Mehreen Kasana.

"Tact, like empathy, is based on a certain form of mutual understanding. But while empathy implies..."

Mon, 29 Jul 2019 16:43:53 -0400

“Tact, like empathy, is based on a certain form of mutual understanding. But while empathy implies the idea of entering someone else’s mind inasmuch as it is linked to the presumption that ‘I know how you feel’, tact exists to create a form of bonding between individuals that is not based on the idea of intrusion but, conversely, on the respect for existing boundaries, and on a willingness not always to assume that one knows. While empathy requires resonance and proximity, tact is there to restore distance, and to accept the diﬀerence between the individuals involved in order to protect and preserve their dignity. Tact is based on an attention towards otherness.”

- Katja Haustein, “How to Be Alone with Others: Plessner, Adorno, and Barthes on Tact”

Long post about Midsommar (!) ahead. I don’t think I’ve posted on Tumblr properly in over a year. I...

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 14:59:03 -0400

Long post about Midsommar (!) ahead. I don’t think I’ve posted on Tumblr properly in over a year.

I think one of the things I absolutely adore about Ari Aster’s mind — even with the supposedly few questionable decisions he makes — is that he is unmistakably invested in exploring the dark and upsetting elements of familial and romantic relationships. This isn’t to say other filmmakers before haven’t attempted to play with the same parts but it is to say — without any apology —that Aster is able to breathe fresh and unprecedented life into a genre nearly dead. The thing about horror as a genre is that it is incredibly profitable but extremely risky. For that reason, horror doesn’t really get funding as much as other genres do.

Action movies, on the other hand, get financed for various reasons, including one that still surprises me: because Chinese consumers on the other side of the world often don’t speak English, they’re riveted by western action movies and thrillers simply because the body language — sheer physical movement — captivates them and informs them of the plot as opposed to, say, a drama or subtle horror film that requires more of an understanding of the spoken language the characters deliver.

One of the most interesting things about Aster’s pitching style is that he doesn’t necessarily pitch his films as horror; he pitches them as drama. He said that much during an interview about Hereditary. And when the project of Midsommar came up, Aster was asked by a company to make the film and he was initially reluctant. Horror fans know that cults are convenient and frequent matter to work with. To truly invest in it, Aster asked the company (a Swedish one, if I’m recalling correctly) if he could somehow inject a breakup into the story. He later on told the press that he was going through one at the time of writing the script (which I’ve read four times and still get disturbed by).

I’ve never really felt compelled to talk about a filmmaker (apart from, say, people like Tarkovsky or Parajanov [who also inspired Aster]) because I don’t leave their films feeling stunned or etched. I don’t feel the breath knocked out of me. When Toni Collette’s character is shrieking at her son (who I dressed up as last year for Halloween), there’s a kind of horror about that entire scene in Hereditary that’s not fantastical. It’s so banal and relevant to so many viewers; a parent obliterating their child’s sense of security through sheer verbal assault. I remember watching that film five times and feeling very disturbed and hurt every single time that scene happens. It takes a very observant filmmaker to zero in on the sheer horror of an all-too-common split to bring it out on screen and make people viscerally remember: “I felt this, too.”

Of course, there’s some criticism about Midsommar but I have yet to read a single argument that compels me to think, this is a weak film. That said, Aster does use a few tropes (I can count on one hand) — and who doesn’t — to make his film jarring for a certain kind of viewer. But that’s about it. The rest of the film is a beautiful, terribly bright, awful nightmare that has one hooked. The are not enough solid arguments to break Midsommar’s case, in my opinion. Perhaps one of the most powerful arguments in favor of Aster’s Midsommar is that he uses the antithesis of horror’s most common element — physical darkness and shadows that can be used to obscure and play with the audience’s imagination — and turns it into something horrific. The brighter the film is, the harder it is to hide. The sun is constantly present. There are less than ten scenes where it’s night in Midsommar.

