماشین ها، صدای مته ای که زمین را سوراخ می کند. صدای چند پرنده هم در حواشی… و آژیر آمبولانس و چرخیدن کژ و مژ آمبولانس در خیابان ها… و ماشین آشغال جمع کنی… و صدای چند مرد و زن و گریه یک بچه کوچک… و صدای تلفن… و صدای پسرم که گاه با پدرش حرف می زند، گاه با دوستانش…

و… آن دل پیچه از صبح دیروز تا ساعت یک بعد از ظهر امروز…

Friday, November 20, 2020

How to Improve Your Sleep

 How to Improve Your Sleep

At a shiny new lab in Japan, an international team of scientists is trying to figure out what puts us under. 

Douglas Stuart's Booker win heralds arrival of a fully formed voice

 Douglas Stuart's Booker win heralds arrival of a fully formed voice

 Though there were four debuts on the Booker shortlist, it’s been more than a decade since a debut won. And with two magisterial novels from established writers in Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s This Mournable Body on the list, first-timer Douglas Stuart’s success may come as a surprise. But it will be an immensely popular one, for readers have already taken Shuggie Bain to heart: it was the bestselling novel on this year’s shortlist, and the favourite to win.

Memories in Diaspora # 328

 Memories in Diaspora # 328

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره: 328

شکوفه، کادر سیاسی زنان حزب، سرش را می گذارد روی بالشی که آغشته است به بوی استفراغ. حکم اعدامش را صادر کرده اند. یکماه دیگر، او دیگر برای ابد نیست می شود. 

هر بار زیر شکنجه آرزو می کرده است که مرده باشد. اما چرا حالا… از بیاد آوردن لحظه تیر باران، ناگهان … به آب ولرم زیر دوش آب و کف صابون خوش عطری در پاریس فکر می کند که بوی گل موگه می دهد. گل لاله سفیدی، روییده در باغچه خانه ای، که یکبار به او هدیه داده شده بود.

 

 

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Audre Lorde on Poetry as an Instrument of Change

 Audre Lorde on Poetry as an Instrument of Change and the Courage to Feel as an Antidote to Fear, a Portal to Power and Possibility, and a Fulcrum of Action

 “As they become known to and accepted by us, our feelings and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas. They become a safe-house for that difference so necessary to change and the conceptualization of any meaningful action.”

Monday, November 16, 2020

What's The Railroad To Me?

 
By Henry David Thoreau

What's the railroad to me?
I never go to see
Where it ends.
It fills a few hollows,
And makes banks for the swallows,
It sets the sand a-blowing,
And the blackberries a-growing.

 

Saturday, November 14, 2020

Luck is not chance

 By Emily Dickinson

Luck is not chance —
It’s Toil —
Fortune’s expensive smile
Is earned —
The Father of the Mine
Is that old-fashioned Coin
We spurned —

Thursday, November 12, 2020

Anna Dostoyevskaya on the Secret to a Happy Marriage: Wisdom from One of History’s Truest and Most Beautiful Loves

Anna Dostoyevskaya on the Secret to a Happy Marriage: Wisdom from One of History’s Truest and Most Beautiful Loves

How to nurture a love that “would stand as a firm wall,” that “won’t let you fall, and it gives warmth.”

 

"I spoke with some heat. Fyodor Mikhailovich looked at me in excitement. “And you seriously believe she could love him genuinely, and for the rest of her life?”

He fell silent, as if hesitating. “Put yourself in her place for a moment,” he said in a trembling voice. “Imagine that this artist — is me; that I have confessed my love to you and asked you to be my wife. Tell me, what would you answer?”

His face revealed such deep embarrassment, such inner torment, that I understood at long last that this was not a conversation about literature; that if I gave him an evasive answer I would deal a deathblow to his self-esteem and pride. I looked at his troubled face, which had become so dear to me, and said, “I would answer that I love you and will love you all my life.”

I won’t try to convey the words full of tenderness and love that he said to me then; they are sacred to me. I was stunned, almost crushed by the immensity of my happiness and for a long time I couldn’t believe it."

Sunday, November 8, 2020

Stress and the Social Self

 Stress and the Social Self

" Relationships, Adrienne Rich argued in her magnificent meditation on love, refine our truths. But they also, it turns out, refine our immune systems. That’s what pioneering immunologist Esther Sternberg examines in The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions (public library) — a revelatory inquiry into how emotional stress affects our susceptibility to burnout and disease."

Saturday, November 7, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 327

 Memories in Diaspora # 327

 زن گفت: “این همه سال است که در این شهر کوچک زندگی می کنم، اما هرگز از کوچه پس کوچه های باریک و پیچ در پیچ شهر عبور نکرده ام! کوچه هایی با دیوارهای بلند، که اسیران رومی بالا برده بودند، که سایبان ظهرهای پیشین و داغ تابستان بشوند. ظهرهایی که تخم مرغ روی آجر سرخ می شد.  ظهرهایی درست برعکس روزهای سرد شمال که به زعم مردم عوام، تف می کردی زمین فندق می شد!چرا باید با شهری که در آن به دنیا آمده ام غریبه باشم؟”

Thursday, November 5, 2020

What Are the Defining Characteristics of a Lyric Poem?

 What Are the Defining Characteristics of a Lyric Poem?

