Feldman's Faves: October 21, 2024

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

Very excited about the upcoming Yankees / Dodgers World Series.  Should be epic.

This week is United Way Week so I hope everyone participates and contributes to the best of their abilities.  BTW, if you look at the schedule you will see that we are having another “pie in the face” contest in which Brian (who I find to be just a little too “lippy” for my liking) is one of the candidates. I think we should all work together to make sure he gets his “just desserts”.  I will be actively fundraising to make sure that happens. Please join me in this noble and worthy cause…..

I would like to welcome Matthew and Mikaela to our section. I know they are eager to get into the mix so please introduce yourselves and get them involved in your files.  I would also like to thank Molly and Alexa for the great work they did during their first rotation and wish them well as they start rotation #2.

Finally, I want to give a huge shout out to Mel who has stepped into Cailey’s role and is killing it already. Help is on the way but in the meanwhile please be mindful and considerate of her situation as we work to get her the support she needs.

No theme this week – just topics of interest.

BTW, I will be away next week (eating my way through Italy - #wiilneedtobringsweatpantswithme), so I will be back in two weeks.

CREATION LAKE By: Rachel Kushner – It is now awards season and like I do every year I am trying to work my way through the short list for this year’s Booker Prize. As luck has it I have already read and reviewed Held by Anne Michaels, which is beautifully written, like all of her books.  Next on the list is Rachel Kushner’s latest book, Creation Lake, which while less artistic an aesthetic is equally deserving to be on this list.  Creation Lake has elements of mystery, politics and romance. Almost like a James Bond film.  It is on the gritty side of literature but something that is relatable and easy to read.  As one reviewer describes the story, “In all Rachel Kushner’s major novels to date, a compelling female protagonist finds herself inside a hermetic world within the larger world. In The Flamethrowers it was the New York art scene of the 1970s, in The Mars Room, a women’s prison, and in Telex from Cuba it was an expat American enclave in pre-Revolutionary Cuba.  She’s chosen not to break that mould in her newest, and, to my mind, best book to date, Creation Lake, about an American female undercover operative who, using the alias Sadie Smith, is tasked with penetrating a radical farming co-operative, Le Moulin, in rural France. The Moulinards are suspected of having vandalized industrial projects related to the building of high-speed rail and the diverting of local water sources, and the resumption is that there’s more sabotage to come.  When the novel begins, Sadie has already laid substantial groundwork for her mission by becoming the fiancée of Lucien Dubois, a filmmaker connected to the movement. And Lucien isn’t even Sadie’s prime target. That would be Lucien’s childhood friend and the Moulinards’ leader, Pascal Balmy. Pascal fancies himself the heir apparent of the (real) Marxist filmmaker and provocateur Guy Debord, and even sports the latter’s trademark short bangs to show his devotion. While Lucien is busy in Marseille shooting a movie, Sadie heads down to the commune armed with the keys to Lucien’s family’s nearby derelict estate. From there, she’ll try to gain the trust of Pascal and his inner circle (composed mainly of Paris transplants). In Pascal she finds a familiar type: the radical who comes from wealth and deigns to know what’s best for the local peasants, and whose lives he romanticizes. This while sleeping with the group’s women and somehow managing to never get his own hands dirty. Pascal and the rest of the Moulinards take their cues, Sadie has learned, from a man named Bruno Lacombe, their de facto spiritual leader. A 1968 Paris radical, Bruno retreated decades ago to the country, where, after the death of his youngest daughter, he went, quite literally, underground: to a deep cave on his property where he now sleeps, and claims to be able to hear, and commune with, voices of ancient generations. Bruno has given up virtually all human contact. He communicates with the Moulinards exclusively via e-mails, which Sadie is intercepting, assuming they’ll contain directives for future subversive activities. Instead, she finds that Bruno is using them to lay out a kind of grand philosophy based on his fervent belief in the superiority of Neanderthals over arrogant homo sapiens. At 34, Sadie is as jaded, emotionally detached and cynical as Sam Spade (with whom she shares a pair of initials). She’s a gun for hire. A lone wolf in the game purely for the money. Unlike Sam Spade though, she’s unbothered by ethics or notions of justice. And would Sam Spade – had he been a woman – ever have gotten enormous breast implants in service to his profession? Seems doubtful. But Sadie has, and she makes it clear that the latter were instrumental in grabbing Lucien’s attention during their initial “cold bump” (i.e., planned encounter meant to seem coincidental). Like past Kushner protagonists, Sadie possesses characteristics typically associated with men – such as a need for speed. (She believes she’s “a better driver after a few drinks, more focused,” and critiques other people’s clutch use.) She’s comfortable, too, with a certain level of violence and chaos. Alone in Lucien’s country pile, she tosses back warm beers and never washes a dish, knowing she’ll be gone soon anyway. Of her background we know almost nothing, save for the fact that she once lived in California. And that her last government gig ended badly after her entrapment of a young male target. As a consequence, she now works in the private sector in Europe, which, being fluent in several languages, she prefers (“no supervising officers, no logbooks, and no rules”). Most authors would give backstory reasons (an abusive or unloving childhood etc.) to explain Sadie’s behaviour. Kushner, however, is content to let her remain a black box, despite our first-person access to her thoughts and opinions, of which she has many. (The 1980s and 90s culture that Lucien reveres, for example, she deems “culturally stagnant.”) Creation Lake repeatedly plays with the scaffolding and tropes of the thriller genre to build our expectations, then thwart them. At first, we play along in the manner we think we should, by worrying, for instance, about whether Sadie’s cover will be blown. And yet that worry is never shared by Sadie herself, who remains stone-cold, almost sociopathically fearless. The best novels – and this is one – rely as much, if not more, on what’s unsaid as what’s said. To wit: We eventually become so attuned to Sadie that her very lack of reaction to Bruno’s philosophy is enough to signal what we take to be a profound shift in her. Producing a novel of emotional intelligence out of a character effectively devoid of emotion, as Kushner has done, feels like a kind alchemic performance; one that could only be accomplished by a writer coolly and confidently perched at the top of her game.”  I’m not sure that Creation Lake will win the Booker but I do think it is a book worth reading. Here’s a good review from The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/25/creation-lake-by-rachel-kushner-review-double-dealing-in-deepest-france

TED Talks Daily - What’s next for immersive storytelling? | Mark Grimmer – Immersive art experiences are super cool. They use multiple forms of media that enhance the spectator’s experience. I really enjoyed the Van Gogh exhibit when it was here. This discussion highlights how this new and growingly popular way to experience art is becoming more common and resulting in a more enriched experience. Here’s an excerpt from the PODCAST itself, “New possibilities for storytelling are emerging faster than at any other time in history," says film producer Mark Grimmer. With an immersive approach to art exhibitions, he shares several multidisciplinary projects — including a kaleidoscopic exhibit of David Bowie's world-changing career and a luminous, interactive show that brings visitors inside the paintings of David Hockney — and shows what's possible when ideas collide” https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/ted-talks-daily/id160904630?i=1000672126708

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon