No.252
Today, sharing with you a chapter from my fifth book Everything, Beautiful, one that asks questions about ‘Ancient Beauty’ because I’ve been thinking a great deal about beauty these days and the role it needs to play in these months—sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, sometimes desperate—when so much is tender and treacherous and tearing apart at the seams in this world. When people are forgetting to notice, forgetting to care, not caring to speak up when the unspeakable happens. For you:
Extract from Everything, Beautiful: A Guide to Finding Hidden Beauty in the World (Penguin, 2022).
LATELY I FELL IN LOVE WITH:
The portrait works of Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941), pictured in the photograph below with her paintings in 1930.
Sitting down likely more than I have ever sat down before, starting to read the three books by Norwegian writer and painter Cora Sandel (1880-1974) which were published together as a trio by The Women’s Press in 1980: Alberta & Jacob, Alberta & Freedom, and Alberta Alone.
This edition of Alberta & Jacob has a introduction by Solveig Nellinge, which details a little of Sandel’s seclusion, the unusual arc of her existence, her pure tendency toward privacy: When a literary magazine once enquired about the most important moment in her life she replied “That I prefer to keep to myself”, while her attitude toward publicity could be summed up with “I have always been of the opinion that no more needs to be expected of an author than that they should write books”.
The introduction culminates with a recount of Nellinge’s visit to Sandel (then aged eighty-five) at her apartment in Uppsala, Sweden, the highlight of which is the following comment:
“Grapes, like chocolate, should be kept in the fridge.”
Again and for however long necessary: (Actions for demanding a ceasefire in Palestine.) / (Report Palestinian censorship in publishing.) / (Reading list for a Free Palestine.) / (Print your own postcards to demand an arms embargo and freedom for Palestine.) / (Send a physical postcard to a government official for the cost of a stamp.) / (Ten free ebooks for getting free.)
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On Birds and Things Being Bearable
The neighbour calls it ‘Hitchcock hour’ but I think of it as ‘the time twice a day when for a short moment absolutely everything is bearable because there are birds’. They are beaked noise, and hypnotic movement, and reassurance. A feathered reassurance darkening the sky at certain moments in their thousands, and I can never take a photograph of quite what it all means. There are things a person just
Beautiful and soothing soul food. Thank you.
So beautifully curated post, thank you for the inspiration and sharing beauty with us🌷