Rift Valley
Poetry: “Nothing in the hushed hills, / the mute, grey ascent, to ready us for that / gash of gutted earth.”
The canvas of literature
“Three days after I arrived”, Naomi Alderman recalls, “was the start of the Jewish festival of Succot.” This complicated her start to term, as she wasn’t allowed to do any work other than reading for three days. Combined with the lack of kosher food provided by her college, it all proved s
Of minds and choices
“I threaded my way through a crowd dotted with people who had clearly consumed psychedelics or stimulants immediately prior to the meeting.”
Trump, Muslims, and human decency
What his fans care about—and what Trump gloriously brings—is the hyper-masculine “total knowledge of a passion which rises erect and alone”, the atmosphere and essence of an anti-establishment rebellion.
Notes on Port Meadow
Robert Lindsey, a Freeman since he was eighteen, explained to me that any non-Freeman wanting to keep animals on the meadow has to pay the group for the privilege, or risk having their chattels confiscated in an annual roundup.
Salt
Fiction: “They had come at the wrong time of day, really. The sun seemed to be scorching the air around them. ‘Okay,’ she sighed, sitting up and beginning to stretch to her feet. ‘Let's go.’”
In Satan We Trust
“Given the erection of a statue of the Ten Commandments in the Oklahoma State Capital, it is only fair that a statue of the occult deity Baphomet also be erected, in the name of respect for the inclusion of religious minorities.”
A day with DIVA Magazine
The usual suspects end up being the last recipients of progress: women, people of colour and those whose sexual orientation doesn’t fit a neat label. In this context, DIVA magazine is something of a silver lining.
neglect
Poetry: "he moves beyond reach / and I fade into relative neglect …"