2023 #10: Selections from Music: Function and Value (eds. Malecka ad Pawlowska)

 

Music: Function and Value : Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Musical Signification, Volume 1 by Teresa Malecka
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Read:

VOL. I
Eero Tarasti, "The Concept of Genre: In General and in Music"
Rafaelle Longo, "The Semiotic Player. Notating Time in Graphic Scores."
Grisell Macdonel, "The Musical Work and the Existence of the Performer: Existential Semiotic Analysis of the Sonic Aspect."
VOL. II
Ivana Miladinović Prica, "Rethinking the Concept of Time in the Postwar American Experimental Music--Feldman's Art of Immediacy
Marta Szocka, "Intertextual Links of Graphic Notation in the Works of George Crumb"

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2023 #9: Hemlock at Vespers (Tremayne) - Sister Fidelma #9

 

Hemlock at Vespers by Peter Tremayne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Some of these short stories are shorter than others, but the volume as a whole contains something for everybody: unrequited love, medieval Church politics, power trippers, vengeance...etc. Tremayne weaves in medieval superstition ("Our Lady of Death"), religious allegory ("At the Tent of Holofernes"), and politics between the Irish Catholic church and Rome (in the seventh century). Favorites include "Hemlock at Vespers", "The High King's Sword", "The Poisoned Chalice" and the relatively concise "Invitation to a Poisoning." In this collection Tremayne displays the variety of scenarios he manages to invent in Fidelma's world, although Fidelma's character takes a back seat in most of the stories. Most interesting is the personal aspect of "At the Tent of Holofernes", where we get a bit of a look at Fidelma's life in the past. Fans of Brother Eadulf will be disappointed by his absence, but Tremayne explains the chronology in the Foreword, which is helpful for those who follow the series order.

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2023 #8: Smoke In the Wind (Tremayne) - Sister Fidelma #11

 

Smoke in the Wind by Peter Tremayne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was truly on the fence about this one. I'm keeping it for the Historical Note that prefaces the book and serves as a Welsh and Irish pronunciation guide--absolutely terrific. I loved the multicultural aspect of the story: Saxon, Welsh, Irish and as usual, the historical context is robust and well-explained. What failed me here was the mystery itself. Perhaps there were too many strands. The typical Fidelma exposé was a bit too contrived--she seemed to have a lot of historical knowledge about specific people's lives and I'm not sure where it all came from. There are several murderers and I thought the more nuanced ideas of "culpability" added a lot. But the story did not really hold my interest because I had a hard time keeping track of who or what I was supposed to care about. That said, the last chapter or so seemed to pick up speed and focus, and I enjoyed Fidelma's dramatic "reveal" more than I usually do. Tremayne teases a bit more out of the relationship between Fidelma and Eadulf here too, but fully ignores it at times unless it is convenient. Eadulf struggles with his own identity as a Saxon in this story, and that provides a really nice bit of character definition, but Fidelma's struggles were not wholly convincing, even when explained at the end in the Epilogue.

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2023 #7: Lincoln in the Bardo (Saunders)

 

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was such an...experience...as an audiobook, I'm having a tough time imagining it in print. In truth, it is ALMOST five stars for me, fostering imagination and creativity in the genre of "historical fiction" in a way few other books have done. But there were times that the 100+ person cast of voices felt like sensory overload, and there were perhaps a few too many gratuitous sexual references and nineteenth-century f-bombs. In terms of that latter item, I think the audiobook did not help -- the discontinuity in emotional energy across the roles was jarring and sometimes annoying. And yet, there were times when sex and cursing added to the...well, not quite dystopia...the bardo. "Bardo" was something I knew little about--evidently a Tibetan Buddhist concept of a state between death and rebirth. I think that actually helped my experience and understanding of the narrative as I had NO expectations. The initial delve into the pastiche of non-fiction quotations was a bit off-putting, but I stuck with it, remembering a similar sense when reading my first David Foster Wallace essay in Consider the Lobster. When the narrative returns to this framework it is much more effective, holding up a mirror to historical reception, blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

This is a story about a father and a son. This is a story about a president and our narratives. And maybe we can consider historical narrative as its own bardo--shaping and moulding a new creature for whatever legacy of rebirth we deem to give it.



