@AskTheDevil, I've been meaning to ask for a while--
Did you ever read Rabih Alameddine's The Angel of History? It's a book I keep coming back to in moments of despair. In it, a gay poet is haunted by global conflicts that speak to life's capacity for endless suffering (e.g., the US AIDS crisis, and migratory traumas in Lebanon and Egypt). However, he's not alone: Satan and Death are on hand, offering ways through the pain of it all.
Powerful meditation.
#CoSoBooks
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28818930-the-angel-of-history
@MLClark Aw.... Death calls me "father" right at the beginning. I'm touched!
But to correct any misconceptions, Francis of Assissi is my favorite saint. ; )
Ohhh! You hopped right in. :) I look forward to your thoughts.
@MLClark @AskTheDevil off topic, I just read your latest Substack, sometimes I feel that way too, but I can’t describe it brilliantly like you do , excellent piece .
@AskTheDevil @MLClark oh I know!!! It is a learning experience!! When I talk with smart people I learn !! I feel the same way you do too .
@MLClark I read the rest of this, this morning.
What a painful book to read, but I'm so glad you recommended it.
I can see why you asked if I had already read it!
Out of curiousity, what do you believe Satan was trying to save Yusuf from, or save him for?
Oh, I'm glad it was a moving read. It's not one I recommend to just anyone!
I tie Satan's lesson here into one found at the end of Nazim Hikmet's "On Living":
You must grieve for this right now
—you have to feel this sorrow now—
for the world must be loved this much
if you’re going to say “I lived”. . .
Death doesn't just want to ease pain; death would annihilate everything - every tendril of love woven into loss & suffering.
Satan here is on the side of the human as a whole.
This books sounds like something I'd enjoy. I'll have to pick it up soon.
But it especially caught my attention because it shares a title with one of my favorite collections of poetry, by Carolyn Forche. I first encountered her through an anthology she edited, Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness
Two recs for a rec! Thank you. 🤗
Tyghe, I think you'd also very much enjoy Alameddine's latest, The Wrong End of the Telescope, as well. It explores the nuance and fluidity of who we are, and what about us *matters*, in very different subject positions. It's also a book that refuses some of the saintly language dumped on human beings in marginalized positions. People are still messy, whether in flight, or volunteering, or going through other changes.
Happy reading!
Wrong End of the Telescope is literally on my list to read next month!
Will do!
I'm reading it as part of a "read around the world" project, which I'm tracking on storygraph. I expect it to take many years, but I've read from 24 countries this year so far. (Though several of those were easy to check off the list, like the US, UK, and Japan.)
https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/af1c0db9-a64b-4808-a1dc-18d8d23e485a
Also connected, this wonderful Laurie Anderson piece "And he said: History is an angel being blown backwards into the future"
Oh Tyghe. 💜 In another life, I'd've bought you a beer / strong tea by now, and we'd be talking books, poetry, and voices like Anderson's well into the night.
Thank you for bringing this light into my afternoon. May the rest of your day go oh so gently for you, too.
It's so lovely to share a dance through some ripples of synchronicity.
@MLClark Just finished it this morning!
@MLClark I have not! It does sound like something up my alley, though!
Thank you for the recommendation.