I don¡¯t say this often. This was one of the best books I have ever read. It was so incredibly intelligent and also deeply moving about the power of arI don¡¯t say this often. This was one of the best books I have ever read. It was so incredibly intelligent and also deeply moving about the power of art in times of personal and social turmoil and war. I was in tears at the end. It was so well done. A masterpiece. Completely original writing I couldn¡¯t put it down! I¡¯m already looking forward to the author¡¯s next book! ...more
Fantastic art memoir by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Benjamin Moser. Exquisite writing and also a deeply moving story about his life overseas and howFantastic art memoir by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Benjamin Moser. Exquisite writing and also a deeply moving story about his life overseas and how these paintings became a point of entry into the new culture.
The book itself is also a gem. Beautifully published with many reproductions-- a pleasure to hold and read.
2023 Akutagawa prize, translated by the fabulousPolly Barton! This one is on the long list for the book prize and I am really hoping it makes the shor2023 Akutagawa prize, translated by the fabulousPolly Barton! This one is on the long list for the book prize and I am really hoping it makes the shortlist! Very thought-provoking and fantastic translation! I never once had the urge to look anything up in the Japanese version. It just carried me along¡ it¡¯s amazing how much of our lives are lived in our minds, even in our imaginations, and I love the depiction of her incredibly rich in her life. I also don¡¯t think I¡¯ve ever read such a depiction of a degenerative disease like this. Unforgettable book!...more
I had wanted to read this many years ago, when it first came out, so was happy when it became our book club March read! Patchett is such a masterful wI had wanted to read this many years ago, when it first came out, so was happy when it became our book club March read! Patchett is such a masterful writer. It took me a while to get into this book because it begins in the young boy's POV and I am not a huge fan of child POV novels. But it is really told from his adult memory, so I realized that I was drawn in almost from the beginning. Speaking of which, there is something so beautiful reading about a brother sister relationship, which is so rarely depicted in books these days. We have a lot of sister books. I really enjoyed watching Asura recently with the four sisters, but this was rare for me to read about this warm brother and sister relationship.
I loved the focus on the house --which was a character in its own right! I do think houses can exert a real power over our human imagination--this is something I love reading about in British literature. Also speaking of British literature, I found the mother to be especially compelling--like a character from a Dickens novel so works so hard to help the poor but is completely un-devoted to her children... A strange moral problem, when there is such a far-sightedness (but awful close up vision!)
I was struck by how beautifully crafted this novel was. I have read that Patchett does not watch TV or own a mobile phone... you feel she really has time to craft her books--she is so attentive to her characters.
This is my second Ann Patchett read, after her wonderful State of Wonder. I am hoping to read Bel Canto soon.
Exploring the role of fakes within art history, Jonathan Keats, who¡¯s also an artist, as well as an art critic and journalist, posits that forgers areExploring the role of fakes within art history, Jonathan Keats, who¡¯s also an artist, as well as an art critic and journalist, posits that forgers are the foremost artists of our age. Why? because in challenging the concept of legitimate art they provoke and explore our anxieties, which is what art should always do.
I would say, this should be qualified. It¡¯s what contemporary European art does and as usual people do not have a critical distance from their pre-conceived notions and so they think things are universal when they¡¯re not.
I thought this book was a really wonderful read. I actually read it a couple times because it was so enjoyable. I agree that compared to Chinese art history, for example, Europeans are terrified of being sold Fakes and art is judged from within the framework of the cult of the individual or the history of great men instead of by the craft or the craftsmanship of the piece.
Absolutely fakes can rise up to the level of art. I¡¯m thinking of the Mona Lisa in the Prado. It was painted by someone in the school of Leonardo and yet people flock to see it and you should see all the museum goers taking selfies in front of it as it has something of the charisma of the real Lisa, and it really shows the way that art Goes beyond the object itself. Like the ship of Theseus ¡ªif there¡¯s no physical object left, what is the art then what is the thing?
