Slowly, the majority vote like idiots / And let idiots rule the majority / Slowly they make films like Namesake / Of Mothers left behind
Contributors
Rana Bose
When the Editorial Board framed the theme statement for this issue of Serai on Nationhood, we asked in the opening paragraph, “What does nationhood mean today for the First Nations and other Indigenous peoples, who strive to navigate forward in […]
There is a fable that Mahatma Gandhi was asked by a reporter what he thought about Western civilization, and his reply was, “It would be a good idea!”
Sometime in the late fifties, as a 10-year-old child in what was then known as Calcutta (now Kolkata), I wandered around in the neighbourhood I grew up in and would stop at a books and comics store, which was nothing […]
For the foods we chow down on every day, labels and nutrient values do not tell us enough about the history of their evolution or the processes used in their production. When we eat, we don’t always know […]
I adjust my non-existent headphones and I add castanets, maracas, timbales, and I try to change the beat
Easily Fooled, by H. Nigel Thomas Guernica Editions, 2021, 293 pages It does not matter how sharp and on top of things we are, we have been duped and hoodwinked too easily at some point in our lives […]
In this significant departure from the beaten path by our editorial board, we chose to dispense with the “theme statement”
Globalization, as a phase of capitalist mutation, received a punch in the face from COVID-19.
When we say first principles, we claim we are going down to the basics. To a fundamental truth. Being totally iterative, methodical and without prejudice. We are arriving at a fundamental principle. Scientists are not supposed to assume anything […]
Is there a contradiction between performance as entertainment, performance that is essentially an esthétique of form, beauty and years of extraordinary cultivation of skills, and performance that is by itself an act of change, designed to disturb? For a moment, […]
Montréal actor Howard Rosenstein in conversation with Serai’s Rana Bose Serai: Good afternoon, Howard! The theme of this issue is Performance as Change. I will begin, though, with a slight diversion. I’ve come across your opinion on […]
Beliefs and affiliations There are many people who relate the concept of “class” to level of income. This is understandable given that a majority of people see “class” as an extension of an archaic English approach towards social “classification” […]
Days of Moonlight by Loren Edizel, Inanna Publications Inc., Toronto, Ontario, 205 pages The compelling, contradictory nature of cover blurbs! They excite and prod the reader on. Depending on the era – from Jane Austen to Grace Metalious, from […]
In response to a three-page critique[1] of the film by Boots Riley, the first point I want to make is that labelling, categorizing, denouncing, and tearing apart a filmmaker’s entire IMDb may be cool posturing, but it is […]
Man on a Rocking Chair in San Juan In San Juan I found a man rocking on his balcony, the floors creaking, the glaze in the gaze, a daffodil stem hanging from his lips. I asked him was he […]
Sometime in 1976, Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher, suggested that saturating the media with carefully selected flash news disables the concept of historicity, depth, intelligence and transparency in following daily events, and creates a hyper-reality that challenges or drowns out […]
Such systems are attempting to learn to recognize and identify voices, images, vocal tones and facial expressions, and develop a response that will go beyond a databank-based response system.
Having played Hitler,Nixon and a range of serial killers and social screw-ups, and Picasso, for that matter, the aura surrounding his presence in a frame shot is devilishly complete.
Like worms in the soil, we love to slide and wriggle down this wonderful rectilinear cement-way of uniformity.
Perhaps the notion that indigenous people living on reservations should have the same constitutional right to clean drinking water as non-indigenous people has not really dawned on the city people!
“It’s hard to decipher where the fictional madness and social seclusion begin and end for both the work and life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of history’s most compelling horror writers who, it’s believed, was wracked with his own demons.“ […]
How long are we going to be in denial about certain fundamental belief systems that have been put in place and are being continuously doctored and prettied up to look good?
Why do we avoid probing the root causes behind a calamity, be it a flood, a massacre, a genocide, or severe environmental catastrophes?
...and so as not to waste time on the demagogic hysteria of fascist wall-builders and KKKers blending in with Trumpers, let us list a few things that still seem so unsettled in the discussion about what happened in Orlando.
But the Empire is wracked with growing contradictions.
