Rejecting despair

Summoning some thoughts about the current narrative

Hello and welcome back to shelf offering, a newsletter by me, Apoorva Sripathi – writer, editor, and artist. shelf offering is published three out of four Tuesdays a month, unless I’m taking a break. If you think my work is valuable and would like to support me, follow 💌shelfoffering on Instagram, share this post, and consider becoming a paid subscriber. Thank you.

I don’t have much to say but seeing as there are five Tuesdays this month (completely unnecessary!) and having ignored one already, as per schedule, I feel pulled to write something today. First I wrote down a recipe for green tomato rasam/dal/soup – call it whatever you want – and relegated it to the week after next Tuesday. Then I thought about publishing another crossword, one that’s open to all, but I have no idea if anyone even attempts to solve them. Right whatever.

Anyway, seeing as the narrative is beginning to shift re the manmade starvation of Gaza – vile because this was always obvious and not something accidental – by Israel, I thought what is the point of a recipe or a crossword. Life carries on, yes, and it feels thoughtless and cruel to come up with recipes or write about food when Israel is forcing starvation on the people of Gaza but also one cannot afford to despair. When violence is happening all around us, as it is everyday, feeling futile and hopeless can seem like a natural (and even safe) move but it is ethical and effective to remember that not thinking that way is a more powerful act. Apathy is morally reprehensible and is a knee-jerk response for those of us who are privileged. I think it’s a much better use of our anxiety, anger, and frustration to talk about such things, write about it, raise funds, amplify any action being taken by others rather than wallowing in defeatism. If you find yourself despairing, and it does happen at times, then simply consider that you are not angry enough. I apply this to myself before I write here btw. The beauty of life doesn’t just involve individual joy and pleasure – it is vital to also consider humanity, empathy, and compassion for others.

“No one way works,” wrote Diane di Prima in her Revolutionary Letters, “it will take all of us shoving at the thing from all sides to bring it down”.

I have some essays to share, words by myself and by others. It’d be great if you can add to this list. Thank you for reading and supporting. If you’d like to donate, here are some links.

💌 I come from there

Palestinian writer Lama Obeid’s newsletter.

💌 Protesting over Gaza’s starvation feels like screaming into a void – but we mustn’t stop

Nesrine Malik on what protesting and public anger are capable of achieving.

💌 ‘The bombs are still falling. My heart breaks every day’: novelists Sally Rooney and Isabella Hammad on the Israel-Palestine conflict

The authors in conversation on the role of art in political resistance.

💌 Newsletters from PalFest.org

This is self-explanatory.

💌 Beneath the howl of hunger

Alaa Alqaisi on hunger eating away at language.

💌 How Palestine’s national flower mirrors its people’s plight

Marta Vidal on the arresting Faqqua Iris, a symbol of resistance, that is being erased by the Israeli occupation.

💌 The resilience of rooted beings

Vivien Sansour on the future of the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library.

💌 Historicide in Gaza

Lydia Wilson on how Israel is destroying history – the attempted elimination of the possibility of future historical work.

💌 Starvation, resistance, love

Neighbours or not, everyone is each other’s lifeline in the kitchen in Gaza.

💌 Starving Palestine

Manal Shqair on Israeli colonialism and the struggle for food sovereignty in Masafer Yatta in southern Palestine.

💌 Infinite Jaz

Jasper Nathaniel’s newsletter which is a weekly dispatch on Israel/Palestine, stories from inside the West Bank.

💌 Hunger

Thom Eagle’s heartfelt thoughts on the current situation.

💌 Tell me about despair, yours

I wrote about Rothko and recognition, about Isabella Hammad and Sally Rooney’s conversation, and about the writer’s diary as an archive, full of confessions and revelations of humanity.

💌 This is culinary nationalism

I also wrote about food as a tool in the construction of a nation-state, here Israel.