Hanif Kureishi: White departments, ethnic doors

Alastair McKay (I know him. How? When? Where?) interviews a voluble Hanif Kureishi in The Sunday Herald. Interesting all over, especially this bit about the start of multiculturalism in 1980's England.

They thought because you were writing about Asians that the only people who would watch it would be other Asians. The TV companies then began to have ethnic departments, which I refused to go in.

"I said: I'm not going in the ethnic door, it's like apartheid to me. I'm staying in the white department, f*** you. I'm not going in that door with the Pakis.'"

The publication of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children in 1981 was a turning point: "One of our blokes had done it. Salman Rushdie was living in Britain, he was a British-Asian writer. That was a big moment."

Uhh. Funny how that bit about Rushdie crept in :).

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Sahasranamam

NuNu LaLa,
Nu-nu Noodles,
Nooner, Noonster, Noony
NoonIE (Boonie),

Uppity, Appuchi,
Ammachi, Chapuchi,
Chippie, Chweeky, Chinaari,
Chinna Kukka, Chinnamma,
Chinna Rani, Rajakutty

Kung-Fu Cash Money,
Slobber monkey,
Amma bujji,
Aacha paapa,
Amma Kanna,

Stinky Pants,
Squeaky Butt,
Spittles and Giggles,
Your Tiny-ness,
You Big, Rowdy Mess

(If only you got
As much respect
As you get love.)


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*Sahasranama: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahasranama 

COEXIST

Yellow plate,

Black beans

On brown rice,

And browned

Whitefish.

And just to

Confuse

You--

Green peppers

And tomatoes...

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GALLANT

(for Li’l A)

Vibrant silence
in temple bells,
innocent spaces
breaking laughter,
calm____openings
between words,

Are
sudden
hidden
altars too,
to happiness.
Like you,


the devotion
of abundant
jabber,
the conviction
of fervent
hugs.

_

Guardian headline edumacates

So... this is the headline: Best of the Booker pits Rushdie against 40 pretenders.

And I’m thinking, despite my painfully patently obvious Rushdie lurvve, that to call other winners of the Booker--writers of the caliber of Gordimer, Atwood, Ishiguro, Okri, McEwan, etc. etc. “pretenders” is a bit much.* Because in my head, it sounds derogatory--pretension, being pretentious, ergo pretenders. Turns out that of the three meanings to “pretender” one implies no derogation at all. (Although I always thought a pretender to the throne was a claimant with no bona fide right to it.)

Ok.

Also, I’m wondering: Decided by the public? How? Pop-Idol-style voteoffs?

___________________

*Although I’ll happily agree that Yann Martel of the unduly celebrated Life of Pi is is is a pretender.

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WE SPY

(for Baby A)

Moon is swallowed in the sky
Something ends everyday
That we desire to cry,
Spend sad, in delay.

Moon is swallowed in the sky
Plenty can begin today
Like you and I (and I),
Satisfied to say:

Moon is swallowed in the sky
My love, yet survives alive--
And bright while we sigh,
Goodnight, bye-bye.

__________________________

Links:
We Spy

Moon is swallowed in the sky


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LITTLE POET

You twist
words.
Don’t.
They said.

Her eyes edge
sideways
then mutiny.
She likes

the sounds of
words bullied,
teased into
torture,

banged
twisted
Chinese-
bangled.

She likes
Lying--sorry--
lAying them
on the floor

pretzeled
giggling
twining
Twister-ed

and coiling
twirling
them
in lassos,

like garlands
(see that?)
ensnaring
tangles.

Likes screwing
truth, so tight
it parts in
ecstatic rupture

into sighs
further words
that shoot
quake and carom

and she calls,
collects them
all
to balance

like showy beads
showing
her lip,
on tip of tongue.

Blowing
spit bubbles?
Don’t.
They said.

(Perhaps)

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