Zicolonized
An English prose collection, written while studying defaults, data, and neo-colonialism. 2021–ongoing.
Zicolonized is an ongoing prose manuscript. Each chapter begins with an object, interface or encounter. The reflection moves from personal friction to the structure that made the friction ordinary. Some chapters name a concept. Others test, complicate or refuse one. The method is interface autoethnography.
Titles in ink are finished. Grey titles are in progress, and a grey link opens a draft.
Begin reading
Front
How to read this book and the room where it began.
Inside
Body, mind and tongue. The defaults I carry.
Left hand
draft 0.10
Is a hand born left, or trained right?
The chair
Does a chair rank the body that sits on it?
The commode
Is sitting cleaner than squatting, or only higher in rank?
The keyboard
Is the layout under my fingers a colonial inheritance?
The shoe
Is sho an error, or a logic?
The Bangla
Do I police the Bangla that policed me?
The mask
Is masking a habit, or a demand?
The sleep lab
Can one report hold a night?
Around
Home, town and work. The defaults I share.
The bookshelf
Does my shelf follow my sense, or Dewey's?
The light bulb
Did I choose this brightness?
The clock
Is my hour local?
The kitchen
Am I the default in my own kitchen?
The coin
Can a dead unit still count?
The ghost economy
Can work count when no name is attached to it?
The box marked housewife
Is unpaid work counted as work?
The dalal
Is there a broker in every exchange?
Beyond
Memory, institutions and machines. The defaults that file me.
The name field
Can one box hold my name?
The score sheet
Does a two-year score measure my English?
The master's
Does the master survive inside the degree?
The visa form
Is unemployed a risk category?
The reference list
Does my reference list repeat the map?
The floppy
Is a free format still free?
The film can
Was Venice a win, or a permit?
The imported film
Does an imported film teach me whom to fear?
The reel
Does cheap making move the deciding elsewhere?
The meme
Is Ekushey lost on the feed, or rebuilt there?
The red underline
Is the red line help, or a patrol?
The prompt box
Does the first sentence still come from me?
After
The book turns to the word on its cover.
The word on the cover
Can this book survive its own label?
Letter to Zico, 2035
Will I still carry today's defaults in 2035?
Glossary
Can a glossary explain without ranking?