shades of grey

Shades of Grey, Jasper Fforde

it's a dark story, with the most fascinating premise. when Something Happened, the world started go off-colour. and if different people see different things differently, so why ever not colour, yeah? what comes to my mind instantly is george orwell's 1984. control over everything, rationing spoons and sugarcubes, corrupt officials, rebellion, nothing is private except for a valise of one's own - fforde gets all of this right, and manages this in a story that's mostly fantasy. actually, fantasy might be the wrong word. (the guardian informs me that the right thing to say would be 'high-concept' fiction. yes, that sounds stupid even to me.)

i expected it to be similar to the thursday next series (of which i've only read the first book), but it's less meandering and more, let's just say serious. honestly, i still haven't come to terms with his style - it was only on the hundredth page or so that i started getting really involved in the story (which is also what happened with the eyre affair). it took me a while to quite understand what was happening, and at places, he'd say stuff that would completely unhinge what i thought i got. in any case, it was quite funny and i quite liked it, although i must say that i'm not inspired enough just yet to read the next book in the thursday next series.

lily

There is a story about a girl called Lily in Daniyal Mueenuddin's collection of short stories 'In Other Rooms, Other Wonders.' As I read it, I wanted that. I wanted to fall in love like she did, I wanted that life, chaotic and wild between moments of solitude. I felt like, in many ways, I was her, seeking to leave my adolescent past behind me, hoping somehow that I'd find someone who could see me for all of that, but more than anything, help me see myself. And through the story, now familiar with the way he writes I kept thinking I want to stop here - I want to stop here -I want to stop here but I kept reading. I read till they lived happily, and then it all came tumbling down.

rumi

from enough words:

What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.

I can explain this, but it would break
the glass cover on your heart,
and there's no fixing that.

You must have shadow and light source both.
Listen, and lay your head under the tree of awe.

...

The soul lives there in the silent breath.

...


**

When I am with you, we stay up all night
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

**

The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere
They're in each other all along.

**

from a thirsty fish:

A fire has risen above my tombstone hat.
I don't want learning, or dignity,
or respectability.

I want this music and this dawn
and the warmth of your cheek against mine.

The grief-armies assemble,
but I'm not going with them.

This is how it always is
when I finish a poem.

A great silence comes over me,
and I wonder why I ever thought
to use language.

hush

hush.
(writer - pratheek thomas, artist - rajiv eipe, based on a story by vivek thomas. published by manta ray comics.)

a silent graphic novel (a 'quiet story' because "the rest is noise") whose art does all the talking. if you find it, take a look. it's a compelling story told effectively by the medium it employs. a heart wrenching tale about a child - very evocative, very beautiful. and the art is just absolutely stunning. sometimes some (very few so far) indian graphic novels get it right. this is one of them. i kept just looking at the pages on it when i brought it home. somehow, even though i've gone through it all, it lingers (like a good story should).

vertigo

you gotta love it!

**

15.08.2011

Crazy, copious amounts of reading that is simply not getting done. I'm stuck in that rut again - When do I stop reading and start writing? When am I going to have that epiphanic moment where I know what to do with this paper? When am I going to stop fiddling with the formatting and start the actual creating tables and stuff? When when when when? (Although, I do quite like getting all wound up in my reading. You never know where the next reference is going to take you, and what argument is going to catch your fancy. :) )