If one of the functions of writing is to make the reader see, and see again, here is a brief list of what John Berger made visible. Paintings, photographs, advertisements, motorcycles, swimming pools, the aging body, migrating workers, and mass demonstrations; the intricate pattern of colors in the roads of Lisbon; the shit of cows in the French Alps. And always, politics as something tangible in its effect on people, animals, objects, and writing itself…
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Siddhartha Deb is the author of two novels and The Beautiful and the Damned, a book of narrative nonfiction that was a finalist for the Orwell Prize for political writing in the UK, and the winner of the PEN Open award in the United States. The book was published in India without its first chapter because of a lawsuit. His journalism, essays, and reviews have appeared in the Guardian, the New York Times, The Nation, n+1, and Caravan magazine. He teaches creative writing at the New School.
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