Borges' Library

A blog that will interest almost no one...

Alaska Books

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Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait
by Bathsheba Demuth
In what is easily the best book I’ve read this year; Demuth’s Floating Coast is a deep dive into the ways that differing economic and social systems have shaped the land in Beringia. And in Demuth’s telling, there is a stark divide between systems that view the land from far distant centers of power as a resource to be utilized and optimized versus locally based systems where the hunters are stakeholders in the land.

In the first category is Russia and the US. These are specifically, imperial Russia and communist collectivist USSR on one side of the Bering Sea and US-style capitalism on the other. Under these systems, the land and the creatures who dwell within it are seen as resources to be managed and turned into profit—whether for the collective or for financial shareholders. Either way, the name of the game is short-term optimization of the land—not long-term sustainability.

This is in direct contrast to the native communities, who have hunted the land for thousands of years and are stakeholders and stewards of the place. As is well-known, arctic peoples survive mainly on meat. You can’t grow vegetables in the far north and so the peoples there have developed a culture that revolves around hunting animals. This practice revolves around elaborate customs and beliefs that result in hunting that is sustainable and fair. That means, that people don’t take more than they can use (and they use the entire animal). Even now, on federally managed lands, native communities are permitted to hunt walruses. Hunting in Alaska is highly regulated, but as I was told by our guide (an Alaskan big game hunter himself) man remains the walruses’ main predator.
“The government can’t exactly dictate to the native people how and what they can eat when they’ve been hunting here for thousands of years. That would be colonialist.”

I was particularly interested in her focus on energy. As she puts it, “to be alive is to take a place in a chain of conversions.” For Beringians—the Chukchi, Iñupiat, and Yupik —creatures/minerals/ice the world were not transferable sources of profit-- but part of an interconnected world to which they were a part. To which they depended on for survival. Mutual inter-dependence and co-survival. I was really interested in the traditional myths she described in which humans become walruses or whale come forth to be killed when they felt the humans were worthy and deserving of their offering.

The writing is very beautiful. Nature listed it as one of their top science reads the year it came out and I think it has also won writing awards. It is an extraordinary book.

From the New York Times review: “To be alive means taking up our place in a chain of conversions,” Demuth reminds us. “In order to live, something, some being, is always dying.” After centuries of humans’ industrial energy consumption, what will be next to go? This summer, Alaska had its hottest days ever recorded. Seas are rising, habitats are disappearing, and extreme weather events are on the rise. As people act, the climate reacts. Only by understanding that link might we survive.

Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life
by George Monbiot
In one of the more memorable moments in this book, Monbiot is living with the Turkana people in northern Kenya, Investigating assaults on them by governmental bodies, he befiends a young man and spends time with him off and on over the course of a few years. There is a moment where he feels envy for his friend, whose life is so interwoven with the people of his village and the surrounding environment. Monbiot says that if given the choice at birth to have been born into his life or the life of his nomadic friend, if the choice entailed flourishing in both lives, he would choose that of his friend. He says he is not alone and recounts stories of colonialists in America who were kidnapped in their youth by native peoples. Later ransomed, the men made every effort to return to the native tribes where life was fuller. For all our riches we don't seem happy, he makes the point.

"Rewilding or Conservation?
Rewilding is the restoration of significant areas of land (and sea) in which natural processes are left to shape ecosystems on their own, without human interference. The goal of rewilding is not to reach a predetermined endpoint or ideal ecosystem. George Monbiot contrasts this with the traditional conservation approach, which, according to him, simply keeps the land in a state of heavily managed degradation. He argues that this is partly because we have a false idea of what nature should look like, one that is based on a memory of what these habitats were like in our youth (‘shifting baseline syndrome')." From Mossy Earth

A similar debate went on about the restoration of Chartres. Do we arbitrarily pick a point in time and define that as "original, pristine" or do we let the building age and try to allow for those human and natural changes with a view of minimal interference. See my essay here

This is what is interesting about Monbiot. He is not calling for a return from an imagined time. He is not asking for people to be turned off land, if the land is healthy and productive. What he is calling for is a different relationship between people and the land. One that will be healthier for the people, who are, he says, ecologically bored: “As our lives have become tamer and more predictable, as the abundance and diversity of nature have declined, as our physical challenges have diminished to the point at which the greatest trial of strength and ingenuity we face is opening a badly designed packet of nuts, could these imaginary creatures have brought us something we miss?”

We are not going back to the Stone Age, but....

Is online shopping a repressed urge to forage? And what of our obsession with "clean" food and celebrity chefs?

I do think Monbiot is the most realist thinker we have talking about these issues because he speaks in terms of pushing back and moving targets, which is the way to make change on this scale happen. To push back industrialized farming and land-use in terms of designated areas which are decided by a rationalist approach. This will mean what we already understand needs to happen: no to monocrops in order to save soil health, no to industrialized animal industry but also a hard look at traditional forms, aka sheep. A local focus, a kind of terroir thinking, will necessarily view the land as part of an ecosystem, instead of as capital and that will enable the inter-relational aspects of ecosystems to be better understood since it will be a focus on a particular place. In another wonderful book I recently read by Winifred Bird about foraging and hand-crafted foods in Japan, she interviews an artisan who says, if we live and make use of the land we will be much more apt to protect it, since we personally depend on it. The issues are huge and so I appreciate Monbiot having a laser focus.

The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska
by Julia O'Malley
"Alaska’s cuisine is one part wild, one part shelf stable, ever practical, seasonal, and inventive, marked by cultural contrast, with ingredients ranging from seaweed to sheet cake to pancit to Tang."

This is a very special book, which I purchased at the anchorage museum and that I will treasure forever. The writing is so lively and engaging and the book is so beautifully produced! It opens with a really evocative chapter on box cake mixes (!!) I bet you didn't see that come? Talking about how in Alaska people rely on cake mixes, O'Malley engagingly describes how people love to pimp up their cakes--like Betty Crocker cake mixes adorned with salmon berries and dolce de Leche. You can imagine how hard it must be to cook without all the ingredients were so used to in the lower 48 --and imagine midwinter in Alaska, especially outside of Anchorage! That was the first chapter and from there it goes on to fishing in the Kenai River-- the most democratic fishing spot in the US-- to spam musubi which I was so surprised to read about! I loved everything about this book--and will treasure this one forever!

The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind
by Amy Gulick

This is pretty much the perfect book-- gorgeous photographs, a wonderful title and engaging writing, it is filled with fishing stories and the latest science on salmon.

Why is Alaska home to one of the last healthy salmon runs in the world? In times past North America, as well as a lot of Europe was home to abundant runs. What happened? How did Alaska do things right? Well a big part of the answer is that what the fish need to survive their habitat remains largely intact. This is the same for birds (see Scott Weidensaul's new book).... and probably for most creatures. It is not a one-to-one species to one habitat but rather a multitude of habitats that support the entire life cycle of the fish from marine to river to lakes... with water temperature being crucial (this is becoming the big issue).

The title of the book, the Salmon Way, hints at another crucial piece of the success of Alaskan salmon: the human element. In dozens of really engaging interviews and stories, Gulick paints a picture of a traditional native Alaskan way of respect.

She asks one native Alaskan, with such a plenitude resources in your homeland, it’s easy to see how your ancestors thrive... to which the lady responds, "Resources? "Mountain goat and trees are not resources. We have relationships with the goat and the trees."

