Nabokov's observation, Gayane, Oppie, choosing reality, and more

Seven links to worthwhile thin(g/k)s

Hello dear reader,

We are each preparing to say goodbye to the old year, and about to gear up for a lovely bon voyage into the excitement and newness of 2023. I want to thank you for making this a newsletter of 650+ readers strong, and for your generous spirit both with the time you take to read my writing and with the time you spend sending tiny but mighty notes of encouragement and support. My gratitude is with you, always. As Rilke tenderly noted, “I am so glad you are here. It helps me realize how beautiful my world is.”

1. Writer Rebecca Godfrey, In Memoriam:

   “Her presence was not exactly big. It was enchanting; I’m thinking of the words Nabokov used to describe a character in the story “Spring in Fialta”: “something lovely, delicate, and unrepeatable.”

   …

   “When you miss a person you don’t miss their CV or their accomplishments, however much you might appreciate those things. You miss something indefinable that you feel only in their presence. All the things I’ve written of here are very real. Rebecca’s achievements have been rightfully celebrated in obituaries in the New York Times, Kirkus, and the Globe and Mail. I value her work highly and consider it important. I admire how she conducted her life. But to tell of it does not quite convey what I found most lovely about her. For several weeks after her death, images flashed through my mind, images of very small moments: Rebecca with her glass of bubble tea, her eyes full of life; Rebecca carrying a tray of appetizers across her lawn at a garden party; Rebecca and Ada visiting my favorite horse with me in the rain; Rebecca standing on the sidelines of a dance party, her face in an expression of private bitterness; Rebecca slipping me some colorfully wrapped pieces of marzipan candy as she walked past in bright sunlight.”

2. An Armenian ballet, Gayane, from the super talented Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian makes for excellent study/work music. I’ve had it in the backdrop during writing this week, and its flair has provided great bursts of creative energy for the day. More on the piece/Khachaturian here thanks to Oleg.

3. “Choose reality while you still can.”

4. I’m playing around with the idea of taking on Ray Bradbury’s challenge — for creative fuel, every night read one short story, one poem, one essay for a thousand nights. I’ve been seeing this challenge circulating in writer circles, and it’s in all earnestness daunting (and inexplicably arbitrary; why 1,000 nights?) but I like the sentiment and aim behind it (“stuff your head with more different things from various fields”), which happens to be my husband’s mode of consuming information by way of essays, articles, and podcasts (shockingly, on triple speed). I’m always astonished at the breadth of knowledge his brain holds on all topics familiar and foreign to me, and while I’m quick to burrow into one topic and slow to tunnel my way into another, he’s already built a vast network of explored fields on which he can intelligently comment. So, this challenge appeals to me and might just help me peek out into open terrain more this upcoming year.

5. What exactly is capitalism? And the somber reality of having your attention be the highest currency.

   “Capitalism today is not really about creativity, innovation, hard work and entrepreneurialism, as it likes to suggest. It’s about wily mergers, economies of scale, lawyers, lobbying, canny philanthropy, the creation of monopolies and well-rewarded managers.”

6. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film trailer. I am mesmerized, and find J. Robert Oppenheimer’s life fascinating. He was the father of the atomic bomb, and with that exists a depth of character and a peeling of circumstantial layers that make the visual storytelling of his journey captivating. Especially appealing is that Nolan’s film will be based on the biography—American Prometheus—written by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, which I will be hurriedly rereading in the coming weeks. Tell me the trailer isn’t already a stunner! Also appealing is that the super-talented Cillian Murphy will be in the leading role (and as a personal little tidbit, that they shot parts of the film at my alma mater, UCLA :)) Here, too, is a great little window into the literary side of Oppenheimer’s interests: he named the first test of the atomic bomb Trinity as an ode to John Donne’s poetry.

7. TikTok as social contagion

See you soon!

Warmly,

Ani

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