Category: language

AG2019_1530529 or exhilaration with a purpose

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AG2019_1530529a

What makes “Good Girl” so powerful as a novel of development or bildungsroman is that it respects self-destruction as an effective tool of self-discovery.
[…]
In her wild behavior, her pursuit of chaotic situations and turbulent relationships, there is exhilaration with a purpose. She is cutting ties with safety to fling herself into life.

Nersessian reviews “Good Girl,” by the German-born writer Aria Aber.

AI or a defense of the human qua human

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It was only thirty-three seconds long, this “satirical” video, but it is one of the most comprehensive depictions of what I want to call the American Imaginary that I have ever seen. Within the American Imaginary, there is and always has been a subcategory of people in this world who are not only born to suffer but are habituated to it. They come from the “shithole countries,” as previously defined by the president, during his first term.

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In America, AI is a copyright issue, an uncanny video, a propaganda tool. Through the portal, it is the destructive, extractive and violent contest to get sufficient cobalt and coltan out of African ground.

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strong case Fanon made for a radical humanism as the necessary basis of any progressive socialist politics. “What matters today,” Fanon claimed, “the issue which blocks the horizon, is the need for a redistribution of wealth. Humanity will have to address this question, no matter how devastating the consequences might be.” Not us, not them: humanity.

“Trump Gaza number one”, Zadie Smith in New York Review of Books.

Kishin Shinoyama, Shoku
Publisher by Ushio Shuppan, 358 pages, 1993, Hardcover under dust jacket, in a slipcase, 32,5 x 24,5 cm.

I breed a poorly concealed affliction in my heart

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To temper an obstinate and wicked
Pain that has been burrowing into me for some time
I try, now and again, to cry out piteously
To the one who, oh miserable me, preys upon my heart.
But, a disciple of desire, my voice
Is scarcely heard, and already it moans and shouts.
What a harsh refrain, and so inimical to my longings,
I am deterred from begging for mercy.

And a thought says to me: fool, do you not see
That you always receive both scorn and injury
If you throw yourself meekly at the feet of someone cruel?

Thus, in silence, I breed a poorly concealed
Affliction in my heart, which is where the seed
Of that cruel love that gives me such despair took root.

Paolina Secco-Suardo Grismondi translated from Italian by Alani Rosa Hicks-Bartlett via swwim everyday

i am a promise awake with knowing

a pull in a thread

sprawling

a sputtering

a stuttering

a slant

a song

a rising

a falling

[…]

longing for the pierce of stars

tonguing the night

brushing away the darkness

til there is light

around

beneath

inside

Desire [even in the time of the tyrant], Leah Umansky