I love the case studies of the famous forgers. I loved the beginning where he lays out how our concept of art can be tracked onto our concept of fakes throughout western art history. Absolutely brilliant book and I highly recommend it!...more
Chang Dai-Cheng (Zhang Daqian), who was arguably the greatest Chinese painter to come along in centuries. Before his death in the early 1980¡¯s, Chang Chang Dai-Cheng (Zhang Daqian), who was arguably the greatest Chinese painter to come along in centuries. Before his death in the early 1980¡¯s, Chang had painted countless masterpieces, was known as the Chinese Picasso, was a renown seal carver and poet¡ªnot to mention one of the most successful art forgers in modern history! About twenty-five years ago, there was a symposium at the MET devoted to a possible Chang-forgery that had infiltrated their own collection! The famous Riverbank ¡ªattributed to Dong Yuan.
In China, to copy the work of the Old Masters is not considered a strictly criminal activity as it would be by the curators at the MET. In an article from 1999 in the NYTimes, Holland Cutter writes that,
Authenticity means different things in different cultures. In Western art, the original -- the unique object, the genius creator -- is everything. And a conceptual, even legal understanding of the distinctions between the original and a copy, and a copy and a forgery, is clear cut. In Chinese painting, by contrast, tradition predominates over individuality (though that is also prized). And the concept of authenticity, of what constitutes the genuine article, is more nuanced.
And:
As a medium, ink-and-brush painting on silk or paper is evanescent, and relatively few early examples survive. As a result, Chinese artists, in what amounts to a kind of centuries-long collective archiving process, have copied and recopied revered works, and many of these copies have come to be regarded as masterpieces in themselves.
This reminds me of the Shrine at Ise, a kind of Ship of Theseus, where identity remains even if the original object is lost.
++ This book is a masterclass in connoisseurship and Chinese art history. Highly recommend it! I especially loved the way the academics referenced the others in their essays, tackling their assertions head-on--like a trial. If only I could have been a fly on the wall during the symposium....more
The book, which won the 2024 Waterstones Book of the Year Award, concerns a journalist who is interviewing a woman on dFantastic book...
The book, which won the 2024 Waterstones Book of the Year Award, concerns a journalist who is interviewing a woman on death row in Japan for the murder of multiple men.
The story is based on the real-life case of the ¡°Konkatsu Killer.¡± Supposedly enticing men into her life between 2007-2009, only to bilk them out of money before murdering them, the case got a lot of attention in Japan ¡ªBecause, well, people wondered how could such ¡°a fat and unattractive woman have gotten these men to fall in love with her?¡± That was the general consensus.
Yuzuki takes up this story in her novel and adds the wonderful detail of having the killer attract these men in part by using her glorious gourmet cooking skills! In this way, Yuzuki says she is interrogating the impossible beauty standards to which Japanese women are held.
And I think it¡¯s not just Japanese women either!
I remembered that I had never read Haruki Murakami¡¯s Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Opening the first few pages of the novel, I quickly came to this:
Your plain fat woman is fine. Fat women are like clouds in the sky. They're just floating there, nothing to do with me. But your young, beautiful, fat woman is another story. I am demanded to assume a posture toward her. I could end up sleeping with her. That is probably where all the confusion comes in.
Which is not to say that I have anything against fat women.
A few years ago in Lithub, Mieko Kawakami (One of the authors longlisted this year) interviewed Murakami about his portrayal of women, specifically saying It comes down to the fact that making a woman feel guilty for having a woman's body is equivalent to negating her existence.
Yuzuki in her novel picks up where Kawakami left off in looking at how standards of beauty effect women¡ªoften in non-trivial ways.
