Reading Well: American War by Omar El Akkad

Posted on April 8, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Omar El Akkad‘s debut novel, American War (2017), is an arresting, gripping contribution to the landscape of post-apocalyptic fiction. Here, the disaster is largely environmental: all of Florida and most of the Eastern seaboard is underwater, the US economy is shattered, and world power has shifted to China and to a new Middle Eastern empire that stretches (much like it once did) across North Africa and throughout Arabia. America is at war with itself, with a new Civil War pitting the North against what is left of the South.

So far, so standard, at least for the genre.

The most intriguing thing about American War, however, is the protagonist, who is a Southerner (actually from the Louisiana borderlands–Texas is no more, having been re-absorbed into Mexico). She is, however, not a “true believer” of any stripe; instead, she is merely caught up in the cycle of war, and manipulated into her role as a human weapon by forces far beyond her control or comprehension.

This allows El Akkad to explore many perspectives on the war, and allows him to strengthen the character, as their motivations depend on relationships and commitments, not on blind ideology. It’s very effective, and while some of the “historical” documents inserted into the narrative are a little thin, the overall impact is a well-written, page-turner, with clear relevance to contemporary international politics (think Palestine, think disaffected youth through the world, think urban centers of unemployment in Asia, South America, and Africa).

#WhatIWishICouldDo

There is something courageous about these choices as they relate to the protagonist. It is facile to read El Akkad’s journalistic experience in the Middle East as their source; those may have been a factor, but I prefer to credit him with a very creative, very smart way to make a protagonist both more human and thoroughly dedicated to a violent cause.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Hip Hop History: Part II

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Hip Hop History Part 2: 1983 to 1988

Part 1 can be found here.

Sucker M.C.’s (Krush-Groove 1) by Run-DMC (1983). It is hard to overestimate the impact of this trio from Queens on the genre. We’ll talk about how they formed, and we’ll hear more from them later as they played a key part (for better or worse) in hip hop’s crossover success. This song is often seen as the start of “New School” (or the end of the “Old School”). Such delineations are always a bit sloppy and disputable.

White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Melle Mel (1983). Much like the historical relationship between drugs and hip hop, it’s complicated. The bass line is a note-for-note copy (rip-off? Outright theft?) of Cavern by Liquid Liquid, and, to enhance commercial appeal, the song was marketed as being by “Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel,” even though Flash had left Sugar Hill records about a year prior. Written by Melle Mel and Sylvia Robinson, White Lines was originally designed as a celebration of cocaine-fueled partying, later (and only somewhat convincingly) transformed by the insertion of “Don’t do it.”

Rockit by Herbie Hancock (1983). Another song that marks the transition out of the “Old School” moment: Hancock’s embrace of hip hop from his position as a dominant force in jazz further legitimized the music as an art form, and specifically as part of the larger tradition of African-American art forms. A visionary video and a memorable performance on Saturday Night Live helped as well.

La Di Da Di by Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh. La Di Da Di was released with The Show on its flipside, and choosing between these monstrously influential cuts was quite difficult. Despite its problematic lyrics, especially at the end, La Di Da Di won out due to it being the first record with an MC (Slick Rick) backed entirely by a beatboxer for the full duration of the song. A British artist born in Barbados, Doug E. Fresh is generally accepted as the original beatboxer–he was not, in fact, the first, but he was the most influential of the first generation.

Walk This Way by Run-DMC & Aerosmith (1986). The quintessential crossover hit, the song that shattered the perception that hip hop was limited in its commercial potential, and the song responsible for the revival of the fortunes of a once-influential 1970s rock n’ roll group (although this last was decidedly not the narrative at the time). This song is also important as a mark of Rick Rubin‘s influence: neither Run nor DMC wanted to do the song (Jam Master Jay was, at best, neutral), and it was only through Rubin’s persuasion that it got made at all.

South Bronx by Boogie Down Productions (1987). If Walk This Way symbolizes the commercialization of hip hop (and all that leads to), BDP’s 1987 debut album, Criminal Minded introduced the world to the bombastic, political force of KRS-ONE. We’ll talk about Kris Parker, for sure. This track is the second salvo in the beef between BDP and The Juice Crew, led by MC Shan and Marley Marl, known as “The Bridge Wars.”

