This Is Beautiful: Voices

I'm not sure if it's because I'm a musician or not, but people's voices are just very powerful to me. Hearing someone's voice and how unique it is, hearing them say certain things, it imprints you like very few other things. And I find that hearing someone talk to you can be more affirming or more devastating than reading something that they wrote.

My thoughts on this aren't super coherent, but voices man. They sure are powerful.

“A Fatal Grace” by Louise Penny

This is Penny’s second mystery novel, still following Chief Inspector Gamache as he investigates murder within the small town of Three Pines in Canada. As far as sequels go, this is actually pretty good. Of course I have some criticism though.

First of all, this is a small town in Canada. Is anyone going to mention how rare it is for murders to happen in small towns? And related to that is how half of the characters from the first book return, so it is very unlikely that they are the murderer. Oh except for the three older ladies who didn’t make an appearance until this book. They can stay on the suspect list. I do understand that it is hard to create a second brilliant murder while staying within the confines of a previous book, but come on.

I also seriously do not get the Agent Nichol arc. I thought all of the characters were unreasonably hard on her for her actions in the first book. Sure she was rude, but I think it was unreasonable to have every recurring character talk shit about her. And I really don’t get what happened to her in this book, she was on the phone with someone and it implied that she was giving away police secrets but I have no idea. I think she was sent home again at the end. Can we just give her a break? She’s doing her best and I’m getting sick of her being used as a punching bag.

Having gotten that out of the way, the crime being investigated is really cool. There are multiple factors that all come together nicely by the end, but you have no idea until then. It involves the victim’s past and her family, with plenty of parallel lines throughout.

What really makes this work is the emphasis on the power of words. There are multiple puns with serious significance on the plot, and many characters make decisions based on names and words. Which is great because this is in book form. This story is entirely words! Think about the power of that, these are simply words on the page, but they conjure a whole story in our heads. There’s serious power in that. The story doesn’t go into the written word, but I think it speaks to the choice of the medium. Within the story it mainly deals with how we develop connotations to certain words, and how those can dominate our thoughts. We make so many choices on whims, and some of those are based on how we react to words. This novel highlights that really well.

A decent sophomore novel here for Chief Inspector Gamache. I wish I understood more of what was happening, but it’s got a really good story and maybe I’m just being dumb. Will try to find her next novel as well!

This Is Beautiful: "Into the Spider-Verse"

I finally got around to seeing "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" yesterday and I cannot emphasize enough what an excellent movie it is. It has humor, action, excellent characters, and a wholesome message.

Probably my favorite aspect of it though is the overall animation style and cinematography. It's a great mix of comic book aspects (with characters' thoughts being written on screen and onomatopoeia figuring into the action) mixed with the gritty reality of New York City. The main character, Miles, is also a graffiti artist, so graffiti figures into the aesthetic pretty highly as the camera moves down a NYC street. It's gorgeous to watch.

And of course the message is excellent. This is a movie telling you that anyone can be a superhero, anyone can be Spider-Man. All you have to do is take a leap of faith (shout out to Kierkegaard) and claim the title as your own.

“A Discovery of Witches” by Deborah Harkness

Don’t let anyone fool you. This is the Twilight series for adults. Seriously. The plot centers around a witch, Diana, who has refused to use her powers really. She’s a historian of science, studying ancient alchemy texts and splitting her time between Oxford and Yale Universities.

Then she calls up this text from the library that causes many different creatures to follow her around. One of them is a mysterious, attractive vampire named Matthew. (You can see where this is going.) Somewhere in the middle of her trying to get information from him about why all of these creatures want this text and him trying to protect her from these creatures they fall madly in love. And so it goes.

I was a little frustrated with how much of the book is centered on their relationship. There is this whole message from her mother that they think refers to Matthew and all that. Ugh, she doesn’t need a man in order to do her thing! And also how much time they spent doing nOTHING. The first third of the text involves them sitting in a library. The next third Matthew brings Diana to his home in France and she sleeps roughly 80% of the time. I mean Harkness if you want to prove that Diana is not a damsel in distress she could act like it just a little more!

