ellenguyenphuonglinh's reviews
968 reviews

Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin

Go to review page

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

Go to review page

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 Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Go to review page

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."
Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch

Go to review page

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.
Gardens of Awakening: A Guide to the Aesthetics, History, and Spirituality of Kyoto's Zen Landscapes by Kazuaki Tanahashi

Go to review page

3.0

Shin'ichi Hisamatsu, in his book Zen to Bijutsu (Zen and Fine Arts, 1976), speaks of Zen aesthetics with seven characteristics: asymmetry (fukinsei 不 均 ⻫ ), simplicity (kanso 簡 素 ), loftiness (kokō 枯 高 ), naturalness (shizen 自然), subtle profundity (yūgen 幽玄), unworldliness (datsuzoku 脱俗), and serenity (seijaku 静寂). These are all accurate, and this is a very helpful pioneering analysis. Hisamatsu says, "The fine arts of Zen must embody these seven characteristics fully harmonized as one."