Palestinian Own Voices Reading List
If you’re looking for books to read to help support Palestine and Palestinians through this current aggression and genocidal actions, I’ve created a list for you to look through. These books are all available through Bookshop.org, and may be available through your local libraries.
My Father Was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story, by Ramzy Baroud
Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape, by Raja Shehadeh
In the Presence of Absence, by Richard Widerkehr
On Zionist Literature, by Ghassan Kanafani
Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, by Sonia Nimir
Power Born of Dreams: My Story Is Palestine, by Mohammad Sabaaneh
Stories Under Occupation: And Other Plays from Palestine, by Samer Al-Saber
Palestine Is Throwing a Party and the Whole World Is Invited: Capital and State Building in the West Bank, by Kareem Rabie
Rifqa, by Mohammed El-Kurd
Of Noble Origins: A Palestinian Novel, by Sahar Khalifeh
My First and Only Love, by Sahar Khalifeh
Salt Houses, by Hala Alyan
L.J. Stanton
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Ody Does Math
“Good morning, teacher.” sang the kids, faces radiating vitality.
Indeed, it was a good morning. You can hear the larks chanting in the forest, oak leaves whispering secrets of the wind, and see the open fields bathing in the blazing sunlight casted by Lord Helios. Every bit of this scenery was calling for your attention.
But now is not the right time for that. Commented Athena, in her mind. Now is the time for their math class, and none of them can escape this fact.
So she simply nodded to their greeting. So far so good. She gave a quick glance around the classroom. Odysseus, her favorite student, seemed rather eager for the class. He’s doing good as always, Athena thought. Eurylochus, on the other hand, seemed quite unsettled. Curious. Is it because of his homework? Athena wondered. And as she set her eyes on the next student, she called:
“What are you doing there, Mr. Polites?”
She could see his panic alright. But soon as Polites reclaimed himself she heard him say: “Sorry, Ms. Athena. I was just trying to pack this bag real quick.”
“What for?”
“Er, Ms. Athena…I don’t suppose this is the right place to say—”
“What for, Mr. Polites?”
He sighed. “It’s for a friend of mine, really. Today’s his birthday.”
As he finished, Athena caught a glimpse of the mild blush on Odysseus’s face. It wasn’t hard to figure out what exactly was happening here, but she merely said:
“Well, in that case, I might as well congratulate this friend of yours with a ‘happy birthday’. Hope he gets to be a valiant warrior, a warrior of the mind. And yes, you may sit down, Mr. Polites.”
As everybody settled on their seats, Athena quickly chalked a line of Greek on the blackboard. It reads: ΣΤΟΙΧΕΙΑ ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΙΚΑ (Elements of Geometry). As soon as she finished, she said:
“Welcome to today’s math class, everyone. We’ll begin with a discussion on a simple problem in your textbook. Now, please turn to page 43, and evaluate the problem quickly. I’ll ask for your ideas in a few minutes.”
It’s not hard. Thought Odysseus. Just some simple geometry. You draw a perpendicular BC at point B with half the length of AB, and…
“Mr. Eurylochus, if you may?”
Eurylochus’s hesitation was all written on his face. And his silence was loud enough to speak for his cluelessness. I should help him. However, it’s not my turn. Thought Odysseus.
Athena apparently noticed something. “Mr. Odysseus, if you may?”
“Yes ma’am. You need to draw a perpendicular BC…now we have an auxiliary right triangle ABC, right? Draw an arc with center C and radius BC intersecting the hypotenuse at a point D. Then draw an arc with center A and radius AD intersecting AB at a point, say E. Now E should be the golden ratio point.”
“Good job. Now prove it.”
”Prove it?” now it was Odysseus’s turn to hesitate, but he hoped that he didn’t show it. However, Athena was quick to pick up something…else. “Well,” he started, “all I gotta do is…huh, what’s this bag for?”
A look at Polites was sufficient to explain everything.
“Mr. Polites! You seem quite eager to hand the present out, I see. Why don’t you give Mr. Odysseus a hand, by proving this point E to be the golden ratio point as he claims?”
Polites was eager, alright. He stood up swiftly, and said, “May I have a chalk, Ms. Athena?” After a moment Polites finished the proof on the chalkboard, saving the day. Then Athena complimented both Polites and Odysseus, and the class moved on.
But Eurylochus was uncomfortable with the compliment that Odysseus had received. Geometry is his strong point alright, thought Eurylochus, but let’s just wait till we get to arithmetics.
…
And soon they got to arithmetics. But there were only 10 minutes left for the class. So Athena decided to give a little quiz.
“I have a challenge, a test of skills.” said Athena, “the problem is, are you all ready for it?”
All nods. Ok. “Then let us begin by introducing a geographic fact. This is Troy, 600 miles away from us if you travel by sea. Now suppose that a ship travels at a speed of 5.755 miles per hour without the wind, and it is heading from Troy to Ithaca in full speed, and when it is 2.8 miles away from Ithaca it takes a turn to Temesa, sailing through 290 miles in total, and from there to Aeaea 158 miles away. Suppose the ship sails in a uniform speed, without any wind. How long does it take in total?”
Odysseus could see their expressions clearly. He could see Eurylochus busy doing the calculations, which wasn’t a surprise at all since he was so good at it. I could use a good right-hand man like him. Odysseus thought. And let’s see how Polites is doing. He seems to be struggling with it, which is not a good sign…
But what are you doing, Odysseus?
He had no idea. To be honest he haven’t even figured out how a decimal point works, but he’ll do it anyway, after all he’s a warrior of the mind! What do those miles add up to? 420? 420 divided by 5.755 is…730, right? Wait that 730 looks so familiar…isn’t that twice as long as 365 days? My goddess, that’s a really long time!