"Lyric poetry is a category of poetry, encompassing many different subgenres, styles, cultures, and eras of time. The defining traits of a lyric poem are a songlike quality and an exploration of emotions and personal feelings."

Poetry Lights Up Your Brain

 Poetry Lights Up Your Brain Like a Favorite Song, fMRI Shows

"A new study from McGill University reports that listening to snippets of happy or peaceful music prompted study participants to recall vivid positive memories. Conversely, listening to sad or emotionally scary music (chosen by the researchers) caused study participants to recall negative autobiographical memories."

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Secrets of Happiness from the Oldest of the Old

 Secrets of Happiness from the Oldest of the Old

 "You write, “If you want to be happy, think like an older person.” Can you explain how that works?

We know from a lot of research that older people are more content with their lives than younger people are. Thinking like an older person is thinking about resilience and focusing on what is as opposed to what is not. Accepting your mortality by not being so afraid of it. When you are older, you view the time horizons in front of you differently. You understand the days are finite, and we might as well enjoy the ones we have left. The big lesson for me, the really practical one, is waking up in the morning and saying, “Thank God for another day.” It’s the conscious practice of gratitude."

Monday, November 2, 2020

Hélène Cixous: “Literature helps us learn to read the world”

Hélène Cixous: “Literature helps us learn to read the world”

"What do you think of the state of the world, in the era of pandemic and almost general political entropy?

Helene Cixous Every time there was a plague, people asked themselves the same questions, especially the Other. There are those who do not put on a mask because there is no Other for them. Some cannot even think of this Other. A whole state of humanity is thus brought to light. The government words in all countries are of simple pragmatic urgency. Not smart. People should come to live this moment not only healthily but also morally, philosophically, etc. This is not the case. In the spheres that govern us, we need people capable of thinking so.

Icon QuoteWe are bleeding a nation dry by mistreating and eliminating the teachers, the devoted, not subservient to capitalism."

Friday, October 30, 2020

Why Is Writing Easier Than Speaking for Introverts?

 Why Is Writing Easier Than Speaking for Introverts? Here’s the Science

 Many introverts are naturally gifted writers — so why do they clam up or draw a blank when speaking?

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Why Write in Form?

 Why Write in Form?

Mastering the traditional ways to forge new ones.

"Perhaps some of this opposition stems from a common misconception. Unlike other arts—and perhaps even other forms of writing—readers and writers alike often associate poetry with feeling, not technique. Part of this may stem from a misunderstanding of William Wordsworth’s famous definition of poetry, in which he begins, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. …” His wording encourages a reading in which poetry simply occurs and does so uncontrollably. If this is the part of the quotation that sticks with you, it’s no surprise that you might associate poetry more with emotional intensity and less with the how of its conveyance. But in the second half of that quotation, Wordsworth tempers his original statement: “... it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.” Those unexpected and powerful feelings are actually being observed at a calming distance from that emotion."

Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath's Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life.

 Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath's Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life. 

“I hope to free Plath, from the cultural baggage of the past 50 years,” Heather Clark writes in her new biography, “and reposition her as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century.”

Monday, October 26, 2020

Emily Dickinson: Iambic Meter & Rhyme

 Emily Dickinson: Iambic Meter & Rhyme

 Emily Dickinson possessed a genius for figurative language and thought. Whenever I read her, I’m left with the impression of a woman who was impish, insightful, impatient, passionate and confident of her own genius. Some scholars  portray her as being a revolutionary who rejected (with a capital R) the  stock forms and meters of her day.

The Pleasures of Pessimism

 The Pleasures of Pessimism

 The kind of truth pessimists tell us will always be a subversive truth.

"Toward the end of my graduate course in literary translation I introduce the students to Samuel Beckett, in particular Arsene’s speech in the novel Watt. Watt has just arrived at Mr. Knott’s house and since when one servant arrives another must depart, Arsene is leaving. Before he does so, he gives Watt the benefit of a lifetime’s disillusionment in a twenty-page monologue. This is the passage I offer my students:

Personally of course I regret everything. Not a word, not a deed, not a thought, not a need, not a grief, not a joy, not a girl, not a boy, not a doubt, not a trust, not a scorn, not a lust, not a hope, not a fear, not a smile, not a tear, not a name, not a face, no time, no place, that I do not regret, exceedingly. An ordure from beginning to end. And yet, when I sat for Fellowship, but for the boil on my bottom… The rest, an ordure. The Tuesday scowls, the Wednesday growls, the Thursday curses, the Friday howls, the Saturday snores, the Sunday yawns, the Monday morns, the Monday morns. The whacks, the moans, the cracks, the groans, the welts, the squeaks, the belts, the shrieks, the pricks, the prayers, the kicks, the tears, the skelps, and the yelps. And the poor old lousy old earth, my earth and my father’s and my mother’s and my father’s father’s and my mother’s mother’s and my father’s mother’s and my mother’s father’s, and................................................................................."

Memories in Diaspora # 326

Memories in Diaspora # 326 

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا# 326

وارد سالنی شدم. کسی مرا به سالن تئاتر راهنمایی کرد و گفت: قرار است ژاک تاتی تمرین های بازیگری را ادامه بدهد.

پرسیدم: ژاک تاتی؟ ژاک تاتی که مرده؟

کسی گفت: نه!

منظورش این بود که ژاک تاتی، که در حقیقت ژاک تاتی نبود، یک کارگردان فرانسوی است که فقط اسمش شبیه ژاک تاتی است!

