1. One of the first monochrome paintings was made by the Absurdist Alphonse Allais and the all white work was called First Communion of Anemic
Young Girls In The Snow, 1883. This painting , however, was based on an earlier effort by an artist named Paul Bilhaud, an all black work called, Negroes Fighting in a Tunnel. The title of the work by Bilhaud, though the reference is attributed to Allais by the New York Times, has now been discovered as a note underneath Kasimir Malevich's Black Square, 1915:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/examination-reveals-a-mysterious-message-on-malevichs-black-square-painting/?ref=design
2. I am not sure I can make much sense of this article by Michael Wood about Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, and I am not sure I can make much sense out of Mulholland Drive either. Yet, Mulholland Drive is a move that I watch over and over and relish any argument about it, clearly written or not. This article is not clearly written, yet there is also much to think about here:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v37/n22/michael-wood/at-the-movies
3. "the important thing would be, first, really to
understand one’s own reaction, to observe it with great care; and, second, to
articulate it honestly, without any fudging for fear that others might
disagree. Though even a fudge is a declaration of identity. And nothing could
be more common among the community of book reviewers than fudging."
I understand the reason for its length -- limited word
counts and the pulse and energy of the polemic being the order of the day --
but I wish this article by Tim Parks was longer. It is articulating something
important: that our disagreements with herd mentalities in culture are fruitful
and tell us both about ourselves and the herd. Parks takes on some recent
sacred cows in Knausgaard and Ferrante in delineating his argument, an argument
with which I agree wholeheartedly.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/nov/10/how-could-you-like-that-book/4. There is a great deal of ignorance flying around in reaction to the Paris attacks, and, as it happens after any action taken by Islamic Extremists, stereotypes and blanket statements abound. This article in the Atlantic continues to be important. It gets involved in the situation and makes clear distinctions, separating the actual threats from what is just fear mongering:
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
Video of the week:
5. And speaking of fear mongering, the Syrian refugee crisis came to a head last weeks when multiple governors refused refugees entry into their states, slightly preempting the passage of an alarmist and absurd bill by the House of Representatives. I was reminded by a friend of this important speech written by Shakespeare, a speech close to the heart of Ian McKellen, who performs it often. It simply must be my video of the week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjEAeOshUGQ
Poem for the week:
This morning for my poem for the week, I looked no further than Thomas Lux. I've long been a fan, and this little face melter reminds one of how, if a metaphor is big enough, it can accumulate symbols like a rolling snow ball until it almost encompasses all that we are. For Lux, the generative image here is a train, as it was a whale to Melville. And if an image, in metaphor, seeks its counterpart until its finds it, for me, that counterpart is Time itself:
"remorseless, it comes, faster when you turn your back,
faster when you turn to face it,
like a fine rain, then colder showers,
then downpour to razor sleet, then egg-size hail,
fist-size, then jagged
laser, shrapnel hail
thudding and tearing like footsteps
of drunk gods or fathers; it comes
polite, loutish, assured, suave,
breathing through its mouth"
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178149