Activity

We sat and smoked and Ziad held forth excitedly on the subject of politics and possibilities and stubborn, inchoate dreams

I try and put on a real ensemble performance, all phatic fakery and apologetic grimaces to anyone who endeavours to catch my attention along the way.

a shearing away from our shared reality and a turn towards an interim state that might lead to a florid psychosis

What had formerly been a sedative, a tranquilizing soporific, had morphed into a facilitator of reflection

they wanted to destroy reality and themselves – and to rediscover, in the process, some sense of chivalry and nobility – and therefore they embraced the trenchant power of radical Islam.