Another one from The Bone People

(p293 of Penguin Books, 1986.)
"Pig ignorant old Australian bastards should get back where they belong. To their dead-hearted, deadbeat offal-catering country. Not parasitise here, littering up Godzone."

From the Bone People

Travelling on the Tube a lot nowadays, I am reading, reading, reading. The Bone People it is at the moment, by Keri Hulme. This paragraph I find worth remembering:

"But wait here a little longer, think a bit more. You are involved with two strangers, different and difficult people. Your are different and difficult yourself, but strangely enough, you all get on well together. To the extent that there can be real fight, and forgiveness and renewed friendship after.
To what end, my soul?
Remember how horrifyingly painful it was when you and the family broke apart? So much so, that a brief meeting with one member is enough to put you in despair. The pain is back. Be wary. Keep it cool friendship. Look out for the child by all means-it's the least you can do as a human being-but don't let them get too close." (p250 of Penguin Books, 1986.)

Miami, Florida

"Miami is a strange place; not at all like you imagine it, is it? [...] Take a good look: Miami is nothing. Because it's got everything but lacks the vital element: it has no heart." (from Havana Black by Leonardo Padura Fuentes, 1998)

Final Paragraph of "Shantaram"

"For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for a truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. We live on."

Well, this is the last five lines of Gregory David Roberts' Shantaram, meaning Man of God's Peace. (London: Abacus, 2004)

Wow. Take a deep breath now.

Societies and Fulfilling Dreams

"When societies set things up so the only way people can achieve their dreams is to go outside the law, it automatically loses any opportunity to control the chain reaction. "(from Val McDermid's Blue Genes, 1996)

The Welsh

"Call me a racist, but when it comes to the Welsh, I immediately summon my irregular verb theory of life. [...] And in my considered opinion, the Welsh are a humourless, clannish bunch whose contribution to the sum total of human happiness is on the negative side of the ledger." (Val McDermid's Blue Genes, 1996)

Russians and their Tsar

"He was the old Russian yearning for the tsar or a god, for somebody to impose discipline on the nation's ancient anarchy and indolence." (from Among the Russians by Colin Thubron, 1984).

Sozaboy?

The word 'Sozaboy' caught my attention as I was reading Felix, the Imperial College Student newspaper, published by the IC Student Union. Turns out that Sozaboy is the title of a book, written by Ken Saro-Wiwa and published in 1995. It is a shockingly realistic novel about the madness of war from the perspective of a young, naive Nigerian army recruit during the time of the Civil War (1967-1970) in Nigeria. The special language in which the book is written - called 'Rotten English' - gives the novel, touching upon already powerful, tragic topics such as genocide, war and human rights, effective messages and an extraordinary realism.

The author Ken Saro-Wiwa was not only a writer, but intellectual and human rights activist, fighting against multinational corporations which were after the oil of the Niger Delta. He was also one of the Ogoni people, decimated by genocide, which Saro-Wiwa denounced. In November 1995, he was hanged by Nigerian authorities after having been formally accused of inciting separation and riots. Informally though, the involvement of Royal Dutch Shell in the death of Saro-Wiwa is assumed and their innocence has not been proved fully.