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A review by anaiira
Nina Simone's Gum by Warren Ellis
5.0
When I was in elementary school, my teacher taught me one thing about creative writing, and it's this: "The subject of the story isn't the most important part, the most important part is how the story is told. A good author can write a whole book about piece of gum." At the time, I'd dismissed her words as hyperbole.
This book didn't really fully click with me until I finally understood that what interests me about it is the relationship that people have with relics, with devotion, with the very human ability to seek the divinity, the greater than in regular objects. Nina Simone's gum represents a twist in the fabric of the universe, something that focuses and attracts the attention, it has something like a je ne sais quoi to it. This absorption, this fascination, doesn't really mean very much to me until I saw it filtered through Warren Ellis's eyes. The power of his reverence is an energy unto itself that magnifies the power of the gum.
I've been reading a lot of books about anxiety of social change lately. Well, books rooted in expressing an anxiety, a fear, an anger. Those are powerful emotions. Truly though, this book is so rooted in love and the power of reverence to transmute a humble object to the divine.
This book didn't really fully click with me until I finally understood that what interests me about it is the relationship that people have with relics, with devotion, with the very human ability to seek the divinity, the greater than in regular objects. Nina Simone's gum represents a twist in the fabric of the universe, something that focuses and attracts the attention, it has something like a je ne sais quoi to it. This absorption, this fascination, doesn't really mean very much to me until I saw it filtered through Warren Ellis's eyes. The power of his reverence is an energy unto itself that magnifies the power of the gum.
I've been reading a lot of books about anxiety of social change lately. Well, books rooted in expressing an anxiety, a fear, an anger. Those are powerful emotions. Truly though, this book is so rooted in love and the power of reverence to transmute a humble object to the divine.