Reading, er, Tuesday

[troisoiseaux]

Read Boris Pasternak's "sketch for an autobiography," I Remember, which I discovered at a used bookstore a few weeks ago. Curiously, he spends most of it talking about other people: the artists he admired and was influenced by— Tolstoy, who was a family friend; the composer Scriabin, a neighbor, and the reason Pasternak had originally wanted to go into music rather than writing; poets Blok and Rilke— and his contemporaries on the Russian literary scene of the early 20th century, Mayakovsky and Marina Tsvetayeva in particular.

Reading Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman, which is what it says on the tin. Obviously, horribly relevant reading given current events, but I've found this - how legal, political, and cultural forces shaped and were shaped by the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - kind of a reoccurring theme this year, from my constitutional law class last semester to podcasts like Slow Burn, You're Wrong About, and American Hysteria. And, like— I was four years old in 2001; I literally can't remember a time before "the war on terror," but my actual knowledge of it has been patchy at best, so this book (and class discussions, podcasts, etc.) has been eye-opening.

Comments

[rose_griffes]

Ackerman's book recently came to my attention, so seeing you mention it in a positive light has further piqued my own interest.

(Here's an interesting essay by an American veteran who served in Afghanistan.)

[troisoiseaux]

I'm still about 3/4 of the way through, but I'd say that it's worth a read.

I've read a number of essays from veterans of Afghanistan over the past couple of days, but this one is new— and the first one I've seen by a woman. Thanks for the link.

ETA: The Guardian has been publishing anonymous essays by women in Afghanistan— I've read this one by a journalist and this one by a college student. Absolutely heart-wrenching.