In the opening pages of Butter, the protagonist mentions that Japanese women today eat fewer calories than they did during the war¡ª when they were presumably starving.She also laments what is is like to be shorter than her best friend, how her stature demands endless dieting. She¡¯s always hungry. This is the same for women everywhere. Yesterday, my Mandarin teacher was talking about the way her mother complains about her weight (¡°too much American food¡±) and I told her that even at my age, when you would think I could just let things go and love myself as is¡ª but NO!! It is an endless battle!
From Buttercream cakes to Beef Bourguignon, the murderess delights in all things rich and buttery! At her trial she is incensed having her painstakingly created Beef Bourguignon described as beef stew!! Horrors!
I loved the descriptions of Christmas cakes. Even now, every year, I crave those sponge cakes, covered in whipped cream and decorated with ripe strawberries. Or my beloved Buche de Noel cakes, which I only ever had in Japan. Oh my God, I am getting so hungry writing this!
The first food description in the novel is so simple, though: butter rice. And yet in two decades in Japan, I never once knew or heard of anyone eating this dish¡ I first heard about it after I was back in California and saw Episode 5 of Midnight Diner, when ¡°an arrogant food critic is invited for a meal at the diner prompting resentment from the regular patrons. A visit by an elderly guitarist and his performance payment of a simple bowl of butter rice resurrects memories for the food critic.¡±
Just three simple ingredients, white rice, butter and soy sauce.
Here is the serial killer in the novel:
¡®You must make yourself rice with butter and soy sauce.¡¯ For a moment, Rika failed to process Kajii¡¯s words, and she let out a quiet, ¡®Hm?¡¯ ¡®Add butter and soy sauce to freshly cooked rice. Even someone who doesn¡¯t cook can manage that much, I¡¯m sure. It¡¯s the best meal to truly understand the glory of butter.¡¯ Her manner of delivery was so grave that it made it impossible to even think of ridiculing her. ¡®I want you to use salted ?chir¨¦ butter. There¡¯s an ?chir¨¦ shop in Marunouchi Station. Go there and look at it, properly, before you buy it. The current shortage is a perfect opportunity to sample first-class butter from overseas. When I¡¯m eating good butter I feel somehow as though I were falling.¡¯ ¡®Falling?¡¯
After I watched that I texted my ex and asked him why we never ate butter rice and he said, ¡°I knew you¡¯d hate it!¡±
Anyway, do you have a favorite Japanese butter recipe?
The novel is brilliant! And for those who don¡¯t know, the Tora-san movies are the longest running series of movies in movie history.
Fantastic piece of immersive journalism. Thornton tracks Murakami, goes to the Bienale and Basel, spends time with the Turner Prize committee and bestFantastic piece of immersive journalism. Thornton tracks Murakami, goes to the Bienale and Basel, spends time with the Turner Prize committee and best of all sits in on a "crit" at Calarts... Contemporary art as the new religion.... each chapter is more fascinating and I was really kind of surprised how much it reminded me of the MFA-publishing pipeline--the necessary creds (elite MFA, selective residencies and workshops) the crits are so much like writers workshops.... and the idea of brand. Highly recommend... I was surprised how this older book has stood the test of time. ...more
Fantastic writing!! And the story is just incredible. Sometimes, or maybe always?, Fact is stranger than fiction because you literally could not make Fantastic writing!! And the story is just incredible. Sometimes, or maybe always?, Fact is stranger than fiction because you literally could not make this stuff up. A British adventure arrives on the island of Borneo and helps a local Sultan put down rebellion and return he¡¯s given a kingdom! Reigning as white rajahs, the Brooks, family rules Sarawak until World War II.
Sylvia becomes the wife of the last Raja. She is quite a piece of work and artistic woman from an aristocratic family. She steps into the role with gusto, writing novels and wearing Malaysian outfits back in England. She tries to get in the movies and she travels to visit her sister in New Mexico. I did not realize it was her sister who was the companion of DH Lawrence in New Mexico and incredible incredible story. I just couldn¡¯t believe it. It kept getting better and better!...more
The Last Wild Men of Borneo is a wonderful double biography (one of my favorite genres!) It follows in the footsteps of twRe-read, phenomenal writing!
