Welcome to this week’s 5 Bites Friday: the wisdom of
surrender, pure literary joy, a movie about historical power, and more…
1: What I Read
The Sea by John Banville – one of the best novels I have ever
read! Banville’s booker prize winning novel blends a gently powerful story with
a mesmerizing prose to make a reading experience that every reader of this book
will remember for a long time. A must read in fiction!
2: This Week’s Articles
The Power of Surrender @aeon – Beckett's famous play ‘Waiting
for Godot’ has been on my to-read list for a long while now, and this article
only makes me want to read it sooner. Starting with the religious influence
present in Beckett’s works, this article explore how Beckett found ultimate
relief in surrendering to his demons of anxiety and unrest.
A few thoughts on Writing by Morgan Housel – a very short
articles that has pockets of gem advice on writing and how we writers need to adapt to today’s fast-moving world.
Why simple life is not just beautiful, it’s necessary @aeon –
I always felt ashamed of my sometimes extreme frugality, but this article shows
how frugality is an essential part of simple living, among many others, and
why, going forward, simple living will go from being a choice to a necessity.
3: Movie Recommendation
Busy with my Final term online exams, I couldn’t watch many
movies; regardless, I have a great movie recommendation, but with a promise that
next week I’ll be having many!
Mangrove (2020) – this movie is an episode of 5 episode
series (Small Axe) which tells stories about racial hatred and violence done
against people of color in the 1900s. In Mangrove, a 2hr movie itself, we see
how brutally British police harass a newly opened Jamaican restaurant, and how
in response, the Jamaican people unite to protest and win their trials against
the police. A movie that reinstates how important it is to fight for your
rights and belief in the truth that is on your side, as well as, history.
4: Hifz-e-Hayat: Blogsite Changes…
‘Quiet, my introverted realm’ was what I decided on, and remained, my blogsite name for a long while. But for the most of that time, I didn’t know what to do with my blogsite, other than using it as digital diary. With 5BF however, I became purposefully engaged with my blogsite, and thereby, felt inspired to change its name to something I had recently become infatuated with.
Hifz-e-Hayat, which means ‘life’s protection’, but which I translate as
‘life’s memorization’, comes from one of Jaun Elia’s ghazals. Since it matches
beautifully with what I consider to be the aim of writing, I thought it’d be a
great name for my blogsite. This past week, I asked a friend of mine to make a logo of this
name, which he kindly did, and in order to use that logo, I had to change the
layout of my blogsite. This new layout, although a bit unrefined, manages to
place the logo image as a header – and all in all, I am happy. Lastly, the subtitle
matches with the title as well, which is a beautiful quote from James Salter: ‘Life passes into
pages if it passes into anything’.
5: This Week’s Quote
‘He grew anxious in my company – I did not blame him. I grow
anxious in it myself’.
- John Banville (The Sea)