 

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Two Pigeons

Two Pigeons

They’ve perched for hours
on that window-ledge, scarcely   
moving. Beak to beak,

a matched set, they differ   
almost imperceptibly—
like salt and pepper shakers.

It’s an event when they tuck   
(simultaneously) their pinpoint   
heads into lavender vests

of fat. But reminiscent   
of clock hands blandly   
turning because they must

have turned—somehow, they’ve   
taken on the grave,   
small-eyed aspect of monks

hooded in conferences
so intimate nothing need
be said. If some are chuckling

in the park, earning
their bread, these are content   

to let the dark engulf them—

 Read more in this link

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary’

 The Myth of ‘Bloody Mary’

 History remembers the English queen as a murderous monster, but the real story of Mary I is far more nuanced.

Monday, October 19, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 325

 Memories in Diaspora # 325
“ساندویچ نیمه ایرانی- نیمه آمریکایی”

 

“لیز” چشم هایی عجیب دارد. خیره. ثابت. حریص. او همیشه به غذایم خیره می شود. بعد به لب هایم. بعد به گلویم که چطور غذایم را قورت می دهم.  یکبار آنقدر در موقع گاز زدن به لایه های درونی ساندویچم خیره شده بود که دندان هایم ناگهان کل شدند. فلج شدند و ساندویچ گاز زده نیمه ایرانی- نیمه آمریکایی ام را دو دستی به او تقدیم کردم.

ساندویچ ام طعم ساندویچ های مهاجرانی را داشت که محتویات درونی اش از قسمت لاغر مغازه ها خریداری شده اند. و با طعم نعناع و ریحان و مرزه تازه از باغچه مهاجران، جان تازه ای به خود گرفته اند.

Thursday, October 15, 2020

The Social Dilemma

The Social Dilemma is a 2020 American docudrama film directed by Jeff Orlowski and written by Orlowski, Davis Coombe, and Vickie Curtis. The film explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining, how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its effect on mental health (including the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates), and its role in spreading conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and aiding groups such as flat-earthers.  

Read more on The Social Dilemma

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Nobel Laureate Louise Glück’s Love Poem

 CROSSROADS
by Louise Glück

My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer
I begin to feel a new tenderness toward you, very raw and unfamiliar,
like what I remember of love when I was young —

love that was so often foolish in its objectives
but never in its choices, its intensities
Too much demanded in advance, too much that could not be promised —

Read more...

Monday, October 12, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 324

 Memories in Diaspora # 324

 

“خواب”

“یک خواب. شاید هم دو تا”

من می دانم که خواب دیده بودم….

(خواهش می کنم نگوئید که چرا همه اش خواب سرهای بریده می بینم. یا بوهایی در خواب می شنوم که همه اش به گوشت سوخته ربط پیدا می کند. باور کنید که من بی تقصیرم! باور کنید که من دلم بیشتر از شما برای شما می سوزد اگر بخواهید این خواب ها را تا آخر دنبال کنید. مگر اینکه آدمی باشید مثل زیگموند فروید یا کارل یونگ که بخواهید از توی آن ها یک چیزبدرد بخوری در بیاورید که مفهوم خواب را برای آیندگان روشن کند!)

بقیه را در لینک بخوانید

 

An Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance

In the 1920’s, creative and intellectual life flourished within African American communities in the North and Midwest regions of the United States, but nowhere more so than in Harlem. The New York City neighborhood, encompassing only three square miles, teemed with black artists, intellectuals, writers, and musicians. Black-owned businesses, from newspapers, publishing houses, and music companies to nightclubs, cabarets, and theaters, helped fuel the neighborhood’s thriving scene. Some of the era’s most important literary and artistic figures migrated to or passed through “the Negro capital of the world,” helping to define a period in which African American artists reclaimed their identity and racial pride in defiance of widespread prejudice and discrimination.

Read more...

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Boise Rumi night

 Boise Rumi night series, an insightful event with artists from all parts of the U.S., created by Howard Olivier for Rumi’s 813th birthday.

Tuesday, October 6, 2020

... a Poem That Heals Fish

 This Is a Poem That Heals Fish: An Almost Unbearably Wonderful Picture-Book About How Poetry Works Its Magic

 “A poem … is when you are in love and have the sky in your mouth.”

 

Elizabeth Bishop on Solitude

 Elizabeth Bishop on Why Everyone Should Experience at Least One Long Period of Solitude in Life

" This delicate dance between solitude and communion is what the Pulitzer-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911–October 6, 1979) explores in a letter found in Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (public library) — the epistolary record of one of the most beautiful and enduring friendships in creative culture."

Emily Dickinson's Revolutionary and Reclusive Life....

Emily Dickinson's Revolutionary and Reclusive Life....

 ............................................................

“What does she look like?” I said. “The lady in the yellow house?”

“I don’t know, my dear. Not many see her face-to-face. They say that she is small, though, and that she dresses always in white.”

We moved from pot to pot. He plucked the wilted petals as he went.

“Is she lonely, do you think?”

Memories in Diaspora # 323

 Memories in Diaspora # 323
 
“زلزله، زندگی، یک لحظه، یک تصویر”

 ................................................

قوقولی قوقو

خروسی توتول سرخ،  پرهای رنگی اش را تکان داد.