If there is a record that deserves to be an exception to the “one cut per album” rule, it is Public Enemy‘s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (1987). This is one of those moments that is almost impossible to recreate: the force of Chuck D‘s vocals, the strident, siren-driven beats, the over-the-top posturing of Flava Flav, all wrapped in an uncompromising political stance. These two songs, Rebel Without A Pause and Bring the Noise were simply inescapable. This is, most likely, the single most influential album in hip hop history, when looked at in terms of the impact on the music and the culture and their future development.

No Sleep Till Brooklyn by Beastie Boys (1987). The members of the Beastie Boys had been hanging around the hip hop scene since the very beginning, and while their first album, Licensed to Ill, could be seen more of a novelty act by a trio of white punks; their later albums sealed their place in the history of the music. But it began here, with a disposable party anthem that set the stage for their sound.

Push It by Salt-N-Pepa (1987). There had been other female MCs or groups, but Push It marked the beginning of the lineage of dominant female artists, from Salt-N-Pepa through Queen Latifah and MC Lyte (more from them later) and on. Importantly, Salt, Pepa, and DJ Spinderella were so good as to dispel any notion that they were gimmicks.

Paid In Full by Eric B. & Rakim (1987). Eric B. & Rakim were, in all likelihood, the most influential DJ/MC combination in old school hip hop. Technically, nobody matched their combination of creative and funky beats with Rakim’s near-perfect flow. Paid in Full was a success on its own; then it’s remix by UK dance act Coldcut expanded its impact to a worldwide audience.

My Philosophy by Boogie Down Productions (1988). Everything about By All Means Necessary, from the Malcolm X inspired album cover to the subject matter of the songs declared the presence of a major force in the world of hip hop. If South Bronx was an anthem, My Philosophy is a manifesto.

Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. (1988). We end this segment with the iconic explosion of West Coast, “Gangsta Rap” with the debut of N.W.A. While they were not the first of the genre, and over half the group came from Alonzo Williams‘ World Class Wreckin’ Crew, they weren’t far off, and their raw skills combined with their notoriety ushered in a new era for hip hop.

The Spotify playlist is here: http://bit.ly/hiphophspva-2

Next time, we’ll navigate through what we’re going to focus on once hip hop takes off and becomes an unquestionable commercial force.

DeepCuts

The entire DeepCuts playlist can be found here: http://bit.ly/hiphophspva-deep . This playlist will be added to as each installment is published.

Things get deep, fast, from here on out. As such, some more information on some songs that are historically important, but don’t quite fit in our time limits. Listening to them is strongly encouraged!

Buffalo Gals by Malcolm McLaren (1983). British art impressarios (today, we would call them “influencers”) McLaren and Trevor Horn were, on a trip to New York City, invited by Afrika Bambaataa to a Zulu Nation block party; while there, McLaren especially was taken with the technique of scratching and, over the protests of his record label, released Buffalo Gals. Hip hop took quite some time to really grow roots in the UK, but some early attempts were there: see Give It A Rest by She Rockers (1988) for an example.

Roxanne, Roxanne by UTFO (1984). Untouchable Force Organization was a solid contributor to the early Brooklyn hip hop scene, but this song is included mostly for the small industry it generated: within a year of its release, somewhere between fifty and one hundred “response cuts” were released, the most famous being Roxanne’s Revenge by the then-14 year old Roxanne Shanté. This is generally seen as the original rap “beef,” predating even “The Bridge Wars.”

“Songs” appear in quotation marks, Albums in italics without quotations, and Artists in bold.

#Beats and Samples

“Tour de France” by Kraftwerk (Germany, 1983); “Beat Box” by The Art of Noise (UK, 1983); “Cavern” by Liquid Liquid (1983).

#Notable Cuts

“New York New York” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five; “Rock Box (7″ version)” (1984) and “Peter Piper” (1986) by Run-DMC; “Beat Street Breakdown” by Grandmaster Melle Mel & The Furious Five (1984); “Jam On It” (1984) by Newcleus; “Jail House Rap” and “Human Beat Box (1984) by Fat Boys; “The Show” by Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh (1985); “Slow and Low” by Beastie Boys (1986); “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” “Rightstarter (Message to a Black Man),” and “Raise the Roof” by Public Enemy (1987); “Microphone Fiend” and “Follow the Leader” by Eric B. & Rakim (1988); “Children’s Story” by Slick Rick & Doug E. Fresh (1988); “Self Destruction” by Stop the Violence Movement (1988); “Part Time Suckers” by Boogie Down Productions (1988). 

