Book Review of Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch"

Why do we love beautiful things? What’s the purpose of showy objects with no practical application or purpose in the world? Why do we create, collect, fall in love, lie, steal?  What’s the nature of corruption? What exists between the realms of illusion and reality—and why do we care?

Donna Tartt’s masterful and understandably popular 2013 novel The Goldfinch reveals answers to some of these universally heart-wrenching, life-defining, and beautiful questions. It’s part Dickens, part Gatsby, part Dostoevsky—though set in the current time, Tartt’s story is one of universal significance and her characters and voice possess a pleasing sense of timelessness. Through her deeply personal characterization of Theodore Decker, middle-school “Momma’s boy” turned art thief turned shady antiques shop owner, Tartt seeks to work through these questions and help readers glean their own sense of meaning and truth from Theo’s story.

But are we supposed to like Theo? He doesn’t really have justifications for many of his actions, acting as a victim of pure fate, plagued by guilt for his crime so much so that he cannot enjoy the benefits of the theft itself. We’re meant to relate to Theo’s struggles while also being annoyed with him for not doing the right thing, for constantly drowning his woes in vodka and escaping reality through pills, and for letting fate take hold of his life more than it should.

Throughout the book, I went back and forth between practically loathing Theo to feeling sorry for him and all the loss in his life but by the time I was at the conclusion, I loved him. Theo became a symbol for something I’ve been trying to put into coherent words for years but never can (possibly because I’m 20 years old and not exactly wise yet): why do we care about art and how does art and expression relate to some innate, universal humanity deep down within us? How are we supposed to reconcile the heartbreak that comes when our illusions/imaginings/dreams are not, in fact, reality and live in the mundane world? Are we all just slaves to the superficial, surface, illusory—or does something deeper lie in this beauty? Theo and Tartt prove ingeniously that life and humanity exist in this conflict between dreams and reality.

So as not to give too much away to you all who haven’t read The Goldfinch yet, I want to share some of my favorite quotes from the book but they also don’t give away the plot!

On the myriad different ways of seeing/perceiving:

“You see one painting, I see another, the art book puts it at another remove still, the lady buying the greeting card at the museum gift shop sees something else entire, and that’s not even to mention the other people separated from us by time—four hundred years before us, four hundred years after we’re gone—it’ll never strike anybody the same way and the great majority of people it’ll never strike in any deep way at all but—a really great painting is fluid enough to work it’s way into the mind and heart through all kinds of different angles, in ways that are unique and very particular” page 758

On “beauty” and it’s simultaneous farce & truth:

“beauty alters the grain of reality. And I keeping thinking too of the more conventional wisdom: namely, that the pursuit of pure beauty is a trap, a fast track to bitterness and sorrow, that beauty has to wedded to something more meaningful. Only what is that thing? Why am I made the way I am? Why do I care about all the wrong things, and nothing at all for the right ones? Or, to tip it another way: how can I see so clearly that everything I love or care about is illusion, and yet—for me, anyway—all that’s worth living for lies in that charm?” pages 760-1

the significance of inner beauty & meaning transmutable to the individual person:“It’s not about outward appearances but inward significance. A grandeur in the world, but not of the world, a grandeur that the world doesn’t understand.”—This reminded me of a quote by T.S. Eliot from The Wasteland  “a view of the street the street hardly understands.”

Producer Profile: Sango

Sango

Currently on tour in Europe, electronic music producer Sango hails from Michigan, United States which is refreshing considering most of the producers I listen to are from the UK. Sango creates amazing music: often, he takes inspiration from genres such as Cumbia and Salsa, adds electronic beats and deep bass, and creates a completely original and euphonic aura. Check out his new album "North" on Spotify, "Middle of Things, Beautiful Wife" is amazing. Yet again, I have to give a shout out to Soundcloud for helping me discover gifted artists such as Sango. 

One of my favorite EPs is his Otra Vez EP (2012) which can be found and purchased on Bandcamp. My favorite tracks from this EP are "O Carnaval (Rio Traphino) and Me Gusta Mucho (Santo Domino Trap) but all of it is excellent! 

Otra Vez explores and celebrates the diverse music of Latin America, with each track working off of a different geographic location/musical tradition. Sango takes traditional samples of this Latin music, manipulates them through effects and repetition, and of course, adds the electronic bass. The beats of the EP are largely formed by the Latin samples but Sango fills out these beats with deep bass, creating a rich atmosphere. The Otra Vez EP both honors and alters the musical traditions of Latin America, proving, once again, that sampling is another way of perceiving and enjoying what has already been created by forming it into an original work of art. 