I’m South Asian and someone I know here in Los Angeles asked me how I felt about the South Asian woman in the film. I said I felt fine. I think it’s insulting to a viewer to coddle a certain person in a film about deathly cults. I’m not interested in representation on screen because in the three decades I’ve lived on earth, I have seen negligible material improvement for the minority group being represented (hopefully I will be proven wrong one day). Others had trouble with one of the tertiary characters who had a physical detail about him (I won’t reveal here) that made people justifiably think, “Why even put this here other than use someone’s physical form to freak people out?” And that’s a valid question. But one of the inconvenient truths about horror is that a lot of people, well before fiction even took on film form, are rattled by difference — simply difference — and some filmmakers like to lay that bare on screen. It’s a different and absolutely interesting debate on whether that is a limit of the filmmaker’s imagination or a cynical urge to exploit people’s biases.

I’d love to go on. I might be talking about Midsommar at an upcoming reading here in the city. But for now, I just want to say I’m beyond happy Aster exists and I think he does my favorite genre absolute justice. I’ve been watching horror films since I was seven. I’ve watched and read it so much that I can easily spot horror motifs (which can suck occasionally because I’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s coming) so it’s always a great surprise when a filmmaker steps in the arena and jolts me awake with their vision. Don’t reblog because I’m planning to delete this. Also, it’s great to see some of you still here.

Midsommar ruled.

Tue, 09 Jul 2019 14:14:31 -0400

Midsommar ruled.

walpurgishall:Walton Ford “Gleipnir” 2012

Mon, 08 Jul 2019 14:21:28 -0400

walpurgishall:

Walton Ford “Gleipnir” 2012

garadinervi: John Cage, (1967, 1968, 1972, 1982), Diary: How to...

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 17:58:35 -0400

garadinervi:

John Cage, (1967, 1968, 1972, 1982), Diary: How to improve the world (You will only make matters worse), Edited by Richard Kraft and Joe Biel, Siglio Press, Catskill, NY, 2015

"Children like being frightened by fairy tales. They have an inborn need to experience powerful..."

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 22:32:01 -0400

“Children like being frightened by fairy tales. They have an inborn need to experience powerful emotions. Andersen scared children, but I’m certain that none of them held it against him, not even after they grew up. His marvelous tales abound in indubitably supernatural beings, not to mention talking animals and loquacious buckets. Not everyone in this brotherhood is harmless and well-disposed. The character who turns up most often is death, an implacable individual who steals unexpectedly into the very heart of happiness and carries off the best, the most beloved. Andersen took children seriously. He speaks to them not only about life’s joyous adventures, but about its woes, its miseries, its often undeserved defeats. His fairy tales, peopled with fantastic creatures, are more realistic than whole tons of today’s stories for children, which fret about verisimilitude and avoid wonders like the plague. Andersen had the courage to write stories with unhappy endings. He didn’t believe that you should try to be good because it pays (as today’s moral tales insistently advertise, though it doesn’t necessarily turn out that way in real life), but because evil stems from intellectual and emotional stuntedness and is the one form of poverty that should be shunned.”

- Wisława Szymborska, as quoted by Maria Popova in “The Importance of Being Scared: Polish Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska on Fairy Tales and the Necessity of Fear“
(via thehiddenbaroness)

bakchic: hands of fatima

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 22:50:05 -0400

bakchic:

hands of fatima

The Joy of Loitering

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 13:03:46 -0400

The Joy of Loitering:

I wrote about my love for aimless walks and how loitering around with no purpose is possibly one of the strongest antidotes for our zeitgeist, which demands endless productivity and purpose from us with little reward and stability in return. A stroll without a goal keeps me sane.

Why Everyone Should Experience the Heartbreak of a Crush

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 14:20:12 -0500

Why Everyone Should Experience the Heartbreak of a Crush:

I wrote a little something about crushes for @manrepeller.

If you ever had one, and it hurt, this is for you. It wasn’t in vain.

It’s my first autumn in California and I’m a woman with a few...

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 14:24:59 -0400

It’s my first autumn in California and I’m a woman with a few dead friends, and I hope those alive and departed, by flesh and circumstance, can listen to this song with me because I miss you all.

“My love’s another kind; from the first morning light; I can follow along; chance to stumble and find; what turns out to be wrong.”

For my first essay on Medium, I talk about how impossibly hard it is to write about a dead friend.

