From the NYRB, a fascinating essay on Berenice Abbott, jazz-age photographer in NYC and Paris.
Time, place, and circumstance: they are like three balls that you toss in the air, and they control your life.
From the NYRB, a fascinating essay on Berenice Abbott, jazz-age photographer in NYC and Paris.
Time, place, and circumstance: they are like three balls that you toss in the air, and they control your life.
An exceptional essay by Garnette Cadogan, “Due North”—an oddly edited, but also delightful and profound, essay on walking NYC from the Upper East Side to the South Bronx.
These photos of Lake Baikal are absolutely stunning (though I could do without any of the ones with people in them).
The further I go in Laurus, the more I see Dostoevsky all over the place. That’s not surprising—you can’t write a work of fiction about Orthodoxy set in Russia and without reflecting deeply on Dostoevsky. In some ways, it’s as if Laurus is a sequel to The Brothers Karamazov, with Arseny an Alyosha figure shaped by a holy elder who dies early on (Christopher / Fr. Zosima). Moreover, death hangs over both books, intensely.
Addendum to my Cecil Taylor post: Ethan Iverson’s essay on Taylor is remarkable, and does justice to Taylor’s sui generis work.
Like every post on Iverson’s blog, it’s essential reading.
Latern Waste; or, April in Minnesota
I’m finally starting Eugene Vodolazkin’s Laurus, in anticipation of the Anselm House book night in a week and a half. So far (50 pp in), it’s wonderfully strange, its medieval-modern form heavily dependent on pastiche and parataxis for its effects. I’ll hopefully write more soon.
This short essay in the Guardian makes a case for a Christian-democratic movement in the US to counter the rise of secular authoritarianism. The authors state that it was a distinctly Christian Democratic movement that successfully defeated fascism in Europe; they claim a similar movement is needed here. Given evangelicals’ remarkably comprehensive (and revolting) capitulation to Trumpism, and liberal Protestants’ own unthinking embrace of the Democratic platform, it’s hard to see how such a movement could gain any traction.
The a-fore-quoted interview with Cecil Taylor harmonizes with this interview with Ursula K. LeGuin, which begins with a lengthy and fascinating discussion of rhythm and grammar, the foundations of LeGuin’s own remarkable craft.
Start with Ben Ratliff’s obituary for the NYT. NPR’s coverage of Taylor’s life and work is also excellent: Jazz, Freed: On Cecil Taylor’s Expansive Brilliance an obituary by Tom Vitale finally, and most importantly, Taylor’s appearance on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. It’s a wonderful episode; Taylor seems to be a gentle, strange, and caring person who’s remarkably humble about his remarkable improvisational gifts. He’s also a teacher whose only advice to a hypothetical student is: Look, find one note on the instrument that pleases you.