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COVID19, Free Speech and the Right to Receive Information

In 2004, the writer Orhan Pamuk gave the inaugural Arthur Miller Freedom to Write lecture, at the Prague Writer’s Festival. Among his remarks, he said this:

I have personally known writers who have chosen to raise forbidden topics purely because they were forbidden. I think I am no different. Because when another writer in another house is not free, no writer is free. This, indeed, is the spirit that informs the solidarity felt by PEN, by writers all over the world.

Orhan Pamuk

I would often use the highlighted bit of that quote in English PEN’s marketing communications. I thought it would appeal to the worldliness of other writers, their solidarity and empathy with fellow wordsmiths.

But occasionally I would worry that the proper meaning of that quote was properly understood. Because taken literally, it’s obviously untrue. The fact that Ahmet Altan (to pick another Turkish novelist) is currently in prison and censored does not stop me writing my derivative science fiction or my bad poetry. Continue reading “COVID19, Free Speech and the Right to Receive Information”

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The Zines of Austin Kleon and the Collages of Yasmine Seale

Here are two similar projects that turn on the art of collaging and remixing.

First, Austin Kelon’s flock of zines.

A zine (/zi?n/ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is most commonly a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via photocopier. Usually zines are the product of a person, or of a very small group.

Last month Austin posted a tutorial on how to make an 8-page zine from a single sheet of paper. (It’s also possible to make 14-page zines too).

Continue reading “The Zines of Austin Kleon and the Collages of Yasmine Seale”
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My Introduction to ‘A Thousand and One Recaps’

Re-posted from 1001.recaps.org

So long as you are prepared to admit it, ignorance is an opportunity rather than a weakness.

— Ann Morgan, 31 December 2019

Why this book and why now?

Why do any of us read anything? I have been meaning to read the Arabian Nights, or The Thousand and One Nights, for many years. Whenever I tell anyone that I have an interest in non-linear fiction, they usually mention the nested, story-within-a-story structure for which the tales are famous. In response, I have always said that I would get around to reading the collection “at some point.” Continue reading “My Introduction to ‘A Thousand and One Recaps’”

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A Thousand and One Recaps

During the COVID-19 lockdown, I’ve finally got around to a project I have mean meaning to do for a while, which I hope will prove an ongoing diversion while normal social life is on pause.

It’s called A Thousand And One Recaps.

The idea is very simple: I’m reading The Arabian Nights, or The Thousand and One Nights, the famously rich collection of stories that originate in Asia and the Middle East. Continue reading “A Thousand and One Recaps”

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Will the #COVID19 Antibody Test Break Our Discipline and Make Things Worse?

We’re all in this together. But what happens when we’re not?

Earlier this week I posted a tweet that got plenty of attention.

When the COVID-19 antibody test becomes available, it will split the country – and the world – into two types of person: those who are immune to the virus, and those who are still susceptible.

In the long term, when we have established ‘herd immunity,’ this won’t matter.1 But in the short term it could prove incredibly divisive, and cause the disintegration of solidarity and co-operation that our country has demonstrated so far.

Continue reading “Will the #COVID19 Antibody Test Break Our Discipline and Make Things Worse?”
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Banter, Tragedy and the ‘Healthy Dissonance’ of #COVID19

Londoners during the Blitz

This afternoon, as I was hunched over my phone composing a draft of a tweet, I paused over what word I would use to describe the COVID-19 events of the past few weeks.

Shenanigans? Malestrom? Crisis? Hilarity? Tragedy? Nonsense? “This COVID19 business”?

I began to realise that, in our discussions about the virus, we all seem to be able to slide effortlessly between gravity and frivolity. We can at once be deeply affected and concerned by the death, illness, and risk to our frontline workers on the one hand; and sharing memes about day-drinking and homeschool #fails, on the other. We all seem to be experiencing a sort of mass cognitive dissonance. Continue reading “Banter, Tragedy and the ‘Healthy Dissonance’ of #COVID19”

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Video-Physiognomic Dysphoria

World Leaders Video Conference Call, 26 March 2020

Jillian C. York writes a short thread on looking presentable for video calls.

This reminded me of a passage in Infinite Jest where David Foster Wallace describes the phenomenon of Video-Physiognomic Dysphoria, the anxiety at having to present yourself on a video call. Continue reading “Video-Physiognomic Dysphoria”

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Three Science Fiction and Fantasy Books I’ve Been Thinking About A Lot During The COVID19 Lockdown

So, voluntary self-isolation becomes a mandatory lock-down.

Plenty of people have been discussing relevant films, TV shows and literature that deal with pandemics, deadly diseases and the like. GIFs from Shaun of the Dead, and all the other zombie movies, fill my timeline.

As for me, I have found that my mind keeps wandering back to three books I read in recent years, which all include moments of apocalyptic lock-down.

Continue reading “Three Science Fiction and Fantasy Books I’ve Been Thinking About A Lot During The COVID19 Lockdown”