Season of Migration to the North by the Sudanese writer Tayeb Salih is considered by many to be the greatest Arab novel of the twentieth century. And I’m not surprised because it’s a truly outstanding work of art. 

Many of those who are unfamiliar with postcolonial literature think it’s all about evil colonizers and their pathetic, miserable victims. Nothing could be further from the truth. These works of fiction are never one-dimensional or superficial. 

Salih’s novel is short but it gives so much material for analysis that one can spend years discussing it and still not run out of questions and observations. 

I’ve started out this year by reading a few books of dubious quality and I’m glad I finally found such an unforgettable novel.

Needing to have your gastronomical choices validated by rich people is sad and kind of pathetic.

Klara had her very first music lesson today! It was lots of fun even though the lesson included parents singing and I’m absolutely the worst singer on the planet. At the lesson, teacher and parents sang to the babies, babies rattled instruments and drummed and got massages to the sounds of songs.

The only weird thing – and this is something I have been noticing at the daycare, too – parents tend to be very tense. There are waves of tension coming from them and I don’t know why. You smile at one, and they look as alarmed as if you tried to steal their baby. Not even in the MLA job interview ballroom did I feel this amount tension emanating from people.

Some people are protesting Trump by stuffing their faces with ultra-luxurious meals. They have managed to convince themselves that the ultra-rich Trump who has spent his life eating precisely this kind of food will be mortally wounded by their culinary indulgence:

Trump, since long before he was even a presidential candidate, has been attempting to hijack our idea of taste. He wants us to think that overpriced steaks, private jets, and golden toilets are the key to happiness. He wants us to love things for their price, not their value. I think it’s pretty clear that he wants all of this because he wants us to envy him, to dream of living his luxurious life.

I hope it’s clear that I detest this kind of self-involved, obnoxious pricks. Want to eat, so eat. Don’t try to make your indulgence into some sort of an act of political courage. 

I wish people stopped putting the same hackneyed quotes in their email signatures. At least 5 people this week emailed me with “Be the change you want to see in the world.” And it’s a beautiful idea, or it used to be until people rode it to death in every darn email. Now I shudder whenever I see it.

People, be the change I want to see in the world, change your email signature.

The fellow from Bolivia on my Facebook who’s been leaving brilliantly satiric anti-Trump posts turned out to be a pro-Trumper who’s been writing his “Oh, Trump, your genius knows no bounds” posts completely in earnest.

Evo messed with their heads bigly.

Pence is delivering a triumphant speech at an anti-choice rally in DC. I do feel a bit of Schadenfreude, to be honest. It’s what citizens wanted, so let them get a full measure of it.

Postcolonial literature is the best. It’s so ambiguous and complex that it’s impossible not to love it.

I’m planning to team-teach a course with our Palestinian professor who wants to place a lot of postcolonial literature on the list. And that makes me very happy.

The economy only grew 1,9% in the last quarter. Trump has failed to do anything about that. If the recession of 2007 was Obama’s fault, this is totally Trump’s. 

“His family was extremely poor,” a character in a TV show says. “He even had to share a bedroom with his brother until he was 15!”