a dictionary of spectral curiosities
"We don't do politics here.""Personally, I don't support any particular ideology." These are two phrases I've frequently heard when issues connected to discrimination have come up. Most recently, the first was shouted at me by a very irate building manager who affected not to understand why her migrant-background neighbours might feel upset by the Prime …
Continue reading "“You can’t post this here”: The story of a poem"
Today, I teared up in a bookstore. Today, I bought a book because the first two paragraphs of its final chapter made me feel like crying. I picked it up and leafed through it to kill time, and because the title, Borderlines, caught my eye. I picked it up with some cynicism, wondering what this …
Continue reading "Crying in bookstores, thinking of borders"
I went to Spain for the first time recently - it was a truly wonderful holiday, even better than expected. The sights were delightful, the food delicious, and the people friendly and accommodating. I spent a week there, looking at things through the eyes of a traveller, and here is what I saw. Poster reading …
Eugène Carrière, Sleep (1897). Source: National Gallery of Art As a child, for many years, I used to have this experience at regular intervals: I'd wake up from a deep nightime sleep or a brief daytime nap, suddenly very alert, my heart racing, with a strong and unshakeable feeling that I had something very important …
Answering 8 questions about transitioning from an English PhD into a non-academic role.
A litle over two years ago I was writing about my struggle with people's assumptions about me in my adopted country. In that blog post, I was reflecting on the pitfalls of the not-so-innocent "where are you from?" question that many migrants like me face when they open their mouths to speak. The culprit? Doubtlessly …
My first encounter with snails must have been when I was but little, maybe 6 or so. I was in the countryside and snails came out in scores after the refreshing summer rain. I quickly became fascinated with their beautiful shells, their considered pace, and the sensation of their cold, moist flesh across the skin …
This is a short and (for me) experimental piece, mixing fiction and non-fiction. I haven't written much creatively in a long while, and this baby just wanted out, so here I am, unleashing it upon the world. Constructive feedback and thoughts are always appreciated. (Full piece after the cut!) ¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬.¬ There are days when the …
Ah, here it comes then, finally, a proper blog post. Many of you will probably recognise that title quotation as lifted whole out of one of the most famous books in the world, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That's when Alice, frustrated and confused by so many (rather brusque) changes in height, and puzzled by the anthropomorphic White …
Continue reading "“But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I?”"
This post is, in a way, a continuation of this review I wrote some time ago about the social screensaver The Endless Forest and the art of purposeless gaming. I won't go into all the details of how the TALE of TALES project is all kinds of marvellous and then some, but I will go …
Continue reading "The Joy of Purposeless Gaming, or the Art of Doing Nothing"
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