#Notable Cuts: West Coast Edition

“Body Rock” (1983) by Ice-T; “Surgery” and “Slice” by World Class Wreckin’ Crew (1985); “6 ‘n the Morning” by Ice-T (1986); Straight Outta Compton by N.W.A. (1987). 

#The Bridge Wars

“The Bridge” by MC Shan (1985); “Kill That Noise” by The Juice Crew (1987); “The Bridge is Over” by Boogie Down Productions (1987).

#Film

Breakin’ (1964) and Beat Street (1984) were hugely influential in the spread of hip hop, both domestically and internationally. Wild Style (1983) and Krush Groove (1985), much less so. All will make you laugh at parts, and give some insight into the historical moment.

{Continue on to Part 3}

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reading Well: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

George Saunders‘ much anticipated novel Lincoln in the Bardo (2017) does not disappoint, although it may bewilder.

The Lincoln of the title is not Abe, but rather Willie, his son who died at the nadir of his presidency (the Civil War is well underway, but it is not going well, and the steady river of corpses is taking a toll on the populace). Abe does have a role in the book, but the protagonists are actually a trio of ghosts.

Ghosts is an unfair term: the graveyard where Willie is buried is populated by a bevy of spirits who have not yet moved on to their final destination (the title refers to the Tibetan tradition of exactly such a space; the novel weaves bits of Tibetan mythology together with themes from The Egyptian Book of the Dead as well as more traditional Christian elements). They spirits refuse to accept their situation, insisting instead they are merely waiting to be healed.

Whether they will discover the truth of their situation forms most of what plot there is, enhanced by the experiences of the ghosts with Lincoln, whose visits to his son’s grave afford them moments of insight into the present world.

Lincoln in the Bardo is much closer to a play than a traditional novel, with chapters of dialog interspersed with chapters of very short excerpts from both actual and invented historical sources, often used to present a variety of perspectives on what would usually be thought of as simple truths. As a minor example, across a dozen or so quotes, the color of Lincoln’s (Abe’s, not Willie’s) eyes are described successively as grey, grey-blue, blue-grey, and blue.

It is a small thing, but it underscores the insistence of the novel on the possibility of mystery, and of the truth of the moment proving elusive and unknown. If the book is about anything, I would contend it is about that.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

There is a core humanity to the novel that is moving, and lovely. Allowing that to shine through is a great demonstration of craft and skill, doing so while mixing historical records, fiction, and a pivotal moment in the history of the USA is even more impressive.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Hip Hop History: Part I

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

{I’m speaking on the history of hip hop at HSPVA in a few weeks; in preparation for that, m and I are working on some playlists. This is the first in a series of posts meant to be listening guides for those playlists.}

Hip Hop History Part 1: Origins through 1982

Amen, Brother by The Winstons (1969). This is the most sampled song in hip hop history, specifically the drum solo about halfway through, which is so popular, it is known as “the Amen Break.”

When the Revolution Comes by The Last Poets (1970) and The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron (1974). The link between these songs and hip hop is one of cultural continuity, not direct artistic lineage. We’ll talk more about this, but in many ways these songs were far more influential on hip hop in the 1990s and 2000s than the 1970s and 1980s.

Wake the Town by U-Roy (1970). U-Roy was one of the earliest practitioners of toasting, a Jamaican tradition of speaking over repeated rhythms. Many of the early DJs and MCs were first generation immigrants from the Caribbean, and while the direct impact of toasting on early MC styles isn’t totally clear, it is clearly present (as are speech styles from radio dee-jays of the 1950s and 1960s).

Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang (1979). Claims to be “the first” are usually eventually disproven, but this is probably the most important of the initial songs to feature rapping throughout the entire song. There is a lot here, from the (currently) bizarre notion of a fifteen minute song to the classic structure of a series of MCs taking turns introducing themselves to the way in which the famous lines prefigure beatboxing.

That’s the Joint by Funky Four Plus One (1980). Included because the Funky Four Plus One were an important group in the early days, and because of the sampling of this song on a later De La Soul cut. They were the first group to have a female rapper (Sha Rock), and, like many of the early groups, went through numerous variations both in name and composition.

The Breaks by Kurtis Blow (1980). The first rap record to reach certified Gold status–and only the 2nd 12″ to achieve that level of sales. Certified Gold means over 500,000 records sold through official channels–yes, that implies the presence of various gray markets and the fact that other hip hop singles likely broke 500,000 units sold as well.

