Nasim Marie Jafry's Blog, page 10

Good things: film, dance, books

Last week, I got the DVD of  the documentary film Voices in the Shadows, which came out in 2011 -  of course, I've known about the film for ages, but have never felt in the frame of mind to watch it, until now. The portrayal of severe ME - the most severe imaginable - is harrowing and although I was not this severe, it still taps into my very bad times, and chills me to be reminded of them. This film is beautiful in its simplicity: the multi-systemic, devastating illness ME  ha...

ME Association report on IACFS/ME conference in San Francisco last month

This is interesting, a 16-page supplement - easy to download - from the ME Association on the recent  IACFS/ME conference in San Francisco. I haven't read it all, but is heartening to see the research that is going on, the possibilities. When I was in San Francisco all those years ago - I knew Stanford medical students, friends of my brother who was at Stanford at the time -  I was the girl with the strange illness. Good to see progress.

All that jazz...

I like this from the beginning of Salman Rushdie's essay 'Influence', a lecture he delivered in Turin,  from 1999:

'The Australian novelist and poet  David Malouf tells us that  'the real enemy of writing is talk'. He warns particularly of the dangers of speaking about work in progress. When writing, one is best advised to keep one's mouth shut, so that the words flow out, instead, through one's fingers.'

I couldn't agree more. And from a reader's point of view, I hate to hear a...

Discovering Anita Desai and Malcolm Lowry

I hadn't read anything by Anita Desai before, but just loved her gorgeous, short novel Clear Light of Day, a collection of disappointments and sadnesses, sprinkled with joy as two sisters Bim and Tara look back on their childhood in India in 1940s and their lives post-Partition. Here's a short clip of Desai  talking about Indian writers writing in English. And a longer interview here. Also, I recently discovered the writer Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957), this Oscar-nominated documentary from...

'Mongol' by Uuganaa Ramsay

I finished Uuganaa Ramsay's memoir 'Mongol' the night before last night. Uuganaa, who is Mongolian, and grew up in a  'ger' (yurt), is now in her mid-thirties, and lives in Scotland with her husband and their three children. Four years ago, she had a baby boy, Billy. Billy had Down's Syndrome and, tragically, because of heart complications, died at just three months old. In writing his story, and her own story, Uuganaa has turned her precious boy's short life - and her grief - into somet...

Down's Syndrome Awareness Week

Today is the start of Down's Syndrome Awareness Week and I think of my wee aunt. We grew up together, she was our pal, she was the boss! She was adored by all of her nephews and nieces, ranging from her own age to almost thirty years younger. My youngest cousin, in her mid-twenties, tells me she still kisses her photo every day. And this beautiful film for World Down's Syndrome Day is stunning in its simple message, Everyone Has the Right to be Happy. I can't watch it without an overflowing o...

I used to hate Twitter, now I love it

Before I'd ever used it, I hated Twitter, I was a bit Jonathan Franzen and thought it was nonsense. Now, I love it. It's perfect for low energy, you can dip in and out and say what you need to in 140 characters. And there are links to some great resources: I can bookmark articles in a jiffy and read later when my head is up to it (in truth, not all that's bookmarked gets read). My ME symptoms have been pretty bad this last ten days, that feeling of having weights in your head and neck and leg...

Doctors who know what they're talking about

From the recent Bristol Watershed abridged showing of Voices from the Shadows and discussion afterwards:
Dr Mark VanNess is excellent on the harm of aerobic exercise in ME patients, 'rest is crucial'.
And Dr Nigel Speight, always fabulous, begins by apologising to ME patients on behalf of the medical profession.
Doctors who know what they're talking about, the opposite of the Wessely school.

And here is  more on the nonsense of the PACE trial by Neil Riley, chairman of ME Association.

We sh...

Fathers & stepfathers & childhood houses

I was surprised - and flattered - last week to learn I'd been nominated for a Scottish Asian Women's Award, in the 'achievements against all the odds' category. I wondered what I had done to qualify: it's five years since my novel came out, though perhaps someone saw The Scotsman story or the repeat of the BBC Alba documentary.  I don't, to be honest, feel particularly representative of Scottish Asian women, though I am proud of my Asian roots, they are part of who I am. I often say I feel ...

Three essays & a review

I highly recommend Deborah Levy's recently published essay, 'Things I Don't Want to Know' - it's feisty and sharp, with long, gorgeous sentences that can make you dizzy if you are not careful. Towards the end she says: 'What do we do with the knowledge that we cannot bear to live with? What do we do with the things we do not want to know?' I also enjoyed Zadie Smith's essay on writing, 'That Crafty Feeling', which I came across a couple of weeks ago on Poets and Writers,  Lines We Live B...