"Interests" feels like too weak a word to describe them, really. Since I can remember, books have been a guiding force in my life, leading me to undertake an undergraduate degree in English Literature and graduate in the summer of 2011. Working to better human rights has been a fixture in my life since middle school, and as of September became the focus of my studies as I undertook my Masters degree.
In my cover letter when applying for this course, I sought to underscore the link between these two fields. Since September, my belief in this important (and increasingly acknowledged) link has been consolidated.
I recently received an unusual gift, pictured above. A friend had been traveling around Bosnia-Herzegovina and brought me back this pen. Sarajevo bullets have been turned into souvenirs for tourists: slightly troubling for some. The recent suspension of the war crimes trial of Ratko Mladic, accused of orchestrating the siege of the city, arguably makes it more so.
In spite of this sadness, I think there's more to this pen than simply recollections of mass atrocity. While memories may be a key component, to me this little metal object is also about recovery and reappropriation. Someone has picked up the bullets meant to take away life, and turned them into a biro. I feel like there's a strong reassertion of presence and agency in this little pen, and while it may seem a little macabre to be making notes with the remnants of a mass crime, I think there's also something commemorative in that act.
This space will serve for me to draw out links between the books I'm reading and the rights discourse I engage with on a daily basis. As well as this, I hope to present some books in translation; as English PEN have underlined, less than 3% of the UK's annual publishing output is made up of translated works. There's something very skewed about that, and I hope to be able to use this space to address it.
Here's hoping this blog will bring out what the pen is mightier than.
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