Rapture by Blondie (1980). The question of the role and relevance of white artists in hip hop exists from the very beginning (and looms even larger once you consider the roles of producers like Rick Rubin). Also, while Fab 5 Freddy reached his greatest fame as the host of Yo! MTV Raps in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was an important and influential figure in early hip hop, especially as a conduit between music being made uptown in the Bronx and the downtown art scene (dominated at the time by punk generally and the performance space CBGB’s specifically).

The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel by Grandmaster Flash (1981). Hip hop is usually defined as containing four related art forms (DJing, MCing, breakdancing, and graffiti art), and while MCs dominate the industry over the past several decades, the early stars were the DJs. This album captures a live performance by Grandmaster Flash. Listen for other songs you’ve heard, both here and elsewhere.

Busy Bee vs Kool Moe Dee (1981). This is the most important early rap battle, and set the stage for “the battle” as an important part of hip hop. Busy Bee was an influential early MC, but here Kool Moe Dee (at that point part of The Treacherous Three) just destroys him. Annihilates. Obliterates. Pick your verb. Pay attention to the structure of the sets: Busy Bee comes in with a standard set of verses, then Kool Moe Dee gets started. Note how he raps about specific parts of Busy Bee’s verse, and then continues to complicate the rhythmic patterns until he hits a series of doubletime verses that are a decade ahead of their time.

Don’t Stop … Planet Rock by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force (1982). It’s very hard to date this track: Bambaataa was performing it for several years before it was recorded. There is probably no more intimidating figure in early hip hop than Afrika Bambaataa–a pivotal force in the transition of The Black Spades from a gang into the community organization, The Zulu Nation, and a huge man, he was one of the original three DJs (along with Kool DJ Herc and Grandmaster Flash) that dominated the early days. While the impact is often overstated, the song is clearly influenced by German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk.

The Message by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five. It took a while for the MC lineup of The Furious Five to stabilize (Cowboy, Melle Mel, and Kidd Creole were original members, Rahiem came from the Funky Four Plus One, and Scorpio came last). However, only Melle Mel was involved in The Message, one of the most important songs in hip hop history. The song was written by Ed “Duke Bootee” Fletcher, a Sugar Hill session musician, and Sylvia Robinson (we’ll talk more about her) had a hard time convincing the group to perform a song that was so clearly not a “party song.” Melle Mel and Fletcher split the verses (Rahiem lip-syncs Fletcher’s lines in the video). While politics is present throughout early hip hop, both implicitly and explicitly, The Message has a legitimate claim as the first successful political hip hop song.

That’s it. Part 2 will see the rise of the supergroups, the birth of beatboxing, and the explosion of political consciousness into hip hop. That will only take us up to around 1987 or so!

The Spotify Playlist for Part 1 may be found here: http://bit.ly/hiphophspva-1

DeepCuts

“Songs” appear in quotation marks, Albums in italics without quotations, and Artists in bold.

The entire DeepCuts playlist can be found here: http://bit.ly/hiphophspva-deep . This playlist will be added to as each installment is published.

#Samples and Other Influences

“Funky Drummer” by James Brown; Mothership Connection by Parliament. “Drop the Bomb” by Trouble Funk; “Maggot Brain” and “One Nation Under a Groove” by Funkadelic.

The Last Poets by The Last Poets, The Watts Prophets, Pieces of a Man by Gil Scott-Heron; Dennis Alcapone; I-Roy.

#1979 – 1982

“Rappin’ and Rocking the House” by Funky Four Plus One; “Christmas Rappin'” by Kurtis Blow; “Looking Good (Shake Your Body)” by Eddie Cheba; “The New Rap Language” by Spoonie Gee and the Treacherous Three; “8th Wonder” by The Sugarhill Gang; “Looking for the Perfect Beat” by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force; “Scorpio” by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five; “Rockin’ It” by The Fearless Four.

#Political Hip Hop

“How We Gonna Make the Black Nation Rise?” by Brother D with Collective Effort.

{Continue on to Part 2}

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Reading Well: Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss

Posted on March 17, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

The most compelling writing in Molly Prentiss‘ debut novel, Tuesday Nights in 1980 (2016), surrounds a synesthetic writer, whose descriptions of the New York art scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s are fantastically vivid and surprising. He is not quite an art critic, more of a critical virtuoso, whose ability to identify emotional resonance in artists proves to be a bellwether for critics and collectors alike.

