Friday, August 19, 2005

I just finished reading “Kite Runner” by Khaled Hossen. It was a wonderful story. What I mean is the writing was good but it did not blow my socks off. The story however took risks, it challenged me. The characters are still in my head. I am wondering right now if they are alive or dead. If they exist somewhere in the pile of rubble we once called Afghanistan, a place my country blew to bits b/c people were killed. One death always equals more death, the equation never balances out.

I am not political. I was raised by a Senator. I ate with a president once. I am wondering about the risks my poetry takes. If I cut the words to the bone they’d say I lived in a country for a short time where people died, because they were not American. The people were Haitian and they’d watch The Price Is Right in a store window, they’d say, Your country is bright, your country is shiny. And it was all those things and it was not.

If I write everything down I’d say they killed your brother, murdered your mother and snuck you over the mountain in a wooden box. Because you were born in the North and not the South, now you cry out in your sleep, you wake with your body curled in a ball, a ball small enough to fix in a box.

You are the most difficult one to love. To tolerate some days. The people in the book are easy. I take them to bed and they do not speak. Even the people I watched die are easier because eventually the dead have nothing to say.

The living expect us to know the answers. To add the equation. Two parts equal the whole unless of course they do not. If we begin the problem with fractions we are already lost.

7 comments:

Clifford Duffy said...

this works for me, I mean the discourse of delicacy , of thought, of thought as heidegger might note, as that which thinks, which is thankful, in thinking of. and the difference between book and character,I mean character as person with body, actual body, flesh and blood, and bone and breath and and. ...

Pirooz M. Kalayeh said...

Hmmm. I haven't read "The Kite Runner" yet. I read the beginning of it, and was slighly interested. I will take a look again soon.

Do you feel it's changed your writing in any way?

early hours of sky said...

Yes I suppose it did. It carved me out a bit if that makes sense. When you lived in a place that was oppressed and then come back to the States a part of you almost has to shut down to stay sane. It opened the door back up for me. It helped me feel a bit more real again.

Pirooz M. Kalayeh said...

Hmmm. I had a similar experience with Persepolis, but even more so with Persepolis 2. They both moved me to remember my country.

I saw a documentary on North Korea the other day. That made me feel real again too.

Any country that is lost and divided. Any groups that are lost in the world between their native country and their adopted country. These stories do help me remember that. I will read The Kite Runner tonight.

Either that or "The Way of the Sufis" by Idries Shah. That connects me to my ancestry in a different way. I don't feel sad about it. But empowered and connected. I like writing that does that too.

Do you know of any books that have connected you to your country in an empowering way? To the world?

early hours of sky said...

I ‘d say a great many poets do that for me: Carolyn Forche’ “A Country Between Us”, all of Paul Celan writing and most people think Neruda’s love poetry was written to a being and not a country. As far as fiction, Edwidge Danticat is one of my favorite writers “Krick Krack” is an amazing book about Haiti. Jhumpa Lahiri’s “Interpreter of Maladies” is also wonderful. Alvarez’s book about the Garcia Girls also deserves a look but is not as deep.

I am curious to know the name of documentary you watched. Please let me know.

Pirooz M. Kalayeh said...

Yes, Maladies was nice. I liked it. Very sad though. It reminded me of "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel. There's another one.

I will check out Celan. Your fav!

I don't know the name of the documentary. If it shows again, I will let you know. They had a number that aired to order a copy of the program. If I'm quick on the draw, I'll pen it down.

Neruda, yes.

I'm at work. I'll take a look at your dream post in a bit. Those are fascinating for me. Other people's dreams. My own too. It's good to dream.

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