Bandcamp Otra Vez EP: http://sango.bandcamp.com/album/otra-vez-ep

"Middle of Things/ Beautiful Wife": https://soundcloud.com/soulection/sango-middle-of-things

What I'm Listening to Now: James Blake

I don't know how and why it took me so long to discover the music of James Blake but when, on a whim, I decided to look him up, I listened to his 2013 album "Overgrown" from start to finish and never turned back. The 25-year-old Brit blends elements of dubstep and D&B, melodic and emotional piano and strings, jazzy vocals, and poetics in his hybridized, yet sleek and seamlessly woven music. Blake's music gives you a window deep into his mind and soul while also being relatable and translatable to your own life. The music is minimalist yet beautiful and compliments rather than overtakes Blake's vocals. What I probably appreciate most about Blake's music is his ability to create an atmosphere that is at once wholly real and raw while at the same time becoming otherworldly, romantic, and mystic. First Blake relates to you--evoking intense emotion in his audience--then he sweeps you up into the imagined world of his music. Currently, a few of my favorite tracks from "Overgrown" include: "Overgrown", "Retrograde", "Digital Lion",and "Voyeur".

Give the full album a listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jx5rYQpasw

Soundcloud, Digital Freedom, & New Music Favorites

Recently, I have discovered a whole new world of music found on Soundcloud, a site that allows just about anyone to upload and share their original music. I think there is a lot of hidden talent in the less famous and well-known music scenes. With the internet, these artists are much easier to discover, especially with sites like Soundcloud. Although there is huge debate over the ethicality of free downloads and a more free source music scene, I believe that much of this comes from older generations and people out to support blatant capitalism. These opponents argue that not paying for your music somehow robs the artist of money for their hard work and time. In a way, I do agree with this side of the argument---the starving artist syndrome should not be as widespread as it is, and society puts far too much value on a stamped-out version of "progress," an antiquated ideal of practicality, and a warped sense that STEM jobs are the only professions worth pursuing.

In response to both of these arguments, I would like to pose two questions: 1) Isn't there more to being human than being merely practical? Surely, though an artist may not directly impact the furthering of humanity to the same scale as perhaps a scientist, aren't the indirect impacts of an artist's pursuits highly important to mental well-being, seeing from a different perspective, and expressing emotions? 2) Do we really want art, music, and creativity to be capitalized upon? This idea and others are discussed in the 2009 documentary "RIP: A Remix Manifesto," which is available on vimeo and well worth watching: http://vimeo.com/8040182. "Girl Talk," a mash-up, remix artist featured in the documentary argues against the commoditization of pop artists by corporate labels and works against this in his remix songs, which take from this already existing wealth of creativity and twist it to make something wholly new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQMp26-kdY. 

Of course, this is not an easy topic but I don't think it's meant to be. All of the smaller music labels are eaten up and owned by a few large corporations. What we hear and see of popular music is all controlled by a larger mechanism of capitalism. Do you really think that Miley Cyrus decided one day to shave off her hair and begin throwing in explicit drug and sexual references to her once tame Disney music? No. This “transformation” is diligently and strategically planned in order to make more money. Remix artists fight against the overt capitalist drive to make music and art for the sake of getting ahead. Many artists share this music on Soundcloud where anyone with internet can access it. I really think that this is the way digital natives are starting to express themselves. Now anyone with a laptop and some music software can create original works of music and share them with the world. I think this is really freeing. Sure, you might not make a big buck off it, but your ideas are put out there in the mix of things.

Now, about the new music I discovered via Soundcloud: the first song of the genre that I heard is one of the most transformational, emotional pieces of new music I'd heard in a while. The song is called "Beautiful" by Tajan and fwdslxsh and is a collaborative mix by two young, aspiring electronic music artists. 

Link to the song: https://soundcloud.com/soulection/tajan-fwdslxsh-beautiful

The song features vocal samples from an older JT classic "My Love" but repeats one line from this song's lyrics: "If I told you you were beautiful...just to say how much you mean to me." These lyrics are manipulated, repeated, and interlaced throughout the song. The music is a luscious blend of deep bass, melodic arpeggeated keyboard “harp” runs, and hip-hop and rap elements.  My favorite part of the song by far is its ending which features rich sustained string chords and an emotional minor key piano melody. “Beautiful” is, to me, the perfect blend of urban roughness and electronic edge with melodic, hyper-emotional, and rich sap. When I listen to it, it seems like it would be the perfect soundtrack to the story of a short, impassioned love affair that you knew would never last. Cliché as I may be, I highly recommend Tajan and fwdslxsh’s sexy collaborative track and I am glad that I found out thanks to Soundcloud.

