Nasim Marie Jafry's Blog, page 13

A couple of good things, a couple of bad things

Yesterday, I returned the dreadful Hystories by Elaine Showalter to the library, what a relief to have that book out of my possession, her cavalier dismissal of neuroimmune illness is simply bizarre. I can't even be bothered to talk about it any more, I tweeted a few times about it last week. I also discovered that local libraries stock food recycling/compost bags, so was very happy as I have just used up the ones the council provided a few months ago up. I was hoping to take out Claire Messu...

A few good things

Yesterday, I returned the dreadful Hystories by Elaine Showalter to the library, what a relief to have that book out of my possession. I can't even be bothered to talk about it any more, I tweeted a few times about it last week. I also discovered that local libraries stock food recycling/compost bags, so was very happy as I have just used up the ones the council provided a few months ago up. I was hoping to take out Claire Messud's The Woman Upstairs, but I could not remember her name, I was...

Joe Sacco, Margaret Atwood, Filippe Bologna - & the difference between gulls

I've had to spend half of the last week in bed so, it was lovely to get to the book festival - literally a hop and a skip from me - to see Joe Sacco, so charming and interesting. I was given Palestine as a gift ten years ago, I still dip into it. I opened it last night and a bookmark my nephew had made a few years ago fell out (that is the loveliness of a paper book). The festival has deckchairs in the garden with authors' quotes: I liked Margaret Atwood's from The Blind Assassin: 

 'The...

In love with Robert Hass

I hurt my fucking back - again - this time taking laundry from the basket (the tiniest 'wrong' move can fell you, but you can't avoid it as you don't know what it is 'til too late), so I spent last night eating Solpadol 30/500 and reading Robert Hass. I have fallen for him bigtime, his poetry is splendid and I can't believe I had not heard of him before. He reminds me a little of Lydia Davis, another writer I recently discovered (and love).

'It is good to sit down to birthday cakewith children...

The Parrots by Filippo Bologna

I love this extract from The Parrots by Filippo Bologna (Pushkin Press), which I've just started reading on Kindle:

“I read your last book,” she said. “It was very moving.” Then she added, “There’s something I have to know.” “Go on.” “I’m the main female character, aren’t I?” The Writer smiled without replying. At the beginning of his literary career, every time someone close to him saw themselves in one or other of his characters and demanded an explanation, he would give a reply of an aesth...

Hell of writing/not writing

I love this quote from American poet Robert Hass:

"It's hell writing and it's hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written".

Now I want to read all of his poems.

Not being able to find your name in the seventies

I've been aware this summer of Coke bottles having people's names but don't know why* and today  came across some small bottles in the supermarket and needed something to drink so bought one. I could have had  Clare or Charlotte but wasn't tempted and was pleased to find Priya at the back. I was reminded of the seventies when I would tirelessly look for a ceramic nameplate for my bedroom door saying NASIM, but of course there never was one. Priya will do nicely.
*
I came across this a...

The last word

Interesting to read about writers who write the last chapter (even sentence, in case of John Irving) first. I love Graham Greene's words:

So much of a novelist’s writing, as I have said, takes place in the unconscious; in those depths the last word is written before the first word appears on paper. We remember the details of our story, we do not invent them.”

And an update on Rituximab research from ME Association.

Watching Glastonbury made me feel old...

I watched snippets of Glastonbury, it made me feel old, though not as old as The Rolling Stones (have never been a big fan but loved their wrinkled energy, Kenny Rogers too, he made me smile). I learned of new bands. I really liked: The xx, Stealing Sheep (gorgeous girls), Jake Bugg (gorgeous boy), Weekend Vampire and Laura Mvula. I thought back to the Loch Lomond Rock Festival, held in the old bear park -  we had a bear park and a bear escaped one year. I remember seeing The Buzzcocks,...

Lydia Davis

As Lydia Davis – a writer I have happily just discovered – says: 

'A character in one of my stories may resemble me in certain ways, through a selection of biographical facts or psychological characteristics, but she is something different, a creation.'

Indeed.