a small archive of things worth knowing.
history
it is also known as ‘third battle of ypres’. it was fought on the ‘western front’ for control of the ridges south and east of the city of ypres in west flanders, belgium. it was an allied offensive in 1917 that aimed to break german defenses in belgium. the battle became a symbol of the pointlessness and cruelty of war, the constant rain turned the shell cratered battlefield into deep mud, men drowned or became trapped in shell holes. around 500,000 men became casualities on both sides, for very little ground gained.
short documentary on this war by ‘the great war’, also worth watching this movie 1917
books recommendation lists
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perspolis by marjane satrapi: an autobiographical graphic memoir that chronicles authors childhood in iran during and after the islamic revolution, quite similat to art spiegelman’s maus
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fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury: one of my favorite dystopian novel, set in future where books are legally banned and burned.
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common sense and nuclear warfare by bertand russell: argues that the only definitive way to eliminate the threat of nuclear destruction is to abolish the institution of the war itself.
- the conference of the birds: one of my favorites, it is a monumental 12th century persian epic poem written by the sufi poet farid ud-din attar of nishapur, and one of the foundational allegorical works of sufi literature. it tells of the bird’s arduous journey through seven valleys in search of the mythical ‘simorgh’, ultimately depicting the soul’s journey toward spiritual realization, divine unity, and the annihilation of the self.
articles and blog posts
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the feuilleton era we live in: explores the hermann hesse’s idea od the “feuilleton age”, which decribes an era of intellectual levity, cultural fragmentation, and information overload, where deep historical knowledge is degraded into trivial infotainment and superficial bite-sized opinions. worth reading his book, the glass bead game which he wrote between 1931 and 1943 during his exile in switzerland, it was banned from publication in nazi germany due to his anti-facist stance.