Review of Frazier's "Nightwoods"

What Fear Provokes: Fight or Flight Response

Review of Nightwoods By Charles Frazier

“People start doing all kinds of interesting things when they’re scared” (83).

Charles Frazier’s Nightwoods chronicles the metamorphosis of Luce, an isolated woman who believes that she is contented with a solitary life spent in the nature of the North Carolinian mountains as she is forced to confront her fears head-on when she takes in two children after her sister falls victim to uxoricide. These painfully silent, violently rash children not only interrupt the ebb and flow of Luce’s life alone but their presence embodies something more important. It reconnects Luce with the world around her, pulling her into her dismal familial past, rekindling a lost love, and compelling her to unfreeze herself from her numbing fear. 

Now, briefly, for some science. The "fight or flight response" is a physiological reaction in humans which occurs when the body or mind is put under strain. It is characterized by the release of predominately the hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline, which increase heart and breathing rates and blood pressure and result in the person either fleeing the situation at hand or making a desperate attempt to fight against the forces at hand. It is one of our most primal and essential survival mechanisms and the characters Frazier forms all seem to fit into one of the two categories: fight or flight. 

Exploring the secluded woods near her house, an out-of-use Lodge of olden times, the recluse Luce is confronted with her own staggering fear. Through her isolation further into her own mind, Luce takes the "flight" response, fleeing the world and avoiding her fears. Luce’s fear is largely symbolized by a gaping “black hole” in the woods, that is “before life and beyond life” (Frazier 71). The black hole stands for our inability to fall into our fears, our resistance to understand what seems incomprehensible, and our rash response to the insurmountable hurdle of fear itself.

The victim children and their murderous father both take the “fight” response to deal with their fears. Rather than fall victim to forces greater than themselves, they take on the role of God controlling what burns and what bleeds. The children are fire-obsessed and singe Stubblefield’s family house for entertainment. Bud, the primary antagonist of the work, controls through bloodshed primarily. Quite obviously, fire and blood, respectively, are symbolic of concepts larger than their basic definitions. For Bud, blood is connected to an extremely warped spirituality, formed from a childhood of church-going. Tampering with violence and blood, to Bud, is analogous to confronting God and, even, following God’s example: “If God wanted things to be different, he’d have coated us in armor. Or made us pray to a face pulled apart by pain, screaming. But he wanted us to bleed. The flow of blood, a red bleeding heart. That is beautiful” (246). In blood, according to Bud, lies the root of all human folly: our quivering vulnerability. In Bud's eyes, to determine the fate of blood is to master that vulnerability: to beat your own fear.

The fact is, we can't beat our fears. It's our fears that horrify us, but it's also our fears than define us, demonstrating where proper boundary lines exist and placing us in our proper roles as human-beings. Fear, Frazier posits, must neither be beaten or fled from. No, fear, must be soaked in and then we must become stronger because of it. 

Fashion Friday: Outfit for San Francisco

Tomorrow I depart for San Francisco, California for a week-long stay. The weather there is very different from the sweltering conditions of a North Carolinian summer & I also want to be a bit more chic than my usual workout clothes ensemble.

1. The Jet-Setter comfortable yet fashionable 

Light Makeup & Layered Hair

Banana Republic Trench Coat

Blue Ruffle Tank from The Limited 

Gap 1969 Denim White Jeans 

Nine West Purse 

Bass Cork & Metallic Wedges

After College Possibilities: To Africa with the Peace Corps

“Your 20’s are your ‘selfish’ years. It’s a decade to immerse yourself in every single thing possible. Be selfish with your time, and all the aspects of you. Tinker with shit, travel, explore, love a lot, love a little, and never touch the ground.”
---Kyoko Escamilla 

I'm always looking toward the future; I'm a little restless with my life, I suppose. But I think this is because I'm a dreamer by nature, always looking toward the next adventure, curious about what the world has to show me and teach me. That being said, I just finished my Freshman year at UNC Asheville and I'm already considering post-college options for myself. Part of my restlessness is due to the fact that I, like many others my age, am still finding myself among the many tempting areas of study that college and the world have to offer me. Recently though, I have started to reconsider my purpose in the world and I've been leaning a lot more toward work of a charitable nature. Less than a year ago, I wanted to work a high-powered job for an advertising company or social media network. Now, however, I no longer care about my salary as much because I'd rather be rich with experience than rich in material goods.

So, after college, I am highly considering joining the Peace Corps and volunteering for 27 months in Africa. I'd like to work on one of the health projects there, such as malaria or HIV/Aids prevention or work in education. 

