Claire > Recent Status Updates

Gilgi is given surprising news in her 21st bday, a catalyst to push her independence further, she has a job, is learning 3 languages to improve her future chances, she is translating a text, and typing up a war memoir to earn additional money in the evening.
Meeting Martin is another reason to move out from under her parents' gaze. She wants freedom from judgement to explore her youth and desires, in all forms.

Part I I: The Story of the Return

Part II Narrative perspective of the 10 year old boy,

Loving this, it feels very much like narrative nonfiction.
It's my 2nd road trip novel this year, after Miriam Toews The Flying Troutmans, and both have been excellent.

from pg 1

"But the children will ask, because ask is what children do. And we'll need to tell them a beginning, a middle, and an end. We'll need to give them an answer, tell them a proper story."

Waiting for her next road trip novel, I was struck by how its title appears here, hidden in plain sight, on the first page of her preceding book.

"To eliminate the need for asylum care would be to eliminate the asylum itself, dousing the first flickers of illness long before its flames could blaze through a life."

To her, it would always start with a knock.

"Here she stops again and sighs.
I feel hope. A first glimpse:
she sees an end in sight.
If she can reach that ending,
she will free herself, and
let the voices rest. But to do so
risks deepening the very delusion
she plots to escape.
So much hinges on which life
she finds herself drawn to next,
and her own response to it -
will she be pushed onwards
or drawn backwards?"

End of Book 3
Telemachus visits Nestor, welcomed. Told how Greeks destroyed Troy, cursed by Athena, she reveals herself to Nestor, a sacrifice made, he sends his son with him next morning.

Ch 5: arts for stress and pain, pre and post operative, hospital environments, waiting rooms, birth, small babies, how ambient music lowers cortisol, reduces anxiety, pain, an effect that lasts into the hours beyond surgery.
Singing to babies
Brian Eno harp music hospital experience that lead to development of ambient themes.

Ch.3 Arts for brain health, benefits for dyslexia, autism, effect on dementia, cognitive leisure activities that preserve memory, reduce risk, delay transition from mild cognitive impairment to full dementia, effect of specific interior design in a dementia ward reduces aggression, falls, need for antipsychotic meds.
To support cognitive reserve variety essential, live music, theatre, museums, exhibitions, galleries

Finished the informative introduction to the Norton Critical Edition and Translators Note, all provide excellent context and familiarity before the poem.
I bought the Emily Wilson translation a while ago and am happy to be reading it now in company. Loved hearing that this particular translation is flying off the shelves currently. There is nothing like a Mary Beard recommendation with a Rebecca Solnit endorsement.

Unsurprisingly, like Handiwork, I find Sara Baume's non-fiction spellbinding. The observations and casual yet through detail have a mesmerising effect, in particular due to the privilege or voyeurism of a reader being invited into the world and developing friendship of two interesting introverts, who when they share their art/writing/experience, give so much to the external world perceiving it.

Each chapter, a case study.
Ch 2. Debs, panic attacks, decline, overwhelm,hospitalisation, art class, collective studio, volunteer, employment, speaker
'tragedy paradox'
Arts for reinventing, mindfulness, in the moment
Lack of judgement in pursuit of art vs hospital environment
Avoid what you dislike, don't force any activity
Variety is key

Learnings in large groups, 800 people in Brazil experience the chaos, organisation, sharing & resultant transformation of a self directed group.
Documentary film, Ô Gente, person centred community problem solving, a local example.
Chaotic beginning, pattern of group development, identifying separation as the old model, conditioned responses, expectations, fear of unknown, sense of community unfolds. Answers within

Slow reading, a chapter a day.
Companion read to Sara Baume's Opening Night.

The number of names that lead down suspicious rabbit holes, even if not directly related to teenage Zac's death, is mind-blowing. The dark alternate realities that co-exist in our world leave much to be pondered.

Reading this, Part II: Coincidences, currently feels a bit like watching that Murdoch documentary series. The machinations behind the aspiration for and addiction to wealth and how it attracts others to it, how predatory it is, targeting opportunities with false solidarity (Scottish truck manufacturer Stonefield) and an ulterior motive (the Mermaid Theatre, Blackfriars) perceived success is charm + recurring debt.

So absorbing right from the opening pages.