The biggest event on CM was the publishing of “Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination — “a curated, edited collection” of sepoy's posts in book form, with foreword from Amitava Kumar, launched with much fanfare, and earning rave reviews (here, here).
Meanwhile, commentaries and reflections on happenings in Homistan continued to grace CM: Ramanujan's transformative texts, Salmaan Taseer's murder and an exploration of the “emergence of the Prophet as a centralising and orienting raison d'etre for Pakistan,” Pakistan's fugue state and “the notion of treason and affiliation in the colonial and postcolonial setting,” the state of Pakistan's ways of seeing, and the forgotten “memory of East Pakistan and the sins of West Pakistan.”
Sepoy continued his essays on the frontier in imperial imagination, experts and policy prescriptions that aid the myopia of empire. Reflections on the 10 years since 9/11 by Sepoy, Farangi, and Lapata delighted CM readers, as did discussions of Imperialism and racism (I, II, III).
Lapata was busy holding art-shows and winning awards for her writing , but found time to hold a flash fiction contest with Kuzhali Manickavel as judge, which Amitava Kumar won. The Best Writer of 2010 brought us insightful review essays of Aag ka Dariya, Teju Cole's Open City, Dictator literature, “Yashpal's great Partition novel, Jhootha Sach,” and a reflection on the interior landscapes in early Indian novels (and an adda post!). Lapata also interviewed some “prominent Blaft personages” including the “illustrious flash fictionista Kuzhali Manickavel,” and reviewed a host of Tamil pulp fiction.
PS. Naim Sahib contributed a characteristically brilliant review of Deborah Baker's “The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism.”
PPS. Jassasa's Goat Spy won the internets (here, here, here, here).
PPPS. See Lapata on OBL, and dental care.
PPPPS. More pics! (here, here, here).
PPPPPS. See yours truly's humble attempt at an essay.
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