Literary Trails
M. Nandakumar’s story harkens back to the gothic tales about the alter ego coming alive as we follow our protagonist’s encounters with a life changing ‘other’. Translated from Malayalam by Aadya Sain…[Read More]…
Literary Trails
In the sweltering heat of Agra, Jane and Rosie, English tourists and two pedal rickshaw pullers encounter two cultures with their role reversals and self-esteem recoveries in this short story by Balwant Bhaneja…[Read More]…
Literary Trails
Asif Raza’s vision of the Creator as a “a self-conflicted Deity and of his Creation as his cathartic relief from his own internal chaos and contradictions” informs his poem Genesis. Two other poems from his unpublished collection, “Whispers from the Shadow Side”.…[Read More]…
Personal Notes
Malavika Kapur ponders the pandemic’s effects not just on human but all life and she finds not just suffering but the gifts of generosity and the will to live.…[Read More]…
Literary Trails
The Beacon decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the City Lights Publishers and Bookstore in 1953 in San Francisco by Lawrence Ferlinghetti by putting together four introductory essays on four Beat writers by some of the best critics of their work. Alok Bhalla introduces the issue curated by Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…
Literary Trails
The Beat Generation, a multi-generational movement has continued to have an impact, on American culture, its influence still felt in contemporary slam poetry, performance poetry.. As a younger member, Sanders was a prominent artist in the early sixties avant-garde that generated a postmodern art style and a social rebellion that has had a profound influence down to the present day, notes Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road, a tale of cross-country treks, jazz joints, and midnight meditations, has been continuously in print since 1957. Kerouac, has however been criticized, among other things, as being incapable of producing a well-crafted sentence, let alone quality literature. Matt Theado contests this view. Curated by Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…
Personal Notes
The 25-year period in which Beat developed and flourished in the United States and then spread around the globe—roughly the end of World War II to the beginning of the seventies—is complex, but for women, in particular, this quarter century marks major struggles for equality. Nancy M. Grace traces the contours of women Beat poets’ and artists’ journeys. Curated by Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…
Literary Trails
Allen Ginsberg was a fine performer, showed genuine respect and even love for his audience; a deeply inclusive writer says John Whalen-Bridge. His performances made available a poetry that could soar, joke, and grieve, and they always imply a human touch that reaches towards the audience to demonstrate that no fourth wall, or any other wall, necessarily has to obstruct communication. Curated by Jennie Skerl…[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Sayandeb Chowdhury describes Satyajit Ray’s discovery and casting of Uttam Kumar in Nayak (1966): on paper a rags-to-riches story, film that, rather than boasting the idea of a hero, probes against the phenomenon itself– Uttam’s formidable and forbidding stardom. …[Read More]…
Between The Lines
Facts are fragile; they tell no story in themselves. So wrote Hannah Arendt decades ago. This leaves them vulnerable to the manipulations of storytellers…and falsifiers. Patrick Lawrence finds such falsehoods in the mainstream media’s takes on the Ukraine crisis. …[Read More]…
Bookshelf
Sami Ahmad Khan and Upamanyo Pablo Mukherjee offer indispensable discussions of science fiction and its relationships with utopia, dystopia, fantasy, mythology, and ideology. Barnita Bagchi reviews both…[Read More]…
Between The Lines
Throwing the word “fascist” to denounce Russia and even China to justify wars in distant lands is unlikely to restore a sense of the common good at home; more likely it serves as a diversion, an excuse to avoid matters of more immediate relevance to the waning health of our democracy, Andrew Bacevich warns.…[Read More]…
That’s Life!!!
Set aside the maps of misreadings into India’s grand role on the world stage and look inwards at its abyssal lines with Subodh Varma who offers two contrasting scenarios: booming corporate profits and zooming economic distress…[Read More]…