The Last Wild Men of Borneo is a wonderful double biography (one of my favorite genres!) It follows in the footsteps of two Western men who went to Borneo around the same time. While they did pass by each other once in Kuching; for the most part they were on parallel paths, which Hoffman describes as being almost mirror images of each other.
The first man is Bruno Manser. You¡¯ve heard the expression ¡°Fact is stranger than fiction?¡± Well, that term was invented for cases like that of Swiss environmentalist, Bruno Manser¡¯s life story. Arriving in Borneo in the mid-80s, within a year, he was living with one of the most elusive tribes in the highlands, the Penan. The cover of the book has a photograph of Manser that I did not realize was a white man until I was nearly finished reading. Dressed in a loincloth and carrying a poison arrow quiver and blowpipe, his hair has been cut in the Dayak fashion, and he is shown squatting on a rock near the river¡¯s edge. It is a touching photograph of a man who gave his life to fight for the rights of the indigenous peoples of the highlands. Hoffman described the events of his life and then tries to make sense of his disappearance. He does this through a thorough investigation into archives and by conducting countless interviews.
The other subject of Hoffman¡¯s book is tribal art dealer and collector Michael Palmieri. In another story that reads more like a Hollywood movie, we follow Palmieri from his surfing days in LA deep into the rainforest of Borneo; where he has fled after dodging the draft and traveling overland from Paris to Goa, by way of Kabul. In Indonesia, he buys a longboat and¡ªyou guessed it¡ªheads upriver to buy artifacts. This is where Hoffman¡¯s book really shines. Because the rainforest is not just being threatened by loggers and palm oil corporations, as it turns out the cultural treasures of the Dayak are being plundered as well. In what seems to be a typical story, we follow Palmieri upriver where he bargains for masterpieces. In one case, he gets his hands on a priceless wood statue, which he somehow manages to trade for a Swiss Army knife. He would then sell this statue for an enormous sum of money to a dealer, who then sold it to the Dallas Museum of Art. In the book, we watch this happen again and again. Priceless work of sacred art is purchased for laughably small amounts of money, sometimes traded for a generator or even stolen right out of graves.
The tribal art market is worth over $100 million dollars today. And now we have a vanishing Borneo¡ªfrom its animals to its ancient forests, to its peoples and cultural heritage.
Hoffman also explored this in his wonderful Savage Harvest. In both books, he goes into unexpected depth looking into what he calls the "Western hunger for Eastern Solace." In this book, he does this in Bali, where he is living. I wasn't crazy about this since I think he exploits the ladies who do yoga in unfair ways, talking of basically how empty their lives are and how the expats use Balinese ritual and yoga by cherry picking, what works for them and what doesn't. I do think there is something of cultural appropriation but I wish he didn't talk about their plastic surgery and empty chatter since it isn't very nice, is it? I am sure they didn't expect this from agreeing to go on a date with him! He was a lot more likable when he questioned his own "western hunger for eastern solace" in describing his very secular upbringing, where he felt alienated from Judaism and hungered for ritual and transcendence... And he rightly points out in this book that if these Westerners really embraced Balinese culture, they would find it as demanding as the Catholic liturgy. He talks about Dayak who converted to Christianity and gave the main reason for their conversion being that "Christianity is so much easier..." this all is saying that maybe somethings in life are not consumer choices. Or maybe everything is a consumer choice and we can just do whatever the hell we want-? His four test cases are himself, Michael Rockefeller, who was there to consume tribal art and Palmieri--both who were very exploitive in their bargaining with the people they were "buying" (stealing basically) this art from...and then Manser is a tougher case, as he truly was trying to be the voice that this tribe so desperately needed in the face of their entire land being ruined.
