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ellenguyenphuonglinh's reviews
951 reviews
The Luminous Solution: Creativity, Resilience and the Inner Life by Charlotte Wood
3.0
In the midst of this gloom, to create is an act of enlargement, of affirmation. It lights a candle in the darkness, offering solace, illumination—maybe even the possibility of transformation—not just for the maker but for the reader or viewer, which is to say all of us. Art urges us to imagine and inhabit lives other than our own, to be more thoughtful, to feel more deeply, to challenge what we think we already know. Art declares that we contain multitudes, that more than one thing can be true at once. And it gives us a breathing space, in which we can listen more than talk, where we can attentively question our own beliefs. It gives us a place in this chaotic world in which to find the sort of meaning that only arises out of the stillness, deep within our quiet selves.
Precious: The History and Mystery of Gems Across Time by Helen Molesworth
4.0
These ups and downs are part of the story of every gemstone, and have been throughout their history. I could not put it better than the Persian scholar al-Biruni, who wrote in the eleventh century: "The prices of jewels are not stable. There is no law governing their prices, and there is no reason why these prices should not fluctuate with time and place. Each country, each nation carries its own temper. Furthermore, at one time nobles begin to sell them off and at others, to stock them. Stones are plentiful at one time and scarce at another. God grants honor to some and disgrace to others."
Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin
4.0
Virginia Woolf's 1927 essay 'Street Haunting' is an attempt to claim an ungendered place in the city by walking through it. Out in the street, we become observing entities, 'part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers'. Whether or not we want to be androgynous eyes taking in the city, or bodies inviting desire, or any of the myriad ways of being in between, Woolf is telling us that we can integrate ourselves into the world of the city by becoming attentive to the shifts in the affective landscape. It is only in becoming aware of the invisible boundaries of the city that we can challenge them. A female flânerie – a flâneuserie – not only changes the way we move through space, but intervenes in the organisation of space itself. We claim our right to disturb the peace, to observe (or not observe), to occupy (or not occupy) and to organise (or disorganise) space on our own terms.
Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin
4.0
The feminist act of decreation is making something that one acknowledges will fail, will decay. The work will not endure. The performance is documentable on video but not reproducible. Different from
the decisions of artists like Agnes Martin or Georgia O'Keeffe to destroy their work, because the work itself enacts its subjection to decay. What a political statement to make: I do not care if this work endures, if the buyer gets his money's worth, if it can continue to circulate within a capitalist economy where art becomes a place to park your millions.
the decisions of artists like Agnes Martin or Georgia O'Keeffe to destroy their work, because the work itself enacts its subjection to decay. What a political statement to make: I do not care if this work endures, if the buyer gets his money's worth, if it can continue to circulate within a capitalist economy where art becomes a place to park your millions.
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
4.0
"It doesn't say much. Only 'Howard Roark, Architect.' But it's like those mottoes men carved over the entrance of a castle and died for. It's a challenge in the face of something so vast and so dark, that all the pain on earth—and do you know how much suffering there is on earth?—all the pain comes from that thing you are going to face. I don't know what it is, I don't know why it should be unleashed against you. I know only that it will be. And I know that if you carry these words through to the end, it will be a victory, Howard, not just for you, but for something that should win, that moves the world—and never wins acknowledgment. It will vindicate so many who have fallen before you, who have suffered as you will suffer. May God bless you—or whoever it is that is alone to see the best, the highest possible to human hearts. You're on your way into hell, Howard."
Bai Ganyo: Incredible Tales of a Modern Bulgarian by Christina E. Kramer, Victor A. Friedman, Aleko Konstantinov, Grace E. Fielder, Catherine Rudin
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch
3.0
Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level. Modern physics calls that level the Unified Field. The more your consciousness—your awareness—is expanded, the deeper you go toward this source, and the bigger the fish you can catch.