I don’t believe it is a description of synesthesia in a strict sense–his ability to perceive color and smell and sensation from works of art vanishes and returns at key points in the novel’s plot–but as a conceit, it works very well, allowing Prentiss to pull together creative and unexpected adjectives to evoke the varieties of style and emotion, especially in the visual arts of the era.

The rest of the characters–an Argentinian painter in exile on the verge of success, a naif from Idaho trying to find her way into the scene, along with a full company of supporting roles–are drawn well, and their personalities and motivations remain distinct throughout the book.

This is a novel about art, about what it takes to create it, but moreso about what it might mean to lose it, to never find or no longer have access to the outlet that it provides, and it is most successful when it is engaging directly with those themes, and with their impacts on the lives of the characters.

Clearly, the more this historical moment–New  York City once Warhol has peaked, the gentrification of southern Manhattan has barely begun, and the HIV/AIDS crisis is still in its infancy–appeals, the more the novel will as well.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

Continually create descriptions that are as poetically surprising as Prentiss’. Yes, the synesthesia thing grants her a huge amount of leeway, but (a) what a great idea to find something to provide that, and (b) she still executes it with aplomb and precision.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Reading Well: Two Quick Things

Posted on March 4, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Every once in a while, I encounter an artist whose aesthetic fits my own in what feels like a profound way, someone that becomes an instant and enduring favorite. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Tord Gustaven‘s piano trio did this, China Miéville‘s fiction did this, and Eddie Izzard‘s stand up comedy did this.

As such, I read Izzard’s autobiography, Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens (2017) with great anticipation. Much of what resonates with me about Izzard’s comedy is his intelligence, and his observations about history and contemporary culture, many of which distill complex phenomena into cutting, incisive observations. I am also a sucker for artists talking about their craft, about how they think about the creation process of their art.

Unfortunately, neither of these make much of an appearance in Believe Me, and his explorations of what it meant to grow up and then come out as a transvestite in England a few decades ago are clearly personally powerful, but lack a level of sophisticated exploration to really be more universally compelling. The absence of political nuance in the book is striking, something that combines with some other clues about rushed editing (the repetition of some thoughts and phrases, etc.) that make me wonder about how much of the tone was planned/controlled.

It’s an interesting read, and I’m glad to have more understanding as to what possessed him to run 27 marathons in 26 days, but it lacks either the depth of insight or the laugh out loud moments I hoped to find.

# # #

The Dark Defiles (2014) concludes Richard K. Morgan‘s A Land Fit For Heroes trilogy (started in The Steel Remains and continued in The Cold Commands). There’s not much new here, and the write-ups of the previous two books continue to be true: this is engaging, page-turning fantasy/speculative fiction, and worth a shot if that’s what you enjoy.

I’ve started several series as part of Reading Well; this is one of the few I carried on with and completed, and should Morgan choose to return to this world (surely there is more, either in the history of conflict with the reptilian invaders or in the intergalactic travelers), I will be happy to journey there as well.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

@The Movies with PopPop: Detroit

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Detroit is a 2017 movie directed by Kathryn Bigelow (of Hurt Locker fame) that reconstructs elements of the 1967 12th Street Riot – or Rebellion if you prefer.  It centers on the events at the Algiers Motel, where after suspicion of shooting at police, a dozen or so people who were staying at the motel were detained by the police, tortured, and several killed.  The movie, while not a documentary, attempts to adhere as closely as possible to the factual record – which of course is incomplete and leaves a lot of room for the filmmakers.

It is not an easy movie to watch.  The central, quite long, section focuses on the brutal treatment and torture of the motel residents by the police, and goes on painfully.  There is a little background regarding those at the motel, and brief coverage of the eventual trial of the police officers most directly involved, and some interviews and subtitles at the end about what happened to some of the individuals. The movie is short on context with Detroit’s prior civil rights struggles, history of police brutality, and the pre-riot lives of Detroit’s black population are given short shrift.  Despite this, both the combination of newsreel footage of the multiple day riot and its fairly seamless integration with the movie allows it to make its points powerfully and dramatically.

While the movie was made to honor the 50th anniversary of its events, the resonance with the current situation in US cities is depressingly powerful.  It’s worth seeing, though gird yourself!

The movie also brings up a disturbing question of whether a white director – even one with the best intentions and sympathies – can make a movie that captures the internal context and history of an American minority population without leaving out so much context as to undercut its meaning and power to any who lack deep familiarity with it.  The following article, while to me overstated, tackles this problem:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/detroit-is-the-most-irresponsible-and-dangerous-movie-this-year_us_5988570be4b0f2c7d93f5744.

