The Ink — January 29
The Road, May December, Liberation Day, and more...
Welcome to The Ink.
Articles. Art. Music. More. The Ink is some stuff we found—or found interesting—recently.
Recently on The Squid
by Leora S. — A tale of winter neuroticism.
Read
Obama Chooses Biden as Running Mate by Adam Nagourney and Jeff Zeleny (Aug 28, 2008)
Peter: In mentally preparing myself for another banner year of a favourite Canadian pastime, compulsively following the American election cycle with passive horror, I found it interesting to go back five election cycles and fifteen (!!) years ago to 2008, when Joe Biden became Obama’s running mate. At the time, Biden was seen as a foreign policy wonk and political insider whose Irish Catholic background and Washington experience would help shore up Obama’s ticket. This NYT article from the time has some choice quotes about Biden’s age: “At 65, Mr. Biden adds a few years and gray hair to a ticket that otherwise might seem a bit young (Mr. Obama is 47)... at his age, it appears unlikely that Mr. Biden would be in a position to run for president should Mr. Obama win and serve two terms. Shorn of any remaining ambition to run for president on his own, he could find himself in a less complex political relationship with Mr. Obama than most vice presidents have with their presidents.” Damn.
Liberation Day by George Saunders
Julian: This collection of short stories was inadvertently gifted to me for Christmas this year by my aunt, and I really enjoyed slowly working through it over the winter holidays. Saunders is an excellent and vivid writer, and he puts this skill to work with varied and experimental prose throughout the stories in Liberation Day. Some—though certainly not all—end on a hopeful note, which I found refreshing, especially given the dystopian near-future settings of some of the stories. With tales about lovers, colleagues, nuclear families, former acquaintances, and more, the main thematic throughline for the collection is relationships; how our connections to others, both momentary and decades-long, shape our lives and ourselves. And you’re welcome to borrow my copy if you’re intrigued!
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
James: Half who-dunnit, half mystical reflection on the interactions between humankind, nature, and the cosmos, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is a perfect novel for the doldrums of winter. Set in a rural polish village, Janina, our narrator is an elderly woman who lives alone and is devoted to astrology. Individual men from the village begin dying in gruesome ways, murdered by the animals, Janina claims. Tokarczuk’s prose is simple, and yet articulates the grace that exists between humans and the world around us in this big mystery we call the Universe.
Should Patients Be Allowed to Die from Anorexia? by Katie Englehart
Roman: Should mental health patients be permitted to decline treatment when doing so will lead to their likely death? For Naomi, a 42-year-old suffering from anorexia for the past 26 years, the answer is yes: rather than continuing to attempt to treat her anorexia, her physician adopts a palliative care approach — to accept her condition and its likely consequence, death, while making life as comfortable as possible in the meantime. It’s a thorny issue that has generated intense controversy in psychiatric practice and mental health care; how could patients suffering from severe mental illness have the mental capacity and autonomy to make the decision to stop treatment? It’s a discussion that’s especially relevant to Canada, where Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID, also known as physician assisted suicide) is set to expand to include patients with mental illness in March.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
James: Unfortunately for all of you readers, I’ve been obsessed with Cormac McCarthy. I finished All the Pretty Horses, followed that up with The Passenger (which I wrote about in the last Ink) and have now finished The Road.
If you haven’t already heard of it, The Road is a stark account of a father and son traveling on “The Road” in a post-apocalyptic world filled with the remnants of burned cities and survivors who have turned to cannibalism. This book is DARK. I would read it on the crowded metro to work and begin to wonder whether the pleasant commuters all around me wouldn’t also begin to view me as appetizing if we were in a Road-like-world. That being said, the language of the novel is beautiful and terse- characteristic of McCarthy. For example:
“The day is providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one’s heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” (p. 40)
Such a great novel for the gray days of winter. (I promise I’m doing well.)
Watch
The Zone of Interest directed by Jonathan Glazer
Roman: Jonathan Glazer’s new film, The Zone of Interest, is not a film you will enjoy watching, but it is a film to watch. Winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, The Zone of Interest documents the daily life of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), the commandant of Nazi Germany’s most infamous death camp: Auschwitz. In contrast to many previous attempts to put the horrors of the Holocaust on screen – think here of Schindler’s List and Son of Saul – Glazer declines to point his camera inside the death camps. Instead, he documents a different kind of horror: the domestic routine that Höss shared with his wife (Sandra Hüller) and five children in their idyllic villa just outside the camp walls. There is a garden party, a fishing trip, and a birthday cake. Flowers bloom and the children play. And in the background, behind the wall, smoke pours from a chimney and colors the sky with black.
Saltburn directed by Emerald Fennell
Julian: A first-year Oxford student joins his exceptionally wealthy new friend for summer holiday at the family estate, though things may not be as they seem. Saltburn has received a fair amount of hype over recent months to widely varying receptions. I was keen to finally watch it given how much I had heard, and how divisive it's been amongst critics, commentators, and my peers alike. One of the main critiques I’ve heard is that some of the film’s more insane scenes are just gratuitous and gross. Maybe; but these are the scenes that had me genuinely wide-eyed and slack-jawed; the scenes that have inspired animated and disbelieving conversations with my friends. Saltburn certainly has some weaknesses, but the movie worked for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed my viewing. In any case, it’s worth checking out just for its beautiful cinematography, distinctly unsettling tenor, and sheer uniqueness. You might not love Saltburn, but you’ll definitely remember it.
May December directed by Todd Haynes
Peter and James: We went on a spur of the moment movie date, getting into the theatre with only minutes before the doors closed. Boy, was it worth it.
May December is a riveting film, with captivating cinematography and soundscapes that perfectly match the eeriness of the plot. At a family barbeque in South Carolina we meet Gracie (Julianne Moore), a flighty, lisping older woman whose relationship with her much younger husband, the handsome and silent Joe (Charles Melton), is revealed to have been the subject of a tabloid scandal spanning decades — it began when Gracie was thirty-six, and Joe was twelve. The film is loosely based on a true story (and has received criticism for the liberties it took in the telling), but turns it on its head through the conceit of Natalie Portman, who stars as an actress studying the family in advance of portraying Gracie in a new film about the scandal. As Portman goes to increasing lengths to embody Gracie’s psyche, Haynes builds a biting meta-commentary on the entertainment industry's (and to some extent his own) complicity in sensationalizing stories of abuse.
We were most impressed by Melton’s incredible performance as Joe, whose stoicism veils a deep trauma, slowly revealed not through eloquent reflection but through a child-like grief and fear. Melton’s ability to encapsulate a complex character, a family man whose sense of self is frozen in time as a twelve year old, contributes to a film driven by powerful acting. A must watch and easily accessible if you are a Netflix subscriber.
Great arts and political commentary as usual. Gosh, 65 seems young for a president! And I may even be tempted to go see Saltburn (or maybe not).