Seven Days in the Art World

So I thought I'd mix it up with some current nonfiction, and the book I chose is a fascinating look into the complex world of art - buying, selling, auctioning, collecting, studying, etc - that I never really thought about before.

Like most nonfiction, Seven Days in the Art World, by Sarah Thornton, is not a book for everyone. If you think Sports Illustrated when you think nonfiction, I'd sit this one out. But if you're interested in art, history, art history, high society, money, and/or psychology (especially group psychology), then I'd definitely give it a spin. There are a lot confusing aspects to the art world, like why does some strange-looking art sell for millions, and who decides? How are artists trained, and what kind of qualifications help an artist to be successful? How does the art market work economically, and what does that have to do with the art itself? And what does one do with a degree in art history?

Thornton uses her BA in art history, her PhD in sociology, and her extensive experience in all facets of the visual arts industry to help us understand this chaotic, lucrative whirlwind that is the art world. She divides the book into 5 clear parts, with a few helpful visuals. The first is The Auction, all about the people, personalities and pocketbooks in New York City that determine the value of artwork. Next is The Crit, about a class at the prestigious CalArts grad school. The Fair takes place in Switzerland, at a prestigious international art fair, and in The Magazine, we return to Manhattan to experience ArtForum, and important artistic publication that was mentioned several times in previous chapters. The Studio takes us to Tokyo, into the intimate world of an excentric Japanese artist named Takashi Murakami, who is making an eighteen-foot sculpture that will soon be platinmum-plated.

By the time you've finished 7 Days in the Art World, you will not only have visited 5 countries, including Italy and the UK, but you will also have the kind of knowledge about art and the people who deal with it that you'll be able to refer to countless times in the near future. Thornton's expeditious name-dropping and process-explaining imparts quite a bit of knowlegde and insight that most people could never aquire, due to the small and exclusive nature of the art circle.

If my positive review isn't enough to convince you, it was a New York Times Best Art Book of the Year, was a best-seller in Canada, got positive reviews from Vogue and Financial Times, and has been translated into 10 languages. You can also visit Sarah Thornton's website to learn more about her and her work.

Happy Reading!

Things Fall Apart

Little Bee is all about what the world and its people do to people. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, explains a lot about why the world (specifically Africa) is the way it is.


Doesn't seem like the country borders match up with tribal/kindom borders very well, do they? Might explain a lot about current political issues...



We all know that Africa is a chaotic place, full of sudden wars and horrifying poverty. I recently talked to some people who now live in France, who had to flee Zimbabwe because they were related to a human rights lawyer, and if you read Little Bee, you get the idea that wars spring up and wipe out innocent bystanders, and then governments hunt down the witnesses and kill them, too. Africa has problems. But it wasn't always that way; for a long time, there were just mostly-peaceful tribes with sophisticated cultural, religious and social traditions. When they fought, it was often to humiliate their enemy, rather than kill, and they knew how to survive in the most inhospitable climates. But then a variety of European powers came along, and infiltratred their society, destroying them using a variety of weapons, from military force to money to religious persuasion.


Things Fall Apart is the story of this infiltration. We can look at it with purely Western eyes, and maybe sustain the notion that Europeans were better and stronger and it was good that we conquered the Africans. If we have any level of sensitivity, however, we begin to understand that this beautiful civilization was no better or worse than Western society, then or now. The outsiders came to Africa, and started doing unforgivable things, like massacring an entire village on market day, or converting peoples' children to Christianity. We see how a group of people reacts, when there are suddenly outsiders with new ideas and lacking morals, and how they survive - or dont.



This story is written by an African, and gives the account of a very specific tribe and it's slow descent. Parallels can be drawn between every culture that was colonized by Europeans, though the British never wiped out an entire tribe by poisoning their water supply (like the Germans) or left a large disabled population by cutting off the right hand of anyone who didn't work up to speed (like the Dutch in the Congo). What we see in Things Fall Apart is really the moral and social destruction of a culture, rather than a aqueiescence to force. In order to understand Africa now, I think it's important to understand what it underwent to get where it is.


I'm curious - has anyone else read Things Fall Apart? I know it's a well-known book, and taught in a lot of history classes, (although probably not as commonly as Heart of Darkness, which I never finished). It's not as riveting as Little Bee, but I still wouldn't pass it up!


Happy Reading!

ps - Thanks to my AP Euro teacher for a lot of the ideas/information relating to African colonialization!

Little Bee

Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, is the story of a girl whose real name I will not tell you, who flees to the UK for typical yet tragic reasons (as she often says, "The stories always begin with 'The men, they came and they...'"). So she finds herself in England, upon the day of her release from a detention facility. This is where the book begins, although the story of Little Bee starts much earlier.

