Culture A still image from the film White Tiger (Netflix, 2021). After watching White Tiger, a writer contemplates the film alongside revolution in Egypt, Black Lives Matter protests, the film Parasite, and literary “complicated works of conscience.” Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, I felt a familiar sorrow watching the deprivations and heartache depicted in Netflix’s The White Tiger (2021). Based on the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga—which won the Man Booker Prize in 2008―the movie is compellingly adapted by acclaimed screenwriter and director Ramin Bahrani (in turn, a good friend of Adiga’s and to whom the novel was dedicated). As close and imaginative readers know, it is notoriously difficult for movies to do justice to books, especially to make intelligent films that are faithful to the text. White Tiger is one of those happy exceptions, a work of art in its own right, where much of the force of the novel is not lost in its translation. White Tiger is one of those happy exceptions, a work of art in its own right, where much of the force of the novel is not lost in its translation. Ostensibly, this difficult film exploring difficult realities is about modern-day India, in a changing, global world, the attendant systemic injustices of its caste system and corruption of ideals at every level: moral, political, spiritual. Really, however, it’s a meditation on poverty and its sins, the abuses of those in power,... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2021-01-27 20:33:27 UTC ]
Picador has pre-empted a “razor-sharp, brutal and darkly comic” debut novel from recent NYU graduate Raven Leilani about a black millennial woman pulled into a suburban white couple’s life. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-06-13 21:43:52 UTC ]
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“We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other,” explains Samantha Heather Mackey, the narrator of Mona Awad’s new novel, “Bunny.” “Seriously. Bunny. … Bunny, I love you. I love you, Bunny.” Awad does so many things right in “Bunny,” her follow-up to her 2016 debut novel,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-11 15:00:00 UTC ]
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Indonesia is the country of focus at the London Book Fair this year and recently at Frankfurt - to what extent do you think Indonesian literature is finally having it's moment in the spotlight? I cannot say for certain what these one-off ‘spotlights’ on Indonesian literature would mean for... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2019-02-08 10:06:53 UTC ]
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British author John Gray criticizes the modern atheist movement for replacing God with human beings and puts forward his view of what a true atheist ought to be in his new book, ‘Seven Types of Atheism.’ Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A paradox lurks in the heart of the novelist’s vocation. Human beings are what most novels are about, the stuff that fiction is made of. Yet writing books is a solitary activity, one that tends to attract introverts and loners. The work might be brilliant, but it will have a shard of ice in its... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2016-11-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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'The Tao of Happiness' author says that Taoism is 'really just for human beings,' making it a religion fit for a secular humanist. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2015-10-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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At a time when black people are disrupting presidential campaign speeches nationwide in an effort to be recognized as human beings, "Negroland," the new memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Margo Jefferson, offers poignant insight into what it means to have been raised in the... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2015-09-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jaron Lanier will receive the 2014 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for his writing and advocacy about 'the dangers involved when human beings are reduced to digital categories.' Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-06-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Few people understand the magic of libraries better than Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials, but all is not well when it comes to digital lending. As the soon-to-be president of the Society of Authors, Pullman is leading the charge against publishing houses that may be shortchanging... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2013-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Joe Wilcox, Betanews At Noon ET today, News Corp. launched its original iPad newspaper The Daily. During an event that started an hour earlier, News Corp. president Rupert Murdoch said the target audience is the 50 million American users expected to have purchased iPads by end of this... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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