Well, all things considered, I've had worse days. The mere fact that I'm currently incapable of writing coherent sentences, or understanding things without reading them several times, detracts from this not a bit.
Not convincing anyone, am I?
The current issue of Granta (78: Bad Company [nothing to do with the movie, I think. Granta is usually good, for a start]), features a piece called Dervishes by Rory Stewart.
When he turned back to me again, Umar seemed much more animated. He sat cross-legged on the mattress and leaned towards me. 'My friend,' he said. 'There is one thing you will never understand. We Muslims, all of us—including me—are prepared to die for our faith—we know we will go immediately to heaven. That is why we are not afraid of you. We want to be martyrs. In Iran, twelve-year-old boys cleared minefields by stepping on the mines in front of the troops—tens of thousands died in this way. Such faith and courage does not exist in Britain. That is why you must pray there will never be a "Clash of Civilizations" because you cannot defeat a Muslim: one of us can defeat ten of your soldiers.'
'This is nonsense,' I interrupted uselessly. What was this overweight man in his Y-fronts, who boasted of his social life and foreign friends, doing presenting Islam in this way and posing as a holy warrior. It sounded as though he was reciting from some boxed set of leather books called Diatribes against Your Foreign Guest.
Which passage isn't all that representative, but conflict is better at grabbing people's attention than the history of tombs or descriptions of alien cultures. Some people, anyway.
I'm probably going to delete this in the morning. Assuming I see it; I try to avoid reading anything I've written. Always want to re-write it, and it never gets any better.
Like this. Now.
Update: Lena Park makes me happy.
You can hear a few more of her songs on her official site. Korean fonts a must, I'm afraid. And, apparently, Windows Media Player.
Well, there's always the photo gallery. Universal language, that.
What can I say? Sleep deprivation drives me towards K-Pop.
Is K-Pop a word?
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