ماری فش فش کنان از کنارش گذشت.

زالویی در مزرعه برنج توی گودالی مرطوب فرو رفت.

خروس، دانه ای را برای مرغی کاوید.

مرغ، تنها ایستاده بود زیر آفتاب

کمی دورتر از او.

دختری دفتر خاطراتش را بغل کرد

چهارده روز پیش نوشتنش را آغاز کرده بود.

نوشته بود که مهرداد

او را در کوچه ای تعقیب کرده است

و موهای مهرداد درست مثل عکس لئوناردو دوکاپریو

 که دوستش در مدرسه به او نشان داده بود

 قاپی کوچک دارند.

نگاهش دو دو زد میان جمعیت پریشان

و

نوشت: نمیدانم خانه مهرداد کجاست!

...........................................

............................................

Monday, October 5, 2020

The Idiot

The Idiot 

By Dostoevsky

A fascinating monologue scene: "...Infinity, all mine!" 

Part one 

Part Two 

Part Three 

Part Four  

Irwin Weil on Dostoevsky

Enjambment in Poetry

 
Simply put, enjambment is when the end of a phrase extends past the end of a line. The definition of “enjambment” in French is “to step over.” In poetry, this means that a thought “steps over” the end of a line and into the beginning of the next line, with no punctuation, so that the reader must read through the line break quickly to reach the conclusion of the thought.

Here are examples that show how different poets have used enjambment. Read them aloud to hear the rhythm and where the poets place the emphasis in each line.

T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

 

"The Golf Links Lie So Near the Mill"

 "The Golf Links Lie So Near the Mill"

 By: Sarah Cleghorn

 The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day 
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.

Clearly, this poem is extremely short and concise and is written in an ABCB rhyme scheme. When a poem is this short, every word in the poem is chosen for a specific reason even if it doesn't seem like it. However, this small poem contains a large social message and is actually a satire.  

Read more...

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 322

 Memories in Diaspora # 322

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا

 شادی را گاه نمی توان به سادگی به دست آورد. نمی توان تزریق اش کرد. شادی وقتی که وقتش برسد خودش با پای خودش می آید. خودش، خودش را نشان می دهد. خودش، خودش را تزریق می کند. و آنگاه است که این شادی طبیعی است. دروغین نیست. شعاری نیست.

Friday, September 25, 2020

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Leonard Cohen on Moonlight...

Leonard Cohen on Moonlight, the Mystique of Creativity, His Influences, and Why He Loves It When People Cover His Songs

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Michel Foucault

 How much do we know about Michel Foucault?

روزنگاری های دیاسپور Memories in Diaspora # 321

  # 321روزنگاری های دیاسپور

بن بست!

حتمن راهی برای رهایی باید باشد. شاید در زمان خودش راه پیدا شود!

Sunday, September 20, 2020

Anna Dostoyevskaya on the Secret to a Happy Marriage

 Anna Dostoyevskaya on the Secret to a Happy Marriage: Wisdom from One of History’s Truest and Most Beautiful Loves

"
Recently widowed and bedeviled by epilepsy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (November 11, 1821–February 9, 1881) had cornered himself into an impossible situation. After his elder brother died, Dostoyevsky, already deeply in debt on account of his gambling addiction, had taken upon himself the debts of his brother’s magazine."

Read or listen to: The gambler 

 
"The Gambler" is a 1997 drama film directed by Károly Makk. It is set around the writing of the novel "The Gambler" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 320

 Memories in Diaspora # 320

 
روزنگاری های دیاسپورا
 
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you—Nobody—Too?
Then there’s a pair of us!

Emily Dickinson

من هیچکس نیستم! تو کی هستی؟

تو هم – هیچکسی- مثل من؟

حالا ما هردو جفت هم هستیم!

تکه ای از شعر امیلی دیکنسون

“هیچکس”

زن ایستاده است مثل سایه در آیینه. خیره به خود.

چه مسخره آمیز!

زن می گوید: “من هیچکس ام. من “چیز” هم نیستم.”

 

Thursday, September 10, 2020

Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 319

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا-
دوشنبه نهم جولای سال ۱۹۹۰
 

آب گوجه فرنگی را سر می کشم در هواپیما تا آخرین قطره. دارم به آیواسیتی برمی گردم. در آیواسیتی است که من دوباره به درون گوجه فرنگی پناه خواهم برد. به درون هندوانه ها و خیارها. با گوجه فرنگی ها حرف خواهم زد. با هندوانه های در بسته و تخم های زندانی سیاهشان.

باید دوباره  از تخم های آرام و بی تکبر بپرسم که چگونه می توانم در سکوت و سکون یک زندان به زندگی ام ادامه بدهم و باروری ام را پیوسته شکوفا نگه بدارم؟ تخم های صبور و گوشه گیر، می دانم که اگر از شما خالصانه بپرسم که چگونه می توانم در سکوت و سکون یک زندان به زندگی ام ادامه بدهم و باروری ام را پیوسته شکوفا نگه بدارم، شعار نخواهید داد و برایم درس اخلاق را تکرار نخواهید کرد. اما اگر بین شما یکی دو تا تخم رشد نکرده و کم تجربه هست که دوست دارد شعارهای اخلاقی و رهبرمنشانه بدهد، باید راست و پوست کنده به شما بگویم که آن دو تخم را با سبعیت تمام زیر دندان های آسیایم له می کنم و قورت می دهم.