Manser became a real thorn in the side of Mahatir, and even more the Sarawak minister who ran the logging companies and was a billionaire. In a letter that Mahatir unbelievably wrote to Manser, Mahatir asks, "So, you think these people don't have a right to hospitals and education? You think they should live in the stone age to suit your fantasies? And who are you to talk?" It's true as well... and yet, just like in the case of the people who lost their sacred art--cultural patrimony really, as we are talking of very culturally significant art works that were bought for nothing, making enormous profits!
Anyway, I am a big fan of this author. A national geographic contributing editor, he finds riveting stories that should be or could be Hollywood movies and he tells them as such--but then goes into great depth. Great writer. Great detective work. Sensitive handling of issues!...more
An absolutely thrilling work of journalism! Re-read in 2025 (Yes, it was that good!)
A contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and SmithsonAn absolutely thrilling work of journalism! Re-read in 2025 (Yes, it was that good!)
A contributing editor at National Geographic Traveler and Smithsonian, Hoffman is not only an intrepid traveler, but he really knows how to write. An incredibly compelling storyteller, one of the reviewers below said, "Even Spielberg couldn't narrated the story better." and I was thinking the exact same thing. He opens the book in precisely the way you would expect "Savage Harvest: the Movie" to open and somehow he manages to keep the tension up till the end.
Fact is really stranger than fiction.
I think the story itself is a bit before my time. So, I was not aware that Nelson Rockefeller's son had gone missing and possible killed and eaten by headhunters in what was Dutch New Guinea (now, Indonesian Irian Jaya).
Hoffman wants to find definitive proof. That no body ever turned up is considered to be a kind of proof--of something at least. One interesting aspect of the book is that it was very hard for Hoffman to get anyone to open up to him... He went in like a journalist-- with money for a story basically--and he had to wrap his head around the idea that these people didn't care about money in the same way he did. For me, that is when the book got interesting. Because in one very real way Hoffman's story mirrored that of Rockefeller's.
Nelson Rockefeller was a major collector of tribal art. I have not seen his collection, now in the MET, as it is not a core interest of mine, but of course now, I definitely want to see it. But, Rockefeller was a big collector of tribal art from Papua New Guinea. And the truth is, the collection of tribal art is a very sad enterprise (Hoffman's latest book, the Wild Men of Borneo) goes into great detail about this. But middle men will go upriver and buy works of art for a song. Often the buyers would figure out what was desperately needed in a village--like a generator or a new boat--and they would walk away with priceless art that was sold for tens of thousands of dollars, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars back in the States. The art was often ancient and sacred. So, the people were being bamboozled into parting with their cultural patrimony for peanuts. Nelson Rockefeller purchased art in this way from the treasure hunters.
His son, Michael, decided to go to the source. Not in order to cut out the treasure hunter and get a better deal, but in order to better understand the art and its cultural context. Of course, his end game was to buy their heritage.
Likewise, Hoffman goes up river.
The Rockefeller family wanted nothing to do with the story and his sister Mary criticized journalists who only wanted to profit from her brother's death. Hoffman is incredulous that the family wouldn't want to understand what really happened. He finds it hard to understand why they wouldn't come to this place to understand what drew Michael to come here but also to try and figure out how he died. I am not sure his criticizing of the family was necessary or appropriate, as I don't think it's that hard to empathize with people not wanting to "go there" in terms of cannibalism and a sad end. But that said, I can also understand Hoffman wanting to know.
Hoffman is not just a great storyteller. He is very philosophical as well. For example, above in questioning how his quest to "get something" from the Other is different from that of Rockefeller's. It is in his next book, Wild Men of Borneo" in which he really explores this theme of what Westerners want from the East...? By this time, he would be spending a lot of time in Bali and he questions what it is so many people are looking for from Eastern religion and concepts of the sacred. He really does a great job in exploring the consumption of the east.
