Mama Hope, a group that works with local African organizations “to connect them with the resources required to transform their own communities,” has released a great promo featuring four young men who are tired of Hollywood’s African stereotypes. Their complaints are reminiscent of those enumerated in Binyavanga Wainaina’s classic essay “How to Write about Africa,” and also in Laura Seay’s great article from last week, “How Not to Write About Africa.”
How and How Not to View Africa
New Short Story by DFW
“Every whole person has ambitions, objectives, initiatives, goals. This one particular boy’s goal was to be able to press his lips to every square inch of his own body.” The New Yorker posts a new short story, “Backbone,” by David Foster Wallace.
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Fireproof Books
AbeBooks points to clever fireproof editions of Farenheit 451 and Stephen King’s Firestarter. (Thanks Laurie)
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The Nobel Isn’t Everything
Wole Soyinka does not approve of the push for Chinua Achebe to be awarded a posthumous Nobel Prize for Literature, and he doesn’t appreciate fan letters asking for his support to that end. “How did creative valuation descend to such banality?” Soyinka remarks in an interview with SaharaReporters. “Do these people know what they’re doing – they are inscribing Chinua’s epitaph in the negative mode of thwarted expectations. I find that disgusting.”
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A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction is becoming reality. In 2014, a few strands of the late author’s hair will travel on the first solar-powered spacecraft, which is named after his story, “Sunjammer.”
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Not Trolling Can’t Get Mad
The Digital Reader has done us all a solid on this summer Monday and put together a list of five blogs featuring bad book covers. Now That I’m a Ghost I’m Gay, indeed.
After the Wall
“[Christa] Wolf was a committed dissident in the GDR (East Germany) and a forceful voice resisting Western triumphalism after reunification. It would seem like some sort of explanation was owed to the public. Yet how does one give an account of oneself when the link to the past, to the psychological and cultural backdrop of such fateful decisions, is not even subjectively available?” On City of Angels: Or, the Overcoat of Dr. Freud.
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There is also a great site that targets African youth. It covers the latest music, film, arts, and pop culture.
http://www.thisisafrica.me/
–dejiridoo