Dusk

Ozer,
You NEED to get out of that dark and dingy city named London, in a rather wet and dreary island called the UK and visit somewhere loud, vibrant and colourful like the city of Mumbai.Whaddya want?.Booze...the taps overfloweth.Music...it`s `bollywood nights` every nite.Loose women......all nationalities.Ok.You into heavy metal, techno pop??.Any kind of music your ears will hear.Jazz?......YE can go to `Jazz by the Bay` a fav of many american jazz greats, no less.Gambling?....we bet on anything over here.

Whatever ye wants ye can get over here and no depressing weather or dour ,cold people with bad teeth either.ANYTHING, including my suggestions, you must do to overcome your depression , which is so evident from reading this essay!!.Phew!.I`m not being facetious or rude.(dis

very sincerely,

cayenne


cayenne

OZER,
cayenne is right you writing depicts depression.change of place is must.
London it self is depressing ,huge building and narrow streets.

Oz

As when I read this article for the first time, I really think your style echoes that of Mohsin Hamid. You build up the ``moths`` of society such as the urbanites ignoring the beggar, the rowdy macho ladish lads in the bar and the pseudo-intellectuals whilst creating ``smoke`` in the form of the uncertainty shrouded around this girl and her wavering commitment.

Cayenne

Your post states ``Whaddya want?.Booze...the taps overfloweth.Music...it`s `bollywood nights` every nite.Loose women......all nationalities.Ok.You into heavy metal, techno pop??.Any kind of music your ears will hear.Jazz?......YE can go to `Jazz by the Bay`

Do you not think the author is trying to show ambivalence and critique towards these post-modern artefacts and by-products ?

Ozerkhalid

This is an incredible piece of poetry ! It reveals a soul trapped in the confines of modernity trying to emerge out of its flames. It has a leftist/Marxist undertone with a nihilistic/Kafkaesque view toward society.

One of the best pieces I have read in a long time !

ozerkhalid a very profound and polished piece, yet there is one discrepancy:

``You are earnestly drinking and fair-mindedly chewing on Davidoffs. Spraining to invoke the illusion of permanence. There is NONE. ``

Above you revoke the presence of ``permanence`` like an article of faith. Yet in another sentence your article reads `` You long for some certainty yet remain consumed by the transient``.

Here you critique the ``transient``.

So by revoking ``permanence`` on the one hand and ``transience`` on the other what do you believe in ? Is this not a contradiction ?

Husna you say ``It reveals a soul trapped in the confines of modernity trying to emerge out of its flames``. But surely modernity is not under fire in this article ? Rather it is stoking the flames... Is it not ?

Ozer

Your piece reeks of Albert Camus-type existentialism. It seems that the narrator is caught by the surroundings. Is it auto-biographical or pure fiction ?

Re: # 5
Husnaangelique

Though this piece is dark and obscurantist, it is more Sartre than Kafka. Witness how the narrator is consumed by the sheer superficial veneer of society and the entourage rather than victimizing and wallwowing in Kafka-styel self-pity.

Re: # 1
Cayenne you suggest that the author needs to ``get out of that dark and dingy city named London``. Though this writing and its symbolisms, the Big Ben, cobbled streets, red buses clearly describe London with a Dickensian touch (notice the comments on the beggar), I think the author is referring to urban decay of a moral fabric in general and not ``London`` in particular. He only uses London as an epitomy of degradation.

Re: # 7
Kulsumbeig

But surely modernity is not under fire in this article ? Rather it is stoking the flames... Is it not ? Analyze global events around you from 9/11, to Abu Ghreib, from the bombings in Madrid, Istanbul, Bali and Tel Aviv. Are these not signs of modernity being under fire !

Stoking the flames ? What are you on about. Terrorism stokes the flames if anything. The dictats of propoganda-based Madrassas are responsible for that, along with Western display of muscle in foreign policy. Why would modernity ever stoke its own fire ?

Re: # 9 moazammudasar

``Though this piece is dark and obscurantist, it is more Sartre than Kafka.``

Moazammudasar notice certain bits of this paper like ``Their Polaroid anorexic snapshot existences will click away without a flash`` or ``Oh babe the system swallows you like a Tsunami as though you are its natural victim`` or most gruellingly ``My blood-red patience wears thinner than a bulimia-laden epidemic``.

If this does not sound like Kafka in its tone, then what does ??

Re: # 6 good point kulsum ! interesting observation...

Re: # 2
cipram you mention ``cayenne is right you writing depicts depression.change of place is must. London it self is depressing ,huge building and narrow streets.``

this ``change`` is not needed from the city of london, it is needed from society as a whole. it is needed from a girl who is obviously buying time and leaving everything to fate. it is needed from the capitalist econo-political imposed superstructure. it is needed from the ``chattering`` classes of society who say one thing and do another.

The author leaves an audience opaquely captivated: is ``Dusk`` about an intriguing love affair about to explode into oblivion ? Or a society mandated with norms that ostracize morality. my opinion would incline: Ozerkhalid is interestingly trying to herald both dimensions into one caption: a micro element (entanglement with the lady) and macro element ( affliction with environment).

the constant flux between micro and macro is like a Tarantino plot, forwarding and rewinding. heralding both dimensions brilliantly is this piece`s chief signature.almost cinematic !

ozerkhalid

prolific piece ! dusk draws gravitas from the fact that it exudes contemporary lingo such as
“Usher-ishly caught up” ``playas pimp chrome hydraulics`` and ``A Nokia is answered. A Louis Vuitton is shouldered`` these are all accompaniments of a J-LO P/dIDDY heralded ``blingocracy``, and by using such catchphrases you are appealing to a younger, wider and broader audience with an underlying serious message/s

these contemporary catch-phrases may sound urban, jazzy and sexy but the message is so buried under them that a distracted reader may start glamorizing the very lingo you are using sarcastically