Having said that, I think that it was really well written. The characters are very fleshed out, even the minor ones clearly have independent thoughts and wills and backstories. And her portrayal of magic and vampires is fascinating. Harkness is a historian, so a number of fascinating historical facts come to light in the plot, through both Diana (as a historian) and Matthew (as an ancient vampire).

This series was adapted to tv fairly recently, I’ll probably watch the adaptation, even if I decide that the rest of the series isn’t really my thing. But yeah, if you’re looking for Twilight with a little more substance to it, this is the book for you.

This Is Beautiful: Days Off

I have been so hella depressed lately and this week just said fuck it and took a day off to stay in bed and watch tv. And I needed it sooooo badly. It's just nice to do things on your own time and not worry about everything all at once.

"The Nix" by Nathan Hill

I heard this book described as "David Foster Wallace, but more accessible" so of course I was into that. And there are many similarities between the two authors, but Hill's style is so much easier and it doesn't feel like he's attacking you all the time. He does have a similar structure though where the book jumps from perspective to perspective, and setting to setting. Different chapters could take place in 2011 or 1968, Chicago or Norway. Which makes half of the fun piecing the timeline together. Also they have a similar sense of humor which I think is great, I found this book hilarious.

The main plot of this novel centers around Samuel and his relationship to his mother, Faye, who left him and his dad when he was a little boy. Years later, Samuel is now teaching English at a college when he hears that his mother was arrested for throwing gravel at a presidential candidate. This causes him to go down a journey where he learns about his mother's past while making sense of his own.

There is a lot of interplay with Norse folklore in this story. The title comes from the name of a type of spirit that appears to children in the form of a docile horse. As soon as the child mounts the horse though, it runs off of a cliff. (Irl this is based on a slightly different myth, but this is how it is explained in the story.) Faye interprets this as how the things that you love ultimately hurt you in the end and how she is hurting those around her. This causes her to continually leave people to seek herself, she left her family, she left college, she left her son. This idea of excess is present in other parts of the story, most notably in Pwnage's arc where he is addicted to an online game and it nearly kills him. (I also found his chapters the most amusing to be honest.)

The most interesting character though has got to be Samuel's publisher/Faye's counterculture college fling, Guy Periwinkle. His character serves as a mouthpiece for a fascinating take on life. He sees everything as a fad, something that is in now and can be capitalized upon, including things that we usually hold as more permanent like truth and beauty. He starts out as a college student capitalizing on the counter culture by essentially spreading rumors to make it seem more and more radical than it really is. He is actually working with the police because the police need this radicalization to oppose. When he meets Samuel, he is a book publisher working on the public image of celebrities. He talks about capitalizing on the current political climate without any moral scruples. At one point he says that it is much easier to not be an idealist because then you never have to compare yourself to that. To him, capitalism is evolution at work and inevitable for everyone. Now I don't think that he's right, there's no evidence that we evolve into capitalism, but I think that his ideas are really interesting.

So if you're looking for a book that is a great mix of good ideas, humor, non-linear structure, and readability, I think this is definitely the book for you. It never loses sight of its audience or leaves them in the dust, but it does take you for a ride while commenting on politics and current events.

This Is Beautiful: Friends

Full disclosure: I've been in one hell of a depressed mood lately. Basically there are a core group of friends that have been getting me through it, and I think I owe them my sanity and happiness right now. Friends that you can cry on, friends who will get lunch with you several days in a row, friends who text you in the morning to make sure you're getting up are the real superheroes here. Value your friends, let them know that they are loved.

“Still Life” by Louise Penny

I got into Penny’s books after the DC Book Festival this year. I happened to be ushering in Genre Fiction (which I didn’t know until the day of) and she was the last slot and packed the room, I thought there’d be a riot or something. And the way that she talked about this world and these characters that she’d created made me want to check out her work. So I started at the beginning.

This book centers around the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he tries to solve a murder in the small town of Three Pines in Canada. As he goes through his investigation, all of the villagers and members of his own squad come into focus. And the characters are what really sell this book. Every mystery novel has to flesh out its characters, otherwise you don’t suspect any of them, but this book goes to town with it. One great example is Nichol, a young agent with the investigation team. She could have very easily been left out of the story altogether, but instead Penny fleshes out her home life, her past, and her hopes. She’s not the nicest character, but there’s still something about her that I find incredibly relatable and compelling. Probably in that like her I’m a young woman trying to find my career haha.