This difference between a resource and a relationship is paramount. How can you relate to lumber of copper wires or fish sticks? Those are resources. Trees and goats--and salmon-- are beings to which we are living alongside in relationships based on respect. In Alaska, everything is hungry someone else says. Bears, fish, eagles... people share the salmon with all those creatures, as well as with each other.

And the pact is this: Because Alaskans live and depend on the land, people traditionally did not take more than they can use. And they use the entire animal. It is a system that is self-regulatory, since if the animals are over-hunted, then people will soon starve.

Quote:
For thousands of years, Alaska natives fished, hunted and gathered as a way of life. Today approximately 130,000 rural residents-- both natives and not natives-- still rely on fish and wildlife, harvesting 18,000 tons, or an average of close to 300 pounds per person a year. Fish account for 56% of this harvest. There is no other places in the United States wild and abundant enough that a significant number of people can still live this way. Most of us are thousands of years removed from the way of life are hunter gatherer ancestors so today’s concept of subsistence is often misunderstood. To those who don’t live this way of life, subsistence can imply a mirror existence living hand to mouth, data day, and whatever one can Scrounge from the land. This is the definition of poor and some societies. The most Alaska to live a subsistence way of life considers themselves the richest people in the world, and they fight hard to maintain the right to continue the customary in traditional ways."

I think this is such an important thing to consider. I also loved this quote:
In today’s world, many of us have lost our connection to the land. We forgot what it means to live among fantastic creatures, jaw-dropping beauty, and real danger. We have forgotten that a community extends beyond our relationships with other human beings. But the salmon people in Alaska have not forgotten. They know that they are part of the community of fish, rivers, oceans, forest, and tundra. They share the salmon with bears, Eagles, seals, Beluga whales and each other they show gratitude to this remarkable fish that they have seen them through times of plenty and times of scarcity.

The happiest day in recent years for me was buying a pair of xtratuf boots in Homer at the Salmon Sisters shop-- and just when I thought this book could not get any better, there is an interview with one of the sisters.... whose Salmon Sisters Cookbook and Whales and cupcakes is also highly recommended!

And speaking of jaw-dropping beauty: her photographs! I LOVED this book!

Rhythm of the Wild: A Life Inspired by Alaska's Denali National Park
by Kim Heacox

 

The road to Wonder Lake.... is the path toward the Good Life. I got a copy of this to prepare for an upcoming trip to Camp Denali, never expecting such fantastic writing! The lyrical and evocative writing was compared by reviewers to Barry Lopez or Aldo Leopold. I would add Terry Tempest Williams, for its totally soulful style.... but add in a strong dash of novelist Tom Robbins... because the book is incredibly humorous and playful. Musical. 1960s.... !!! It's like a time slip.... back to a time when people really questioned "the program"... How did he retain his youthful enchantment with the world, curiosity and refusal to "get with the program?" How did he do it? Well, I guess he moved to Alaska...

"Forget success. Be a healer, peacekeeper, storyteller. Eat homegrown carrots and potatoes. Sleep in a small cabin; let the mountains be your mansion."

“Any fool can destroy trees,” said John Muir, another hero. What’s hard is to stand before the truck, the tank, the big machine, whatever it might be, and say “no more.” You’ve had your run. This is where the folly ends. It’s time to dig deep, get creative, do something new. Ride a bicycle to Honduras; volunteer in an orphanage. Pick papayas. Eat mangos.”


One of my favorite translations projects was working for a philosopher at Hiroshima University translating his papers into English. He worked a lot on the concept of "play" and Heacox's words below really resonated:

"Perhaps the most difficult work before us is to work less, and play more. Creativity is the key. Stay young. Live simply, frugally. Turn work into play. Find what you’re passionate about and do it with great gratitude. The money will follow, maybe. Be a playful worker, a hardworking player, a musician, an artist, a writer, a teacher—the best teacher in town.”

More than anything this book is about resisting "endless growth" and models of productivity and consumption... to just stop. I was humbled by it, since I know how much I have failed to live up to my own life philosophies, forged in my youth...Looking forward to reading his book on Muir and his earlier memoir. And speaking of memoirs, I loved how he mixed the personal content and the story of his life, as filtered by his time in Denali, with long forays into music, books and science.

Saw him on Ken Burns' national parks documentary in Denali segment... soulful.

Also:

Fantastic article in Outdoors: Baked Alaska: Surviving Aniakchak National Monument

Interesting article in the New York Times about the indigenous-big game hunting connection in Canada & AIVIQ: Life with Walruses, photos by Paul Souders
Macaulay Library Walrus Recordings

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Tea Ceremony: A May Gathering (Notes)

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The first part of the story is from an essay I wrote in Entropy Magazine called Wind in the Pines. More on the bowl in my essay at ELECTRUM MAGAZINE
Why The Past Matters. My essay is called: The Korean Teabowl and Christopher Hitchens

目には青葉山ほととぎす初鰹

山口 素堂(やまぐち そどう、寛永19年5月5日(1642年6月1日) - 享保元年8月15日(1716年9月30日))は、江戸時代前期の俳人である。本名は信章。

 

「目には初夏の青葉がさわやかに映り、耳にはホトトギスのさわやかな声が届き、口では初物の鰹を味わえる素晴らしい夏だ」

May is the "good month." As the haiku by Yamaguchi Sodo suggests above: May is "green leaves to see, the cuckoo to hear and early bonito to taste." 

The season of sho lasts from May through October

The "modern translation" of this Edo period poem includes this final point, "it is the glorious time of summer." This last bit was not something that needed to be stated as it was universally something understood.   And why summer? Because according to the old calendar, from around the first week of the fifth month, we entered the time of summer.

Shoburo

Shoburo / 初風炉 / first use of the portable brazier in the year (may)

The first May tea is an important occasion as the ro has been put away there is fresh tatami in the tea room. Usually the windows and screen doors are left wide open to let the beautiful season inside-- all to celebrate the coming of summer and the beginning of the furo season. It is said that tea people love the ro and the furo equally. My tea teacher often would start displaying her arrangements using summery grasses in baskets. It is a time of greenery, u no hana, wisteria, azalea, irisis--and peonies. 

 

Events of the Month

Shoburo / 初風炉 / first use of the portable brazier in the year (may)

Boys Day / Iris Festival端午の節句

Aoi Matsuri (Kyoto) 

Ukai Biraki (Gifu)

 

Tea Sweets for the Fifth Month 

 

Entering teahouse 小間への席入り 蹲の清め方 にじり口の入り方 掛け軸の拝見まで【裏千家 茶道】

 

茶道 - Japanese Tea Ceremony -

 

My tea friends were forever teasing me because of my last name.

Ogasawara is the name of a famous school of etiquette.

So each time I did something clumsy

--something that happened many, many times--

they always wondered how somehow of the Ogasawara clan could be so clueless!

++

Wakakusa
(若草)
This Japanese wagashi is produced in Matsue, and it consists of a rectangular rice cake that is dusted with a green-tinted combination of sugar and rice powder. The cakes are soft and light, and the rice used in its production is still milled the traditional way.

Although it is said that wakakusa has an ancient origin, its modern revival happened in the 1890s. The treat is traditionally served as an accompaniment to green tea, and it is usually associated with springtime.

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Reading Memoir 2019-2022

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Family Memoirs

Making Toast
by Roger Rosenblatt

Cold Moon: On Life, Love, and Responsibility
by Roger Rosenblatt 

Mieke Eerkin's All Ships Follow Me

 

Memoirs about Art 

Laura Cummings: Vanishing Velasquez (I have read it four times!!)

