Monday, May 29, 2017

My-52-Book-Year #23: The Virginian

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains, by Owen Wister was published in 1902, and is said to be the first ‘true Western’ ever written. As such it can also claim to have been the precursor to a new genre of novels that has since gone on to spawn a million others. 

The book is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt who, judging from the dedication must have read early drafts of the book and provided comments and feedback to Wister.

The Dedication reads: Some of these pages you have seen, some you have praised, one stands new-written because you blamed it; and all, my dear critic, beg leave to remind you of their author’s changeless admiration.

The story begins with the arrival of an unnamed narrator (the Tenderfoot) in Medicine Bow, Wyoming, and his encounter with a tall, handsome stranger (the Virginian), who remains nameless throughout the novel—tho’ late in the book he is referred to as ‘Jeff’ by one of the other characters, although it is not clear if this is his real name. 

The novel revolves around the Virginian and the life he lives, first as a cowboy and general hand, and then later as a foreman on the ranch of Judge Henry Taylor. Woven throughout the book, which covers a period of around five years, is the Virginian’s barely controlled conflict with his arch enemy, a man called Trampas, as well as the Virginian’s romance with the pretty schoolteacher, Molly Stark Wood. 

All the Western tropes are here, gunfights, Indian raiders, cattle rustlers, rattlesnakes, hangings, and an on again/off again romance between two seemingly mismatched lovers from vastly different backgrounds and social classes. With all these elements to play with, Wister skilfully weaving together a tale of action, violence and betrayal, hate and revenge, and love and friendship.

By and large I enjoyed the story, and thought that Clint Eastwood in his younger days would have played the character perfectly. I’m surprised Eastwood never directed himself in the film. Actually, now that I think of it, Eastwood did direct himself in other variations of this story. While not always nameless, as played by Eastwood the tall, dark stranger turns up in movies like Pale Rider, High Plains Drifter, A Fistful of Dollars, For A few Dollars More, and other great Westerns.

But back to the novel. I did think the Virginian was just too perfect for the setting and the historical period in which the book is placed. He was slow to anger, rarely raising his voice about anything, and was calm and measured in his responses to whatever affront may have been directed at him. He was self-assured, knew his strengths and weaknesses (not that he had any weaknesses), was clear-headed, decisive, a complete gentleman and … on and on and on. Seriously, this guy was simply too perfect for the period being written about.

The only lapse in his demeanour came when he was frustrated enough about something or someone to occasional utter a curse or two, although always under his breath. The narrator/Wister however did not feel that it was proper to actually share these curses with readers. It seems that the delicate dispositions of readers at the turn of the 19th century would not have been able to cope with this. The closest we get to a real curse comes when Trampas calls the Virginian a son-of-a-bitch (although that curse is written “…son-of-a—.” Clearly the word ‘bitch’ was deemed too coarse to spell out for the delicate eyes of readers in 1902!

By the way, the Virginian’s response to this epithet has become quite famous in its own right. Laying his pistol on the table at which he, Trampas and other cowboys have been playing cards, the Virginian delivers the now classic line, “When you call me that, smile!

Several other passages from the book caught my attention, and I couldn’t help wondering at their origins. For example, in one passage of dialogue the character, “Scipio le Moyne, from Gallipolice, Ohio”, while referring to the villain Trampas says:
“Trampas is a rolling stone,” he said. “A rolling piece of mud,” corrected the Virginian. “Mud! That’s right. I’m a rolling stone. Sometimes I’d most like to quit being.”
Now I don’t for a minute assume that this is the first time the words, “I’m a rolling stone” are appearing for the first time in print—but then again who knows?

Some other brief quotes took my fancy as well. 
“When yu’ can’t have what you choose, yu’ just choose what you have.”
“In bets, in card games, in all horse transactions and other matters of similar business, a man must take care of himself, and wiser onlookers must suppress their wisdom and hold their peace.”
In other words, don't butt in when it's none of your business.

