Welcome to this week’s 5BF: an educational and outwardly-motivated dive into English literature; the day we didn't have Facebook and then some blew the whistle; a history of US and Taliban; and more...
1 – what I am reading
Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw – as per my preparation for the Central Superior Services ‘CSS’ exams for the BS-17 scale Federal job, I’ve started covering the English Literature subject, one of my optional subjects of preparation. The syllabus for this course includes Essays, Short Stories, Plays, Poetry, Novel, and Literary Theories/Criticism from the British English language. ‘Heartbreak House’ is a play from the highly influential British playwright GB Shaw about a most unusual and unnerving house where everyone is both contradictory yet honest. Since I’m still left to read the last act of this play as well as the literary papers about it, I cannot sum up my thoughts about it yet. However, having completed 200 books just recently, a 2020 reading goal of mine, my reading from now on will be entirely based on the English Lit syllabus that I would be covering for the aforementioned exam.
2 – this week’s article
Facebook’s point of no return @economist – on Oct 4th, Facebook and its sibling apps shut down globally for about 6 hours; the next day a whistleblower disclosed damaging secrets about Instagram’s bad influence of the teenagers. This article explains how Facebook might’ve become the Phillip Morris, that is, as hazardous as tobacco.
Country’s economic unease behind ‘Squid Game’ @nytimes – the megahit Netflix show ‘Squid Game’ might become the most streamed show of all time, but although the series is based on a fictionalized dystopian setting, the real economic situation in South Korea is ironically not so different, this article explains.
Abdulrazak Gurnah wins Nobel for Literature @nytimes – the Tanzanian born British author wins this year’s Nobel for Literature. This NYtimes article gives a background of the author as well as his works of fictions and its importance.
2021 like 1921 – a thought popped into my head, I don’t remember as the effect of which cause, but one which pushed me to explore this article from @roanoke and this one from @entrepreneur which put into context the similarities between 1921 and 2021, as well as the hopes of the prior year from the latter.
A process of transfer of energy and feeling @brainpickings – Popova gathers her thoughts on the extracts from Saunders’s nonfiction work about the key to great storytelling from seven Russian stories. She talks about how storytelling is a transfer of energy and how causality is the coherency which writers need to achieve.
Feeding 9b people mean reimagining the edible world @economist - this progressive article explains how certain throw-aways from the sea and other sources eventually became the food that we eat and even love, and how going forward in order to feed the growing number of peoplewe would have to reimagine what is edible in this world.
3 – this week’s podcasts
Throughline @npr – this podcast looks at the history of US for the causes of the present-day events. I came upon this brilliant podcast when I googled ‘best podcasts for US history’; and although it isn’t quite academic, it is much acquirable by being current, fresh, and thrilling. Following are the episodes I listened to this past week:
Four days in august – about the US-UK led coup of 1953 against Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh. I remember mentioning my book review of ‘Patriot of Persia’ which was also about this subject matter.
On the shoulders of giants – about the ‘athlete activism’ in the black rights movement through the stories of three African American athletes.
The forgotten war – about the US-Korea history post WWII and how North Korea became the threatening enemy of US.
High crimes and misdemeanors – about the first US presidential impeachment against the interim president Andrew Johnson for his exploitation of power, and the consequences of the trail.
The envoy @awishforAfghanistan – episode one of six-episode series by the BBC journalist Lyse Doucet on Afghanistan and its recent occupation by Taliban. This episode features Zalmay Khalilzad, the US diplomat for talks with Taliban, where he tells the accounts of events leading up to 2021 fall of Afghan Government.
The Talib @awishforAfghanistan – featuring Abdul Salam Zaeef, one of the founders and spokesperson of the Taliban talking about his role in the making of Taliban and his surprisingly correct predictions about how they emerged to power again.
4 – what I watched
303 (Germany, 2018) – two university students gain insights about each other and about the general topics of life as they travel across Europe. Almost as good as ‘Before Sunrise’.
The Square (Egypt, 2013) – a real-time documentary about the 2011 revolutionary protests in Egypt spanning for over three years where the people of Egypt united for overthrow the dictator regime.
Squid Game (2021) – this latest megahit series from Netflix follows a dystopian story of desperate in-debt people playing children’s game to win a huge crash prize. This is actually a great show!
5 – this week’s quote
‘Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those
slight changes that would make all the difference.’
Mignon McLaughlin