I’ve always rolled my eyes at phrases like “We’re living through history.”
No more. In the past month alone, we saw: an assassination attempt on a former president, the current president dropping out of the race, and the arrival of a new Democratic presidential candidate who could end up being the first woman of colour to lead the U.S. The Democratic national convention will take place in Chicago, where I live, from August 19-24. We’ll see if Kamala Harris will actually be challenged in any way or if she’ll simply be crowned the presumptive candidate (I suspect the latter because, really, are Dems anything more than sheep at this point?) These are tales I plan on relating to my grand-cats, years from now.
For those who’ve followed me for as long as you have: the health issues remain roughly the same, but there are some signs that I should probably get care sooner rather than later (nothing hugely alarming). Since I live as an uninsured individual without a salaried job, I can’t really take time off from the usual hustle, and I’m trying to get as much done by the end of summer before I get to any kind of medical care place (I think regular people call them healthcare facilities or clinics). All of that is complicated by the fact that I need to be careful about not getting COVID while getting a checkup. So. Anyway. Life in America and all that.
The best news, though, is that I’m greatly enjoying my writing. I consider myself hugely lucky to be able to be a writer (the compensation could be better, but I’m working on that).
I recently published an essay about the New York Times Book Review in my beloved Current Affairs, and it went viral, much to my surprise. Titled, “The NYT Book Review Is Everything Book Criticism Shouldn’t Be,” you can read it here and in the glorious print edition if you subscribe. We really did not plan for it to appear almost simultaneously with the paper’s now much discussed “100 Best Books of the 21st Century,” but there it is. Nathan J. Robinson, editor of CA, assigned the piece to me sometime in the late summer/early fall of 2023, so it has been brewing for a while. I’ll have a short piece up soon on the essay and my future work on publishing, but for now, I cannot emphasise this enough: this essay could only have appeared in Current Affairs, which gave me all the freedom and space to roam with the topic. And it could not have taken the shape it did without the extraordinary editing talents and efforts of both Nathan and managing editor Lily Sánchez. If you’ve liked the essay, and the many others that appear in the gorgeous print magazine and the website, please subscribe. CA has made most of its previous issues freely available as pdfs online, and none of its online work is paywalled. But, like any magazine, it can only survive with subscriptions (it does not accept advertising).
I’ve also been writing about COVID and posting a fair bit about the endless pandemic on social media. I wrote “Your Brain on COVID” and “On Joe Biden and COVID.” In the months to come, I’ll have more on this topic, but you can also find my previous COVID essays collected here, in the “Pandemic” category of this website.
We’re facing an accelerated election season in the sense that the field of candidates has suddenly changed, with only a few months to go before election day. Frankly, that really is how things should be, but the U.S appears to be addicted to an election season that begins the day after Inauguration Day and ends on November 4 four years later. The system is ridiculous but given that media corporations and too many pundits need the constant churn of election fever to stay afloat, I very much doubt that we’ll see any changes any time soon. I’ll have more on political events as they unfold; my most recent work is “Hillary Clinton Needs to Retire.”
I’ve been attracting a lot more attention this past month, and I want to introduce myself, briefly, to those who are less familiar with my work. You can search through the categories here to see more of it (the site operates as an archive, and I’m still finding and uploading essays). Most writers don’t like to place their older work on display, but I’m firmly of the opinion that we need to demystify writing and understand it as a long process that continues throughout a writer’s life, not as some incandescent work of singular genius that just happens, magically, with the first book. So, enjoy exploring everything that’s up here (search terms can help localise your searches and you can also contact me to ask if I’ve written on a topic, if you don’t see something).
You will note that while I do often write on topical subjects, I don’t write towards the algorithm and I’m not interested in virality for its own sake. I write a lot of long essays because I like to explore a subject in all its complexity, and I’ve been very lucky to have a website that attracts readers and to find publications like CA, In These Times, New York Review of Architecture, and others that give me the time and space to explore my perspectives.
I am simultaneously hustling and speeding towards various deadlines for the next month or so, and won’t be writing any particularly lengthy essays for a little while. But you can expect to see shorter pieces—ruminations and observations—on topics like the pandemic, politics, and culture here and there. If you’d like to get regular-ish updates on my writing, contact me through this site and I’ll put you on my list (it’s through gmail for now, and I’ll move it to something like Mailchimp at some point).
I do have a very significant and long (because it will include links to articles over the past four years) update coming in the next month or so.
If you are a regular subscriber/supporter, I cannot thank you enough. You have stuck by me for a very long time (you knew me when!) and have seen me through some very dark and slow patches. I had one such about a year or so ago, which nearly ended everything—I got beyond that and will have more on that situation; I’ve been scrambling to catch up and keep going since then and am just charging on. But, again: it means the world to me that so many of you have stood by me, without question or complaint, and it’s your support that has enabled me to eat, live, and keep writing.
If you’re new to my work and would like to support it, you have a number of options here. Every bit helps, and I thank you so much: your support helps to keep my work going.
I have social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, with varying degrees of participation on all of them. I’m no longer accepting new friend requests on FB, but you can easily follow me there. On Twitter, I mostly post quick observations. I use IG for photos and links to my work; for those wondering about my handle, “bekar gyan” is Hindi/Urdu for “useless knowledge.” I’m probably least active on LinkedIn, but I like it for keeping in touch with professional contacts. I tend to stay off/try to stay off social media on the weekends, but I do schedule tweets now and then. On weekdays, I post Daily Posts from the archive—older essays or whichever new essays might be just out—on all the platforms. I’m really not trying to build massive followings anywhere: I’m quick to eliminate trolls, and really won’t care if a publisher tells me I need to increase my online profile. I’ve been there, done all that, and I value my mental health more than making sure that people can see me all the time (which does not mean I don’t go through occasional spurts of activity). Again, do feel free to use the contact form for any questions.
A list of the works noted above follows. Have a great weekend: I think all of us really need it to be drama-free, and I’m hoping that Harris will not announce her running mate on Sunday, as Biden did with his announcement. May the Napping Ways of Cats show us all the way.
The NYT Book Review Is Everything Book Criticism Shouldn’t Be
“Hillary Clinton Needs to Retire”
For more on my work on publishing, see the “On Books and Publishing” category.
Image: “Apartment Houses, East River,” c. 193, by Edward Hopper