While the language of the novel is a little dated, The Virginian: A Horseman of The Plains is still worth setting aside some time for. The book is available as a free download from the Gutenberg Project website, as are eleven other titles by Owen Wister. Click here to download the eBook… 
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Note: The cover illustration above is from the Early Bird Books eBook edition. This is not free but can be download from the iBooks store for just ninety-nine cents (higher charges may apply via iBooks stores in countries other than the United States).

Sunday, May 28, 2017

NYC Arts Round-Up #5: MoMA, Barberini Tapestries, Studio Museum in Harlem


Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction
Through August 13, 2017
The Museum of Modern Art

The exhibition Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). In the postwar era, societal shifts made it possible for larger numbers of women to work professionally as artists, yet their work was often dismissed in the male dominated art world, and few support networks existed for them. Abstraction dominated artistic practice during these years, as many artists working in the aftermath of World War II sought an international language that might transcend national and regional narratives—and for women artists, additionally, those relating to gender.

Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, the exhibition features nearly 100 paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints, textiles, and ceramics by more than 50 artists. Within a trajectory that is at once loosely chronological and synchronous, it includes works that range from the boldly gestural canvases of Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, and Joan Mitchell; the radical geometries by Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, and Gego; and the reductive abstractions of Agnes Martin, Anne Truitt, and Jo Baer; to the fiber weavings of Magdalena Abakanowicz, Sheila Hicks, and Lenore Tawney; and the process-oriented sculptures of Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeois, and Eva Hesse.

"Making Space" shines a spotlight on the stunning achievements of women artists between the end of World War II (1945) and the start of the Feminist movement (around 1968). Join us for a conversation with MoMA director Glenn Lowry and curators Starr Figura and Sarah Hermanson Meister for a discussion on the opening of the exhibition.


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The Barberini tapestries, scenes from the Life of Christ.
Detail from "The Consignment of the Keys to St. Peter." Photo: John Bigelow Taylor

By Val Castronovo

Cardinal Francesco Barberini (1597-1679), nephew of Pope Urban VIII, commissioned the works, which were produced at the tapestry workshop he founded in Rome in 1627. The series was woven over a 13-year period from 1643 to 1656. The massive weavings measure roughly 16-feet high and 12-to-19-feet wide and stand testament to the political and cultural power of the Barberini family.

Ten tapestries from the 12-panel Life of Christ series adorn three of the chapels within the Cathedral. At the Chapel of St. James, seven of the wool-and-silk-woven panels are wrapped around the room, providing a panoramic view of scenes in the life of Jesus — namely “The Annunciation,” “The Nativity,” “The Adoration of the Magi,” “The Baptism of Christ,” “The Consignment of the Keys to St. Peter,” “The Agony in the Garden” and “The Crucifixion.”

The adjacent Chapel of St. Ambrose houses the complementary pieces, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” and “The Holy Land” (a woven map). Behind the high altar, the Chapel of St. Saviour concludes the exhibit with a single tapestry, “The Transfiguration,” depicting the ecstatic scene, described in the Gospels, after Jesus climbs a mountain and appears to three of his disciples in shining glory. (Two darkened fragments from “The Last Supper” are in a display case nearby.)

If You Go
“The Barberini Tapestries: Woven Monuments of Baroque Rome”
The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Ave., at 112th Street
Now through June 25, 2017



How Radical Can a Portrait Be?
Vinson Cunningham writes about two new exhibitions, both at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
“One, “Regarding the Figure,” curated by Eric Booker, Connie H. Choi, Hallie Ringle, and Doris Zhao, and drawn largely from the museum’s permanent collection, is a reflection—mercifully free of neurosis or worry—on what faces and bodies have meant to art’s recent and distant past. Here, figures are art itself, no mere phase or moment in time. Henry Ossawa Tanner’s lithograph “The Three Marys” presents the women at Christ’s tomb as a study in developing sorrow: three faces, three stages of grief. The Mary closest to us—she must be the Virgin—is just in the middle of raising her hands.
The other exhibition is Rico Gatson’s Icons
“Icons,” a solo exhibition of recent works on paper by the artist Rico Gatson, curated by Hallie Ringle, takes this ecstasy in personhood and makes it as visible as people themselves. Gatson appropriates old photographic images of famous black Americans—Zora Neale Hurston, Gil Scott-Heron, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye—and surrounds them with bright, colorful lines that shoot outward from the personages to the borders of the page. Each of his titles is a simple, familiar first name. Purple, black, yellow, and red sprout from Zora’s scarved head. Bird’s horn shouts out black and white. Sam—Cooke, that is—has lines shooting out of his shoulders and his toes.
More Information
Now through August 6, 2017