And of course there’s Gamache. Intensely conscious and likeable, the book includes how he treats his team and even his thoughts on the police in general. There’s one conversation that he has with a black women in town where it mentions how the police treat minorities and people of color. This isn’t a crime book trying to shy away from its subjects and their real life counterparts.

But then there’s the murder itself. The case involves an old woman who dies just before she reveals to her friends that she’s an artist. So of course the plot involves a discussion of art, both hers and an important witness’s, Clara. It is rare that a work of literature, especially crime fiction, brings in another art form to have a serious discussion about it. On top of that there are multiple twists where you think you have it all figured out but then it gets turned on its head.

As a result I think my only spot of critique is the end. Due to the various twists, the ending is far from straightforward and as a result I am still unsure whether I fully understood it. But I do not want to spoil that part, so I’ll leave you to read it.

Variations on a Theme: Walking Music

Welcome to a playlist of music that is nice to walk to! I have been trying to come up with different ways of categorizing music, and this stood out because it depends more on whether the song emphasizes the downbeats and the tempo than anything else. So take these songs for a spin!

1. “Send Me On My Way” by Rusted Root

This is a classic walking song to me, and you can see why. The lyrics themselves are about heading out on your own and moving on, so it is logical that the musicians would have a strong beat that is roughly the speed of someone walking. It sure does send you on your way!

2. “Black Man in a White World” by Michael Kiwanuka

This song emphasizes the downbeat as well, but for different reasons. “Black Man in a White World” has plenty of clapping in it as well, echoing early slave music and African chants. It emphasizes the cultural similarities within music by stripping it down to the bones and establishing the bare minimum. With this orchestration, it could be seen as a spiritual or as a pop song. But you cannot remove that connotation with African spirituals completely from it. It perfectly portrays the cultural balance that the artist feels.

3. “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen

Dang this bass line is good. Somehow it manages to capture the slow rhythm of another one biting the dust while still infusing you with energy to dance.

4. “Girl” by Jukebox the Ghost

A little heavier now, here the intense downbeats remind me of how walking is a simple repetitive motion that continually makes progress. Every step takes you to a new place, but the process is the same time and time again. It’s the same with this singer and love, he is going through falling in love all over again, just with a new person.

5. “Water Fountain” by TuNe-yArDs

Similar to “Black Man in a White World” this song contains plenty of clapping to keep the beat. It has a bit of a DIY charm to it as a result, making it seem as though people are really singing about how a public water fountain ran out of water.

6. “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie

This is classic Bowie and it’s still so good! It always goes at a more moderate tempo than I expect, but that does make it great to walk to. It also helps because no matter where you are going, you feel at least a little bit like a rebel.

7. “Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth” by Meatloaf

Again, a classic song by a classic group. It’s very repetitive as well, so makes for good singing and following along as you walk. Which I feel like is very important half the time, you want a song you can follow and know rather well as you journey onwards.

8. “Anna” by Will Butler

Butler is a member of the band Arcade Fire who has done some solo stuff more recently. Arguably this is his greatest hit, with a catchy chorus and very rhythmic, driving beat. Which makes it great to walk to. Sections of this are also very intense, adding to your determination if you’re walking along to it. Again, it is pretty repetitive with that same theme running throughout the song. I think it’s great.

9. “This is Your Life” by The Killers

Had to be a Killers song on here somewhere, I feel like so many of their songs fit the bill with regards to being driven, with a moderate tempo, and catchy. But this one I think is the best because while it is still intense, it isn’t overwhelming. It still gets you to your destination without sidetracking you.

10. “Make Me Feel” by Janelle Monae

The gay icon of 2018, Janelle Monae! I think she could do anything honestly. This song is ideal to walk to and therefore rounds out the playlist because it checks off everything on the list, and is so emblematic of the past year. It has a great beat, makes you want to move, has an easy melody, and will certainly get you to a better place on your arrival.

That’s it for this month, check out next month when we’ll be covering STUDYING MUSIC.