This is not what one would call a "brief" read, because it is not transient or easily forgotten. It's left me with the same sensation I feel after a shocking new article about a true event, or when a fabulous movie is suddenly over; it is as if the floor has fallen and nothing will ever be the same. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but reading Little Bee has made me think more about my life, my priorities, and the world than anything has in years. The characters, Little Bee and Sarah, are fighting opposite wars until they meet: Little Bee is trying to survive men with guns, while Sarah is trying to survive the miseries of a suburban life that is spiraling out of control. Little Bee is hanging on to her life for all she's worth, while Sarah is questioning her life and its true worth. When they meet, all of the death, fear, hope, and determination that rule their lives meet in a maelstrom of questions.

People are always talking about what they got out of something. Like, "Oh, I went to this wonderful seminar on the benefits of getting sleep - I just got so much out of it!" or something along those lines. Well, personally, I got so much out of this book I don't think I have the words to share it all, but I'll try to give you an idea. Little Bee, the character, is a heroine. She fights bad guys and survives tragedies and keeps her wits about her. Sarah is a lost soul, struggling with a failed marriage and a career that just isn't changing the world the way she once hoped it would. Between the two of them, they exemplify everything I want to be and everything I'm terrified of becoming. The story speaks to so many of my unspoken hopes and fears, and feels like something I've just been waiting to read. This is the sort of book that makes all those let-down, why-did-I-waste-my-time? books shrink in comparison, and I dearly hope you read it.

While Little Bee is "soon to be a major motion picture," I suggest the book, and soon. Click here to go to Borders to buy Little Bee (they have new and used) or else go to Amazon... I apologize for seeming like some pushy advertisment, but I can't suppress the desire to share this fabulous book with everyone!

Incendiary

I'm sorry it's been a while since I last wrote - school's been soo hectic!

At the moment, I'm reading Little Bee, by Chris Cleave, which is a current fiction best seller. Not too long ago I read another book of his, Incendiary. Incendiary is written in letters - letters to Osama bin Laden. In the story, the protagonist is a British woman, trying to cope with loss after an enormous terrorist attack.

It actually took me several chapters to realize that the attack the woman refers to is a fictional one. In the story, Al Queda terrorists set off a series of bombs in Chelsea stadium, during a Chelsea vs Arsenal soccer match that her son and husband were attending. As you can imagine, the story is not light and amusing, though it is rather witty. Through the eyes of a working class woman with "bad nerves" who lacks any understanding of comma usage, we see what happens when things begin to fall apart - or explode, as it were - around our ears. As London disintegrates into lunacy, so does the protagonist, though there is a prevailing ray of hope that things may return to normalcy. Whether it's a happy or sad ending, I won't reveal, but I do want to warn you that after the tragedy and horror of the book as a whole, not even a "happily ever after" could leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.

This relatively adult book is tragic, poignant and rather critical of the human race. It's terribly well-written, and the bad grammar, punctuation and capitalization only add to it's unique appeal. I have very little criticism for this fabulous book by Chris Cleave, and enjoyed the fact that it didn't seem to have great political biases or leanings, despite the politically-touchy nature of the subject matter. It's a sort of worst-case-scenario that is so fascinating, and told by such an appealing character, that it will pull you in to the plot, and probably make you cry as often as it makes you laugh.

I'll share what I think of Little Bee, as soon as I finish it - it too takes place in the modern day UK and the protagonist is also a woman who's suffered a great deal.. so far, I love it!

Happy Reading!

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Feast

I drank at every vine.
The last was like the first.
I came upon no wine
So wonderful as thirst.

I gnawed at every root.
I ate of every plant.
I came upon no fruit
So wonderful as want.

Feed the grape and bean
To the vintner and monger;
I will lie down lean
With my thirst and my hunger.

I haven't written about a poem yet, but I was recently reading a collection of poetry by Edna St. Vincent Millay and it was all so delectable, I wanted to write about it. Millay is a fabulous poet who wrote about love and life - sometime flippantly, sometimes dramatically, sometimes cynically. This poem is too self-explanatory for me to say much about it; I just think she's a brilliant writer who says simple things in her poetry that others don't often think to say. Also, she has a way of romanticizing a life of dissatisfaction and recklessness, without ignoring the negative aspects.

A few recomendations of beautiful poetry of hers:

Sad:
The Betrothal
Ebb
Ashes of Life
Spring
Time Does Not Bring Relief/Sonnet II

Optomistic:
To A Young Poet
First Fig
Second Fig
Recuerdo

Books To Read

I just found a list of books that I read last year in my room, and I thought I'd share my favorites. I'll divide them up - books for adults, books for kids, books for teenagers, and books for anyone.