Now through August 27, 2017



Saturday, May 27, 2017

Surfing The Web: Roller Coasters, Baby Elephants, Tips For The Travel Weary



A Shiny New Ride Above the Sand at the Jersey Shore
The repercussions of the shocking destruction wreaked by Hurricane Sandy late in 2012, is still being felt along the eastern seaboard of the United States, with some damaged infrastructure still waiting to be permanently fixed. Just in time for the coming summer season, one of these rebuilt projects sees the replacement to one of the Jersey Shore's most famous attractions. Nick Corasaniti takes up the story for the New York Times.
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. — It was one of the indelible images of the wrath of Hurricane Sandy: a famous Jersey Shore roller coaster reduced to a twisted, mangled wreck in the surf off Seaside Heights, its decades-old iron and steel slicing the coming waves.
It was removed months later, but the gash along the coast remained for years, the emptiness above the rehabilitated pier an ever-present reminder of the worst natural disaster to strike New Jersey in decades.
Now, perhaps quicker than some expected, there is a new coaster where the old one once stood. And this one is different. Gone are the classic dips and turns of the rickety old Jet Star, the thundering vibrations of its cars rippling through the boardwalk wood.
In its place is a shiny new ride that looks as if it was plucked from the fields in nearby Jackson, where the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park sprawls for acres. Called the Hydrus, it is a twisted green behemoth, featuring a steep inverted drop, a full loop and two more inversions. The coaster’s new tracks run eerily silent, the faint hums of the rail car often drowned out by the high-pitched squeals of riders.


Kenyans Work To Save Baby Elephants
Back in March, in a piece about ending the slaughter of elephants I wrote about the ongoing campaign to protect these magnificent creatures from poachers. The following article from the HuffPost continues the positive news about this vital fight.

“We take care of the elephants, and the elephants are taking care of us.” Jesselyn Cook, World News Reporter, HuffPost

Had the members of northern Kenya’s Samburu tribe encountered an injured or abandoned baby elephant a year ago, they likely would have left it to die. Today, with the support of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, locals are working to save endangered calves.
Photojournalist Ami Vitale traveled to the baby elephant orphanage to document community relations with the animals for National Geographic. Reteti opened in August as part of a network of community groups in the region working to foster sustainable development and wildlife conservation. Elephant keepers there try to rehabilitate wounded calves and reunite them with their herds, when possible.
Elephants are ecosystem “engineers,” Vitale notes. They feed on low brush and bulldoze small trees, which promotes the growth of grasses and attracts other grazing animals.
But ivory poachers have caused elephant numbers to dwindle, with the African elephant population plummeting by more than 110,000 over the past decade, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. At least 33,000 elephants are killed for their tusks annually.


Travel Fatigue: 10 Tips for Road-Weary Travelers
My go to website for the Solo Traveller which I thought might be useful for those travellers who enjoy the luxury of extended travel.
To travel alone for two or three weeks is one thing. But to travel alone for two or three (or five or ten) months is quite another. It takes a different attitude and a different pace. And even when you do it well, it can result in you becoming road-weary.
Travel fatigue is a kind of rattled feeling. It’s a need for stability and a wish for home. Fortunately, there are things other than returning home that you can do to feel good. 
Among the eleven suggestions:
  • Stay still: that is, settle into one place for a while.
  • Settle where you can speak the language: the rationale is that you will feel more relaxed if you are not constantly struggling with language. Of course, if you are trying to learn the language of the country you are visiting, then the best way to do that is to immerse yourself in the life of the country you are in and work on those language skills.
  • Repeat yourself: return to a city you’ve already visited and loved.

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