Welcome to Litsy!

The ships at first sailed down the Nile carrying guns not bread, and the railways were originally set up to transport troops; the schools were started so as to teach us how to say "Yes" in their language. They imported to us the germ of the greatest European violence, as seen on the Somme and at Verdun, the like of which the world has never previously known, the germ of a deadly disease that struck them more than a thousand years ago.

A doctorate - that's really something.
Putting on an act of humility, I told him that the
matter entailed no more than spending three years delving into the life of an obscure English poet.
I was furious - I won't disguise the fact from you - when the man laughed unashamedly and said We have no need of poetry here.

📕I read this book for a class and had a completely different idea going into it. It was a fascinating read and left me quite uncomfortable (which is the point!). I just don't know if any of the portrayals of the Sudanese people could be damaging. Of course, it is strategic, but anyone has access to read this book and have opinions based on the portrayal. I still don't know how to feel about this book, but it was wonderfully written! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Happy to have finally read Fanon! Reading this was a bit like looking through blinds; so much is obscured, but rays of dazzling light shoot through. By that I mean it‘s an obviously brilliant work, but a lot of the psychoanalysis and phenomenology went over my head. I‘d definitely like to re-read it more closely in the future.

“But human beings do not perceive things whole; we are not gods but wounded creatures, cracked lenses, capable only of fractured perceptions. Partial beings, in all the senses of that phrase.
Meaning is a shaky edifice we build out of scraps, dogmas, childhood injuries, newspaper articles, chance remarks, old films, small victories, people hated, people loved;⬇️

“I would be drenched by all rains, moistened by all dews. I would roll like frenetic blood on the slow current of the eye of words turned into mad horses into fresh children into clots into curfew into vestiges of temples into precious stones remote enough to discourage miners. Whoever would not understand me would not understand any better the roaring of a tiger.”

Remembering Aimé Césaire on his birthday.

What to make of C.L.R. James, a black, Marxist, anti-colonialist "founding father" of independent Trinidad who considers his two foundational passions to be classical English literature and cricket? This book - equal parts autobiography and examination of cricket as an art form and political driver - explains the seeming contradiction and shows that it's not really contradictory at all. A man with a fascinating, wide-ranging mind. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Biracial rep ✔️
Challenging ✔️
Funny ✔️
UNCOMFORTABLY REAL ✔️✔️✔️

Last week I came across the On the Road with Penguin Classics podcast. They have one episode remaining in their third season. OTR features Henry Eliot, editor of two wonderful coffee table books about Penguin (The Penguin Classics Book & The Penguin Modern Classics Book), with a different guest talking about classics. These range from Chaucer to Carrington. I have listened to only two episodes so far, but I was very impressed by it. Any fans?

1. Beyond a Boundary (CLR James)
2. Gringos (Charles Portis)
3. Dandelion Wine (Ray Bradbury)
4. The Lady Killer (Masako Togawa)
5. A Drinking Life (Pete Hamill)

Tag @RaeLovesToRead