Welcome to 5 Bites Friday: my weekly article where I share
the contents of my learning from the past week in my life.
1 – what I am reading
Dear Friend, from my Life I write to you in your Life by Yiyun
Li – while sorting my bookshelves after a brought a bunch of new books from Karachi
back home, I came across my printed copy of Yiyun Li’s memoir, which I had abandoned
reading a couple of years ago because the writing was too difficult for me to digest.
Now, I am reading it again – and I am loving it. Maybe I have matured over the
years in my reading, but whatever the case, Li’s writing is masterly eloquent,
reflective of her equally as eloquent thinking.
2 – this week’s articles
Robot writes a book review @nytimes – an AI machine completes
the review of a book about AI and its future after the author Kevin Roose
writes the first few paragraphs. Eerie!
Female nudity powerful but not empowering @aeon – the title
of this essay sums it up well; by going through a history of female nudity as a
sign of liberation, this essay makes a solid point that women championing their
rights and qualities through nudity is flawed case.
Clothes and daggers @aeon – a crossed history of power
politics and women’s cloths: Britisher’s dislike and ban of ‘saari’ in India, and
America’s war against ‘burqa’ in Afghanistan were both a tool for manipulating
their enforced rule on the natives as something heroic. Hugely important!
Dark books @aeon – a history of eccentric and darkly captivating
novels and their impact on the readers’ minds, this essay explores the powers
of novel reading but in a darker light.
Dream advertisement @aeon – a latest article that warns
about the newly emerging mode of advertisement where consumer’s dreams are manipulated
for purchasing appeal. Must read!
Europe’s migration crises @newyorker – an article on the
recently occurred refugee riots at the borders of Poland and Belarus that
explains how refugees are used as political soft-weapon.
3 – what I watched
The Guilty (2021) – story of a mentally unstable police officer
on the 911 dial-line and his encounter with another mentally challenged woman
who calls about her abduction by her husband. An intense and thrilling movie,
which sometimes can get too much. Amazing!
King Richard (2021) – contender for my best movie of this
year, this is the story of Venus and Serena Williams, best female tennis players
of all time, during their childhood under the rigorous and controlling training/guardianship
of their father, played by Will Smith. Must watch!
4 – an immediate failure of socialism or its extreme ‘communism’:
a story
5 – this week’s quote
When we speak of indecision, we are unwilling to let go of a
present.
Yiyun Li