Next Scheduled Update: Monday, 19 June, 2006
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Lagos, NIGERIA - G21: I have just read your book?A Manner Of Speaking and it apperas that most of the stories are crafted from personal experiences. Is this the case? DINESH: Very much so. The stories represent a transition from my voice as a performance poet, in which personal exposure, identification and self-expression are prominent aspects, into short fiction and writing 'for the page'. What I've retained from the performance poetry, in these stories, is that aspect of being rooted in personal experience. How I've treated these experiences varies from story to story != in some cases, I've built a complete fiction on the foundations of a few real experiences; in others, it's something close to autobiography. G21: How easily do you recollect experiences for your fiction? DINESH: It's not that it's easy, so much as it's a natural function. Life will always throw up experiences, even if they're only fleeting moments, that will automatically appeal to my consciousness as a writer. Very often, I'll start with a memory != an image that has stuck in my mind, an incident I've experienced or witnessed, a thought that may have entered my head by chance != and try to find ways to build a story around it. The reality is easy to recollect; it's the fiction that's the hard part. ... READ MORE
G21 World HQ - During my youth, when I was first settling into Austin, Texas, with the woman who would be my future wife, I worked for the U.S. Census Bureau. I was one of the minions of the Maps department, charting out central and south Texas for the field workers who would count the population, census tract by tract. The head of my department and many of the people who worked there were members of the Libertarian Party. They were nice people, friendly and funny and a joy to work with. From then until now, I've generally found Libertarians to be mostly smart people with cutting senses of humor and a very well-developed bullshit meters. However, I've always privately described libertarians as "Republicans who've had the last remnants of their hearts surgically removed." You see, for all their "live and let live" and "freedom is paramount" rhetoric, below the surface of most libertarian philosophy is a "Hell take the hindmost" ethos that I find troubling.... READ MORE |
G21 ASIA: STEVE OGAH brings us a conversation with a world-reknown performance poet. "G21 Interviews: Dinesh Allirajah"
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VOX POPULI: YOU give your thoughts on our latest articles. "Lively Debate".
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THE PREVIOUS ISSUE: PURGATORIO
AJ tells us about a community development landmark in Kenya's worst slums in DAY ONE; ROD AMIS interviews Holmes Wilson of the Participatory Culture Foundation; and much more!
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This magazine is an on-going production of the Ghost Who Walks.
G21 Interviews: Dinesh Allirajah by STEVE OGAH
Silver Screen Libertarianism from Aaron Russo by ROD AMIS
