Latest from Kevin Blankinship
The Film ‘Network’ Darkly Predicted Our Paranoid Politics
In the 1976 film “Network,” a struggling TV company exploits the paranoia of one of its anchors to create a hit show, thus manipulating the American public in the tumult of the 1970s and foreshadowing our own polarized era.
The Legacy of Humphrey Davies Shows a Love for Translation but Also for Translators
British translator Humphrey Davies, who passed away on Nov. 12, gifted dozens of English literary translations from Arabic but also a legacy of mentorship and warmth.
Women Warriors of the Early Muslim World
Hind marched with Quraysh to battle, then stormed the field with other women to mutilate the corpses of the Muslims, slashing off noses and ears and fashioning them into necklaces. It’s said that she gouged out the liver of Muhammad’s uncle Hamza and bit into it.
The Seven Hanging Odes of Mecca
Seven ancient Arabic odes are still unknown to the West despite having a bedrock status as “Beowulf” does in English: the mu’allaqat or hanging odes, so-called because they were allegedly stitched in gold and draped on the shrine of the Kaaba at Mecca as masterpieces.