Arts and letters reviews

By Benjamin Graham, Alex Hunley, and Daisy C. Ruse

Benjamin Graham
Book – City, by Alessandro Barrico

This book is a brief stint in the life of child genius Gould. He lives alone, save for his two imaginary best friends (a giant and a mute). Gould makes the acquaintance of Shatzy Shell, who soon becomes his nanny. We go on to see Gould’s life consists of many strange things. Gould announces the saga of a young boxer like an ole time radio match, but only while on the toilet. Shatzy Shell’s life revolves around dictating a Western that’s been going on in her head since she was very young. A movie? A book? Who knows. The Western and the boxing matches tie in with the evolution of Gould and Shatzy’s life together. Gould’s life revolves around some unnamed university he work’s at /attends. Where he seems to come and go as he pleases. One of his pastimes there is predicting the future of soccer games as they are being played. The predictions become more and more outlandish, and at some point I started to wonder if this professor ever existed. This is a well-tied knot. A look into a modern American dream world, and it succeeds brilliantly.

Movie – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Every good comedic actor seems to have at least one “redemptive” role. Well Jim Carrey has a handful. Jim Carrey is Joel, the typical neurotic male shut-in with a middle class office job. In comes Kate Winslett, soon-to-be love interest (who knew the Titanic girl was this good?), who plays the free-spirited, bookstore worker, Clementine. This is one of those movies you can’t be told much about, like Vanilla Sky or Memento, however I’ll share the basic premise. You see, there’s this company that can erase the memory of a bad relationship, or any relationship for that matter. Did your dog die? Your lady leave you? Your high-school basketball star son die of a heroin overdose? Well Lacuna Inc. can help you. The only side affects are on par with a night of heavy drinking. Would you erase memories? What then?

Alex Hunley
Book review – Of Paradise and Power, by Robert Kagan

One of my favorite games, as a child and as a semi-adult, is Risk. Its simple yet endlessly entertaining premise is the struggle for world domination. Players control territories, wage war on their opponents, craft tenuous alliances, and mastermind long-term strategies, always knowing that in the end, there can be only one. Strategic feints and deceptive ploys permeate an atmosphere where only self-interest has any real value. It’s a fun game, especially if you win. But it also puts each player in a mindset of distrustful paranoia and harbored bitterness towards his or her opponents. Luckily for myself, and for my Risk-playing friends, the system of values and morals intrinsic to winning this game do not reach beyond the edges of its cardboard map of the world.

Reading Robert Kagan’s Of Paradise and Power, I am inclined to speculate that boyhood-Robert played a bit too much Risk, and possibly lacked the ability to discern war-game strategy from real-world morality. The book is articulate and precise in its brevity, a manifesto of the neoconservative creed. In analyzing the global political, and military history of the past three hundred years, it is not quite clear where Kagan switches from description to prescription. He describes a world quite reducible to the confines of balance sheets and growth charts. In his words, American military dominance is a mandate from history, and an irrevocable means of asserting our interests.

In this Hobbesian approach to foreign relations, Kagan almost sounds like he is propounding a great strategy for Risk. There is talk of war, and casualties, and alliances. There are certainly winners, and you will know them by the size of their missiles. What is missing, to my eye, is any mention of the atrocities involved in any military subjugation and occupation of a foreign people. There doesn’t seem to be an expressed thought to the notion that power and influence might be made much more secure if fused with intelligence and a concern for individual humanity. Well, Kagan does speak to that thought actually, and gives it just enough time to dismiss it as “weak”.

I suppose Kagan deserves more respect than those who reify the neoconservative ideology under the guise of Democratic liberation. At least he makes it clear that the individuals caught up in his large-scale formulae of “world stability” do not matter in any real manner. To him, securing another territory in the interests of American power is a self-justifying practice. Just keep rolling sixes, cashing in your Risk cards, and hope that Iceland doesn’t decide to attack Greenland while your back is turned.

Daisy C. Ruse
Music – Bjork, Medulla

Bjork’s much anticipated fifth studio album, Medulla, will probably be the most unique collaboration of music you’ve heard in a long time. After last year’s monumental release of three Bjork DVDs, which included a documentary, a music video collection, and a concert (big releases from someone with so little studio work), die-hard and casual Bjork fans alike had trouble imagining the post-Vespertine (August, 2001) music world. Part of the fun in being a fan of the ice nymph is that it is impossible to ever imagine what’s coming next. And how could we have ever guessed that an all-vocal album was on the brink.

That’s right, Medulla (Latin for “marrow,” as in “bone marrow”) is completely composed of vocal sound-bytes that are layered to create the effects of standard comfortable-beats and reality-jarring human panting. While this isn’t the type of music that would cause someone to go happily skipping about with a newfound outlook on life, one is surely bound to experience this album instinctually. Bjork’s attempts to reach the ancient part of humanity through her music have succeeded with this album.

The track, “Who is it”, is the most probable candidate for mainstream ears. Even if you don’t jibe well with unique music, you my find this particular track to your liking. The ascending and tickling nature of “Oceania” will work its way up and down your spine like a mallet on a xylophone. For those with a more a twisted taste in music, I recommend listening to “Ancestors” on repeat. This song contains primal panting that will perhaps offend some sensitive listeners. From mystic mumblings to funky dance rhythms, this is a diverse album.

Anything by Bjork is worth picking up, from music sounds to music videos. Her respected status as a profound music composer has afforded her the luxury of working with some of the most interesting people in the entertainment biz: from director demi-gods like Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry to the dynamic-beat duo Matmos.

Finally, I recommend listening to this album after the first snowfall, with a journal at-hand.