The Oldest Story Ever Told

کهن‌ترین داستان جهان

The Oldest Story Ever Told

Some words about the story

By:  ROMAIN GARY

 December 1 1963

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.

 

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…

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.

 

 

Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules of Writing

 Margaret Atwood’s 10 Rules of Writing

Ray Bradbury’s Greatest Writing Advice

 Ray Bradbury’s Greatest Writing Advice

“I’ve had a sign over my typewriter for over 25 years now: Don’t think!”

 

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.”

What's The Railroad To Me?

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.

 

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 —

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."

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."

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؟”

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."

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."

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.

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