Some of the Books for Kids are more boy-oriented, since I borrowed most of them from my little brother when I ran out of books to read, but I enjoyed most of them anyway. I enjoy a very wide range of literature, so I'd recommend reading the backs of these books before starting them. Also, these are all books I read over 6 months ago, so I apologize if I forgot to mark any with an M or D. Let me know if you read/enjoy any of these!

Key:
(M) m for mature; books that have more than a little drugs/sex in them, as I remember
(D) d for disturbing; don't take it too seriously, but these are books with themes like suicide, abuse, and mental illness
* one of my favorites


Books For Kids (10-13):

Lion Boy Trilogy
Aleutian Sparrow
Airman
Wolf Brother
Downsiders
The Last Codfish
Anahita's Woven Riddle (more of a girl book)
The Life History of A Star (also a girl book)
Elske (definitely a girl book - princesses and all)


Books for Teenagers:

Margaux with an X
As Cool As I Am (M)
The Torn Skirt (M)
A Simple As Snow
Ely & Naomi's No Kiss List
Keeping You A Secret
Burned (D) *
Wide Awake
The Realm of Possibility
48 Shades of Brown
Cupcake
Confess-O-Rama
Playing with Matches
Crooked*
You Know Where to Find Me (M) (D)
Marly's Ghost
Perks of Being a Wallflower (D)
It's Kind of A Funny Story (D) *
All That Remains (D)*
The Bean Trees
Stealing Henry
Chasing Windmills
The Arizona Kid
Boy Meets Boy
Dough Boy
Beige
Things My Mother Doesn't Know
Looking For Alaska (D)(M)*
After the Crash, I Picked Myself Up, Spread My Wings, and Flew Away (D)(M)
The Fattening Hut (D)
The Pretty One
Life Is Funny (M)
Wild Orchid
I Can't Tell You (M?)


Books for Adults:

Sea Wolf
Images of Chekov (Russian literature - not exactly cheery)
The Bluest Eye (M)(D)
The Guardian
Joy In the Morning


Books for Anyone (adults/teens):

Crashing Through
Gone With the Wind*
A Thousand Splendid Suns (D)(M)
1984


After going through this list, I realize that there are plenty of books I didn't like at all, so I didn't include those. I apologize for the lack of authors, but if you search these titles on Amazon.com or at a library, you can probably find all of them. Happy reading!

Ali and Nino

The title of this book by Kurban Said says a lot. The two names are the names of lovers, like Tristan and Isolde, or Romeo and Juliet. And like Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves, this story takes place in the Middle East.

Just before the first world war, two young people in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, fall in love. Ali is a Muslim boy of aristocratic descent. Nino is a Christian girl with Western values, yet the two share a deep bond from the first. Even as a school boy, Ali thinks Nino is the most beautiful girl in the world. From the very first chapter, the question is raised: is Baku in Europe, or Asia? As the city struggles with its identity, so do the lovers. Ali feels at home in a Persian palace, while Nino refuses to wear a veil. Ali's ancestors killed Nino's namesake's husband. As Ali says, "We ought to be blood enemies."

In the end, though, the two are seperated by death, not by religion or beliefs or culture. This book explores the controversies that accompany love when the lovers have different ideas about religion and social rules. Is it possible to have a deep, spiritual bond with someone who practices a different religion and values different ideas? Is it possible to have a lover or spouse whose cultural ideas about love and marriage are very different? In Ali and Nino, the it does seem possible. Yet they are rarely happy at the same time, and since they share such a deep bond, this means that for most of the story they are both unhappy. So while Said seems to idealize love that overcomes cultural boundaries, he also portrays it as an unhappy struggle. Thus, the romantic message has a stipulation: love can overcome anything, but it'll probably leave everyone miserable if it has to overcome much of anything.

One thing that Said does very well is characterization; unlike some authors, who rush to tell us exactly who all of the characters are, he slowly reveals them. In real life, we rarely know who anyone truly is, and we learn about them slowly if at all. If you've read A Tale of Two Cities, you know that Dickens rushes to tell us everything about a character: what they look like, what they wear, what distinct mannerisms, habits, and idiosyncracies they have, and everything else that usually takes time to notice about a person. Said lets each character slowly tell the reader who they are through actions and dialogue, often with many contradictions and changes along the way. This is appropriate for a novel that deals with a crisis of identity for a city and for two people.

This book can be read as an entertaining romance, or a thought-provoking commentary on culture, religion, and human nature. It examines issues that divide the world today, and is a beautiful love story.