Mon, 10 Sep 2018 22:57:59 -0400

For my first essay on Medium, I talk about how impossibly hard it is to write about a dead friend.

hichamkiy:Only Yesterday - Isao Takahata - Studio Ghibli - 1988

Mon, 23 Apr 2018 23:11:33 -0400

hichamkiy:

Only Yesterday - Isao Takahata - Studio Ghibli - 1988

"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed...."

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:53:15 -0400

“If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.”

- Stephen Hawking
One of my favorite things about Hawking is that he wasn’t interested in building cityscapes on other planets; he was concerned about capitalism and inequality. Rest in power.

If you’ve ever applied for a job, you know about that tricky...

Tue, 31 Oct 2017 01:05:30 -0400

If you’ve ever applied for a job, you know about that tricky salary history question interviewers almost always ask.

Today New York City will officially ban employers from asking about pay history during hiring processes in order to address the city’s wage gap which keeps women and people of color from earning the same amount of money for the same amount of labor compared to white men.

I recently finished reading mathematician Cathy O’Neil’s book, Weapons of Math Destruction, and learned that even if a question about pay history is entirely removed, interviewers can use questions about salary expectation as a proxy and that can still limit a minority’s chance to be paid fairly. Plus, with the help of third-party vendors and credit check companies who amass data on Americans all the time - selling our personal data - I wanted to learn more about how the law can prevent employers from taking advantage of applicants in our era of data collection and inequality.

So, I spoke with the First Lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray, along with the commissioner on NYC Commission on Human Rights, Carmelyn Malalis, and public advocate, Letitia James, who was the main person to introduce the legislation. Here’s the interview.

Image: Marina Prokic

Spoke with The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV)...

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 00:08:13 -0400

Spoke with The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) today.

According to research compiled by the anti-sexual assault organization, RAINN, at least 25 percent of sexual violence is committed by a former partner while 45 percent is committed by an acquaintance. Plus, one of the biggest and least-understood reasons why a victim won’t “just leave” an abuser is financial dependence. #Safety4Survivors wants to fix that.

Image: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

I spoke with the wonderful young lady behind this iconic photo...

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 14:12:34 -0400

I spoke with the wonderful young lady behind this iconic photo from Georgia Tech last year. Raianna Brown is an engineering student, choreographer, director — and now she’s planning a show in Atlanta, called In Human, which will ask its audience a simple question: “What happens to a person who is denied their humanity?” Read more here.

Image: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images.

"It wasn’t typical for NFL players to stand for the national anthem until 2009—before then, it was..."

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 21:47:40 -0400

“It wasn’t typical for NFL players to stand for the national anthem until 2009—before then, it was customary for players to stay in the locker room as the anthem played. A 2015 congressional report revealed that the Department of Defense had paid $5.4 million to NFL teams between 2011 and 2014 to stage on-field patriotic ceremonies; the National Guard shelled out $6.7 million for similar displays between 2013 and 2015.”

- Josh Levin, Colin Kaepernick’s Protest Is Working
💵 🇺🇸 💵

In light of recent incendiary remarks from Donald Trump on Colin Kaepernick, I’m reminded of how...

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 18:49:41 -0400

In light of recent incendiary remarks from Donald Trump on Colin Kaepernick, I’m reminded of how frequently dishonest American discourse can be when it comes to introspection on nationalism and collective deference for the anthem and the flag. I always like to revisit one particular essay whenever compulsory patriotism is demanded of people, be it American or Pakistani. This lucid read by David Masciotra.

It’s lengthy but it is worth every single second.

My Pure Land, 2017Excited for this Pakistani film about Nazo...

Sun, 10 Sep 2017 21:13:24 -0400

My Pure Land, 2017

Excited for this Pakistani film about Nazo Dharejo who fought off 200 bandits to avenge her family. It seems to avoid the done-to-death trope of the oppressive Pakistani father among other things. Watch the trailer here. It’s incredible.

I want to write about this Pakistani song because there is such...

Sun, 10 Sep 2017 18:35:30 -0400

I want to write about this Pakistani song because there is such a painful and heart-aching lot in here to gently open. But I just sit here and listen in silence.