In the end, it would only be in learning their language (he doesn't actually learn their language, instead learning Bahasa Indonesia) and living in the village for a month--eating what they eat and sharing their lives that he finally gains insight not only into what happened to Michael R. but WHY... and this why has to do with the departing Dutch colonials and a cholera epidemic that informs all the other interwoven events. It is a sad story. And I think Hoffman is fair and a very interesting thinker....more
As they say, fact is stranger than fiction! This is an absolutely brilliant book. Part detective story, part narrative history, and also part journaliAs they say, fact is stranger than fiction! This is an absolutely brilliant book. Part detective story, part narrative history, and also part journalism. The author is a former Helene Wurlitzer resident and an absolutely stunning writer. This book really took my breath away.
There was so much that was novelistic about it¡ªfrom the heist aspect to the caper aspect to the fantastic characters and scene setting, and yet because it was nonfiction, the author could really take his time and go into so much detail that a novel could not have done. For example there would be long diversion into history¡ª from Alfred Russell Wallace¡®s adventures collecting animal specimen in the Malay archipelago to the hard to believe Bird feather craze of the early 20th century or late 19th century? I knew a little bit about that from a wonderful book about hummingbirds that I read last year, but this book went into details about the fashion and how the bird feathers were actually used, all of this created quite a package. I think the author is especially wonderful and development because let¡¯s face it. This is a book about a very quirky guy!
Can see what book has received so many accolades it was truly brilliant!
There is nothing you can see that is not a flower. Nothing you can think that is not the moon.
Basho, in his notebooks, encourages us to follow the flowers and be ever-mindful of the moon. For this is how we can empty our monkey minds ÐÄÔ³ (shin¡¯en) and become one with the world. It is also how we can do good art; for he says that when you look at a painting by Sesshu, or read a poem by Saigyo, what you are really seeing is zoka Ô컯.
Zoka (in Chinese Zaohua) means creation and transformation. It is an ancient Daoist term that Basho became obsessed with during his lifetime. Because he traveled the road with a well-worn copy of the Zhuangzi, never leaving home without it, he knew that in ancient China zoka did not mean ¡°creative¡± in terms of ¡°creativity.¡± Nor did it mean ¡°nature¡± as a world of things and objects. Rather, zoka referred to the generative force of the universe. And Basho, like an ancient Daoist sage sought to become one with this spontaneous and ever-changing force of nature in his poetry.
And so can we.
2.
I recently finished a fantastic book called
Basho and the Dao: The Zhuangzi and the Transformation of Haikai.
Written by a scholar born and educated in China, Peipei Qiu also studied at Columbia University in the US and then at the Japan Foundation, in Japan, both times with Donald Keene. As suggested by the book¡¯s title, Qiu seeks to unravel the Chinese sources found in the early history of Haikai ¡ªspecifically the Daoist influences on the work of Basho.
An interesting thing to consider, suggests Qiu, is how the Western understanding of ¡°originality¡± differs from the one prized in East Asia. Unlike the Western conception, which prizes personal expression and newness; in Japan, Qiu writes that traditional artistic appreciation favored originality within the context of the traditional canon.
I think of it like counterpoint. The great artists were adept as creating fresh counterpoints to the past.
²»Ò×Á÷ÐÐ Fueki ryuko is an expression made famous by Basho and means ¡°the unchanging and the ever-changing.¡±
Yes, Basho said that to know bamboo one must go to the bamboo. That is true, but knowing will always be in conversation with the traditional canon. And this is why you will not find poems about bamboo in autumn. Or of fireworks and wind-chimes in winter. As Peipei Qiu writes:
¡°According to the normative essence, when the image of winter rain is used, it signifies specifically shigure, a short shower in early winter, even though there are other kinds of rains in the season. Similarly, the image of spring rain has to be a kind of quiet and misty drizzling.¡±
3.
Above is an image of a typical diary used to record lessons in the tea ceremony. Notes are taken on the right side of the page about the items used in the tearoom that day¡ªwhile the left side is a diagram of how utensils were laid out.
