Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 71

On Sweary Women

When women swear, it seems to mean something different, and more sinister, than when men use the same words. “Surely you can be one of the boys some other way,” one of the critics of my swearing tweeted. This same man authored a badly-written blog post last year singling out City Press journalist Carien du Plessis for special opprobrium for having used the word “crap” on Twitter. I wasn’t even aware that “crap” counted as a swearword, which shows how far beyond the pale I really am. That suggestion – “surely you can be one of the boys some other...

On A Girl is a Half-formed Thing

Eimear McBride, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing - You'll give her name. In the stitches of her skin she'll wear your say. Mammmy me? Yes you. Bounce the bed, I'd say. I'd say that's what you did. Then lay you down. They cut you round. Wait and hour and day. - - Fat drizzle blotch through the polyester skirt I sideways slope to walk in. Felt my hormones long to slink quiet out of these hard eyes. Do not be seen. Do not see me. But I must turn myself to the great face of girls. - - Since...

On the dangers of reading

According to officers at the scene, Reed’s last words were, “Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book.” - Radley Balko: The new warrior cop is out of control

On Men of the South

Zukiswa Wanner, Men of the South - She seemed to enjoy reminding my parents how much better her grades were to mine from the very first time she started school so I hit back. I told all her friends, truthfully, that she still wet the bed. - - And lately I have been watching Oprah. Blaming your parents is very valid. - - Don't get me wrong. I am not minimising women's issues but lately it seems as though being a man is not as great as it was fifty years ago. - - Me? Make a contribution for a...

On Depression

Depression, the clinical condition, could really use a different name. At present, the word “depressed” can be applied to both people who are a bit miserable and those with a genuine debilitating mood disorder. Ergo, it seems people are often very quick to dismiss depression as a minor, trivial concern. After all, everyone gets depressed now and again, don’t they? Don’t know why these people are complaining so much. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; dismissing the concerns of a genuine depression sufferer on the grounds that you’ve been miserable and got over it is like dismissing...

On Life in Motion

Misty Copeland, Life in Motion - The difference between being an amazing technician and being a soloist or principal is mastering those interpretive flourishes to tell the best story. Otherwise you aren't a ballerina - you're just another dancer. - - Summer in San Francisco is an oxymoron. - - A dancer's body is the instrument with which she makes music, the loom with which she weaves magic. But we take our bodies to places they would naturally never go. We make them fly, dance on tiptoe, whirl like a dervish. We subject ourselves to unbelievable strain. And sometime we...

On Women's Month

I had no great expectations that someone in government would say anything inspiring or helpful — I was expecting the usual sentimental blether — when the “wear a doek” campaign was announced by the Department of Arts and Culture. Women were asked to don a “doek” (a head covering traditionally worn by domestic workers and married women) on Fridays, take “selfies” and post them on social media — as a gesture of “social cohesion”. And bang went my resolution not to rant and swear this Women’s Month. WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY SMOKING? WHAT BATSHIT TOMFOOLERY WAS THIS? And even...

On Ghana Must Go

Taiye Selasi, Ghana Must Go - "[L]oss" is a notion. No more than a thought. Which one forms or one doesn't. With words. Such that one cannot lose, nor ever say he has lost, what he does not permit to exist in his mind. - To kill it would be like slitting his grandmother's throat. "A bit rich,' Kweku said. "I will not harm this tree." "For chrissake, you're a carpenter. You work with harmed trees -" "Jesus was a carpenter-" "That's quiet beside the point." "You're the one who brought up Christ-" - [T]he "womb" maybe, more, but the...

Special August offer for This Day

This Day is being released later this August. My book. Which I began writing three years ago, accepted for publication twelve months ago but is, alas, still getting dressed. By that, I mean that all these little details readers do not worry about (nor should they!) such as final page layouts and tucking it into its cover. These things take time. BUT! My book is almost here. For those wanting to take advantage of Modjaji Books' Books not Doeks August special for Women's Month, please know that This Day can be pre-ordered via the special. However, this deal is only...

2014 Short Story Day Africa Adult Longlist

2014 Short Story Day Africa Adult Longlist has been announced: 1. Gail Dendy 2. Diane Awerbuck 3. Sylvia Schlettwein 4. Chinelo Onwualu 5. Mary Okon Ononokpono 6. Phillip Steyn 7. Dilman Dila 8. Pwaangulongii Benrawangya 9. Kerstin Hall 10. Toby Bennett 11. Cat Hellisen 12. Jekwu Ozoemene 13. Brendan Ward 14. Sarah Jane Woodward 15. Sese Yane 16. Mishka Hoosen 17. Jason Mykl Snyman 18. Nick Mulgrew - Please click HERE to read the full details