Everything is Happening: Journey into a Painting, by Michael Jacobs

Jonathan Brown: In the Shadow of Velasquez

Another moving book about a picture: The Angel on the Left Bank: The Secrets of Delacroix’s Parisian Masterpiece

Terry tempest Williams' LEAP!!

Daniel Mendelsohn's An Odyssey

Hare With Amber Eyes, de Waal 

Mayumi Oda's Sarasvati's Gift: The Autobiography of Mayumi Odaartist, Activist, and Modern Buddhist Revolutionary

 

Japan

Alex Kerr's Finding the Heart Sutra: Guided by a Magician, an Art Collector and Buddhist Sages from Tibet to Japan

Frederick Schodt's My Heart Sutra: A World in 260 Characters

Roger's Unmasking of an American

Anna Sherman's Bells of Tokyo

Rebecca Otowa's At Home in Japan

Marie Mockett's Where the Dead Pause 

 

Memoirs in the World

Rings of Saturn by Sebald

Vertigo, by Sebald

Book of Eels

Why Fish Don't Exist

The Accidental Terrorist

Sy Montgomery’s Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

Christof Koch’s Consciousness: Conversations of a Romantic Reductionist

Douglas Hofstadter’s  I Am A Strange Loop

Peter Wohllenben’s The Hidden Life of Trees

Patti Smith's Year of the Monkey

 

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For
by Rebecca Schuman (Goodreads Review)

This memoir is beautifully voiced. Original, fun and really hilarious at times too. For me, Schuman is a cross between Dave Barry and Mrs Maisel. It kept me smiling and laughing the entire read.

The book spans a long time--from senior year in high school until she is 38, about to have a baby. Memoirs with long time spans are tough to pull off. I am now starting work on a language memoir of my own (Japanese) and hoping to study with Schuman at Stanford Continuing Studies. While I was reading, I kept wondering, "is this really okay to make fun of Germans like this?" My husband says it is allowed... She is so hilarious --especially when she went back to Berlin again in grad school to try to become fluent yet again. And I loved how her passion for Kafka propelled the entire life story-- laughing when every single German person took time to remind her that, yeah, Kafka is not German!

The funny parts were funny, but I have to say I preferred the serious parts. She was excellent on Heidegger and Wittgenstein and I would have wanted a lot more of that. I suspect there was more but maybe that was edited out. What a shame that would have been as those parts really captured my interest. I also appreciated her long struggle with trying to get tenure. Her struggle was long but the descriptions did not drag on and in fact, it was only the very last part of the book.

I was happy it had a happy ending too.
Now, I am off to see what else she is writing.
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Crying in H Mart 
by Michelle Zauner

Goodread Review

One of the most talented writers I have met at UCLA Extension recently raved about this book, so I had to read it immediately. It's been on my radar since it came out... though I had not heard of Zauner's band till after reading the book. A very moving account of the author's relationship with her mother, it spanned from her childhood and teenage years till after her mother's death and the years after. During the illness, at one point, I started to think if I ever doubted that having kids was meaningful, all I had to do was read this book as I was deeply moved by the author's care and devotion to her mother. She is an extraordinarily kind and loving human being. The best daughter. She even managed to make her wedding be about her mother over her own self... I loved her story and admired her character so much.

The book was a bit slow-reading for me, not because I wasn't interested, but rather because it never brought much outside reference to the story. Many people will appreciate that since you are always right there in story, it creates a very cinematic experience... And this book is incredibly evocative and emotionally compelling like the best cinema. That said, for me, I would have loved more history and context about certain aspects of Korean culture she was writing about-- especially about family relations, the language and more about food. I am imagining a cookbook at least someday!! I will never forget the book. Like the reviewer in the Chicago Review of Books, I also expected to cry (which I did) but did not expect to find myself deep in self-reflection: "In this book, Zauner brings us all in so close that we’re left with no other option but to examine our own lives just as closely."

The Magical Language of Others
by E.J. Koh

Review 

As I was reading, in some ways it felt the exact opposite to Crying in H Mart--in story, but also in writing styles.

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays
by Esmé Weijun Wang

Review

This book is a tour de force. It is a book of essays that works on the reader like the best memoir you have ever read. I stayed up late two nights in a row because I could not put it down. As a person who is not fundamentally interested in psychiatry and issues of pharmacology, I resisted buying the book because life is short and there are so many books sitting on my nightstand. But after reading a short article about the author, I felt impressed and wanted to read more and then could not stop reading. This book has the best of everything non-fiction: gorgeous and precise sentences, thought provoking ideas, a lot of research that leads to insights and a world-opening artistic vision. Need I say more? I love the chapter on Chimayo best.

Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali [Includes 115 Recipes]
by Janet De Neefe

Rumours of Spring: A Girlhood in Kashmir
by Farah Bashir

In Other Words, Jhumpa Lahiri

Goodreads Review

It is an interesting premise: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist gives up her language of strength and power to embark on a journey of writing in another language... one in which she is not proficient at yet. I once knew a Polish writer whose English was so fluent that I never once caught a hint that it was not his native tongue. A modern-day Joseph Conrad? A genius who one day informed me that he had decided to give up English.... why, I asked? Well, according to him, he was bored thinking about the things that people thought of in English. In French, he declared, the intellectual possibilities were wide open. the language he thought and dreamt in grew out of is reading--and if he preferred reading French books then I figured it only made sense he would want to think in that language as well. I feel the same about Japanese. I prefer myself when I was thinking and reading in that language. And so Lahiri's choice makes sense... in a nutshell, she fell in love. With a language, with its literature and its people. 

Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali [Includes 115 Recipes]
by Janet De Neefe

All Strangers Are Kin, by Zora O'Neill

Goodreads Review

To make people laugh in a foreign language. What a wonderful life goal! Languages all have their personalities--and so in many ways when you switch languages you become another person.

Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
by Raquel Cepeda

Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging
by Anne Liu Kellor (no review)

Taste: My Life through Food
by Stanley Tucci

Educated
by Tara Westover

 

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Wanli Shipwrecked Bowl-- a Mystery

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My beautiful bowl. It was sold as an artifact found at the bottom of the sea. From the Wanli Shipwreck (+/- 1625), which was a European vessel loaded with Chinese kraak porcelain--mainly from Jingdezhen. I really wanted a bowl from the wreck but this was the only one I could afford. It is incredible how well it withstood hundreds of years underwater. 


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I was, however, puzzled by the interior. Not very beautiful, right? The catalogue said it is Sanskrit for 福 (fortune). I spoke to the salvager and he said that an expert at Jingdezhen told him that was what it was and that many ceramics at the time had sloppy Sanskrit--perhaps for the Japanese market, I wondered, since Shingon Buddhism in Japan values expressions in Sanskrit language--written in Siddam.

The Siddham script is a descendent of the Brahmi script and an ancestor of the Devanagari script. The name Siddham comes from Sanskrit and means "accomplished or perfected" The Siddham script is mainly used by Shingon Buddhists in Japan to write out mantra and sutras in Sanskrit. It was introduced to Japan by Kukai in 806 AD after he had studied Sanskrit and Mantrayana Buddhism in China. In Japan the Siddham script is known as 梵字 (bonji).