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2023 #6: Mexican Gothic (Moreno-Garcia)

 

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is quite the ride. Noemí Taboada is a wonderful heroine -- smart, sassy, and unbelievably resourceful, able to summon both grit and wiles to navigate the horrific landscape of High Place. She is a rescuer--as well as a victim--so it makes for a complex character whose spunk introduces moments of levity when one least expects. While it is a "gothic" novel, it also dips a toe in magic realism.

Occasionally the rhythm seemed off, so what would normally be a page-turner turns into a "set-it-down and rest-for-a-bit"-er. This was particularly present in the climactic escape scene, wherein a bizarre discussion on the luminescence of mushrooms seemed out of place and pulled the brakes on the up-til-then warp speed of the action. There are other places, however, where Moreno-Garcia's fascination with fungus works well. As she mentions in the book club guide, she calls upon the natural phenomenon of the mycorrhizal network to create a landscape that is both nightmarish and enthralling.

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2023 #5: Standing At the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet (Joan Halifax)

 

Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet by Joan Halifax
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Listening to this book was profoundly meaningful. I've admired Roshi Joan Halifax for her balance of earthy sensibility and intentional spirit-ness (which I use distinctively from spirituality). The book examines five "edge-states": altruism, empathy, integrity, respect, and engagement. In recognition of Thich Nhat Hanh's wise caution: "no mud, no lotus", Halifax unpacks each of these edge-states to dig into when altruism goes awry, when we can suffer empathic distress, recognizing empathy as a precursor to compassion (but not compassion itself), when mouthing off is just sanctimony and not principled moral outrage (integrity), and so much more. It would be enough for her just to speak to her own experiences--as a social justice advocate, a volunteer at maximum security penitentiaries, a hospice caregiver, a medical anthropologist and psychologist, founder of the Upaya Zen Center, and probably half a dozen other things I don't even know about. She brings in amazing stories, but also grounds a lot of what she shares in neuroscience and psychology. Roshi Joan is quick to credit all the various figures from whom she has learned (formally, and informally), and it is worth listening to the acknowledgements at the end of the book, because she says each name with intentionality and it is a very impressive list. She integrates introductions to concepts like Stephen Karpman's Drama Triangle, pathological altruism, the Hungry Ghost (in Buddhism), Darwin's original concept of natural selection unmodified by Spencer, David Halberstam's account of the self-immolation of Thích Quảng Đức in 1963, horizontal hostility/peer-aggression, Clark Strand's concept of meditating inside the life you have -- the list goes on. And even with all of this in there, her gentle but firm narration keeps it all digestible and meaningful.

Far from a feel-good self-help book, this is truly an honest investigation of what it is to be human. She offers some suggestions for practice, but ultimately she uses powerful metaphors (ending with a astounding story about her experiences at a charnel ground), storytelling, historical documentation, and scientific investigation, to help us grapple with our own condition(s). She holds up others: Fannie Lou Hamer, Florynce Kennedy, Laurance Rockefeller, and so many others. She shares their stories as well as her own. Roshi Joan offers a contemplative practice model to help guide us through these moments that challenge us at the edge, but one that is centered in active presence and acknowledgment of systemic injustice and our individual biases. This is not a stick-your-head-in-the-sand approach, but instead one of intentional centeredness to create spaces of mutuality and trust. I'll be returning to this often.

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2023 #4 Serpentine (His Dark Materials 3.6) - Pullman

 

Serpentine by Philip Pullman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this, but it occupies a strange space. I don't think it works as a short story unless you know His Dark Materials. The illustrations by Tom Duxbury made it worth buying it in book form as a collectible. It is a bit of a stepping stone from the last book of His Dark Materials to The Book of Dust, wherein Lyra and Pantalaimon are reunited and trying to forge their new path forward. I wanted this as part of a larger story however, so that tension of not knowing what it was like in the events that transpired in The Amber Spyglass (this is my way of avoiding spoilers), would further character development in a way it could only do in novel form. Still, a charming read, and a lovely little vignette of two favorite characters.

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