Warĩĩnga was convinced that her appearance was the root cause of all her problems. Whenever she looked at herself in the mirror she thought herself very ugly. What she hated most was her blackness, so she would disfigure her body with skin lightening creams like Ambi and Snowfire forgetting the saying: That which is bornContinue reading “RKS African Literature: That Which is Born Black Will Never be White (Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o)”
Category Archives: literature
RKS African Literature: Rent Control in Nairobi, Kenya (Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o)
On Saturday morning Warĩĩnga was visited by her landlord, the owner of the house in Ofafa, Jericho, Nairobi, in which she rented a room. (A house or a bird’s nest? The floor was pitted with holes, the walls gaped with cracks, the ceiling leaked.). The landlord told Warĩĩnga he was increasing her rent. She refusedContinue reading “RKS African Literature: Rent Control in Nairobi, Kenya (Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Hardships of the Sing Song Girls (Shen Fu)
Tsui-ku told me of their life of constantly welcoming new guests and seeing off old ones. When unhappy they still had to laugh loudly, and when they could not stand the taste of wine they still had to drink a great deal; when sick they still had to entertain guests, and when their throats hurtContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Hardships of the Sing Song Girls (Shen Fu)”
RKS Literature: Returning to London from Kurtz and the Jungle (Joseph Conrad)
I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed on my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: Returning to London from Kurtz and the Jungle (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Smoking Opium, Hugging and Joking with the Sing-Song Girls (Shen Fu)
We had the wine boat anchor in the middle of the river and happily drank away until several strokes of the night watch had sounded. By then I had begun to fear I could not control myself and so had firmly resolved to return to our rooms, but my friends told me the city gatesContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Smoking Opium, Hugging and Joking with the Sing-Song Girls (Shen Fu)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Where Monks Should Not Live (Shen Fu)
To the friends who were with me that day, I said: ‘Men who want to be monks must live in this kind of secluded place, seeing and hearing nothing for their entire lives, so that they can meditate in tranquillity. At a place like Tiger Hill in my home country, all day long there isContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Where Monks Should Not Live (Shen Fu)”
RKS Chinese Literature: Be Very Careful Looking at Stone Mirror Mountain! (Shen Fu)
Near the town was a mountain called Stone Mirror Mountain. To see the ‘mirror’ you followed a winding path through the mountains for about a li and then came to a cliff with water rushing down its face, and with moist greenery that itself seemed about to begin dripping over the ground. Gradually climbing higherContinue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: Be Very Careful Looking at Stone Mirror Mountain! (Shen Fu)”
RKS Chinese Literature: The Wheel and the Hoof Have Flowed One Another in Such Quick Succession (Shen Fu)
I have travelled about working in government offices for thirty years now, and the only places in the world I have never been too are Szechuan, Kueichou and Yunnan. The pity is that the wheel and the hoof have followed one another in such quick succession. Everywhere I have gone I have been accompanying others,Continue reading “RKS Chinese Literature: The Wheel and the Hoof Have Flowed One Another in Such Quick Succession (Shen Fu)”
RKS Literature: Kurtz’s Background and the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs (Joseph Conrad)
The original Kurtz had been educated partly in England, and-as he was good enough to say himself-his sympathies were in the right place. His mother was half-English, his father was half-French. All Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz; and by and bye I learned that, most appropriately, the International Society for the Suppression ofContinue reading “RKS Literature: Kurtz’s Background and the International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs (Joseph Conrad)”
RKS Literature: The Hungry Cannibals (Joseph Conrad)
Yes; I looked at them as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses, when brought to the test of an inexorable physical necessity. Restraint! What possible restraint? Was it superstition, disgust, patience, fear-or some kind of primitive honour? No fear can stand up to hunger, no patienceContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Hungry Cannibals (Joseph Conrad)”