Poking around with the help of scholars Victor Mair and Jan Walls, we (and by "we" I mean they) figured out that it was almost certainly not Siddam 福 (fortune) but "Buddha" 佛。

It is possible, anyway, if a Portuguese or Dutch ship (the Wanli wreck was Portuguese) was sailing back to Europe from Macao, loaded down with ceramics for the European market, they might carry some things for the Japanese market since the ships stopped in Malacca, where there was a thriving spice and ceramics market... this is the basic background of my novel manuscript from way back that I want to finish.... off-load ceramics for Japan and buy spices. The ship went down before reaching the harbor... but not far off-shore.

I have seen unreadable Arabic script on Chinese ceramics --but this really was pretty bad... 

Victor Mair cautions:

Dear Leanne,

A number of bowls found in the Belitung shipwreck had pseudo-Arabic
writing, and I've also seen pseudo-Siddham writing on various objects.

best,

VHM

 

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Professor Mair contacted Suzanne Valenstein, long term curator of ceramics at the Met in New York (now retired), who had this to say:

Regarding Leanne Ogasawara’s inquiry, below, I have consulted the following:

First and foremost, a book by John Ayers, now-retired Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum (and my personal Chinese-pot-guru for over sixty years): The Baur Collection, Geneva. Chinese Ceramics, Volume Two: Ming Porcelains and Other Wares. Geneva, Switzerland, 1969. (And now, obviously, out of print.)

No. 588, Plate A 185. “Blue-and-white dish of lotus form. Mark and reign of Wan Li (1573-1619). Diameter 19.0 cm.

Moulded in the form of an open lotus flower with two ranks of sixteen scalloped petals, the lower rank with projecting points on the outside; the rim foliate; small, low foot. In the center inside is a medallion with a Sanscrit character with ju-I heads, and round the outside the upper rank of petals contains eight further characters alternating with floral sprays, forming an inscription. The six-character mark is written underglaze blue.” He further mentions similar bowls in several museum collections.

John’s book was revised and republished in Geneva in 1999, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Volume 1. The dish is illustrated in Plate 78 [previously as Plate A185]. The physical description is the same as before, but there is a change in the description of the characters: “Inside is a medallion painted with the Sanscrit character for ’Buddha’ (Chinese fo) bordered with ru-i heads, and round the outside the upper rank of petals contains eight further characters alternating with floral sprays.”

Another of my favorite authorities is Wang Qingzheng, of the Shanghai Museum. His 368-page book, A Dictionary of Chinese Ceramics (in English), Singapore, 2002, is absolutely indispensable in the study of Chinese pots.

Under the topic of Motifs, on page 256, Mr. Wang lists: “Sanskrit (fan wen). An ancient written language of India, this script is used as a decorative element on temple vessels in the Ming dynasty. Sanskrit inscriptions, mainly rendered in underglaze blue, are quotations from Buddhist scriptures or incantations.” He illustrates a blue-and-white dish that is not foliated like the one that John Ayers illustrated. This dish has a large, presumably Sanskrit, central character, surrounded by three rows of other presumably Sanskrit characters.

  • Jan Walls reminded me that at the Ming court the influence of Tibetan Buddhism was strong but that many mistakes in the various scripts could be found on porcelain. 

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Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time. --Francis Bacon

Other material 

 

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January-June 2022 Books


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Japan

The Great Passage
by Shion Miura

Review

The year began with a great new author, Shion Miura. The book is a story about a small team of employees at a Japanese publishing company working to compile a new dictionary. Anyone who loves dictionaries will love this book. But I also think anyone who loves British cozy mysteries will love this as well... for while there are no murders to solve--and in fact the plot is exceedingly simple-- the story rests on the feel-good nature of the relationships between the characters. It is a sweet and wonderful book. The perfect first book of the year!

The translator, Juliet Winters Carpenter, is one of my favorite translators working from Japanese. See my review in the Chicago Review of Books of her translation of an I Novel by Minae Mizumura. I really loved her decision to put the dictionaries into direct English translation, highlighting what is wondrous about the dictionary-compiling process.... so that the famous Kojien becomes the Wide Garden of Words (took me time to realize) and Daijirin becomes the Great Forest of Words. It is great that she chose this path since it also allowed the book title to become The Great Passage--instead of 舟を編む [Fune O Amu]

I loved the characters, loved thinking about the process of dictionary-making, was happy to take a break from plot points and character arcs which are becoming almost tedious in American fiction today. 

I loved the inclusion of Chinese and Japanese poetry and LOVED the annotated letter at the end. Looking forward to seeing more translations by this wonderful writer!

 

Other Japan Stories

The year also kicked off with my discovery of Keigo Higashino's Detective stories. I enjoyed all four installments of the Detective Galileo books and am thinking of reading his other series, starting with Malice. And I definitely want to read his novel, Nimiya General Store. My favorites were the first two: Devotion of Suspect X and Salvation of a Saint. My least favorite was Midsummer's Equation. I loved the last one, Parade, as well! 

Translations are fantastic! And speaking of great translations and new writers, I really enjoyed these two books by Keiichiro Hirano, A Man and The End of the Matinee. The latter one especially was fantastic and translated wonderfully by Juliet Winters Carpenter. 

I also started Michael Pronko's Detective Hiroshi series, and LOVE them! The Last Train, Moving Blade, 

Around the same time, I re-read Jake Adelstein's brilliant and hilarious Tokyo Vice (going to be an HBO series)

In other news, I started reading Haruki Murakami’s Sputnik Sweetheart, translated by Philip Gabriel. I am not a big fan of Murakami but am really enjoying the novel—more than I’d expected! I also liked Kafka on the Shore. But I think this is the first of his novels that I can actually say I like a lot.

In Spring, I read three books written by Americans who taught English in Japan. If You Follow Me was the only novel; while the other two are works of nonfiction: Polly Barton's Fifty Sounds (an award-winning language memoir, which I will write a separate post on later) and Tim Anderson's Gaijin Diaries. Substack Post: If You Follow Me. 

 

Memoirs

Schadenfreude, A Love Story: Me, the Germans, and 20 Years of Attempted Transformations, Unfortunate Miscommunications, and Humiliating Situations That Only They Have Words For
by Rebecca Schuman (Goodreads Review)

This memoir is beautifully voiced. Original, fun and really hilarious at times too. For me, Schuman is a cross between Dave Barry and Mrs Maisel. It kept me smiling and laughing the entire read.

The book spans a long time--from senior year in high school until she is 38, about to have a baby. Memoirs with long time spans are tough to pull off. I am now starting work on a language memoir of my own (Japanese) and hoping to study with Schuman at Stanford Continuing Studies. While I was reading, I kept wondering, "is this really okay to make fun of Germans like this?" My husband says it is allowed... She is so hilarious --especially when she went back to Berlin again in grad school to try to become fluent yet again. And I loved how her passion for Kafka propelled the entire life story-- laughing when every single German person took time to remind her that, yeah, Kafka is not German!

The funny parts were funny, but I have to say I preferred the serious parts. She was excellent on Heidegger and Wittgenstein and I would have wanted a lot more of that. I suspect there was more but maybe that was edited out. What a shame that would have been as those parts really captured my interest. I also appreciated her long struggle with trying to get tenure. Her struggle was long but the descriptions did not drag on and in fact, it was only the very last part of the book.