 

 

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 318

 روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره 318

" دیدن یک صحنه نیم ساعته از قدرت ثروت و تحقیر هنرمند، ورژنی بیرحمانه بود از نمایشنامه “قوی تر” آگوست استریندبرگ، در زندگی هنرمندان مهاجرکه حالا به طور زنده اجرا می شد و تمام انرژی هستی بخش را در من خاموش می کرد."


Monday, August 31, 2020

Kindness

 Kindness

- 1952-

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Read more

 

The Building Blocks of Personhood:

 The Building Blocks of Personhood:

“Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives — we are each of us unique.”

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 317

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره 317 - جمعه ششم ماه جولای سال ۱۹۹۰- ساعت سه صبح – لس آنجلس

از ماشین که پیاده شدم ساعت شش و نیم بعد از ظهر بود. از دانشگاه یو سی ال ای تا خیابان وست وود پیاده راه رفتم. یکجوری می خواستم با زمان و با خودم تنها باشم. به ویترین مغازه ها نگاه کردم. به کتابفروشی ها. کتابی از مارگریت دوراس مرا به داخل کتابفروشی کشاند. کتاب Practicalities. مجموعه ای از گفت و گوهای دوراس با دوستش جروم بوژورJerome Beaujour، درباره دیدگاهها، افکار و حس های محرمانه ش درباره نویسنده بودن، فیلمساز بودن، مادر بودن و معشوق یک مرد بسیار جوان و همجنسگرا بودن.

 روزنگاری های دیاسپورا

A 16-Million-Year-Old Tree

 The sequoia tree slab is an invitation to begin thinking about a vast timescale that includes everything from fossils of armored amoebas to the great Tyrannosaurus rex.

Monday, August 24, 2020

Ray Bradbury on Writing, Emotion vs. Intelligence, and the Core of Creativity

 Ray Bradbury on Writing, Emotion vs. Intelligence, and the Core of Creativity

"On the formative influence of fairy tales and Greek myths

My aunt and my mother read to me when I was three from all the old Grimm fairy tales, Andersen fairy tales, and then all the Oz books as I was growing up… So by the time when I was ten or eleven, I was just full to the brim with these, and the Greek myths, and the Roman myths. And then, of course, I went to Sunday school, and then you take in the Christian myths, which are all fascinating in their own way… I guess I always tended to be a visual person, and myths are very visual, and I began to draw, and then I felt the urge to carry on these myths.

If I’m anything at all, I’m not really a science-fiction writer — I’m a writer of fairy tales and modern myths about technology."

 

Sunday, August 23, 2020

The Many Lives of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”

The Many Lives of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”

In the late 1970s, Leonard Cohen sat down to write a song about god, sex, love, and other mysteries of human existence that bring us to our knees for one reason or another. The legendary singer-songwriter, who was in his early forties at the time, knew how to write a hit: He had penned "Suzanne," "Bird on the Wire," "Lover, Lover, Lover," and dozens of other songs for both himself and other popular artists of the time. But from the very beginning, there was something different about what would become "Hallelujah"—a song that took five years and an estimated 80 drafts for Cohen to complete.

Thursday, August 20, 2020

When Words Fail

 When Words Fail

In Samuel Beckett’s novel, The Unnamable, the anonymous narrator laments, “I’m all these words, all these strangers, this dust of words, with no ground for their setting, no sky for their dispersing.”

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 316

 روزنگاری های دیاسپورا Memories in Diaspora # 316
“این خانه یک شعر است”
زن وارد خانه که شد، گفت: “خانه تمیز است. دیوارهایش سفید و لخت و عورند. بدون خرت و پرت هایی که به منظور خودنمایی بر چند میخ مخرب و ویرانگر آویزان شده باشند. لختی این دیوار از عریانی مجسمه بوسه رودن زیباتر است. مثل اینکه این خانه باید اسمی داشته باشد شاید هم عنوانی مثل: “این خانه یک شعر است”… چون مثل یک شعر خالص است.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

I'm Nobody! Who are you?

 I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you—Nobody—Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise—you know!

How dreary—to be—Somebody!
How public—like a Frog—
To tell one's name—the livelong June—
To an admiring Bog!

Emily Dickinson

I watched this touching short video from the perspective of a teenage girl.

Thursday, August 13, 2020

In my secret life

In my secret life

By: Leonard Cohen

In my secret life
In my secret life
In my secret life
In my secret life

I saw you this morning
You were moving so fast

Can’t seem to loosen my grip
Well on the past

And I miss you so much
There’s no one in sight

And we’re still making love

In my secret life

In my secret life

I smile when I’m angry
I cheat and I lie
I do what I have to do
To get by
But I know what is wrong
And I know what is right
And I’d die for the truth
In my secret life
In my secret life

More...

Tuesday, August 11, 2020

“When I Am Among the Trees” by Mary Oliver

WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES
by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.

Read more....

The Third Self: Mary Oliver on Time, Concentration, the Artist’s Task, and the Central Commitment of the Creative Life

 “The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”

Read more....

