240721: comfortable book for architects and architecture-interested. coffee table. big. heavy. extensive. many new buildings, many familiar- but then 240721: comfortable book for architects and architecture-interested. coffee table. big. heavy. extensive. many new buildings, many familiar- but then I look at art-architecture books (49). just photos, no plans, little capsule commentary. only in person seen ones in Canada (Vancouver, Montreal) and Hawai'i......more
230726: this is the grand narrative. this is about 5 000 years of global history inif you like this review i now have website:
230726: this is the grand narrative. this is about 5 000 years of global history in 500 pages (plus footnotes, bibliography). perhaps this works best if you remember received wisdom of anthropology, archaeology, history, from 20 years ago. i do. i am part of history, now...
when studying anthropology i recall some dissatisfaction that only by now can be accounted for after some other reading: it is entirely eurocentric, at least on first or second year level, and there was little reference to how people within such cultures saw themselves. and later europeans whom they contacted. this is the 'indigenous critique' that the authors recount, deploy, argue for, in clearing 'civilised' prejudices against 'primitive' cultures. which of course were and are not so primitive...
beginning in the eastern woodlands of North America, there is convincing argument that the flow of cultural interchange, particularly politics, is more from the 'new world' to Europe. there are facts that 'freedom' as political concept, as in the Algonkin, the Haudenosaunee, is unknown in Europe of monarchies. there are the conceptual disconnects between ideas of 'ownership' and how 'money' can mutate into 'power'. there is contention humans have lived through various political forms but somehow in the past 500 years have become 'stuck' in this one that is not working, with huge disparity in freedoms as defined by monetary regimes, this one that is not originated by private property but which is manifest in that form as side-effect...
really really love this book: so impressed, so convinced, that questions rise despite my enthusiasm- as this is survey text created in some ways against popular mischaracterisation of past cultures, peoples, am i missing some essential knowledge? are the authors lonely voices in the wilderness and we should believe those portrayals of human history more ideologically, politically, philosophically, familiar? is this only meaningless speculation because by definition history only happens once, so alternate histories are intellectual games with no 'cash-value'? well, as one of my bookshelves is althistory and on the other i am writer of fictions, which are by definition more or less exactly what they might be accused of (is this only elaborate game, that is how it started), is this ultimately simply fiction...?
210904: this is much more scholarly take on the story of The Passion of Artemisia,if you like this review, i now have website:
210904: this is much more scholarly take on the story of The Passion of Artemisia, so maybe not as easy to read, likely more accurate, certainly given the amount of research and notes that render this something between historical novel and art history work. i like it even more. when i took art history at u i really did not enjoy it, now i see it everywhere, love it everywhere, am endlessly fascinated by art. this is not my favourite era, favourite style, and some of the interest is biographical, but after all the theory, the critiques, the history- it is the art that matters and her work is powerful. will remember the first time i saw her 'judith slaying Holofernes' and the leering old men in 'Sussana at the bath'. do not know if if has bothered others but the famous 'rape of sabines always bothered me because... it always looked too much 'celebration'...
i particularly like the way authorial commentary, uncertainty, intrudes and captures the characters conflicting emotions, as in, did he see that his daughter would surpass him, was she still intimidated by an artist he no longer was etc...
rather than just focusing on the rape trial and immediate fallout, this work follows artemisia through the years by significant vignettes, change of scene, of characters, and she is not defined by what has happened but what she will do. which is paint admired pictures for nobility, church, and this edition has maps of Rome and Europe to situate, then examples (in full colour plates) of her work. perhaps still not my favourite sort of art, i have to admire the artwork......more
210624: when i took art history at u i really did not enjoy it, now i see it everyif you like this review, i now have website:
210624: when i took art history at u i really did not enjoy it, now i see it everywhere, love it everywhere, am endlessly fascinated by art. this is not my favourite era, favourite style, and some of the interest is biographical, but after all the theory, the critiques, the history- it is the art that matters and her work is powerful. will remember the first time i saw her 'judith slaying Holofernes' and the leering old men in 'Sussana at the bath'. do not know if if has bothered others but the famous 'rape of sabines'(not hers but referred to) always bothered me because... it always looked too much 'celebration'...
there is no ambiguity in this work: i do not know how plausible her enlightened awareness of personal value, of rightness against those who would deny her rape, or later call her whore, but it certainly makes me want to look at her work again. this is historical fiction. though how 'historical' i do not know, for the struggles of being a woman artist and mother do not seem to have diminished in the centuries. there is some contrast between faith in religion and the new scientific world heralded by her friend galileo. and how the world may not be ready for her art or his science...
this is historical fiction, this mix of fact recalled and fiction invented, and we are not somehow beyond prejudices the assaulted must face. this is concise, readable, so in one way this is fast, fluid reading on art history- particularly technical details of just how this or that work is made- and in another way dismaying that it is, always, again, the woman who is expected to forgive. after she works out her pain through years, decades, and finally her memorable paintings that last for all time...
080120: every year in february i visit my mom’s hometown of waimea, kauai, where sif you like this review, i now have website:
080120: every year in february i visit my mom’s hometown of waimea, kauai, where she and dad now have a condo. on the beach. so far we have had no tsunamis or hurricanes to wipe out the town, though the last two hurricanes did some damage. this is nothing compared to the future in this book, for the town is mostly less than two metres above sea level... even in the kindest projected rise it will be gone in hundred years or less...
i also recognize the desire for people who want to stay in low-lying areas, people who want to visit the water, because that is my desire. i have been going to the islands virtually every year of my life. family who have lived there for centuries. this is home. and according to this book and much accepted science, things are going to change irrevocably, so sea-level rise has very personal dimension to me. it is not like i am happy to have fears confirmed. i am angry but must accept my own role as well. i did not know about global climate change as a child... now i do, yet i still live comfortably north american life, still fly to the islands...
forgive me, future. the call of home is still too strong......more
260319: in waimea i look at mom's collection of old cookbooks. she has some different here than at home, she has different ingredients, as this small 260319: in waimea i look at mom's collection of old cookbooks. she has some different here than at home, she has different ingredients, as this small island, but of course there is more fresh fruit, vegetables, fish. and we have to finish up perishables before they come to calgary. so we cook...
this book is down from five only on personal taste- i really do not like eggplant, zucchini, brussels sprouts. otherwise this is excellent. this also shows why taking recipes off the internet is incomplete: she has many brief essays, details, comments, on each type or basic recipes. she tells maybe introductory info i might know now but certainly not growing up, starting out, so this is fun. yes you can read cookbooks. eat well learn to cook well. and i love cooking with my mom......more
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