I was happy it had a happy ending too.
Now, I am off to see what else she is writing.
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Crying in H Mart 
by Michelle Zauner

Goodread Review

One of the most talented writers I have met at UCLA Extension recently raved about this book, so I had to read it immediately. It's been on my radar since it came out... though I had not heard of Zauner's band till after reading the book. A very moving account of the author's relationship with her mother, it spanned from her childhood and teenage years till after her mother's death and the years after. During the illness, at one point, I started to think if I ever doubted that having kids was meaningful, all I had to do was read this book as I was deeply moved by the author's care and devotion to her mother. She is an extraordinarily kind and loving human being. The best daughter. She even managed to make her wedding be about her mother over her own self... I loved her story and admired her character so much.

The book was a bit slow-reading for me, not because I wasn't interested, but rather because it never brought much outside reference to the story. Many people will appreciate that since you are always right there in story, it creates a very cinematic experience... And this book is incredibly evocative and emotionally compelling like the best cinema. That said, for me, I would have loved more history and context about certain aspects of Korean culture she was writing about-- especially about family relations, the language and more about food. I am imagining a cookbook at least someday!! I will never forget the book. Like the reviewer in the Chicago Review of Books, I also expected to cry (which I did) but did not expect to find myself deep in self-reflection: "In this book, Zauner brings us all in so close that we’re left with no other option but to examine our own lives just as closely."

The Magical Language of Others
by E.J. Koh

Review 

As I was reading, in some ways it felt the exact opposite to Crying in H Mart--in story, but also in writing styles.

The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays
by Esmé Weijun Wang

Review

This book is a tour de force. It is a book of essays that works on the reader like the best memoir you have ever read. I stayed up late two nights in a row because I could not put it down. As a person who is not fundamentally interested in psychiatry and issues of pharmacology, I resisted buying the book because life is short and there are so many books sitting on my nightstand. But after reading a short article about the author, I felt impressed and wanted to read more and then could not stop reading. This book has the best of everything non-fiction: gorgeous and precise sentences, thought provoking ideas, a lot of research that leads to insights and a world-opening artistic vision. Need I say more? I love the chapter on Chimayo best.

 

Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali [Includes 115 Recipes]
by Janet De Neefe

Rumours of Spring: A Girlhood in Kashmir
by Farah Bashir

 

In Other Words, Jhumpa Lahiri

Goodreads Review

It is an interesting premise: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist gives up her language of strength and power to embark on a journey of writing in another language... one in which she is not proficient at yet. I once knew a Polish writer whose English was so fluent that I never once caught a hint that it was not his native tongue. A modern-day Joseph Conrad? A genius who one day informed me that he had decided to give up English.... why, I asked? Well, according to him, he was bored thinking about the things that people thought of in English. In French, he declared, the intellectual possibilities were wide open. the language he thought and dreamt in grew out of is reading--and if he preferred reading French books then I figured it only made sense he would want to think in that language as well. I feel the same about Japanese. I prefer myself when I was thinking and reading in that language. And so Lahiri's choice makes sense... in a nutshell, she fell in love. With a language, with its literature and its people. 

The book was very basic-- is this the writing of a famous writer? But I kept reminding myself she wrote it in Italian and someone else translated it. Even after 25 years studying Japanese, I could never have pulled off such a beautifully done memoir. Having read her stories-- I am thinking of Interpreter of Maladies-- I know she is concerned with language and identity. Maybe like my son, (or not?) she never feels fully herself in her parents' home culture of Bengali or in her first-generation English home culture. Instead of having two homes she feels fractured-never fully accepted in either. I think even long term expats and immigrants (as I was in Japan) feel always "betwixt and between," as my mom says. And so in her story Interpreter, she is less interested in details concerning culture as much as she uses details to highlight cultural differences. Like the clothing is described in terms of differences--not the temple or the car--each which could have been depicted in great details... who doesn't love an Ambassador? Her POV character is only lightly painted... in fact, it took me a moment to realize that he was indeed the POV character... the American-born characters are more flashy. And what she does with that alarming American habit of people confessing things to strangers is fascinating. 

In the memoir she includes two stories--one about a translator. 

In a review in the Irish Times, one of the judges who awarded her with a prize in that country said this: 

As a student aged 27 Lahiri first went to Italy, to Florence. She didn’t buy a guidebook, she bought a dictionary. She developed a single-minded and joyless passion. Lahiri declined to translate In Other Words, leaving it to Ann Goldstein, who has translated Elena Ferrante and last year edited the magnificent Complete Works of Primo Levi, in English. Goldstein conveys Lahiri’s intensity, a quality which also dominates Ferrante’s work. Both Lahiri and Ferrante are humourless which made Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet heavy going for me, whereas Lahiri’s refined detachment compensates for her lack of irony.

I loved the book--and I do think in art having constraints can bring fruitful results--and for a writer what more of a constraint is there than writing in a language you are only tentatively fluent in?

““When do you return to America?” he asked, trying to sound placid. “In ten days.” He calculated: A week to settle in, a week to develop the pictures, a few days to compose her letter, two weeks to get to India by air. According to his schedule, allowing room for delays, he would hear from Mrs. Das in approximately six weeks’ time.”

— Interpreter Of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

AT THE TEA STALL Mr. and Mrs. Das bickered about who should take Tina to the toilet. Eventually Mrs. Das relented when Mr. Das pointed out that he had given the girl her bath the night before. In the rearview mirror Mr. Kapasi watched as Mrs. Das emerged slowly from his bulky white Ambassador, dragging her shaved, largely bare legs across the back seat. She did not hold the little girl’s hand as they walked to the rest room.”

— Interpreter Of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
https://a.co/ivbU29O

Jack Livings also recommends:

Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter
When Mrs. Dutta decided to give up her home of forty-five years to go to America, her relatives were less surprised than she had expected. Everyone knows, they said, that a wife's place is with her husband, and a widow's is with her son

By Chitra B. Divakaruni

Fragrant Rice: My Continuing Love Affair with Bali [Includes 115 Recipes]
by Janet De Neefe

All Strangers Are Kin, by Zora O'Neill

Goodreads Review

To make people laugh in a foreign language. What a wonderful life goal! Languages all have their personalities--and so in many ways when you switch languages you become another person.

I had read about Arabic, as well as Farsi, having their high and low literary and colloquial tongues. I also knew that there are many "Arabics"--  so a person would study Egyptian or Syrian --or Moroccan-- and while they’re related, they are not mutually comprehensible. I knew this as facts but it was only in this book where I got to really understand what that means. 

The author is a brilliant storyteller and a genuinely great person! A wonderful ambassador to the world, I was thinking. her story is a scene-driven super fun travel memoir. Somehow she makes the intricacies of Arabic--what makes it hard?-- come alive on the page mainly by showing it in her great scenes. So reading entertaining stories you realize how much the Ottoman empire influenced vocabulary or how much Egyptians like to joke around. Also how Moroccans "hear" Egyptian. I actually felt my eyes fill with tears reading one scene where a family suddenly called her over to join in their picnic out in front of the museum in Cairo-- it was such a spontaneous act of hospitality and O'Neill had the grace of the perfect guest to plop down and join them. I also loved the scene on the bus in Lebanon when she meets a Druze lady who spent a lot of time in Chicago. They talked about life in America and her religion... the next morning O'Neill gets a text message that reads: "Hi baby".... as a translator and twenty-year expat (Japan), I thought this was one of the greatest language memoirs and reminded me a lot of the struggles involved in always being a student--even in her forties.... and to just keep going. The ending when her parents join her in Morocco was the perfect ending... from her beloved Egypt to the Gulf to Lebanon and finally where her fascination began with her parents in Morocco this was a great read!

Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
by Raquel Cepeda

Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging
by Anne Liu Kellor (no review)

Taste: My Life through Food
by Stanley Tucci

 

Most beautiful book:

Feast of the Seven Fishes: A Brooklyn Italian's Recipes Celebrating Food and Family
by Daniel Paterna

 

 

 

Art

Re-read  Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy
by Mark Doty

Loot: Britain and the Benin Bronzes
by Barnaby Phillips

Thieves of Baghdad: One Marine's Passion to Recover the World's Greatest Stolen Treasures
by Matthew Bogdanos, William Patrick

The Elgin Affair: The Abduction of Antiquity's Greatest Treasures and the Passions It Aroused
by Theodore Vrettos

The Sleeve Should Be Illegal and Other Reflections on Art at the Frick
by Adam Gopnik (Foreword), Michaelyn Mitchell

 

Other

Best American Stories 1999 for class on detail in fiction with the great Jack Livings

 

Jim Thompson: The House on the Klong
by William Warren, Jean Michel Beurdeley (Text), Luca Invernizzi

Goodreads Review

A wonderful book about a magnificent house. This book is not about Jim Thompson--not about his life or his mysterious disappearance. It is about the creation of his extraordinary house in Bangkok. The finest book on Thai aesthetics that I have ever read was the one by Alex Kerr, Bangkok Found--just re-released as Hidden Bangkok, published by Penguin. I highly recommend Kerr's book to be better informed for understanding the Thompson House. Though I guess it should be said that the house of the Klong--like the art collection housed there--is a personal interpretation of Thai aesthetics and art. It is one man's vision of beauty. The book has some beautiful photographs of the home, garden and art. The essay on the collection by Beurdeley is fantastic (Beurdeley is as interesting as Thompson in so many ways). For me, it is a special pleasure to repurchase books that I used to own previously and that were once part of my large-ish library in Japan. It is like being reunited with an old friend and it also is fun to remember how much I used to love certain topics. The Italian photographer is also a well-known great name.

The main essay was written by a Thompson biographer, who also wrote the Jim Thompson: The Thai Silk Sketchbook, with wonderful watercolors painted by Graham By field.

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L’Officine Universelle Buly From Museum to Perfume

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From Museum to Perfume

In 2019, Buly partnered with the Louvre Museum in an exceptional artistic project: to bring a masterpiece alive by creating its perfume. Free from compositional bonds, eight famous noses of French perfume tradition convey mastery and emotion in the fragrant conversion of some of the greatest masterpieces. The wonderful Le Louvre Collection counts 8 Eau Triple in Limited Edition: La Grande Odalisque (interpreted by Domitille Michalon-Bertier), La Nymphe au Scorpion (int. Annick Ménardo), Conversation dans un Parc (int. Dorothée Piot), La Victoire de Samothrace (int. Aliénor Massenet), Saint Joseph Charpentier (int. Sidonie Lancesseur), Le Verrou (int. Delphine Lebeau), La Baigneuse (int. Daniela Andrier) and La Vénus de Milo (int. Jean Christophe Hérault).

EAU TRIPLE LA VICTOIRE DE SAMOTHRACE
A rich harmony of tuberose, magnolia and jasmine enhanced by the warmth of myrrh.

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EAU TRIPLE SAINT JOSEPH CHARPENTIER
A deep note of cedar wood, infused with verbena, pink berries and vetiver

By the perfumer Sidonie Lancesseur

Below from the Black Narcissist Blog

This painting, created around the year 1642 is one of several tenebrist paintings by La Tour. Others include The Education of the Virgin, the Penitent Magdalene, and The Dream of St. Joseph. In all these works, a single, strong light source is a central element, surrounded by cast shadows. In both Joseph the Carpenter and The Education of the Virgin, the young Christ is represented, hand raised, as if in benediction, with the candlelight shining through the flesh as an allegorical reference to Christ as the “Light of the World.”

The word that stands out for me here is tenebrist, or great contrasts between light and dark, and Buly’s perfumed namesake is a ‘deep note of cedar wood, infused with verbena, pink berries and vetiver’, though to me it smelled more like a tender, illuminating sandalwood. 

 

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Top Reads 2021: Hummingbirds and Holbein

 

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This year was hummingbirds, flowers and Holbein.

My year began and ended with a beautiful article on hummingbirds in the New York Review of Books, called ‘ Download ‘A Searing Bolt of Turquoise’ _ by Christopher Benfey _ The New York Review of Books,’ It was about a poem by Emily Dickinson, a novel and a book of nonfiction:

The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds, by Jon Dunn
&
Hummingbird Salamander, by Jeff VanderMeer

I read Jeff VanderMeer's novel immediately but did not get to The Glitter of Green until mid-December... I loved both! The review was so well-done and so bought Benfey's latest, A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Martin Johnson Heade, which won both the 2009 Christian Gauss Award of Phi Beta Kappa and the Ambassador Book Award. 

This year, I read fewer books than usual (2021 Goodreads Stats). My reading was very scattered. And I found myself picking up books and reading almost to the end and then stopping, when I realized I was having trouble following the thread and wanted to start from the beginning again. No poetry whatsoever. 

My book reviews also flagged halfway through the year.... I started 2021 with reviews in the Chicago Review of Books: Searching for the Language of Home in “An I-Novel, by Minae Mizumura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter and a review on Fermentation as Metaphor, by Sandor Ellix Katz, in the Dublin Review of Books. I published a review on Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World by Daniel A. Bell (REVIEW in New Rambler) It was my first review translated into Chinese!【琳恩·小笠原】即将淹没的世界中的等级体系 ——贝淡宁、汪沛著《正义层秩论》简评

I also wrote several reviews for the Asian Review of Books: Hojoki, translated by Matthew Stavros; “A Gap in the Clouds: A New Translation of Ogura Hyakunin Isshu” by James Hadley and Nell Regan;“Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes” by Winifred Bird; and “The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE-800 CE” by Robert Ford Campany.

But by late summer, I just dropped the ball. Only one review appeared in Kyoto Journal, Water, Wood and Wild Things by Hannah Kirshner and had my first review in Books on Asia about Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures multiple authors.  

Looking forward to reading The Great Passage by Shion Miura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, finishing Albert and the Whale, and reading the new biography on Sebald in early 2021! Below.... drum roll.... are my top reads of 2021:

 

Best in Fiction (Top 3):

#1

A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories
by Daniel Mason

#2

What is Not Yours is Not Yours
by Helen Oyeyemi

#3

Where the Wild Ladies Are
by Aoko Matsuda, Polly Barton (Translator) 

 

Best in Non-Fiction (Top 3):

#1

Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait
by Bathsheba Demuth

#2

The King's Painter: The Life of Hans Holbein
by Franny Moyle

#3

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
by Lulu Miller

Most unique:

Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures (My review in Books on Asia)

and

Water, Wood and Wild Things by Hannah Kirshner (Review in Kyoto Journal)

Favorite New Translation:

"An I-Novel," a novel by Minae Mizumura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. (My review in Chicago Review of Books)

Hōjōki: A Hermit's Hut as Metaphor (My review in Asian Review of Books)
by Kamo no Chōmei, Matthew Stavros 

Most Inspiring

Last Year, I began revisiting Japanese flower arrangements and foraging. This year, I started a class at the London Floral School called DUTCH MASTERS FLORAL COURSE. I also took a class at the Huntington gardens. I am reading Flower Hunters by Lucy Hunter (review--not by me-- here) I also realized Lauren Groff, whose award-winning novel Matrix I read this year, wrote a short story called Flower Hunters (New Yorker)

Gifting Books for Christmas:

Water, Wood and Wild Things (Review in Kyoto Journal) by Hannah Kirshner

A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories
by Daniel Mason

As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books
by Alex Preston, Neil Gower

The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds, by Jon Dunn

Most Beautiful:

As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books
by Alex Preston, Neil Gower

Best History of Science/Science:

109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos
by Jennet Conant

And:

The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness
by Mark Solms

 

Best Re-Read:

The Relic Master
by Christopher Buckley

Death Comes for the Archbishop
by Willa Cather

A Blossom Like No Other Li Qingzhao
by Wei Djao

The Wages Of Guilt: Memories Of War In Germany And Japan
by Ian Buruma

The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game
by Thomas A. Bass

Most Thought-Provoking and World Changing:

Timothy Morton's All Art is Ecological (3QD Essay here)

Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community and the Meaning of Generosity
by Priya Basil 3QD Essay here. 

Best Writing Craft Book:

A Field Guide for Immersion Writing: Memoir, Journalism, and Travel
by Robin Hemley

Best Exhibition Catalogue

Holbein: Capturing Character
by Anne T. Woollett (Editor), Austeja Mackelaite (Contributor), John T. McQuillen

 

**

--2021 Book Towers Below--

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First Stack: Chinese Calligraphy and Mi Fu

I re-read quite a lot on Chinese calligraphy this year.

My essay on an exhibition at the Huntington Gardens in 3QD is here: Calligraphy in the Garden

And In Praise of Oranges in Gulf Coast Journal is here.

All of my notes are here.

Another World Lies Beyond: Creating Liu Fang Yuan, the Huntington’s Chinese Garden, edited by June Li

The Burden of Female Talent: The Poet Li Qingzhao and Her History in China
by Ronald C. Egan

A Blossom Like No Other Li Qingzhao
by Wei Djao

Embodied Image
by Robert E. Harrist Jr

Kraus’ Brushes with Power
Modern Politics and the Chinese Art of Calligraphy

Sturman’s Mi Fu: Style and the Art of Calligraphy in Northern Song China Style and the Art of Calligraphy in Northern Song China

Kazuaki Tanahashi ‘s Delight in One Thousand Characters: The Classic Manual of East Asian Calligraphy

Shakyo Practice book and A Kanji Stroke Order Manual for Heart Sutra Copying

The Skills of How to Imitate Wang Xizhi’s Preface to The Poems Composed at The Orchid Pavilion Running Script Chinese Calligraphy

Chinese Calligraphy of Heart Sutra (Contrastive Version of Classical Inscription Rubbings of Dynasties)

Below, haven’t read but looks interesting!

Taction: The Drama of the Stylus in Oriental Calligraphy 石川九楊著『書-筆蝕の宇
Ishikawa, Kyuyoh; Miller, Waku

 

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The Second Stack:

On Foraging and Fermentation

This was probably the main reading obsession of the year, and I wrote a review on Katz's new book in the Dublin Review of Books (he has come out with a new one since!) and an essay at 3 Quarks Daily, A Walk on the Wild Side. (My notes for the post are here).

Eating Wild Japan: Tracking the Culture of Foraged Foods, with a Guide to Plants and Recipes
by Winifred Bird (Review in Asian Review of Books)

Water, Wood and Wild Things (Review in Kyoto Journal) by Hannah Kirshner

Gina Rae La Cerva’s Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food

John Cage’s A Mycological Foray: Variations on Mushrooms

On Flowers: Lessons from an Accidental Florist
by Amy Merrick

Water, Wood and Wild Things (Review in Kyoto Journal) by Hannah Kirshner

Forage, Harvest, Feast: 40 Plants, 500 Recipes, a Wild-Inspired Cuisine
by Marie Viljoen

Rewilding

Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea and Human Life

by George Monbiot

 

Fermentation

[First published in Dublin Review of Books]

Sandor Ellix Katz:

Fermentation as Metaphor & The Art of Fermentation

The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America's Underground Food Movements

And

Koji Alchemy

Interview with author Rich Shih in Serious Eats

Foundations of Flavor: The Noma Guide to Fermentation
by Rene Redzepi, David Zilber

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The Third Stack: Memoir

All the Lives We Ever Lived: Seeking Solace in Virginia Woolf by Katharine Smyth

“Perhaps there is one book for every life. One book with the power to reflect and illuminate that life; one book that will forever inform how we navigate the little strip of time we are given, while also helping us to clarify and catch hold of its most vital moments. For me, that book is To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf’s novel about her parents, Julia and Leslie Stephen, who died when Virginia was thirteen and twenty-two, respectively. First published in 1927, it tells the story of the Ramsays, a family of ten who, along with an assorted group of friends, spends the summer on a remote island in the Hebrides. Tells the story of the Ramsays? I should rephrase: To the Lighthouse tells the story of everything.”
 
Smyth’s book is one of the most poignant and beautiful books about family life that I’ve ever read. She has portrayed all of the trials and challenges of being an only child and about having a flawed parent. Her book is a portrait of a marriage and portrait of a father and a daughter. It’s very close to my heart since I lived through something similar when I was a little bit younger than her and watched as my father suffered through cancer —in and out of the hospital. I wish I had had a book to keep me company, something to help me make sense of it all. That would take me decades. Her writing about the last days in the hospital was beautifully written. It was so poignant. While I would’ve appreciated more about Virginia Woolf — only if that didn’t require cutting out any of her own story. I truly appreciated the way she slowed down to be attentive to all the details of the days preceding and after his father died. It was extraordinary how she leaned into things that many writers would not seek to dwell upon. 
"The insufficiency of emotion in the face of such a disaster...."
In tone, it reminded me something of Daniel Mendelsohn's An Odyssey. It had things in common with these as well:
 
Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
by Lulu Miller
 
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
by Katherine May
 

To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession
by Dan Koeppel

The Wine Lover's Daughter: A Memoir
by Anne Fadima

More memoir here.

 

 

The fourth Stack: New Hobbies

Birding, Wine, and Sashiko

Birds Art Life, by Kyo Maclear

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir
by Julia Zarankin

To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession
by Dan Koeppel

The Wine Lover's Daughter: A Memoir
by Anne Fadima

As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Birds & Books
by Alex Preston, Neil Gower

The Glitter in the Green: In Search of Hummingbirds, by Jon Dunn

 

Last Year and Next Year:

269490205_10158325545305108_4445935480666877932_nMy new stack on Henry VIII and the Tudors
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My essay based on last year's favorite book, The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium, by Juan Pimental, was published in Pleiades this fall. 
269490205_10158325545305108_4445935480666877932_nBook by Shawna Kenney, my writing teacher at UCLA
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Some exciting reads from this year.

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Holbein, van Eyck and Kende Wiley

1024px-After_Hans_Holbein_the_Younger_-_Portrait_of_Henry_VIII_-_Google_Art_ProjectHolbein, 1536 or 37. Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

The King's Painter: The Life of Hans Holbein
by Franny Moyle

Holbein: Capturing Character
Getty Museum Catalogue 

1192px-Simon_George _by_Hans_Holbein_the_YoungerPortrait of Simon George of Cornwall, c. 1535-1540, Hans Holbein the Younger Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Portrait of a Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling is an oil-on-oak portrait completed in around 1526–1528 by German Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger. London.