November 2, on the first tea of the sunken hearth season, there are camellias in a rustic stoneware vase in the alcove, beneath calligraphy written by the Grand Tea Master that reads é_éTÂäÈ~¶à (opening the gate, many fallen leaves).
This is actually the second half of a poem about how listening to the sound of rain falling all night is like opening the gate to a pile of fallen leaves. A perfect choice for the season of cold rain and trees shedding their leaves as the world braces itself for the great cold to come.
But the calligraphy wouldn¡¯t work if people in the room didn¡¯t recall the first part of the poem!
The internalization and commitment to the tradition might act as a constraint on personal reactions to things, but it can allow for the intense compression that characterizes Japanese poetry.
I like to think of these intertextual literary associations like the sophons from the novel Three Body Problem, where an 11-dimensional proton can unfold onto a plane of great surface area. Words can be like that. Pregnant. But people need to read the same books, so by definition art was an elite practice for a small population of practioners. In grad school my professor of classical Japanese liked to remind us that the poetry and diaries of the Heian period were shared among only a handful of people. And so, much knowledge was assumed.
4.
One way that Basho found to be avant-garde, according to Peipei Qiu, was in his renewal of the Chinese exemplary models. For example, one of his heroes was one of my heroes, Tao Yuanming ÌÕœYÃ÷.
Not only was Tao Yuanming¡¯s Daoism-infused poetry used as a touchstone for Basho¡¯s own works, but his life as a wandering aesthete-recluse was a model as well.
Xiaoyaoyou åÐÒ£ÓÎ (Shoyukan in Japanese) is the title of the first chapter of the Daoist classic the Zhuangzi. The word Xiaoyaoyou roughly means free and unfettered wandering¡ªbut it really points to a mode of being in the world, one whereby the mind is liberated. It is this mindset so often seen in the poetry of Tao Yuanming¡ªone that was so appreciated and idolized by Basho (and by me!) of being free to pluck chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, as the world crazily spins on faraway¡.
This was the goal of Basho¡¯s journeys¡ª to free the mind and still the heart. Away from people, there is calm, leisure and joy¡ªcan you imagine it?
I am a big fan of the work of China scholar and philosopher Roger T. Ames, whose work has aimed to uncover a more authentic understanding of ancient Chinese philosophy. He does this through an analysis of key philosophical terminology, both through an analysis of the etymology of the characters as well as looking at key terms in clusters to try and piece together what the terms must have originally meant. It is hard to see one¡¯s own preconceived notions from within the confines of the language one thinks in. I am not even going as far as the Whorf theory of language¡ just pointing out that language does order our thoughts and that it is hard enough to try and translate words from modern Chinese, embedded in its own cultural matrix of concepts, much less that of people who are separated from us in time by thousands of years.
To approach what Basho admired in the Daoist term xiaoyaoyu, Qiu says we should think of this free wandering alongside related concepts, such as the ¡°natural and spontaneous¡± (ziran ×ÔÈ» shizen in Japanese); wuwei as non-interference, and perhaps my favorite new word of all: xinyou ÐÄß[ the free wandering of mind.
It happened so fast: winds whipping up to 80 mph in Pasadena. And then within hours, Altadena was burning.
Thankfully, we were not in the evacuation zoIt happened so fast: winds whipping up to 80 mph in Pasadena. And then within hours, Altadena was burning.
Thankfully, we were not in the evacuation zone. But we were close enough to be scared. Our immediate problem¡ªbeyond the heartbreak of hearing of friends who had lost their homes¡ªwas the thick smoke. The hazardous air quality continued for days with emergency evacuation alerts waking us from sleep and scares about the water making things feel even worse. But then, of course, we were so grateful to be safe at the end of each day, when so many had lost everything.
