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!

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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....