As always, when editing an issue of Montréal Serai, there is a certain FEAR bordering on near paranoia that the theme that was chosen several months ago may not produce potent and relevant pieces. And as always, when we are […]
This summer 2015, from June 23-June 26, the Simon Fraser University English Department’s France Field School will be in full swing with special guest speaker Professor Norman Cornett, from Montreal, introducing the students to Paris’ international jazz culture. Professor Cornett […]
“Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.” ― Mark Twain “No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms […]
(*unmâd is a term in the Bengali Language, which is used to designate a totally insane but intellectually possessed person) I knew she was scanning me. Everywhere people are watching. From tall bank towers, security cameras and […]
Montreal Serai had the opportunity to have a discussion with Scott Weinstein, Montreal based social and political activist, who has often been in the fore front of organizations that have protested War in West Asia (often referred to as the […]
Sometime in the third week of February this year, a physicist friend and teacher from Brooklyn, pondered the probability/possibility/paradox of locating an event (perhaps even as an alternate reality) at a distance using mathematical relationships between space, time (and […]
On researching about Gregory Corso, the poet, I found this in a compilation Blog on some of the greatest poets of our time. In the introduction, it says the following: “ Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest […]
Slowly the skin gets depoliticized mottled and flaky. The throat parches over Beleaguered, crotchety and shaky . The shoulders cringe Blue veins, snake rivers Crawl, where muscles Once showed off Slowly, the voices, of mothers and fathers get closer To […]
An essay on reading Bread and Wine By Ignazio Silone Signet Classics, 2005 – Fiction – 279 pages Forty years ago, I read Bread and Wine while living in Calcutta. Despite my indifference towards the folks who wrote […]
Norman Nawrocki … a Montreal legend for his music of protest – and for his daring, insurrectionary performance theatre — was interviewed for this issue by Rana Bose, Serai Editor and Montreal novelist. Norman’s new book details : Cazzarola!: Anarchy, […]
“Il est comme un chauffeur de taxi!” Which means he could be Black, Haitian, Iranian, incomprehensible, immigrant, shifty, or that he does not dress well, speaks in monosyllables and may not be a taxi driver at all. But, a “taxi […]
Yes, this is a Literature issue and it was always destined to be one. I was going to talk extensively about Literature as we have all known it to be, in the mainstream and alternative sense. The thematic title was […]
[From the website of Véhicule Press] Véhicule Press began in 1973 on the premises of Véhicule Art Inc., one of Canada’s first artist-run galleries. The large space occupied by both the gallery and the press at 61 Ste-Catherine St. West […]
(For sure, this is no chronicle of Heroes and Heroines, be it action heroes, rescue heroes, firemen heroes, conquering heroes, rebel heroes or David Bowie’s best ever cut — Heroes.) On a recent trip through the extraordinarily gorgeous region […]
A film by Marie Boti and Malcolm Guy-52 min, productions Multi-Monde 2012. The wind beats against a high telecom tower in Quebec. The camera finds a man on top of the tower, hard hat, safety glasses on. Several hundred feet […]
Ars Poetica At Bain St-Michel, 5300 St-Dominique, Montreal, from January 17-February 12, 2012. Infinite Theatre Production An Anglo Montreal Theatre company when it chooses to explore the local Anglo Arts Angst (AAA!) scene in a spectacular manner, and for […]
An issue on Canadian Literature has been on the cards for a long time. Here it is, and…… here is to bemused looks, neutral shrugs, crinkled foreheads, and other intense Canadian-isms. Oh! Don’t get me wrong! We love grovelling […]
Rana Bose (RB): Canadian Literature has been evolving in all directions. Literature out of a newer multicultural context is also making its presence felt. The Globe and Mail reviewer in reviewing your best seller The Love Queen […]
Sociological (and sometimes mischievous) terminology like identity gap and cultural appropriation, accommodation and even assertions like Euro-centrism and Orientalism and political programs based on multiculturalism and interculturalism are very simply losing their edge. They have been overused, misused and abused. […]
For the past several years, we have been justifiably looking out and beyond the city we originate from—-Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Our self-imposed mandate has been to look beyond borders and fences and peep into cultural worlds that surround us in […]
There is a tendency amongst a lot of liberal-minded people to go ape about Wikileaks, beyond and above what are its obvious and spectacular contributions. After all, revelations of gory illegal acts, diplomatic about turns and faux pas and sickening […]
This is how it all started. As Tunisia and Egypt were followed by Yemen and Bahrain and as I remained glued to Al Jazeera, Facebook,Twitter (notice I do not state the CBC, BBC or CNN or mainstream TV) and as […]
(An editorial essay on the Middle East) What is it that we do here in Montreal or anywhere else in the world, as artists, writers, filmmakers, poets, that somehow draws us into the politics in the Middle East? We are […]
One does not have to be a militant environmentalist. Neither does one have to be a duck, a penguin or a halibut to feel encrusted, choked and oxygen-less. One needs to be just an engineer and scientist here, in […]
Montreal Serai Editor Rana Bose interviewed Catherine Potter, leader of the Catherine Potter-Duniya Project, after her show at the MAI in Montreal. MS : The show La Convergence des Continents at the Montreal Arts Interculturels on 23rd January, […]
“Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic causes: it is not simply due to the bad influence of this or that individual writer.” — George Orwell George Orwell had a sixth […]
Twenty five years ago a man strolled by me on Viger Street in Montreal. I figured he was a drifter. He looked straight ahead through his round John-Lennon glasses. He had a slight stoop to his walk. For a […]
Art is Democracy ! Acknowledgements: 1)The Design of Dissent, Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic, Rockport Publishers Inc. www.rockpub.com 2)Paper, Paper Publishing Company, New York, www.papermag.com 3)Jean-Michel Basquiat, by Richard Marshall, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York I am strolling […]
Kolkata Dreams K. Gandhar Chakravarty 8th House Publishing, Montreal Canada 2009, 75 pages “I wonder what it must be like To fuck with a severed penis.” Montrealer K. Gandhar ‘Ginsburg’ Chakravarty knows his penis from his elbow. He […]
Rights are hard to locate. One man’s rigorous beliefs in his “cultural” assertion are another woman’s confinement and destitution. The rights of a nation, of a people, run against the path of development chosen by a state. The rights of […]
"...uses the universality of the body to explore the tensions created by the collision of East and West."
(Every few months, perhaps weeks, there is a major Coal mine accident in China. Environmental issues are not just climate change issues, but health and safety issues for the poor of China and elsewhere.) Rana Bose December 10, 2004 […]
Cartoon by Susan Dubrofsky Racial disdain and distance goes beyond incidents of hatred on the streets, defiling of monuments, police arrogance and brutality towards minorities or the ignorance-based proto-working class commentary that spews out of AM radio and […]
This e-zine’s been around for as long as there have been e-zine’s on the web…or so it seems. Since 1995, as an e-zine and since 1986 as a hardcopy magazine. Twenty years, non-stop. Check out what happened in ‘86… of […]
Night crawls in and Banksy and his urban warriors sweep through town…or maybe a distant village. They appear in Los Angeles, in Disneyland, in the Museum of Modern Art, in a display of ancient Chinese Art and on the ugly […]