Why Africa, though? Africa has long intrigued me; it's where all humanity originated, the natural landscape is so varied and gorgeous, the people are extremely diverse, and it also faces some of the world's most horrific issues. All this in mind, the thought of even having any impact on such a vast, complex continent seems extremely daunting. Yet, this is what attracts me to it. It is the little things put together; our little individual impacts that shape the future. Plus, who doesn't want an adventure in a completely different landscape and culture than your own? I know I certainly do.

Below are two videos, the first on HIV/AIDS and the second on malaria. 

fact: every minute, a child dies of malaria

On My Bookshelf

1) Nightwoods, By Charles Frazier 

“Nothing changes what already happened. It will always have happened. You either let it break you down or you don't.”-from Nightwoods 

Just got this book today, on an impromptu trip to the used bookstore and have read three chapters so far. I was attracted to the book because of two main reasons. The first is I read Frazier's most well-known book Cold Mountain for AP English Literature my senior year of high school and fell in love with Frazier's ability to construct his sentences and narratives. The second reason is I am in college in Asheville, North Carolina and Frazier's settings are always in the rural North Carolinian mountains, which intrigue me on a personal level. 

The book concerns itself with a far more intimate panorama than that of Cold Mountain (which is a Civil War, adventure epic) and focuses on the life of an isolated woman living in an out-of-business lodge in the Western area of North Carolina. So far I am enjoying the beautiful sentences and rich imagery. 

2) Poor Economics, By Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo 

“Poverty is not just a lack of money; it is not having the capability to realize one’s full potential as a human being.”-from Poor Economics 

“Every year, 9 million children die before their fifth birthday. A woman in sub-Saharan Africa has a one-in-thirty chance of dying while giving birth — in the developed world, the chance is one in 5,600. There are at least twenty-five countries, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where the average person is expected to live no more than fifty-five years. In India alone, more than 50 million school-going children cannot read a very simple text.”-from Poor Economics

Recently, I have been more compelled to do charitable work and I've also been intrigued by other cultures. I am highly considering joining the Peace Corps after college and perhaps going to Africa to work on a health or education related project there. 

Understanding poverty is a difficult task and I'm hoping Poor Economics, a highly-praised book concerning itself with determining the reason so many suffer in sub-standard conditions and going from there to solve this problem pragmatically. I hope that it will offer me (a definite realist on matters like this) some real hope for the problems we face globally. 

Check in later for full critiques on these books & to find out what I learned from them! 

Yoga, Buddhism & Babies

Namaste, y'all

In my ever-growing journey towards personal fitness, I have taken up a yoga practice, taking classes at the local YMCA, conveniently located about a mile from my house. In the practice of yoga, one learns how to control the breath in order to contort the body into numerous and variable poses. Through the poses, strength (both inner and outer) is both formed and revealed to the practicer. 

But, what has struck me the most about the practice of yoga, is that it really has very little to do with the body and a whole lot more to do with the mind. Through focusing all the brain's energy and capacities toward the breath or the area of the body that is being stretched, the mind is cleared and refreshed, while also being strengthened. 

Buddha

In Western society (especially that of the modern day), there is too much of a disconnect between the workings of the mind and the body. In Eastern philosophy, however, the key to all wisdom, enlightenment, and intelligence lies in the integral connection between body and soul. 

So, this summer, I have decided to research the practice and philosophy of Buddhism and hope to integrate it into my life some how. I also hope to become a certified yoga instructor by the end of my time in college. For it may sound cliche, but yoga is life. 

In yoga, when you conclude that day's practice, you say "namaste" as you bow to the instructor and the other members of your class. The word roughly means "the light in you respects the light in you" connecting not only your mind and body but also connecting these elements to the outside world and the others which inhabit it. 

Charlie at the playground

This summer, I am babysitting my three-year-old cousin Charlie, a very petite, highly energetic boy with strawberry blond hair and a never-ceasing desire to run and play. At first, doing this job was sort of the last thing I wanted to do with my luxurious free days of summer. However, after the first day of spending time with this little guy, I felt an instant connection, what I'm sure now is my maternal instinct. 

My favorite little athlete

I was one of those little girls who was always clinging to a doll, coming up with crazy adventures for it, and, of course, loving it with all my heart and my role as a big sister to Emma (now 16) certainly prepared me for the job. But it wasn't until I had reached the age I am now that I realized that I was truly born to be a mother. 

Seeing Charlie's smile create little dimples in his plump cheeks as I animate one of his stuffed animals into a character or chasing after him with our favorite toy (an orange soccer ball), I am amazed at his capacity for joy and his ability to quickly dribble with the soccer ball although he only stands at less than three feet tall. I feel that truly as Charlie grows and learns with me, I grow and learn with him just as much and that "the light in me honors the light in him."