Memories in Diaspora # 315

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا

 Memories in Diaspora # 315

-۴ ماه جولای سال ۱۹۹۰- لس آنجلس
"خلبان توضیح داد که ساعت هفت و بیست و سه دقیقه است به وقت لس آنجلس. شهر از بالا مثل یک تابلوی هنری دلربا بود که گویی ذرات درخشانی از جنس شیشه های رنگی و نقره ای رنگ به دقت روی سطحی از دانه های شن کنار هم چیده شده بودند. یک کار هنری وسیع و چشمگیربود با اشکالی هندسی، نه هلالی و پر انحناء… هندسی از این زاویه که بازتاب تفکر چارچوب گونه و منطقی غربیان است…."
..............................
"درلس آنجلس زندگی شکلی کاملن متفاوت با آیواسیتی دارد. انگار در ایران قبل از انقلاب زندگی می کنم. یا ایران بعد از انقلابی که شکل قبل از انقلاب را دارد. در خانه های دوستان ایرانی، رادیو ها همه به زبان فارسی است. تلویزیون ها ایرانی است و همه فارسی صحبت می کنند، در خانه ها و خیابان ها! این شکل زندگی مرا به سوی دنیایی کاملن متفاوت با آیواسیتی پرتاب کرده است!"

 

Friday, August 7, 2020

Segal Talks on Bogart, Jenness and Foreman

 The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presents SEGAL TALKS: Anne Bogart livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 27 May 2020 at 9 a.m.

SEGAL TALKS Morgan Jenness on Tuesday 28 July 2020

SEGAL TALKS Richard Foreman on Wednesday 20 May 2020

 

Wednesday, August 5, 2020

Behrouz Boochani Just Wants to Be Free

Behrouz Boochani Just Wants to Be Free
"It was a brilliant January day in Christchurch, New Zealand. Screeching gulls wheeled in off the Pacific; swollen roses bobbed in the breeze. In the hydrangea-fringed garden of a spare, tidy house, Boochani sat smoking. He couldn’t smoke inside because the house wasn’t exactly his; it was on loan from the University of Canterbury. Boochani’s neighborhood looked as if Beatrix Potter had painted it in watercolors: prim, ivy-laced cottages and tidy beds of hollyhocks and lavender. It was nice, Boochani conceded. Too nice, sometimes. “It’s too much, you know?” he said. “It’s too much peace and too much beauty. It’s hard to deal with this. It’s like you go from a very cold place to a very hot place.”"

Monday, August 3, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 314

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا Memories in Diaspora # 314
دوشنبه ۲۵ ماه جون ۱۹۹۰-
“پیراهن خاکستری”
“اتاق خاکستری است. خانه خاکستری است. دیوارها خاکستری. و هوا خاکستری. پدر نشسته است روی تختخواب خاکستری اش و یک سبد گل رنگارنگ را توی بغلش گرفته است. گل هایی به رنگ زرد، بنفش و سفید از تیره مینا.

Friday, July 31, 2020

story within a story

"A story within a story, also referred to as an embedded narrative, is a literary device in which one character within a narrative narrates.[1] Multiple layers of stories within stories are sometimes called nested stories. A play may have a brief play within it, such as Shakespeare's play Hamlet; a film may show the characters watching a short film; or a novel may contain a short story within the novel. A story within a story can be used in all types of narration: novels, short stories, plays, television programs, films, poems, songs, and philosophical essays."

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Translating Ulysses and Lolita in Persian

عظمت یولسیز (اولیس) در چیست؟

نوشته:  اکرم پدرام‌نیا

"در طول چند صد صفحه از رمان، جویس کارهای روزمره و افکار عادی معمولی‌ترین آدم یک شهر، لیوپولد بلوم، را روایت می‌کند و در روند روایت، حساسیت‌ها، نقاط ضعف و اشتباهاتش را برملا می‌سازد. بیش از یک دهه است که زنش به او پشت کرده و حتا در همین روز به او خیانت می‌کند. مردم دابلن، همشهری‌هایش، او را به طرق مختلف خوار و خفیف می‌کنند. صاحب‌کارش تحقیرآمیزترین رفتار را با او دارد. با این‌همه جویس پروتاگونیست داستانش را با احترام و حتا علاقه‌ای عاشقانه معرفی می‌کند. بلوم دارای ویژ‌گی‌های انسانی قابل تحسین است، مردی عاطفی و باتوجه، با علاقه‌مندی‌های گوناگون و کنجکاوی‌هایی از سر مهر و خیرخواهی انسانی، مردی به‌معنای واقعی کلمه «خوب.» در طول روز ذهنش با دیدن چیزها و آدم‌های سر راهش مدام کار می‌کند. در فصل هشت، دست جوانک نابینایی را می‌گیرد و از خیابان می‌گذراند و در این فاصله می‌کوشد با او رفتاری برابری‌جویانه داشته باشد. در دل به خود می‌گوید: «چیزی به او بگو. بهتر است برتری‌جویانه نباشد. به هر چه به آن‌ها بگویی بدگمان‌اند. یک حرف روزمره بگو.»
 Or
  "با خواندن رمان «یولسیز» درمی‌یابیم که «فرهنگ» مجموعه‌ای از اشیاء داخل موزه‌ها نیست، بلکه فضایی است که در آن غرق‌ایم با همه‌ی جزئیات معمولی‌ای که هر کدام ارزش توجه و مطرح شدن در داستان دارند".
 Or
"گفت: ”کتاب من علاوه بر چیزهای دیگر، حماسه‌ی جسم آدمی است… در این کتاب جسم یا بدن در فضا حرکت می‌کند و [این جسم] جایگاه شخصیت کامل انسان است. کلمه‌هایی که می‌نویسم جور شده‌اند تا اول یکی از کارکردهای بدن را نشان دهند و بعد دیگری را. در فصل لستریگون‌ها شکم چیره می‌شود و ریتم فصل ریتم حرکات دودی است [که در روده‌ها می‌بینیم.]» تا گفتم: ”اما ذهن‌ها، افکار شخصیت‌ها… “ گفت: ”اگر بدن نبود ذهن و فکری نبود. این‌ها همه یکی‌اند. قهرمان داستان من، لیوپولد بلوم، که به سمت ناهار می‌رود، به زنش فکر می‌کند و به خودش می‌گوید: ”پاهای مالی به‌نظر مثل خیار چنبر است“ شاید در ساعت‌های دیگر روز هم به این موضوع فکر کند، اما بدون حضور فکر به غذا در پس‌زمینه‌ی ذهنی‌اش. اما می‌خواهم خواننده بیشتر از طریق نشانه‌ها درک کند تا بیان مستقیم.“» (۱۹۸۹: ۲۰– ۱۹)