“Mr. Odysseus, what’s your answer?” From afar, he could hear Athena calling to him. But this time, there is no more hesitation. He had found his confidence. He knew his result to be true, though somehow he doubted the validity. But he’s gonna answer it anyway, knowing that had it been wrong, the fault was not his at all, but Athena’s. She provided the data, didn’t she? So nothing can go wrong. Just you chill, just you stand, just you answer.
”Ma’am…it’s two long years.”
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I keep thinking about Desmond, our fave isekai protag, getting dropped into baldur’s gate 3. Only, per one of my favorite isekai tropes, as a no-name NPC. As one of the Sharess’s Caress escorts? As one of Astarion’s spawn?? Basically him just being Tired Of This Shit and trying to avoid the plot but of course that’s not going to work lol. I haven’t even decided if he would be a romantic interest for the MC or a companion or anyone, or what his class would be. But ugh his isekai potential too strong.
His isekai potential is too strong.
If we want Desmond tired of everything and just want to avoid the plot, I personally would put him somewhere safe-ish? Desmond is the type of person who wouldn’t turn a blind eye to atrocities if it smacked him on the forehead so the best way to ensure that he stays away from whatever plot is happening is by making him an NPC in a more or less stable area where he would feel like other more knowledgeable and experienced with all these ‘dungeons and dragons’ (they have magic, holy shit) got this. That would point us to someone in Baldur’s Gate before Act 3. This way, Desmond would have his peace and quiet until the party starts doing their thing and Desmond stop being able to turn a blind eye on everything and he’s ‘forced’ to assist this party of… well… interesting people
As for his class, well, you can go for the class I’m going for with my playthrough of BG3 as Desmond. I made him multiclass Rogue (Thief) and Ranger (Gloomstalker), with a little bit of Bard (College of Swords), specifically:
Rogue Lv 4 – Thief (because Thief’s skills are more all rounders than Assassin’s)
Ranger Lv 5 – Gloomstalker (more stealth options, Dread Ambusher is our Assassin skill lite and lv5 has extra attack XD)
Bard Lv 3 – College of Sword, more on the side of Desmond being good in being seen as ‘non threatening’ but his spell list is more on the side of support than actual damage.
If you want to keep him in one class only, making him a Thief (Assassin) would make the most sense with the hidden blade being more or less his one shot kill weapon, although in terms of gameplay that’s kinda like making him a “best in first round only” kind of deal. The multiclass above is the ‘compromise’ I made to have Desmond be more or less in line with his setup in Assassin’s Creed.
Of course, if you want to have fun and make Desmond suffer (affectionately), you can make him a Warlock with a pact with an unknown Great Old One. This would add a layer of mystery to who had ‘helped’ Desmond be pushed into Faerun and we can hint that the Great Old One is:
Isn’t actually a Great Old One but one of the gods but Desmond’s otherworldly-ness and his lack of ‘worshipping’ stopped him from being a Paladin or a Cleric and pushed him into Warlock territory
Is one of the Isus from his world that had escaped into Faerun (or somewhere close by) but, since that Isu is a deity from their world, the Isu is counted as one of the Great Old Ones (which sounds a lot like “Those Who Came Before”)
Desmond’s patron isn’t one entity but a legion, using some kind of system to support or affectionately bully him at times if and only if the legion reaches a majority vote. Desmond technically has multiple access to ‘Wish’ but it’s more of him asking help from the legion and hoping many of them would give him what he wants. … and, yes, I am basing the legion on the whole “Desmond’s patron is us” idea I have XD
Even if Desmond isn’t a magic class, I think he’d have a few scrolls with him, mostly support spells like Invisibility, Fly and even Enhance Leap (also Speak with Dead and Speak with Animal) with a few attack spells that he uses as distraction most of the time
Sidebar: I’m not sure if you mean Astarion’s spawn as in we’re setting this after BG3 with Astarion having ascended and making Desmond his spawn or if you meant Desmond is a fellow Cazador spawn, either way, we’ll have to find a way for Desmond to escape his sire’s thrall if that’s the case. The easiest would be Desmond getting a tadpole in his brain like Astarion but that does mean that… well… if his sire was Astarion, this will lead to Desmond wanting to kill Astarion because he sees being put in his thrall as something horrible as it makes him lose control over himself even if Astarion was to be… ‘kind’ to him. If it was Cazador though, then that means Desmond will want to kill Cazador (and maybe Astarion and the party helped him during the whole… Cazador ‘sidequest’) and that would be his reason for being unable to keep himself from the plot.
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I had...expected the conversation to proceed as it often does with Americans. They come, I had decided, in two kinds: the misinformed, who think of Iran as a backward nation as Arabs, veiled and turbaned, living on the periphery of oases and fairly represented by a government of mullahs; and the misguided, who believed the shah's regime was a puppet government run by the CIA, and who think that Ayatollah Khomeini and his clerical cabal are an authentic, homegrown answer to unwarranted U.S. meddling.
-Journey from the Land of No: a Girlhood Caught in Revolutionary Iran/Roya Hakakian
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An image I’ve had in my mind that I’m now writing down.
Kal'tsit stands up in the ruins of something that crumbled around her, alone. She looks forward, at something. Unclear if it's at the future, at what caused the destruction, or something else. She looks absolutely TIRED and DONE. There may be anger and frustration, but it is vastly overshadowed.
She calmly walks forward, face forward while looking down at the rubble around her. She is not looking down on the ruins and rubble she traverses. In her steps, in her wake, something gets revealed and something gets left behind.
Suddenly she jabs a hand down into the rubble. And with great strength she heaves some new Thing up and out. A new Structure. A new Group. A new Community. Some stay at her side, some rush ahead and blaze a trail, but together they continue forward.
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