It is not often that we consider how other people see the world. We invade, impose, talk over, hover and seek to dominate others and they in turn do the same thing. Most times it is just equal push back. Nobody wins and or loses, except when we play the same game with children.
In his “Where the Wild Things Are” Maurice Sendak, who passed away in 2012, reminded many of us about how changeling is to be child.
A Big Thanks To Max!
Read more“The vision of the Harlem Book Fair is to partner with local and national leadership organizations under the banner of literacy awareness…”
Even though he passed away last week, one of my favorite books, “100 Years of Solitude” written by Colombian author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, will remain one of the best and unforgettable reading experiences on any “great” list for years to come.
Written in 1967, the book recounts the history of a family that presides over a South American town called Macondo. It is the perfect “did it happen or didn’t it?” story. Critics refer to García Márquez as a pioneer of “magical realism”. His work is often time shifting, mystical and surreal, it takes the reader to a different space, a different time.
“100 Years of Solitude” is a magical story – a definite adventure, a great book.
I always get excited when Ms Morrison graces us with a new book. Just released last week, her latest is “Home”, which centers on a man’s two most life assaultive experiences – while a soldier during the Korean War and growing up in the South in the 50’s. 
Ms Morrison, now 81, has such a fantastical, spiritual approach to her characters and plot, but she’s also got “edge”. She can set a tone, paint a picture, capture identifiable feeling/emotion and describe events so clearly and with such poetry that it makes you laugh or, it makes you cry. There are some passages in her much acclaimed book “Beloved” that are so painful that your throat clutches and closes.
Her “truth”, in her books like “Sula”, “The Bluest Eye”, “Song of Solomon” just to name a few, are cloaked in make believe and are sometimes difficult to handle – sort of a ground glass in the oatmeal type of thing. You feel it. (“Beloved” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and Ms Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.)
I think she is amazing and a true gift.
“Writing was … the most extraordinary way of thinking and feeling. It became the one thing I was doing that I had absolutely no intention of living without.”Toni Morrison
Gil Scott-Heron, an African-American truth troubadour passed away last year. It was all in the words. There were no gimmicks, no staging, nothing to take you away from the truth of his message. His poems and music are timeless. Revisit.
Here is a video of photos of Gil Scott-Hereon by Monique de Latour
The Irony is that some of the insight contained within Scott-Heron poems did not spare him a difficult existence (my judgement, of course) and may have consumed him. Substitute the addiction and it is the same story.
“See that black boy over there, runnin’ scared his ol’ man’s in a bottle. He done quit his 9 to 5 to drink full time so now he’s livin’ in the bottle. See that Black boy over there, runnin’ scared his ol’ man got a problem Pawned off damn near everything, his ol’ woman’s weddin’ ring for a bottle. And don’t you think it’s a crime when time after time, people in the bottle.” Gil Scott-Heron, “The Bottle”
“Go away, I can’t stand to see your face Cuz you seen the weakest link And now you know I’m only human Instead of all the things I’d like to be” Gilbert Scott-Heron April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011
It seems our hero’s always disappoint and our excuses for them just doesn’t cut it. Their suffering, family, race etc. are not necessarily the cause of their genius or their personal desperation. They are often unable to see themselves, the good and the bad that they produce in their lives. They see themselves as being exempt. Gil Scott-Heron was able to see himself and didn’t like what he saw, but he didn’t see enough to care to change his ways. He just could not inspire himself.
“I had read how great I was before I disappeared. It makes me afraid to show up.” From New York Is Killing Me by Alec Wilkinson. The New Yorker Mag.
John Le Carré
Le Carré’s depiction of intelligence operators or “spies” is that they are people who are for the most part not physically gifted and deal with their work as if they were sitting at a giant chess board. They like puzzles and believe if they stare at something long enough it will begin to make sense. Le Carre focuses in on flaws in his characters. They are people who have practiced and perfected telling lies about themselves and others from the earliest stages of their lives. Their only loyalty is to anyone who they believe loves them. Patriotism is not the important thing. The movie “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” remains true to what I think about a Le Carré novel and people in general. There are very few if any superheros in this world and when one does turn up they are remarkably ordinary looking creatures.
It’s in the eyes, that’s were all action is. Pay attention to the eyes and the small gestures, that is were the spectacular happens in this movie. Brilliantly!
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – due out on DVD April, 2012
