Farah Bakaari
@bakaari
i’d prefer not to.
sure, you can see christopher nolan’s the odyssey or you can spend the morning re-reading thomas mofolo’a chaka (trans. from sesotho) be reminded of 2008 bollywood historical epic ‘jodhaa akbar’ which you then proceed to watch dubbed in arabic. just saying, there’s also that kind of sunday available
Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't nirvana, soundgarden, pearl jam, or alice in chains.
this morning, i have to open my email inbox after living carefree & laptop free on the better coast for two glorious weeks.
during the 2018 world cup i got into a fight with my friend (a liberal french white woman) who objected to mine stating the obvious that year’s entire team were african immigrants or children of african immigrants. “no, they’re french,” she insisted.
“Once you have overcome your initial shock at conversing with a mellifluous, perky, female AI recruiter with a two-syllable name, it becomes easy to do so again, and again, and again.“
here, a task: i read this multiple times. think i understand it, yet i know i don’t fully grasp it. that feeling of knowing something almost but not quite is so fun & exhilarating. it’s even more exhilarating knowing i can bring it to a room of other interested smart folks & work through it together
in berkeley, like anywhere else, people make use of stop signs to get a point across. i want a place to collect these little pronouncements that isn’t my camera roll and since i’m too lazy to use bluesky to communicate my virtues, i shall use it for this 🛑
it’s always best to buy print because in addition to supporting great independent publishing, you can also forever own my typos. they’re yours, no one can take them away from you! @bostonreview.bsky.social
i’m “re”reading this because i don’t recall anything about what i read a year ago in the haze and haste of writing my dissertation introduction. @manshel.bsky.social
i’m also curious as to why modern people should read novels. and would be grateful for some insight, but could settle for a nice picture
i do sincerely believe there’s an emily dickinson poem for every one of life’s occasions and emotions.
it only took me 7 months of being on the job but i can finally print all on my own.
Oh yes! I love them. It’s one of the signature for my goodbye party when i was leaving ithaca
no, please don’t delete!! that’s my emotional support new historicist anecdote
today i started class with bad bunny’s halftime show because that’s where the students were at and it became an excellent fodder for our unit on narratology, also a great way to review our discussion on immanent critique and totality from a few sessions ago.
as part of “easing into” the seminar on criticism we read auerbach’s essay on odysseus’ scar alongside first 10 pages of sinykin & winant’s close reading book. it’s not an easy essay but the students were up for the challenge and for exploring the worlds opened up by an attention to a single detail!
My review of Aboulela’s River Spirit is now out in Africa Journal. The line of argument I follow here differs from what I had focused on in my trade review of the book for LARB over two years ago. The book I’m supposedly writing also opens with this novel and the question of generations. Link below.
i did some high school, all of college, and grad school in the US and i have never experienced any institutional acknowledgement of ramadan before let alone a plan for accommodation. there’s so much to despair about in higher ed these days but this made me smile.
i move to california, the drought ends. draw your causal conclusions, please.