«خواندن رمان لولیتا مثل ورود به تالار آینه است»
 نوشته:  اکرم پدرام‌نیا

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره ۳۱۳

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا 313 
ادامه: یکشنبه ۲۴ ماه جون ۱۹۹۰ – آیواسیتی
با صحبت های خانم (آ) با پیشینه و تاریخ یک نسل پیش آشنا می شوم. با زبان، فرهنگ، رفتارها، سیره و جغرافیای شهر یزد.

Monday, July 13, 2020

Memories in Diaspora # 311

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره Memories in Diaspora # 311
چهارشنبه ۲۰ ماه جون ۱۹۹۰
نمایش رومئو و ژولیت به شیوه اکسپریمنتال در خواب
خواب دیدم در نمایش رومئو و ژولیت بازی می کنم.

Saturday, July 11, 2020

War, Change and Hope: a report on the 29th WTP Conference

I found this report on internet. Good to review it again.

War, Change and Hope: a report on the 29th WTP Conference
 by Ezzat Goushegir (Chicago) 

"The 29th Annual Women and Theatre Program (WTP) Con-ference took place in Teatro Pregones in Bronx, New York in August 7th, 2009. The theme of this year’s conference was the Balancing Act of Innovation: War, Change, and Hope. What do we really mean when we talk about “Hope” when we know that hope is another side of “Despair”? In difficult times, “Hope” has always been a necessity for us to strive for life to survive as human species. This year’s conference strongly held up the solid pillar of solidarity to motivate us, the WTP members, for insightful challenges and decisive changes in the time of war."

Read more here.

Friday, July 10, 2020

The Passion of Flannery O’Connor

The Passion of Flannery O’Connor

"Had Flannery O’Connor been on the scene, we can be sure, she would have reported it as some kind of freak-out, a dusty near-riot, not Woodstock but Altamont—scuffles, bad vibes, mic feedback. Where the Word was operational, for O’Connor, it was always disruptive: in its presence, one’s head was supposed to explode. Her short stories, especially, reengineered the Joycean epiphany, the quiet moment of transcendence, as a kind of blunt-force baptismal intervention: her characters are KO’d, dismantled, with a violence that would be absurdist, if the universe were absurd. But the universe is not absurd. “There is an interaction between man and God which to disregard is an act of insolence,” wrote the rabbi and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel, her contemporary, in The Prophets. “Isolation is a fairy tale.” The upended moment, the breaking-in or breaking-through of a vagrant, unbiddable reality: this is the grace of God and the sign of his love."

Sunday, July 5, 2020

James Baldwin’s Advice on Writing

James Baldwin’s Advice on Writing

“Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.”

" If you are going to be a writer there is nothing I can say to stop you; if you’re not going to be a writer nothing I can say will help you. What you really need at the beginning is somebody to let you know that the effort is real."

 

