December 2010
“You must not find symbols in everything you see. It makes life impossible.”
– Salome, Oscar Wilde
“Alright tumblr-ites. I’ll be away for a week, as I am heading off to...”
My Review of "The Brothers Karamazov"
Fyodor Dostoevsky pours his deepest philosophical thoughts on the matters of - the nature of evil, human goodness and the existence of God, in this wonderful and epic novel that has been hailed as one of “the supreme achievements in literature”. In it, Dostoevsky lays out his philosophical meditations by winding them around a story that centers on a father and his three (four) sons...
“In some ways, we already see the future and the progress that will mark and...”
In Russia, With Love
I just finished watching a documentary centered on Russia in the age of its most powerful politician, Vladimir Putin - current prime minister and former president - on the BBC. Putin, despite his almost pariah-like status on the international stage, is widely popular in Russia, and this dichotomy of his reputation is one that has struck me for a while. How is it that one man could be perceived in...
“The bonds we form over the passage of time are truly hard to break. So, cursed...”
Indigo Gray (Act I)
They finally settled on Indigo. It had been an arduous few months of wrestling with various options - so arduous that the process had rivalled the pangs of labor itself. However, Bradley and Sophia Gray had finally decided on Indigo. The name itself was an odd one as it had never been heard before by any of their friends and relations, and seemed to effeminate for the young baby who already seemed...
“To the glorious day when human society is devoid of the presence of kings,...”
A Year in Books
This year, I expanded my library by buying and reading a few truly fascinating and insighful works of both fictional and non-fictional literature. My favorite of the year was Hitch 22: A Memoir, by Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens is my favorite contemporary writer and I read his essays religiously every week, and his monthly writings for Vanity Fair. In his memoir, he spends less time offering an...
“Christmas is officially over and I’m happy to say it was a good day. Well,...”
The King of Love
It occurred to me today, whiles watching Peter Jackson’s King Kong, that the story of the great ape is one of love between two beings, albeit totally different creatures. The beautiful and human Ann Darrow first comes face to face with the gigantic monster in a terrifying scene in which she is offered to the great beast as a sacrifice by the natives of the island King Kong inhabits. However,...
The Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire is a questionnaire about one’s personality and is named after the French writer Marcel Proust whose responses to the questionnaire were wildly popular and widely celebrated. Below, I attempt my own responses to its questions:
Favorite Virtue: Wisdom
Favorite Qualities in a man: Empathy, and devotion, love, care, and chivalry & sensitivity towards women
...
tumblrbot asked: WHERE WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO VISIT ON YOUR PLANET?
Bewitching Charm
There is a girl, queen of the night
Charmer of mine, pillar of light
Seducer, seductress, enchanter, enchantress
Prowling her way, in a star-lit red dress.
Red as wine, the color of roses
Tugging my heart, but somehow it closes.
I can not allow myself to be swayed by her
For by the sheer force of will I have come this far.
Warning myself to resist her power
As my heart, she could swiftly...
Friends
Sweet Maria
I’ll sing you an Aria.
Praise your beauty
As though it is my duty.
Gracious Daykwon
I’ll get you a grey wand.
For your conjuring of circus tricks
And taekwondo-ing of pricks.
“The progressive match of history can be one of a rather strange nature. Gazing...”
“Imagine being at a party. You are having a relatively fun time, perhaps even the...”
Havana Blues
Raul Castro, the president of Cuba and younger brother of the monstrous Fidel, recently announced that the Cuban economy was on the brink of an abyss and reform was urgent. I do not know the true nature of his proposed reforms but Castro has stated that they will not mean an end to socialism and will not be similar to China’s market reforms that have now transformed that country into the...
“After concluding that there is no god, no heaven and no eternity, I have decided...”
My Review of "The Kite Runner"
The only book that has caused my eyes to well up with tears. It grabs your heart strings and never lets go, haunting you long after you’ve put it back on the shelf. It tells the story of a powerful friendshp between two young boys in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and the Mujahideen revolt that followed. Love and betrayal mark the boys bond wth each other and Afghanistan is thrown...
My Review of "A Brief History of Time"
Anyone who knows a thing about Professor Stephen Hawking would probably agree that his excitement about Physics is like that of a child thrilled about shiny new toys. His love for the subject matter is palpable through the pages of this brilliant and best-selling book that proudly boasts a single equation. A Brief History of Time isn’t just for science buffs and theoretical phsicists, but...
My Review of "The Satanic Verses"
Perhaps the most notorious book of the 20th Century. A mad despot overseeing the state of Iran decreed that its author should die, fanatics the world over took that as a clarion call to violence and acted accordingly, publishers and translators from Norway to Japan were attacked and in some instances killed, mass death in Turkey and an author - a mild and gentle man - was forced into hiding; a...
My Review of "Infidel"
A powerful memoir whose significance in exposing the dangers of religious superstition and fundamentalism on the lives of young girls and women and societies at large cannot be overstated. A highly recommended read for all concerned about fanaticism, jihadism, failed statehood and its trans-national consequences and the unconventional threats of the 21st Century. At the heart of Infidel’s...
My Review of "1984"
Simply put, this novel is terrifying. The story-teling is simple, yet chilling and makes vividly clear the horrors, both personal and societal, of despotism. The great crime of totalitarianism is that it negates the self and transforms humans into properties of the state.
My Review of "Lolita"
The kind of book only a true master like Nabokov could author. A lesser writer would have seen his reputation, livelihood and future incinerated in front of his very eyes. Though I must say, reading Lolita can make an otherwise law-abiding citizen with zero felonies and misdemeanors feel complicit in a very grave and sinster crime.
My Review of "Reading Lolita in Tehran"
A wonderful showcase of how literature is a far more supreme source of ethics than any religious text. It’s a powerful true story of life in Iran after the revolution and how a female professor gathered a few of her brightest students and together they read Western literature and discussed its relation to their lives in an Islamic theocracy. The chief realization I gained from the book was...
My Review of "Brave New World"
Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” is a great read and a wonderful novel. However, for a book hailed as one of the pre-eminent fictional portrayals of totalitarianism, I felt it lacked the suffocating tension of Orwell’s Nineteen Eight-Four. Or does the terror of Huxley’s great work lie in the seeming banality of dictatorship and complete state-ownership of the...
“Some men dedicate their lives to Philosophy, others to the Fine Arts, a great...”
“It’s a bloody shame that a talented, skilled and brave diplomat like...”
“If one postulates that every effect demands a cause and as a result of that, the...”
“If there is an omniscient god, then there is no free will. If there is no free...”
O How They Love Each Other
On October 31, a group of armed men stormed a church in Baghdad, and by the time calm came over the building, 53 Christians were dead. The murderers were Muslims and members of an al-Qaeda affiliate. It was no coincidence that they attacked a group of Christians. As believers in fundamentalist Islam, theirs is an outlook that calls for a world in which Islam is the singular faith and where...
“Let’s see the countries not in attendance at the coming Nobel Peace Prize...”
Post-Modernism's Side-Effects?
I do enjoy visiting art musems and galleries and marvelling at the wondrous creations of painters and sculptors. My favorite epoch in the history of the arts is the Italian Renaissance. Celebrated masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Sandro Botticelli created works of lasting beauty, influence and intrigue that still mystify, bedazzle and haunt audiences.
Theirs were works of...
“I believe nihilism is ultimately right, but in the here and now, there is...”
“Exceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.”
– Carl Sagan
“She became perfect in every area except life.”
