Amitav Ghosh. Layla and Majnun. Islam Issa.
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 28 June 2019
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Amitav Ghosh on linking refugees, climate change, Venice & Bengali forests in his fiction. New Generation Thinker Islam Issa on Epstein's Lucifer sculpture. Rana Mitter presents.
Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh weaves the ancient legend about the goddess of snakes, Manasa Devi into a journey between America, the Sundarbans and Venice. You can also find Amitav Ghosh talking to Free Thinking about the need for fiction to reflect climate change here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z7bnd
The emotional epic that is Layla and Majnun is the subject of events at the Bradford Literature Festival https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/ which runs until July 7th and the Shubbak Festival which runs until July 14th https://www.shubbak.co.uk/ Film maker Soraya Syed and story-teller and producer Alia Alzougbi discuss the story's eternal attraction and ability to speak to contemporary issues.
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the AHRC to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio. Islam Issa teaches at Birmingham City University. His books include Milton in the Arab-Muslim World.
Free Thinking Landmarks on Paradise Lost https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08nf037 One Thousand and One Nights https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b052gz7g
Producer: Jacqueline Smith
Transcript
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| 1:25.7 | Hello and this is Freethinking with Demons. Coming up, a disturbing Lucifer, a snaky Hindu goddess, |
| 1:34.3 | and the fatal passion of a pair of legendary lovers. The East is taking over the arts. And if you say, |
| 1:41.3 | Oi, no, I'm all for Western rationality, then pause and think again about what the weird and the uncanny might have to offer. |
| 1:48.9 | That's what Amitav Ghosh invites us to do in his latest novel. |
| 1:52.7 | And here he is reading a snippet from it, with his hero getting rather short shrift. |
| 1:58.1 | I pride myself on being a rational, secular, scientifically-minded person. I'm sorry if this |
| 2:04.0 | doesn't conform to stereotypes of Indians, but I'm not religious and don't believe in the supernatural. |
| 2:09.6 | I will not on any account go along with a whole lot of superstitious mumbo-jumbo. |
| 2:15.2 | Chinta was quiet for a couple of places. If that's true, she said softly, |
... |
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