Ravi Mangla's Blog, page 5
June 24, 2016
Arthur Koestler
“The principle that the end justifies the means is and remains the only rule of political ethics; anything else is just a vague chatter and melts away between one’s fingers.”
― Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon
June 21, 2016
June 9, 2016
Harry Mathews
INTERVIEWER
Do you have an audience in mind when you’re writing?
HARRY MATHEWS
I’ve always said that my ideal reader would be someone who after finishing one of my novels would throw it out the window, presumably from an upper floor of an apartment building in New York, and by the time it had landed would be taking the elevator down to retrieve it.
June 2, 2016
Louise Bourgeois
“You are born alone. You die alone. The value of the space in between is trust and love. That is why geometrically speaking the circle is a one. Everything comes to you from the other. You have to be able to reach the other. If not you are alone…”
May 29, 2016
May 22, 2016
Wigleaf Top 50
Thank you to Matthew Salesses and the intrepid Wigleaf team for including my story “Greenly, Everett and Marion, 1878-1903 (from The Complete and Unabridged History of North American Aviation)” on their annual Top 50 list. I’m honored to be in the company of so many outstanding short fiction writers.
May 11, 2016
“The Burdens of Burial” in Pacific Standard
I wrote about indigent burial and funeral poverty for Pacific Standard.
“In New York City, the Human Resources Administration grants a $900 reimbursement for funerals under $1,700, but this, again, is only a drop in the bucket. The amount of assistance has remained static since the program was established in 1987. And as exorbitant as Manhattan real estate is, cemetery plots are worse: Two vacant plots in the East Village neighborhood were recently marketed for $350,000 each. Even less exclusive resting places on the city fringes yield exorbitant price tags. Single plots at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn (the final resting place of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Leonard Bernstein) start at $17,000.”
Read the full piece here.
April 29, 2016
“Onward” in Puerto del Sol
I have a short essay in the Spring issue of Puerto del Sol. The issue also features work by Matthew Salesses, Brandi Wells, Jac Jemc, Anne Valente, Derrick Austin, and other fantastic writers.
April 24, 2016
March 28, 2016
“Little Boxes” at Midnight Breakfast
This essay is a personal favorite. Read the full piece at Midnight Breakfast.
“For years I wouldn’t step foot in an elevator, plane, passenger train, or crowded economy car. Instead, I took the stairs or walked or drove alone. The first instance of panic manifested during a week-long trip to London, when the Underground’s Northern line stalled for ten interminable minutes between stations. In the months that followed, episodes occurred at shorter and shorter intervals until calm became the exception. This fear of confined spaces wouldn’t ease its iron grip for nearly a decade.”
- “Little Boxes” at Midnight Breakfast
