Weekend Reading

"But in her I’ve begun to see something, something impossibly bright and blinding and clear." Read Mason undergraduate Alex Pham's essay on "In-betweenness," and his encounters with Azar Nafisi, author of "Reading Lolita in Tehran."

What is truly memorable, however, is Vopěnka’s exploration of love. He doesn’t stint from marital difficulty, lust, longing, regret, parental ignorance, and emotional callousness. But neither does he stint from the essential love that binds humanity.

You’re not a racist; you’re my liberal friend, the one who applauds my Africanness. But one day, in your home, you asked me never to leave the window open lest some ...

"There are moments when I become deeply despaired about whether words have any significance at all. But still, our mission does not change. Literature must foster humans and make the souls of people stronger in order to overcome the loneliness that may swallow up humans when they face atrocious fates."
The Asahi Shimbun

Elif Batuman reckons with the ideology of Anna Karenina, Eugene Onegin, and other beloved Russian books.
The New Yorker

"Now, with the release of Victory City, writers are again rallying around Rushdie to champion his work. Many see it as a moment to celebrate Rushdie’s exuberant and playful imagination, to turn attention back to his fiction and to savor the fact that Rushdie is here to witness the reception of his novel. Some say the book’s overarching message — that stories will outlast political clashes, wars, the collapse of empires and civilizations — has taken on a heightened resonance in light of what Rushdie has endured."
The New York Times

“One Zan” framed an afternoon of readings on H Street in Northeast Washington, DC, during which American women read works alongside Iranian women. I learned about Iranian women writers who have been prodigious in their production of revolutionary works. I learned, for example, that over the last 200 years, Persian poets like Tahereh were executed for exercising their voice and agency.

"Kurdish literature is a very rich literature with a long history. Why is it not widely translated? Why is it not visible? Part of it is the position of the Kurdish language as a minoritized language. However, it’s really important to remember that the minority position has been imposed on Kurds and the Kurdish language—there are 30-40 million Kurdish speakers. It has a much larger number of speakers than some European languages that are not classified as minority languages. The minority position is a political, cultural, and social designation, which has to be challenged."
Asymptote

"'I think poetry is in everything that I write because it’s in the language and the attitude of the writing,' said Medel. 'When you write a poem you have to go to the essence of the poem, and I’m trying to do the same in fiction. I try to go to the heart of the story.'"
George Mason University