Things I Learned This Week

Hedayat, Farrokhzad, Lamar, and A Real Pain

Thanksgiving break has begun! Looking forward to getting more work done. LOL. That said, here’s the cream that floated to the top this week.

Reading Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun again. I’d read it in an animal studies class previously, and it will be interesting to reread, considering I have now read all of his books. We also read his Nobel Laureate speech given in the upheaval of the late aughts. There is a lot to take away, but he echoes much of what a lot of us have felt over the last ten years. For example… “I woke up recently to the realization I’d been living for some years in a bubble. That I’d failed to notice the frustration and anxieties of many people around me. I realized that my world – a civilized, stimulating place filled with ironic, liberal-minded people – was in fact much smaller than I’d ever imagined. 2016, a year of surprising – and for me depressing – political events in Europe and in America, and of sickening acts of terrorism all around the globe, forced me to acknowledge that the unstoppable advance of liberal-humanist values I’d taken for granted since childhood may have been an illusion.” Worth a listen.

My world lit professor told the class NOT to read The Blind Owl, Sadegh Hedayat's magnum opus and a significant literary work of 20th-century Iran. Written in Persian, it is narrated by a man who addresses his murderous confessions to a shadow on his wall that looks like an owl. He said it was the most terrifying book we would ever read, so of course, half the class downloaded the PDF then and there. I’ve only just started but, it is so good. I don’t know that it is the scariest thing I’ve ever read. That might have been The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs or A Good Man is Hard to Find by O’Connor in elementary school or Stephen King’s Jersuleum’s Lot in high school, but it’s pretty dang disorienting and unpleasant. Ten outta ten. Would recommend.

We also read some work from Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad. Since high school, I’ve loved modernist literature, as it resonates deeply with the raw, unfiltered emotions that define human existence. Whether or not it is criticized for being too focused on the self, the very act of engaging with the "I" is perhaps the most honest reflection of life itself. The notion that poetry could be deemed politically incendiary for depicting a woman's sexuality and longing only underscores the significance of Farrokhzad's voice. In a society and during a time where such expressions were considered dangerous, her willingness to explore these themes makes her work all the more vital. The fact that she risked death by writing about these forbidden subjects imbues her words with a revolutionary power. Amid the male-driven global politics of war and control, the profound truth remains: one woman’s poem could shake the world. In that context, the "I" is not just a personal statement, but a force of tremendous power—an assertion of autonomy, freedom, and defiance that continues to resonate across time and borders. Seeing Gladiator II (just OK) today reminded me how wars / violence are usually a reflection of some dude’s fragile ego. Women like Forugh are legend.

Movie of the week was A Real Pain, the story of two cousins, played by Jesse Eisenberg (who also wrote and directed) and Kieran Culkin, who visit Poland to see the childhood homeland of their Holocaust survivor grandmother. It’s a lovely film about generational pain, mental illness, and family. The piano pieces of Frédéric Chopin give it a real melancholic atmosphere that lends a fine musical backdrop to two relatives traveling, looking to each other for the childhood friends they remember and facing the adult humans they’ve become. Might be my favorite movie of the year so far. Can’t recommend it enough.

My son tells me Kendrick Lamar dropped a surprise album today, in broad daylight with no warning. Let’s check it out together, shall we?

Quote of the week?

TO MY SISTER by Forough Farrokhzad

Sister, rise up after your freedom,
why are you quiet?
rise up because henceforth
you have to imbibe the blood of tyrannical men.

Seek your rights, Sister,
from those who keep you weak,
from those whose myriad tricks and schemes
keep you seated in a corner of the house.

How long will you be the object of pleasure
In the harem of men's lust?
how long will you bow your proud head at his feet
like a benighted servant?

How long for the sake of a morsel of bread,
will you keep becoming an aged haji's temporary wife,
seeing second and third rival wives.
oppression and cruelty, my sister, for how long?

This angry moan of yours
must surly become a clamorous scream.
you must tear apart this heavy bond
so that your life might be free.

Rise up and uproot the roots of oppression.
give comfort to your bleeding heart.
for the sake of your freedom, strive
to change the law, rise up.

‘Til Tuesday kids.

Burgin

(I’m finishing college at 50+, follow along and read my story here.)