I’ve found these two exposé series eminently readable:
The Taliban abducted New York Times reporter David Rohde last year. The paper is now running a five-part series about Rohde’s ordeal that gives a unique and important insight into the Taliban subculture. It also reads a lot like a good old-fashioned adventure novel about being taken by tribesmen that one might expect to come across in a shelf of books from the 19th century, except with updated language (and except for the fact that it’s true). I’m sure there’ll be a book and a movie.
I’ll repost these links when all five parts are up, but here are the first three, for those of you who are slow readers like me and want a head start. The report also includes video footage.
Held By the Taliban (Part One): “7 Months, 10 Days in Captivity”
Held By the Taliban (Part Two): “Inside the Islamic Emirate”
Held By the Taliban (Part Three): “You Have Atomic Bombs, but We Have Suicide Bombers”
The other series is running in the Los Angeles Times and has something Wire-esque about it, which is no doubt intentional and which also makes it a good story, especially for those of us still bummed about having long ago arrived at the last episode of that show. It’s about a girl who was robbed by a former football star from her high school, and her struggle about reporting the crime and the dangerous life she lives once she does, you know, snitchin’ and all (i.e. being courageous and doing the right thing).
The report includes video footage as well.
Part One: “Holdup Sets the Scene for Tragedy”
Part Two: “Family Had Feared Violence But Hadn’t Foreseen Victim”
I find that following well-crafted exposés like these makes me a much better writer and also helps me to teach students how to tell stories well, even if they’re non-fiction, with striking images and a plot line. By the way, one of my favorite article along these lines is still Dan Barry’s post-Hurricane Katrina story for the New York Times from Sep. 8, 2005, “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” which I use in nearly every composition course and for many of my writing consulting clients.
Thanks to SZE for this somewhat hilarious news story about brides in India who refuse to marry unless their husbands-to-be have installed a working toilet in their future home, by Emily Wax of the Washington Post, aptly (?) titled “In India, A New Seat of Power for Women.”
Oh, and in case you wondered what Twilight might be doing to your sisters/girlfriends/daughters, it looks like we should be more worried about what it does to your moms… (In case you’re sane enough to never have read Twilight, here is a hilarious and astute summary of those literary masterpieces Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn a.k.a. “American Girls Love Vampires Because Really They Want to Boff Their Gay Best Friend.” Obviously.) Which reminds me, I am working on a tab with academic resources on fields that I’ve studied, and it will include a source list for those of us interested in seriously teaching vampire fiction as a genre, from a religious anthropology course I took at Chicago with Bruce Lincoln called “Liminal Beings.” Sometime I’ll also tell you a story about the time I met the world’s leading academic vampirologist.
On an unrelated note, I have been successfully subduing a cold and I thought I’d share the great home remedy that seems to have done it:
- Take a large mug.
- Squeeze the juice out of a large lemon. Pour into mug.
- Take a ginger root. Shred into mug through a grate, to taste (but plenty).
- Add a spoonful of honey.
- Top off with boiling water.
Intersperse cups of this lemon-ginger tea with mint or chamomile tea, and you’ll also successfully fight sinus headache and stomach symptoms. And dehydration.