As we waited for the air to clear, it seemed like an appropriate time to re-read Mike Davis¡¯ classic Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster. Published in 1998, it contained no mention of climate disaster or a heating world¡ªand yet, despite this, how well the book has stood the test of time.
Even when I was a kid, people in LA wanted to live in the canyons or along a ridge with a view. Over the last ten years, my husband and I have searched high and low for a new home¡ªbut the best ones always seemed to always be located on some gorgeous hillside thick with chaparrals. LA has seen a population explosion and this has meant a massive building spree of suburbs creeping into the hills, as well as so many fantastically expensive homes in canyons and on hillsides¡ªall this making any kind of forestry management and fire control impossible.
Davis writes:
Research has also established the overwhelming importance of biomass accumulation rather than ignition frequency in regulating fire destructiveness. As Richard Minnich, the world authority on chaparral brushfire, emphasizes: ¡°Fuel, not ignitions, causes fire. You can send an arsonist to Death Valley and he¡¯ll never be arrested.¡±
When I was a kid, fires were also a frequent occurrence¡ªbut there were animals in the hills, like goats and sheep, that kept the brush back. There were large fire belt areas under state management as well. It wasn¡¯t just over-development, but I also grew up in a comparatively benign period weather-wise, in LA. In my childhood, we got a lot of rain. I have vivid memories of weeks of rain in winter. Of splashing in puddles and of earthworms wriggling around in the early mornings after a rain shower. But when I moved back from Japan to LA in 2011, after two decades away, the absence of rain bothered me terribly. My son never had a need for an umbrella, and I will never forget the first time I took my pup out in a very rare rain shower (which was not actually that rainy), and he just stood there looking confused. I was surprised reading Davis¡¯ book to learn about the long periods of drought in California¡¯s history that can be understood looking at the archaeological record, making me realize that my childhood was a glorious time of rain.
Compared to my youth, the last decade has not only seen a lack of rain, but it has also bore witness to climate driven rising temperatures, massively over-development in vulnerable areas, as well as a lack of investment in electrical infrastructure. This last issue is relevant since a faulty transmission tower is almost surely the spark that ignited the Eaton Fire.
Looking for a new home, this state of disaster was constantly on our minds. How to find something out of the way of fires? Maybe in town where I can walk to buy food and flowers, visit the dentist on foot. We are still sharing one car, after all. And we wanted to have our power delivered underground. Isn¡¯t there are more rational way to live? More like the Europeans or the Japanese? Because let¡¯s face it: the North American level of consumption is no longer sustainable, if it ever was in the first place.
I don¡¯t think the Japanese or French level is either, but it is a start.
I did not plan to read this book right now, but picked it up during the recent LA fires after it was mentioned by someone --and I found it a really coI did not plan to read this book right now, but picked it up during the recent LA fires after it was mentioned by someone --and I found it a really compelling account of the tar sand fires in Canada and about climate change and fires in general. Narrative journalism at its best. ...more
I am so happy that the first book I read in 2025 was a masterpiece! Set along two rivers (The Tigris and the Thames) and spanning thousands of years, I am so happy that the first book I read in 2025 was a masterpiece! Set along two rivers (The Tigris and the Thames) and spanning thousands of years, this book is a triumph in craft. Beginning with a literary conceit--whereby one molecule of water touches all the characters in the book, other gathering forces connecting the characters, in addition to water and rivers, include the Eric of Gilgamesh and the struggle to find home.
I fell in love with the characters--First was Arthur: the poem's decoder, based on the real life person assyriologist George Smith, who taught himself to decode cuneiform tablets and first translated Gilgamesh into English. He struggled to find home as an outsider among the elite. Born into an impoverished household, he was a genius who rose above his circumstances. Also unforgettable was the Yazidis girl Narin, who becomes captured by ISIS militants. The story was so beautifully written and world-opening. I was surprised that it wasn't longlisted for the Booker Award last year. This was my first novel by Shafak and I am hoping to read all of her work now! ...more
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