Detroit is a movie worth seeing, and one of those that say art can and perhaps should be disturbing.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Reading Well: Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

I’ve been looking forward to Neil Gaiman‘s Norse Mythology (2017) since it was announced. As long as your expectations are correct, it doesn’t disappoint.

Here’s what I mean: this is a very faithful retelling of the well-known tales of Norse legend–the origination of Thor’s hammer, the battle of Ragnarok, the treachery of Loki, etc. And those stories are told with all of the vividness, nuance, and wit that readers of Gaiman have come to expect. And it’s well-informed: Thor is bit of a doofus, which is consistent with the source material, but not the character as envisioned in the Marvel universe; Loki is complicated and both guilty of high treason and responsible for key successes in the narrative of the Gods, etc.

That faithfulness can also leave a reader wanting more: in the introduction, Gaiman refers to all of the gaps in our knowledge of the Norse mythic landscape: there are gods and, especially, goddesses that are referenced but whose stories are lost and numerous events that are only referenced obliquely in the material that has survived. Gaiman’s creation and interpretation of those stories would be a highly compelling read.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

Get a contract to rewrite a known set of myths? Sure! I think more than that, the process of submerging myself in a known sea of writings and then reinterpreting them is highly attractive, although I doubt my ability to remain as consistent with the source as Gaiman does here.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Reading Well: Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

Max Porter‘s Grief is the Thing with Feathers (2015) lives somewhere between a prose poem and a novella, and, in fact, at times feels like the script for a fascinating stage production. It is a short, stunningly creative, and highly evocative lyric narrative exploration of his partner’s death and the impact of that loss on him and their two sons.

There is sadness here, but there is also growth, and humor, and joy and, ultimately, a family finding its way to a moment where grief is no longer the dominant force in their lives. Grief is portrayed in the book as a crow, who also exists as a bit of a dream/trickster figure, leading the family on their journey while also keeping them from moving too quickly through it.

There is some buried treasure here for poets as well: the protagonist is working on an academic exploration of Ted Hughes’ work, and the crow figure itself is one that is highlighted there.

It’s a very quick read, and if the ideas of grief and poetry are attractive, it is highly, highly recommended.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

I’m not a poet. I’ve written some poetry and even some that I’m proud of, but as lyrically descriptive as I aspire to be, the pure poetry here eludes me. What I mean by pure poetry are the ruptures and irruptions in the text that break open its meaning. Porter has chops, and there are moments where those shine through in ways I could never attain.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Reading Well: Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Daniel (@MKNN)

We are all about to be submerged by a tidal wave of Nnedi Okorafor. Who Fears Death (read before I started Reading Wells, and highly recommended) is in production by HBO, her Binti series is a critical favorite, etc. The third novel to be reviewed here is Lagoon (2014), which  is most similar to The Book of Phoenix in that it is, in my view, likely to be seen as a less-central part of her output.

Lagoon is an odd book, one that becomes much better than anticipated, but quite intentionally doesn’t really end, and not necessarily because there are more installments coming (although that is possible, for sure). At core, I think the novel is really focused on two areas: the first is the essential question of the plot, which is what would you do if the aliens appeared? and the second is a loving ode to the city of Lagos.

The former is complicated by three central characters with supernatural powers, but the basic range of responses, from flight to fight, from riot to rally together, are presented in inventive, creative ways. The latter is more subtext than text, but is clearly present, both in some key secondary human characters (government officials, soldiers, a particularly vocal pastor) and some nice non-human touches (the spirit of the city itself, a monster that possesses the Lagos-Benin expressway to feed on the bones of travelers).

The aliens are a catalyst in many ways, loosing upon the world both the range of human behavior described above and a wave of monsters from the deep ocean with long held resentments towards humanity.

The action of the book is limited first to Lagos, and then to Nigeria (with a short vignette in Ghana), but there is also a gradual widening of the lens, as millions of people start to observe what is happening via social media. The end of the book–even interspersed with the author’s note and acknowledgements–touches on a trio of African-American students in North America and their reactions to what they have seen.

In the first third of the book, I was concerned about it feeling a bit thin, a bit prone to caricature. By halfway, though, I was hooked, and I found it to be as creative and thought-provoking as the rest of Okorafor’s work.

#WhatIWishICouldDo

Okorafor’s writing sparkles with creativity and confidence, a combination that is hard to beat, and Lagoon is no exception.

Posted in Culture | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment