Hi there! Are you addicted to Aristotle? Nuts about Nabokov? Passionate about Picasso? Let us know. We’re looking for suggestions about works of art to feature in the weeks ahead and want to hear from you. What book, poem, painting, sculpture, or piece of music would you like to read about? Why? And which expert would you most like to read? There are no wrong answers; this is a safe space for nerds.
Book: Dr. Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak It was one of the hardest books to get into for me. Loved it and was let down by the movie. Either a historian and book critic
Sculpture: The Apollo Belvedere It is the only piece of statuary that having seen it was astonished both by its beauty and the sculpting. Someone who is an authority on Greek antiquities and the art of sculpting.
Music: Stravinsky's The Firebird. How it is original, its story, as in its creation, and why it holds its place in music.
I'd love to see pieces about the origins and meanings of important American music, like jazz. I once read that the rhythms of John Coltrane's Alabama were inspired by the rhythms of an MLK speech.
Thanks for the great suggestions so far -- these are all excellent ideas. For those of you who have suggested specific works, can you think of particular people who you'd most like to weigh in on them?
Book: The Anatomy of Melancholy / Robert Burton; Poem: Fra Lippo Lippi / Robert Browning; Painting: The Fighting Temeraire / Turner; Music: Spem in alium / Thomas Tallis.
Feb 7, 2022Liked by Richard Hurowitz, The Octavian Report
I would love for a noted critic such as James Wood, Merve Emre, Lucy Scholes, or the like to revisit the under-appreciated novels Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley and/or Daniel Martin by John Fowles. I contend that these works’ complicated and shifting chapter-to-chapter time frames and their “state of England novel” ambitions have proven influential to today’s writers. And make for excellent, timeless reading.
Feb 7, 2022Liked by Richard Hurowitz, The Octavian Report
Well, having just "binge read" all of Aristophanes' comedies, I'd be interested in thoughts as to what relevance they have to us today, instead of just viewing them as ancient versions of Beavis and Butthead.
Book: Dr. Zhivago, by Boris Pasternak It was one of the hardest books to get into for me. Loved it and was let down by the movie. Either a historian and book critic
Sculpture: The Apollo Belvedere It is the only piece of statuary that having seen it was astonished both by its beauty and the sculpting. Someone who is an authority on Greek antiquities and the art of sculpting.
Music: Stravinsky's The Firebird. How it is original, its story, as in its creation, and why it holds its place in music.
I'd love to see pieces about the origins and meanings of important American music, like jazz. I once read that the rhythms of John Coltrane's Alabama were inspired by the rhythms of an MLK speech.
I'd love something on War & Peace or Les Miserables.
Thanks for the great suggestions so far -- these are all excellent ideas. For those of you who have suggested specific works, can you think of particular people who you'd most like to weigh in on them?
Book: The Anatomy of Melancholy / Robert Burton; Poem: Fra Lippo Lippi / Robert Browning; Painting: The Fighting Temeraire / Turner; Music: Spem in alium / Thomas Tallis.
Vermeer, Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age--Simon Schama or John Walsh. OR JMW Turner and director Mike Leigh
Poem: William Cowper, The Task
Art: Peter Bruegel the Elder, The Adoration of the Magi in the Snow
Music: Mendelssohn, Symphony Number 5 (Reformation)
James Joyce's Ulysses.
Pale Fire !!!
I would love for a noted critic such as James Wood, Merve Emre, Lucy Scholes, or the like to revisit the under-appreciated novels Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley and/or Daniel Martin by John Fowles. I contend that these works’ complicated and shifting chapter-to-chapter time frames and their “state of England novel” ambitions have proven influential to today’s writers. And make for excellent, timeless reading.
PeterK
Well, having just "binge read" all of Aristophanes' comedies, I'd be interested in thoughts as to what relevance they have to us today, instead of just viewing them as ancient versions of Beavis and Butthead.
Timothy Snyder
How about "Tom Jones," and Fielding's work in general?