800px-Christina_of_Denmark _Duchess_of_MilanPortrait of Christina of Denmark, 1538 London

 

Madone_VictoireMantegna

Mantegna's Madonna della Vittoria 1496. Paris 

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van Eyck's The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1434–36 Bruge

1280px-Piero_della_Francesca_046The Brera Madonna, Piero della Francesca Milan

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Fresco Piero Rimini

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The Long Disputed Meaning Of Van Eyck's Painting (Waldemar Januszczak Documentary) | Perspective/VIDEOThe Tudors Through The Eyes Of Holbein

Video: A Stitch in Time in the Arnolfini Portrait

Hannah Gadsby: why I love the Arnolfini Portrait, one of art history’s greatest riddles

GIRL IN A GREEN GOWN 
by Carola Hicks

Jan Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait: Stories of an Icon
by Linda Seidel

 

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Resurrection

"resurrection" by alma thomas
This acrylic and graphite on canvas painting was done by Alma Thomas, who was an educator and artist in Washington, D.C. for most of her career. She was a member of the Washington Color School. This painting was unveiled as part of the White House Collection during Black History Month 2015 and is the first in this collection by an African-American woman. This painting was acquired for the White House Collection with support from George B. Hartzog, Jr., and the White House Acquisition Trust/White House Historical Association.

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Brooklyn Museum/ Kehinde Wiley Napoleon Leading His Army Over the Alps

Napoleon Leading the Army is a clear spin-off of Jacques-Louis David’s painting of 1800-01 (below), which was commissioned by Charles IV, the King of Spain, to commemorate Napoleon’s victorious military campaign against the Austrians. The original portrait smacks of propaganda. Napoleon, in fact, did not pose for the original painting nor did he lead his troops over the mountains into Austria. He sent his soldiers ahead on foot and followed a few days later, riding on a mule.

The Obama Portraits Have Had a Pilgrimage Effect
One year after Kehinde Wiley’s and Amy Sherald’s paintings were unveiled, the director of the National Portrait Gallery reflects on their unprecedented impact.

By Kim Sajet

The Internet Is Restaging Famous Paintings While Museums Are Closed
The Getty, Metropolitan Museum, and Rijksmuseum have challenged their followers to creatively recreate famous works in their collections. In HYPERALLERGIC by Hakim Bishara

 

Books:

The Obama Portraits
by Taina Beatriz Caragol-Barreto, Richard J. Powell, Dorothy Moss, Kim Sajet, Thelma Golden

Huntington Museum Kehinde Wiley: A Portrait of a Young Gentleman

Kehinde Wiley: Memling

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Calligraphy in the Garden Notes

Art-calligraphy-verso-4

A Garden of Words Part One

Exhibition Catalog: A Garden of Words Part One

 

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Qianshen Bai, professor and dean of the School of Art and Archaeology at Zhejiang University, wrote the calligraphy on the title placard for the Chinese Garden’s new art gallery, Studio for Lodging the Mind. Bai spoke about the art of Chinese calligraphy on Sept. 9

Lecture by Qianshen Bai (link below) explores some foundational questions concerning Chinese calligraphy: How did writing become a fine art in China? Where is the boundary between functional writing and visual art?

Some Thoughts on the Art of Chinese Calligraphy

Professor Bai noted that Pablo Picasso famously said, “If I were born Chinese, I would not be a painter but a writer. I’d write my pictures.”


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Wang mansheng

Corridor of Refreshing Sound by Wang Mansheng 王满晟 Running Script

His pictures in brick adorn the studio on either side of door and his calligraphy inscribed on rock in blue below. 


6a00d834535cc569e20263e9732ecd200b
Garden of the Arts 藝苑 (Yì Yuàn)
Wang Mansheng 王滿晟 (born 1962, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China; active United States)


DO01055239Garden Name Calligraphy by Wan-go H. C. Weng, one of the most respected collectors and connoisseurs of Chinese painting in the world, and the great-great-grandson of the preeminent scholar Weng Tonghe (1830–1904).

Heavy forms that seem to take flight, catalog mentions the notable use of "flying white" (see top image)

DO01055240

Cherney
Cherney
Cherney
Cherney

Yao Guijin

Yao Guojin Medicinal Garden/Seal Script

"At first glance, the eccentric forms of Yao Guojin's characters appear like extraterrestrial pictographs..." catalog

Guo detail
Guo detail

 

Lo Ch'ing corridor

Lo Ch’ing 羅青 [Lo Ch’ing-che 羅青哲] (born 1948, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China; active Taiwan). Corridor of Water and Clouds 水雲廊, 2007. Handscroll, ink on paper; calligraphy written in seal script. Image: 16 3/4 x 36 1/4 in. (42.5 x 92 cm); Mount: 16 x 52 in. (40.6 x 133 cm); Roller: 1 3/4 in. (4.5 cm). The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Pines

Lo Ch'ing Listening to the Pines

 

 

 

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Birdwatching in Paintings

Bosch-garden-of-earthly-delights-detail

Image 1 (Detail from Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights in the Prado)


Bosch-garden-of-earthly-delights-detail

Image 2 (Raphael's Madonna del Cardellinoa, in the Uffizi)


Bosch-garden-of-earthly-delights-detail

Image 3 (Detail Above)


Bosch-garden-of-earthly-delights-detail

Image 4 (Carel Fabritius The Goldfinch, in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague)

 

Angelo_bronzino_-_portrait_of_giovanni_de_medici_as_a_child_-_wga3253

Image 5 (Bronzino's Portrait of Giovanni de' Medici as a Child /Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence)

 

1200px-Bosch _Hieronymus_-_The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights _center_panel_-_Detail_women_with_peacock
1200px-Bosch _Hieronymus_-_The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights _center_panel_-_Detail_women_with_peacock

Figures Six and Seven (Details from Bosch)

1280px-Antonello_da_Messina_-_St_Jerome_in_his_study_-_National_Gallery_London
1280px-Antonello_da_Messina_-_St_Jerome_in_his_study_-_National_Gallery_London

Figures 8 and 9 (Antonella's Saint Jerome/National Gallery)

Madone_VictoireMantegna

Image 10 (Mantegna's Madonna della Vittoria/Louvre)

 

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Images 11 & 12 Pups by Carpaccio

Carpaccio _Vittore_-_Hunting_on_the_Lagoon_(recto);_Letter_Rack_(verso)_-_Google_Art_Project

Image 13 Carpaccio's Hunting on the Lagoon (Getty)
Carpaccio _Vittore_-_Hunting_on_the_Lagoon_(recto);_Letter_Rack_(verso)_-_Google_Art_Project

Image 14 Detail
Carpaccio _Vittore_-_Hunting_on_the_Lagoon_(recto);_Letter_Rack_(verso)_-_Google_Art_ProjectImage 15 Cormorant fishing Shuji Sugiyama descends from a long line of master cormorant fishermen—he's now one of only nine left in Japan. COURTESY OF GIFU CITY)

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Image 16 Carpaccio's Two Venetian Ladies (Correr Museum)6a00d834535cc569e201310f37447d970c

Image 16 Carpaccio's Annunciation (Ca' D'Oro Franchetti Gallery)6a00d834535cc569e201310f37447d970c
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6a00d834535cc569e201310f37447d970c

Images 17, 18, 19 Details

6a00d834535cc569e2026bdeda32c5200cImage 20 Vittore Carpaccio’s Narrative Cycle in the Scuola Dalmata6a00d834535cc569e2026bdeda32c5200cImage 21 detail

 

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