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Rosanna Mclaughlin
Rosanna Mclaughlin is an editor at The White Review.

Articles Available Online


The Pious and the Pommery

Essay

Issue No. 18

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Essay

Issue No. 18

I.   Where is the champagne? On second thoughts this is not entirely the right question. The champagne is in the ice trough, on...

Essay

April 2019

Ariana and the Lesbian Narcissus

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Essay

April 2019

‘Avoid me not!’ ‘Avoid me not!’                                   Narcissus   Let me describe a GIF I’ve been watching. A lot....

There is a sense of calm, a deep quiet in the soul, that befalls me when I come face-to-face with an Israeli soldier In that moment, I have to accept what is, who I am A simple truth washes over me We lost, they won He is the descendant of victors, I am a son of defeat   Somewhere on him will be an emblem of the state Israel A word I can pick up in the din of the busiest London cafe, on a street, in a club If it has been said within earshot, I will hear it If Hebrew is spoken in my vicinity, the same happens My ears perk up and my attention is summoned   Thinking of Israel, I often remember a line by William Faulkner: ‘There is a victory beyond defeat, which the victorious know nothing of’ When I first read it, in London, it was a revelation It lifted me, gave me pride and hope, and inspired in me a stoic resolve   Here, in Jerusalem, it leaves me unmoved It inspires nothing but want I want to be the victor I want to be the flash, the gleam, the passing star That fleeting victory Faulkner speaks of disparagingly — I want it I am not interested in the self-reflection of defeat; the long, long road to recovery It is like bitterness in old age, nothing but a constant gnawing at my core   And so, I fantasise Especially in Jerusalem, I often find myself fantasising Crude, over-the-top, Warner Brothers–style fantasy I want to be the Hulk, Superman, Silver Surfer, Wonder Woman I want to be Gal Gadot I want to grab a tank by the barrel and swing it around, destroying every settler outpost in the land I want to wreak havoc and bring forth great fires and spectacular violence I fantasise and it feels good A momentary pleasure, with a steep price   I try to articulate the despair that follows, and I fail My brain shuttles between Arabic and English, never staying at one end long enough to form a convincing thought, all the while knowing that the man

Contributor

July 2016

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Contributor

July 2016

Rosanna Mclaughlin is an editor at The White Review.

Ten Years at Garage Moscow

Art Review

November 2018

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Art Review

November 2018

When I arrive in Moscow, I am picked up from the airport by Roman, a patriotic taxi driver sent to collect me courtesy of...
Becoming Alice Neel

Art

August 2017

Rosanna Mclaughlin

Art

August 2017

From the first time I saw Alice Neel’s portraits, I wanted to see the world as she did. Neel was the Matisse of the...

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poetry

January 2014

Letters from a Seducer

Hilda Hilst

TR. John Keene

poetry

January 2014

At her death in 2004, Brazilian author Hilda Hilst had received a number of her country’s important literary prizes...

poetry

October 2012

Bacon’s Friends

Stephen Devereux

poetry

October 2012

Always got caught out by their shadows: Stuck to their soles like monkeys on trapezes, Cellophane fortune tellers curling...

poetry

March 2013

Fugitive

James Byrne

poetry

March 2013

I trace the stacked voices of shouters how they immingle fraternally on first hearing with the vaporous nick of...

 

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