Nandini Ramachandran
Read biographyNandini Ramachandran is a books-writer, lawyer, and editor who graduated from National Law School in 2009. She reads for a living, runs the blog chaosbogey, and writes a weekly books column for mylaw.net. She has been published in online venues like OpenDemocracy, Global Comment, and Popmatters, as well as print magazines and newspapers. One day she hopes to grow up and become a hippie.
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The Avengers: Joss Whedon strikes again
We all get the popular culture we deserve. I’ve been invited into the Avengers’ Alliance, a role playing game on Facebook, several times in the last month. This is probably because I’ve achieved minor infamy as a Joss Whedon nerd. I didn’t join the FB game, but I have spent #America #Bruce Banner #FilmCrit #Gwyneth Paltrow #Joss Whedon #Loki #The Avengers #Tony Stark
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An ode to the Werewolf: fantasy fiction’s most popular shape-shifter
As I was reading George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire, I inhaled Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness sequence to take the edge off the man's misogyny. I was planning to read her Immortals series between the next two GRRM books, though I only got around to #A Song of Ice and Fire #George R. R. Martin #LiteraryPalate #Smaug #Werewolves
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Why books are a great reason to escape
People who like books, far as I can tell, don't like real life very much. I'm an extreme case of the malady, but escape is the first and best cause for the formulation of stories; and all language is ultimately narrative. To live in a world constructed mostly out of #Herodotus #LiteraryPalatte #Ryszard Kapuściński
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Why Edward Said and his writing matter
November offers caramels of granite. Unpredictable! Like world history Laughing at the wrong place. "November in the Former DDR": Tomas Tranströrmer "November is a mournful month in the history of Palestine" begins Edward Said's obituary for the venerable Isaiah Berlin. November, he continues, frames the Palestinian tragedy. The Balfour Declaration, which initiated the British #Edward Said #LiteraryPalate
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Happy 82, Ursula Le Guin
Occasionally, this blog will celebrate a birthday. It’s not something I do often, for fear of turning into a literary calendar. The birthday post is a tradition I carried over from Chaosbogey, my personal blog, where I wrote them to remind my friends that I love them. Here, they’re usually #Earthsea #Hal Duncan #LiteraryPalate #Literature #The Dispossessed #The Left Hand of Darkness #Ursula Le Guin
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The iconic food writing of MKF Fisher
MFK Fisher was the most iconic food writer of the last century. Born in 1908, she grew up in a rapidly changing America, watching the world around her transformed by two wars and the Great Depression. Between the wars, she lived in Europe, where she began her literary career. Ms #CookBooks #LiteraryPalate #M. F. K. Fisher #Oyster
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The transformative and surrealistic works of Tomas Tranströmer
There is something magical about Beethoven at dawn. I spent my nights this past week with him, winding up on my balcony early each morning with strains of Presto Agitato floating out into the approaching day. It's certainly a dramatic start to daily life’s chores, and I'm not sure I #LiteraryPalate #Ludwig van Beethoven #Mario Vargas Llosa #Tomas Transtromer
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Must-see guide to Hollywood serials
The Emmy Awards, which took place early last week, are television's answer to the Oscars. Traditionally, television has been an ugly sister to the glamour of "true Hollywood"; the small screen populated by those who failed at life's bigger dreams. Over the last decade, though, this hierarchy has chipped away. #Emmys #Firefly #Mad Men #The Good Wife #TheIdiotBox
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Squonks and other fascinating imaginary beings
All writers have a shelf of books they revert to daily. This they do for inspiration, for solace, for delight. They turn to it, most of all, for company in a solitary profession. They are, if you will, our muses. Unlike mythical muses, these writers are neither capricious nor coy, #Jorge Luis Borges #LiteraryPalate #Squonk
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Alternate Songs
Regular readers of this blog will know I’m speculative fiction nerd. I grew up on a steady diet of Asimov, Tolkien, and Mervyn Peake, and spent much of my adolescence reading every volume of serial and epic fantasy I could find. Gradually, with ineffable leaps of taste, my reading matured #A Dance with Dragons #A Song of Ice and Fire #ThingsWeLike