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Alone in BabelSeptember 26, 2012

Around the literary world in 80 words (#10)

Maybe Keats needs some rehab, or maybe I need some sleep…  On this week’s tour of the world, one of England’s greatest poets faces drug abuse allegations, our Norwegian translator faces some difficulties with ‘famlande’ and the municipal government of Baghdad faces bravely up to some unarmed and not particularly dangerous booksellers.

 

IRAQ

Corrupt governments with strange priorities, # [insert worryingly high number here]: in Baghdad’s al-Mutanabbi Street, ‘bulldozers guarded by armed soldiers… smashed the wooden stalls used by booksellers’ under the pretence of ‘removing “violations” from the street.’ In a country where hundreds of civilians are murdered every year and one fifth of the population has to survive on under $2 a day, well done to the politicians for getting their priorities right and dealing with the enormous threat posed by booksellers.

NORWAY

This week saw the publication of the latest novel from Per Petterson, master of narratives about middle-aged men with bleak prospects wandering around in bleak landscapes. ‘Jeg nekter’ (I refuse) has yet to be translated into English, but is described by Norwegian critics as a ‘famlande’ novel. Bafflingly, our Norwegian translator describes ‘famlande’ as ‘that thing you do in the dark when all the lights are off and you *waves arms like someone sinking into several fathoms of icy water*’

UK

The drugs don’t work, unless you’re looking for ways to promote a new biography of Keats. Professor Nicholas Roe, trying to find anything new to say about Keats and doing that thing you do in the dark when all the lights are off and you wave your arms around, reckons that Keats was an opium addict, which ‘helps to explain his jealous and vindictive mood swings regarding Fanny Brawne.’ ‘Nick is making assumptions…’ says fellow Keats biographer Andrew Motion, diplomatically.

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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