To Read & To Write

"I crave an art that passionately transcends the mundane instead of being a device for self-deception." - Griffin Moss "Griffin & Sabine" is an epistolary book, holding the postcards and letters between Griffin Moss and Sabine Strohem. Sabine initiates the correspondence with a familiarity that doesn't seem shocking until it is revealed that Griffin has no idea who she is. From there, the story becomes brilliantly clairvoyant, adding touches of romance beyond the physical, yet, very *metaphysical* indeed.  The book itself is interactive. The artwork is note-worthy, being both surrealist and avant-garde, making "Griffin & Sabine" deserving of multiple readings. Some pages have envelopes, and the reader is welcomed into opening those envelopes and pulling out the letters, both typed and handwritten, within. This tactile experience is fundamental to reading the book, adding an exciting element of voyeurism to its textuality.  Perhaps "Gri...

Some are familiar with Gibson's science fiction novel, "Neuromancer", now a classic (see the new, gorgeous 2016 edition from Penguin, complete with an inspiring introduction from Neil Gaiman), because it predicted the internet before the internet was invented. "Neuromancer", published in 1984, is a text that also depicts humanity's addiction to technology, a relationship that becomes indistinguishable from what is known as reality. These are two great reasons why the novel should be highly noted, but not the reason why the book should become, in my eyes, a Great Book, a Classic, a Literary Masterpiece, that should, perhaps, be required reading centuries from now, taught by professors and doctors hired by universities.  My Goodreads review gives "Neuromancer" four stars, and not the highest, five, because it is, I believe, not entirely accessible. The book is not easy to read, and I don't think it should be, even to the expense of less com...

Robin McKinley’s retelling of “Beauty and the Beast” is a must-read for anyone who loves and knows fairy tales. McKinley’s version, titled “Beauty”, was written in 1978, and does not stray too far away from the original French tale, “La Belle et la Bête”, written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740. In fact, it pays homage to the original story, and captures its magic wonderfully. Because Disney’s animated “Beauty and the Beast”, released in 1991, made such a huge impact on me during my childhood (I was four!) this chapter book meant *so* much when I first read it in the sixth grade, and upon re-reading it as a grad student, I was very much impressed that the book had not lost any of its sublime qualities. A large portion of the power of McKinley’s “Beauty” lies in her descriptions. The Beast’s castle is especially breathtaking, and the reader is pulled into the story for pages and pages. Every turn in the plot, every part of each scene, every angle of a personality,...

Tanith Lee’s “White As Snow” is a disturbing and powerful book that infuses mythology, specifically the Demeter and Persephone story, into the Snow White fairy-tale. However, you do not need to be familiar with the Snow White tale (which you probably already are) or the Greek myth to understand and enjoy this book. It is hard for me to say that I *loved* this book; there is so much sorrow within it as well as horror, but I did love it, because I felt a strong sympathy for the two main characters, Arpazia and Coira. I also enjoyed reading the structure and intricacy of the plot. The Walt Disney version’s main elements are still here, but they are altered, magnified, and made profound. The mirror plays a more abstract role in “White As Snow”; there is much to say about what it symbolizes (vanity? fear? wonder?). The story is unabashedly serious in tone, starting off with a fourteen-year-old Princess’s rape in the woods, after her father’s (the King’s) kingdom is sacked by another bru...

“Then Kate sank back upon her pillows and allowed herself the luxury of terror,” reads the closing sentence of Chapter 29 in Gregory Frost’s “Fitcher’s Brides: The Tale of Bluebeard, Re-Envisioned As A Dark Fable of Faith and Truth”. Indeed, this is much what reading the book is like: allowing yourself the luxury of terror while witnessing the effects of a twisted, power-obsessed, murderous preacher’s sermon grasping the minds of the spiritually weak community, all the while knowing that innocent women will be tortured under that same preacher’s hands. Why continue reading? Something about the bone-chilling revelation about the dirtier nature of organized religion (its power to repress, to oppress, and to control) urges you to read on, knowing deep down that some of this fiction has truth within it’s pages. Luckily, like Kate at that moment in the story, you are snuggled and safe under the covers of a warm bed. But also like Kate, you are somewhat unsure of what tomorrow might bri...

A work of art can be understood as something to one, and something completely different to another. And then, it means something to the author. Sometimes there is a line of clarity, where everyone agrees, and other times the ideas produced by a work are so vastly different that we wonder how to make sense of it at all. We all know and have felt this frenzied state of interpretation. Moreover, we go back to old and new pieces time and time again; a song, a book, a poem, a painting, and as we experience it there is another realization: that time itself has changed the thing, placing it into newer, broader categories of meaning and truth. A.S. Byatt's Possession , winner of the Man Booker Prize in 1990, is a perfect representation of that kaleidoscopic manifestation of art, lived by its creator and then posthumously, and then into academic elucidation. The story, which claims many voices, is mastered by the study of what begins as a singular poet: Randolph Henry Ash. The stud...