Thursday, May 1, 2014

'Levels of Life': No art in grief?

Levels of Life
Julian Barnes
2013
Alfred A. Knopf


If you haven’t read any of Julian Barnes’ work yet, why not? This incredibly talented and readable author has been lauded in many ways, most notably by being awarded England’s prestigious (and usually controversial and disputed) Man Booker Prize in 2011. My favorites of his works include the novels “Metroland,” “Flaubert’s Parrot,” and “Arthur & George.”

His most recent work is a meditation on the death of his wife, literary agent Pat Kavanagh, who passed away in 2008. “Levels of Life” is a powerful and unflinching examination of the after-life of the author as the survivor of a loved one.

Barnes’ approach to his subject is circuitous, taking an oblique route first through stories about early ballooning, photography, and Sarah Bernhardt. This is an approach Barnes has used before, and although it seems quite counterintuitive at face value, it is astonishingly effective. The writing, three interconnected essays titled “The Sin of Height,” “On the Level,” and “The Loss of Depth,” has been criticized by some as being not sufficiently to the point, to which I can simply respond, well blow it out your fundament then, write your own damn book about mourning.

Patient and intelligent readers will be drawn in by the disparate threads that Barnes deftly gathers as he goes, weaving them into a deeply moving self-portrait. I see the writer’s seeming diffidence as the only effective way to circle in and name painful truths, sparing himself absolutely nothing on the way.

Neither does he spare the well-intentioned around him, whose blundering attempts to assuage his feelings are accurately analyzed as a distaste for the discomfort his loss causes them. Case in point:

Someone I had only met twice wrote to tell me that a few months previously he had ‘lost his wife to cancer’ (another phrase that jarred: compare “We lost our dog to gypsies,” or “He lost his wife to a commercial traveler”). He reassured me that one does survive the grief; moreover, one emerges a “stronger,” and in some ways a “better,” person. This struck me as outrageous and self-praising (as well as too quickly decided). How could I possibly be a better person without her than with her? Later, I thought: but he is just echoing Nietzsche’s line about what doesn’t kill us making us stronger. And as it happens, I have long considered this epigram particularly specious. There are many things that fail to kill us but weaken us for ever. Ask anyone who deals with victims of torture. Ask rape counsellors and those who handle domestic violence. Look around at those emotionally damaged by mere ordinary life.”

Barnes conveys his fluctuating inner state with a dry compassion that neither kids himself nor discounts the depth, confusion, and profusion of thoughts and feelings attendant on the death of his wife. The honesty and accuracy here is brave, and intensely comforting.

When I am at my desk, I am frequently writing simply to find out what is on my mind – thinking with my fingers (and scraping up a buck or two in the process – two missions that sometimes cohere). Barnes’ words have the effortless flow of free association, but multiple readings reveal a meticulous arrangement and honing of the text, which in itself a reward or those who seek good writing. We are long past the time when “meta” in literature was a novelty; Barnes is such a master of it that it draws no attention to itself.

In the end, Barnes gives us no neat conclusions, but he does ties his metaphors together. The crude and pilotless pioneer air journeys resemble marriage itself; early photography mirrors his attempts to redefine the landscape of his solitaire life. The act of writing affirms the act of living.

Perhaps grief, which destroys all patterns, destroys even more: the belief that any pattern exists. But we cannot, I think, survive without such belief. So each of us must pretend to find, or re-erect, a pattern. Writers believe in the patterns their words make, which they hope and trust add up to ideas, to stories, to truths. This is always their salvation, whether griefless or griefstruck.


From First Coast News: In death, segregation?

Well, this will blow your mind -- evidently, some people don't want corpses of different races in the same funeral homes or cemeteries. What the what??? It's not history, folks, it's still happening.

Malcom Tierney

Actor -- via the Guardian. Marvelous at playing baddies, his range was actually exceptionally broad, embracing comedy and classical works as well.

Malcolm Tierney Interview from Music & Performing Arts on Vimeo.

Al Feldstein

Editor of MAD magazine, writer, and illustrator -- via the New York Times. Wow -- while not the funniest or non-grumpiest of people himself, he got the mag out on time and under budget, and made all the key hires that made the magazine one that we all waited around the drugstore for in order to grab the newest copy! He employed Don Martin ("Shtoink! Fladdaddaddap!"), Antonio Prohias ("Spy vs. Spy"), Dave Berg, Mort Drucker, and many others. Plus he made buck-toothed Alfred E. Neuman the poster boy of our generation.


Much gratitude to Al and "the usual gang of idiots" -- the humor was dumb, infantile, gross, and sometimes just not funny. However, it gave us permission to think differently about just about everything, and groomed a lot of us for comedy careers down the road. Thanks, Al, for giving us something we treasured that pissed our parents off  as well. 

Paul Goddard

Satyendra Pal Chaudhary

Producer -- via the Telugu Post.

Sidek Hussain

Actor -- via Bernama.


Wednesday, April 30, 2014

From Charles Garfield: 'Seven Keys to a Good Death'

Is there such a thing as as "good death"? I wonder. Still, I have witnessed many, many mismanaged end-of-life scenarios. Knowledge is power, and Garfield eloquently outlines important considerations for those nearing death, and those who care for them. 

Bob Hoskins

Actor -- via the Guardian. One of my all-time favorite performers, he was typed as Cockney lads, gangsters, and detectives, but his emotional range, expressiveness, and subtlety was far beyond those seeming limitations. Best roles: of course, his star-making turn as Arthur Parker in the BBC-TV original version of "Pennies from Heaven"; Shand in "The Long Good Friday"; Iago in the otherwise not-so-great BBC-TV "Othello"; Eddie Valiant in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"; and Micawber in Simon Curtis' "David Copperfield." My dream Brit cast for a parody remake of "The Ten Commandments" always featured Bob as a profanity-spewing Pharaoh, Michael Caine as Moses, and Sean Connery as God.











Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Dennis Kamakahi

Ismail Suleman Khatri

Print artist -- via the Times of India.

Leroy "Bob" Powell

Former MLB player -- via the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Amaka Igwe

Producer and director -- via bellanaija.com.

Alena Mikova

Soprano -- via webnoviny.sk.

From CTV London Ontario: On the International Day of Mourning

A day of remembering those killed on the job, originated in Canada in 1984. It emphasizes the preventable nature of many of these deaths, and helps to incite action to make workplaces safer.


Lee Marshall

Wrestling announcer and voice artist -- via cagesideseats.com.



DJ E-Z Rock aka Rodney Bryce

Hip-hop artist -- via Rolling Stone.

Rakesh Deewana

Actor -- via ENI.

Micheline Dax aka Micheline-Josette-Renée Etevenon

Idris Sardi

Violinist -- via the Jakarta Globe.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Joey Harris aka Ivan Demidoff

Dancer and choreographer -- via the Toronto Globe & Mail.

Andrea Parisy

Actress -- via huffingtonpost.fr.

Antonio Pica

Actor -- via westernboothill.blogspot.com.


Dorothy Porath

Librarian -- via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Patric Stanford

Composer -- via artsjournal.com.


Sunday, April 27, 2014

Raymond "Mundo" Earwood

Musician and songwriter -- via the Houston Press.




Adrianne Wadewicz

Scholar and Wikipedia master -- via the L.A. Times.


Stephanie Zweig

Writer -- via the Hollywood Reporter.

DJ Rashad aka Rashad Harden

House music and footwork DJ -- via the Chicago Sun-Times.

William Brayne

Director and cinematographer -- via the Guardian.

From the Express Tribune: 'Celebrating death: a festive goodbye'

A report by Mukhamuddin on the funeral traditions of the Kalash people, a polytheist tribe in northern Pakistan -- 

From Yahoo News: Monetizing the afterlife

In contrast to the previously linked story, here's an American perspective: Elizabeth Palermo writes about seven businesses that seek to capitalize on demise . . . some good ideas here, and some not so much.

From CNN: 'Hotel Death' and Hindu end-of-life practices

An excellent feature story by Moni Basu on the ancient city of Varanasi, where some Hindus go to die in order to achieve moskha, or freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth impelled by karma. This story does not attempt to resolve any of the contradictions and ambiguities of its subjects; the act of thoughtful observation by the writer is deeply respectful. Only the editor's choice of headline is sadly inappropriate.

Chris Nkulor

Actor -- via Codewit.

Benjamin Brea

Musician and educator -- via El Universal.

Konstantin Orbelyan

Musician and composer -- via tert.am.

Ricardo Bauleo

Actor -- via the Buenos Aires Herald.

Oswaldo Vigas

Artist -- via El Universal.

Friday, April 25, 2014

Dana Craig

Actor -- via the Hollywood Reporter.

Margery Mason

Actress and director -- via Ham & High.

Tony Marriott

Actor and writer -- hollywood.com. Co-creator of "No Sex Please, We're British."

Tadeusz Różewicz

Poet, dramatist, and writer -- via tvn24.pl.

Ramon Pons

Actor -- via El Mercantil Valcenciano.

Osman Hummaida

Peace and human rights activist -- via Human Rights Watch.

Anton Molchik

Actor -- via novincy.cz.

Mimi Kok

Actress -- via Het Parool.

Deon Jackson

Soul singer -- via the Ann Arbor News.








Tajma Hall

Drag performer -- via Chicago Pride.