llynlinn-blog - Tumblr blog

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where words ceased to be…

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Blue Nude, 1952, Henri Matisse

https://www.wikiart.org/en/henri-matisse/blue-nude

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Les Petits, Montagnes Mauresques, 1909, Henri-Edmond Cross

Medium: oil,canvas

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Two spheres

I thought I might send an email, just to reconnect

I sent two, and got an ill-desired response

It wasn’t bad, but it was clear that 

We weren’t on the same page

The idea in my mind didn’t match with

Our independent, severed realities

Still I ended up in your apartment

You had already left, but the key let me in

It was disheveled and half-packed

I tried to find a ring, to see if it fit 

And chopped shrimp was left on 

A cutting board; I worried about the smell

The kitchen had carpeting and I saw

Evidence you moved to Spain, with her

So that’s where I went next

And I found you, I think I said something strong

My actions withered away your 

Initial hesitation to talk 

But she was sick, and so I hid

Nothing happened, but an idea was put forth 

I’m not sure what happened next;

It was after all, a dream

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I think the point is to love your own life, all by yourself, in the simplest, deepest way possible and not feel like you have to explain that to anyone else.

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I notice Autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.

Friedrich Nietzsche  (via h-o-r-n-g-r-y)

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[warnings: cultural appropriation, food, food politics, partition, hindutva nationalism, racism, imperialism, colonialism, whiteness hierarchies]

anonymous asked:

is a white person eating Chinese/Indian/Thai food cultural appropriation? Serious question.

i think there are a lot of problems with the way food from non-white places / cultures is described in these all-encompassing generalized terms, when it’s often a lot more complicated. i think that all-encompassing terms (“chinese food,” “indian food,” “mexican food,” etc..) are not necessarily absolutely problematic, but they very often can be. because there are a lot of different kinds of food in our cultures and they’re not necessarily so separable (or sometimes, they’re a lot more separated within what you describe as a generalized whole, or something…) and it sucks that you only rely on stereotypes and generalizations to understand our food and customs. i am trying to work on describing certain kinds of foods instead of labels and trying to learn more about the names for foods in cultures that are marginalized

it gets me very irritated when people generalize and say for example “i like indian food” as if it’s this one thing or this one clearly discernible whole. i think south asians have the right to say this and similar things though, because we tend to be aware of the complexities of it more, though this also can get complicated but i will not discuss that in this context. also often i find that we say these things in the west and among white people, because that is the only way white / western people will understand us (not a complete truth, obviously, things vary). but yeah, it gets very annoying…

and it’s like, oh, so i’m supposed to know all the names of and the intricacies of and absolutely LOVE things like (depending on the area in the west, the western / white heritages, etc) scones (as it happens i do love scones a lot, but i digress), various western desserts, white typical thanksgiving and christmas dinners (not talking about POC variations and adaptations here), salads, names of fancy cheeses, various pasta combinations … i mean yeah the privilege of these knowledges varies depending on the hierarchy of ethnicities and cultures and heritages considered white, but, they’re still all above POC cultures and heritages. and it’s like …

oh, so i’m completely ridiculous for not knowing all the western english names for various foods, but you have not even the slightest clue about the many kinds of dal, or what lichees are, or what rasmalai is, or what paneer is, etc, etc …. and that’s totally understandable because you’re white and we’re just exotic natives to you, anyway… and you’re like “i have no idea what this is, but it’s so tasty!!!” or “oh my gosh you eat with your HANDS???!!! so disgusting… we don’t do that here” or “well we call our food a generalized ‘american food’ too” or “ewwww you eat THAT???!!!” not recognizing that the very word America is a white, western generalization for two whole continents, comprised of many many marginalized POC cultures also, both within and outside of the US (yeah, because “american food” is just various kinds of white, western food, right? because POC never count, right? /bitter sarcasm)

also it’s like… so, what kind of indian food do you like? and you do realize that countries in south asia that were mostly brutally divided during partition and through processes of western colonialism and imperialism and continue to have nation-state problems because of this … share a lot in common and so acting like “indian food” is this one thing because certain conceptualizations of india as a nation-state (excluding kashmir, excluding a lot of communities and places and minoritized religions really) can get more privileged recognition in global affairs (this is complicated and also related to hindutva nationalism) …. that this is really messed up in a lot of ways, right? because it really really is.

also, so, what does “indian food” even mean to you? does it mean food that’s more common in certain parts of south india (dosa, idli, sambhar, uttapam … or more hyderabadi food, like biryani?) or east india or west india or northern india (muttar paneer, lots of tandoori stuff, makki ki roti aur sarson ka saag…) (and all of these regions are also overgeneralizations!!!) or is it “all the same” to you and “that exotic spicy stuff”? or what? i mean seriously… [and this is an issue with a LOT of marginalized cultural food politics….]

i don’t think it is always cultural appropriation, but i think it can be and often is. the manner it is done in and the context matter a lot.

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my mental place of being on this cold & frigid & inhabitable day of winter;

take me back please