Pleasures of Reading etc.
by Nancy Jane Moore
Here’s how big a fan grrl I am of Rebecca Solnit: I bought a
copy of Harper’s in the grocery
checkout lane last month because she had an essay in it. Harper’s always disappoints me – this time was no exception – but
Solnit never does.
I read Solnit’s A
Paradise Built in Hell some years back. Her description of how people rise
to the occasion in disasters – and how official efforts to “restore order”
often do more harm than good – resonated with me at a time when I was also
reading about the biological bases for human cooperation. And her writing was
beautiful.
This year I read Men
Explain Things to Me and turned the corner from casual appreciator to rabid fan. Solnit has a way of
saying something important from a slightly different perspective, and of doing
it in exquisite sentences. Here is an example of both from her essay on
Virginia Woolf, “Woolf’s Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable”:
“The tyranny of the quantifiable is partly the failure of
language and discourse to describe more complex, subtle, and fluid phenomena,
as well as the failure of those who shape opinions and make decisions to
understand and value these slipperier things. It is difficult, sometimes even
impossible, to value what cannot be named or described, and so the task of
naming and describing is an essential one in any revolt against the status quo
of capitalism and consumerism. Ultimately the destruction of the Earth is due
in part, perhaps in large part, to a failure of the imagination or to its
eclipse by systems of accounting that can’t count what matters.”
I was very surprised to find that Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century was
not on The New York Times 2014
best-of lists – not even the 100 “notable books” one. This comprehensive
explanation of the systemic inequality of wealth and income in the world today provides
a core education in how the system works. Any solutions to extreme inequity
that do not take into account Piketty’s formulas will likely turn out to be
mere window dressing. This book is an indispensable tool for anyone looking to
change the world’s economic system.
I hadn’t heard of James McBride until he won the National
Book Award last year, but I was intrigued by The Good Lord Bird and gave it a try. It turned out to be an
amazing book; despite the satirical tone, it ended up breaking my heart – which
is probably a crucial element in any book on slavery and the Civil War.
Browsing in Oakland’s Marcus Garvey Books a few months
later, I discovered McBride’s earlier novel, Song Yet Sung, and read it as well. It was just as brilliant and
just as heartbreaking. In these days when historians are recognizing the effect
of slavery on this country, McBride is using fiction to get at the underlying
truths of that era.
On a lighter note, I finally got around to reading Madeleine
E. Robins’s Sarah Tolerance novels this year. These are mysteries set in a
slightly alternate world in which the Queen, rather than the Prince of Wales,
acts as regent for George III. Miss Tolerance is a fallen woman skilled in
swordplay who makes her living as a private investigator.
These delightful books are grounded in the conventions of
regency novels while providing a most satisfactory active and independent
heroine. There are three of them: Point
of Honour, Petty Treason, and The Sleeping Partner. Robins is at work
on a fourth, and I mention it here in hopes of moving that along. I would
gladly spend many more hours in the company of Miss Tolerance.
Movies often disappoint me, but I did manage to see several
this year that were worth my time. Twelve
Years a Slave provided another powerful take on US slavery. Obvious Child is a romantic comedy that
gets women’s lives right – including the choice to have an abortion. Laura
Poitras made Edward Snowden’s efforts worthwhile by putting his story on-screen
in Citizenfour.
I could probably come up with a large list of Austin
musicians everyone ought to know, but I’ll confine myself to one: Ruthie
Foster. Her latest album, Promise of a Brand New Day, is up for a Grammy, but her old ones
are also an excellent introduction to her music. The best way to hear her,
though, is live: She’s one of those musicians who brings added joy when she
plays for an audience.
Nancy Jane Moore’s novel Seven Cities of Gold (working title) will be published by Aqueduct in 2015. Several collections of her stories are available as ebooks from Book View Café.
No comments:
Post a Comment