Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 137

If you are walking west

In the morning you are led by your shadow, an incorporeal, two-dimensional being who tests the way ahead of you with the length of its body. Your shadow is your guide and protector.

But by evening your shadow is flagging. It falls behind you. Moreover, it has some presentiment that its remaining hours are few, as the sun gets lower and lower. In the evening you walk out in front of your shadow, and you are its guide and protector.

What if you're walking east, though? In that case, in the mornin...

In the lion's mouth

A photo from last April, which I never posted.

What is the the most dangerous place to build a nest? How about in the mouth of a lion? Or is it, in fact, the safest place? In the jaws of a lion, you will disappear with one snap, but what other creature will dare to trouble you? It seems like maybe a warped version of "out of the frying pan and into the fire."

There were two house sparrows so foolish that when they saw a lion yawn, they mistook his gullet for a safe cranny, and flew in with stra...

update on Africatown, and more on Irom Sharmila

I promise it won't be all activism all the time at asakiyume dot livejournal dot com, but sometimes things happen all at once.

Back in 2010, when I was doing research for Pen Pal, I found out about Africatown, a unique community in Mobile, Alabama, home to descendants of people brought to America on the last slave ship, in 1860. People in this community spoke African languages well into the twentieth century. When I went to Alabama, I visited a memorial in the community (pictures here), and I...

Irom Sharmila, hunger striker

"The Longest Fast," by Basharat Peer, tells the story of Irom Sharmila, who has been on hunger strike for about thirteen years, trying to get the government of India to do away with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a law that grants soldiers deployed in "disturbed areas," such as Sharmila's Manipur (a portion of India separated from the rest of India by Bangladesh; it borders Burma), immunity from prosecution for any crimes they commit there. Arbitrary detentions, rapes, and killi...

still cold and snowy

The bars of the storm drain prison are all elegantly fringed with hoarfrost this morning.

My heart is a fish

I received a wonderful present from a dear friend: Radchaai pins, created by Ann Leckie! The long dangly one is for the House of Awer, which, as readers will recall, Lt. Skaaiat came from. Lt. Skaaiat shared with the protagonist a deep affection for another main character whose name I won't mention so as to avoid ALL THE FEELS, but I am *so happy* to have this pin. And, if you look in the upper corner, you will see a pin with an iridescent fish, which calls to mind a song that's central to th...

Two encouraging articles: keeping kids in school, setting a river free

Keeping kids in school

I really appreciated that "The Scourge of Dropping Out," by Victoria Fahlberg, emphasizes that fighting to keep kids in school requires going the extra step and understanding people's situations. All of us have dealt with authorities in some situation or other who can't see beyond forms and formalities to personal situations. And sometimes even the formalities haven't been maintained--as in the situation Fahlberg initially describes:

I was approached by a Cambodian woman...

Imagine forgiveness is sold 2 for 1

I have an abundance of things I want to share with you, LJ, but first must be these words from Sherman Alexie.

The Indian child told me to break every mirror in my house and tape the pieces to my body. I followed his vision and the Indian child laughed and laughed when he saw me, reflecting every last word of the story . . .

We imagined the salt on our skins could change the world . . .

It's the same old story, whispered past the same false teeth. How can we imagine a new language when the lang...

An interview with Ann Leckie

As you may know, I really loved Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice--loved it so much that I wanted to get Ann in a room and talk with her for at least 36 hours about ALL THE THINGS the book made me think about. That's not possible, but Ann *did* let me send her a bunch of interview questions, which she's kindly answered.

Because your main character, Breq, comes from a society that doesn’t distinguish gender, she uses female pronouns for everyone she encounters. This affects our initial images and...

snow graffiti

Joel's father is a concert violinist; Silvie is a robber girl; Cam is a charcoal burner. Joel admires and loves his father and writes so in willow-leaf-green. Silvie writes in blood red berries--or maybe straight blood--and confesses her love for Cam. Cam loves everything, and expresses it with a smoky heart in the busy snow.