Sunday, June 28, 2020

Bill Moyers: A Poet a Day

During these trying days of social distancing, self-isolating and quarantines, days rife with fear and anxiety, my colleagues and I thought you might like some company. So each day we will be introducing you to poets we have met over the years. The only contagion they will expose you to is a measure of joy, reflection and meditation brought on by “the best words in the best order.”
Enjoy.
Bill Moyers
In this video, poet and playwright Claudia Rankine reads César Vallejo’s poem, “Untitled.” Although Vallejo published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century. Rankine’s new play, “Help,” was in previews at New York City’s The Shed earlier in March when the pandemic forced all theaters to shut down.
“Untitled”
By César Vallejo
For several days, I have felt an exuberant, political need
to love, to kiss affection on its two cheeks,
and I have felt from afar a demonstrative
desire, another desire to love, willingly or by force,
whoever hates me, whoever rips up his paper, a little boy,
the woman who cries for the man who was crying,
the king of wine, the slave of water,
whoever hid in his wrath,
whoever sweats, whoever passes, whoever shakes his person in my soul.
And I want, therefore, to adjust
the braid of whoever talks to me; the hair of the soldier;
the light of the great one; the greatness of the little one.
I want to iron directly
a handkerchief for whoever is unable to cry
and, when I am sad or happiness hurts me,
to mend the children and the geniuses.
I want to help the good one become a little bit bad
and I badly need to be seated
on the right hand of the left-handed, and to respond to the mute,
trying to be useful to him
as I can, and also I want very much
to wash the lame man’s foot,
and to help the nearby one-eyed man sleep.
Ah love, this one my own, this one the world’s,
interhuman and parochial, maturely aged!
It comes perfectly timed,
from the foundation, from the public groin,
and, coming from afar, makes me wantto kiss
the singer’s muffler,
and whoever suffers to kiss him on his frying pan,
the deaf man on his cranial murmur;
whoever gives me what I forgot in my breast,
on his Dante, on his Chaplin, on his shoulders.
I want, finally,
when I’m at the celebrated edge of violence
or my heart full of chest, I would like
to help whoever smiles laugh,
to put a little bird right on the evil man’s cape,
to take care of the sick, annoying them,
to buy from the vendor
to help the killer kill, a terrible thing
and I would like to be kind to myself
in everything.
From "The Complete Posthumous Poetry of César Vallejo," Jose Rubia Barcia (Translator), Clayton Eshleman (Translator), 1978, University of California Press.
Learn more about Claudia Rankine at https://billmoyers.com/…/a-poet-a-day-claudia-rankine-cesar…
Find more pandemic poetry: BillMoyers.com/poetry

What Really Happens When You Donate Your Clothes and Why It’s Bad

 On consumerism....

“We don’t value our clothing anymore,” Jenkins declares. “Fast fashion has helped us build up a more intense addiction to buying clothing and, at the same time, it’s helped us really elevate the throwaway culture.”

Saturday, June 20, 2020

Romanian Philosopher Emil Cioran on the Courage to Disillusion Yourself

 Romanian Philosopher Emil Cioran on the Courage to Disillusion Yourself
Read more in BrainPicking

“The man who unmasks his fictions renounces his own resources and, in a sense, himself. Consequently, he will accept other fictions which will deny him, since they will not have cropped up from his own depths.”


“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster,” James Baldwin wrote in a staggeringly prescient piece from 1953.

Laughers

Laughers

Dream-singers,
Story-tellers,
Dancers,
Loud laughers in the hands of Fate—
My people.
Dish-washers,
Elevator-boys,
Ladies' maids,
Crap-shooters,
Cooks,
Waiters,
Jazzers,
Nurses of babies,
Loaders of ships,
Rounders,
Number writers,
Comedians in vaudeville
And band-men in circuses—
Dream-singers all,—
My people.
Story-tellers all,—
My people.
Dancers—
God! What dancers!
Singers—
God! What singers!
Singers and dancers
Dancers and laughers.
Laughers?
Yes, laughers . . . laughers . . . laughers—
Loud-mouthed laughers in the hands

My People

 My People
By James Langston Hughes

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

Friday, June 19, 2020

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره ۳۰۸

یک قصه دیگر نوشتم بنام “نسترن”
یکشنبه ۱۷ ماه جون ۱۹۹۰ – آیواسیتی

 “نسترن”
بخش نخست
اسمم نسترن است. بیست و شش ساله ام. تهران به دنیا آمده ام و تنها دختر پدر و مادرم هستم.

شماره 309 روزنگاری های دیاسپورا بخش دوم

ادامه قصه “نسترن”

  بخش آخر روزنگاری های دیاسپورا شماره ۳۱۰ Memories in Diaspora # 310 آخرین بخش قصه

The ‘Untranslatable’ Emotions ...

Interesting article:

"Have you ever felt a little mbuki-mvuki – the irresistible urge to “shuck off your clothes as you dance”? Perhaps a little kilig – the jittery fluttering feeling as you talk to someone you fancy? How about uitwaaien – which encapsulates the revitalising effects of taking a walk in the wind? 

These words – taken from Bantu, Tagalog, and Dutch – have no direct English equivalent, but they represent very precise emotional experiences that are neglected in our language. And if Tim Lomas at the University of East London has his way, they might soon become much more familiar."

Monday, June 15, 2020

13th, a great Documentary

Watch this great Documentary!


"13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States;"[3] it is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.
DuVernay contends that slavery has been perpetuated since the end of the American Civil War through criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing; suppression of African Americans by disenfranchisement, lynchings and Jim Crow; politicians declaring a war on drugs that weighs more heavily on minority communities and, by the late 20th century, mass incarceration of people of color in the United States. She examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex, discussing how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations."

Saturday, June 13, 2020

ترس، ابهام، بی باکی و همزاد پنداری در دوران کرونا

ترس، ابهام، بی باکی و همزاد پنداری در دوران کرونا


نگاهی به یک فیلم کوتاه که ناگهان ناپدید شده است!

Why African-Americans Loathe 'Uncle Tom'

 Why African-Americans Loathe 'Uncle Tom'

Folklorist Patricia Turner discusses "Uncle Tom" — the lead character in the anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe — as part of NPR's In Character series. The series examines the fictional characters who have defined American life.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

روزنگاری های دیاسپورا Memories in Diaspora # 307

    # 307  روزنگاری های دیاسپورا
 Memories in Diaspora # 307
عزت گوشه گیر

یک تصویر – یک شعر کوتاه

وقتی که کفش هایم دهان باز می کنند
می دانم که واژه های دلم
دلتنگند
و استخوان هایم
از درون دارند می ترکند