boneglue | june 2024

Ninety Percent of Everything, Rose George. 2013. 273pp. University library.

Fascinating and undoubtedly hard-earned survey of the mysterious, ubiquitous shipping industry. The framing device, George’s personal embarkation on a Maersk container ship, is useful, although I wonder if it doesn't put her in the access journalist's classic double-bind. George’s turns of phrase occasionally caused me to raise my eyebrows: “ashore Burmese people may be rare and exotic but they are common in shipping” (19). I guess I hoped for a more Klein-like perspective, sharper and more worldly (or simply conforming better to my own political convictions?)

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Julian the Magician, Gwendolyn MacEwan. 1963. 151pp. University library.

Charming little piece of fujoshi history. Of course, it’s no good—MacEwan apparently wrote it at the age of 18—but I find it genuinely touching to observe historical continuity in the instincts and preoccupations of certain precocious young women beginning to build their talents. The titular magician, who believes himself to be Jesus Christ reincarnated, and his besotted companion Peter, who for some reason gets no pseudonym, have been reincarnated yet again in a thousand longfics which will someday be deleted for the sake of their authors’ dignity. Hands are frequently caressed; wrists are blue-veined; eyes are wild; blood, amber and moonlight pour everywhere. MacEwan has occult interests, which were the reason I took this Canlit research read off the shelf, and poor Julian’s a bit useless on that account. But I’m fond; I wished I could smoke a joint with Gwen in a college dorm room and talk about NBC Hannibal.

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Just Kids, Patti Smith. 2010. 320pp. Local library.

I confess to being underwhelmed at first, but Smith’s almost naive rhythm of prose eventually takes effect. Interesting documentation if you like the period, though the document relies on a cavalcade of names that has less effect as literature. The last section on Mapplethorpe’s death—now that is undeniable in its heartbreak, and occurs almost on a higher plane.

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Antigonick, Anne Carson/Sophokles. 2012. Local library.

Antigone is on my personal altar of classic figures. As a teenager, Jean Anouilh’s Antigone dazed me. The chorus speech that goes, “surtout, c’est reposant, la tragédie, parce qu’on sait qu’il n’y a plus d’espoir” [”above all, tragedy is calming, because you know there is no more hope”] is one of the first encounters I remember with the pure sublime in literature. Carson’s loose translation is obviously astonishing. I anticipate returning to this in future. I sometimes fear I need to know Ancient Greek to really appreciate the work that Anne Carson is doing; I respect her so much that I have considered pursuing this line.

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Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books, Hilary Mantel. 2020. Charity book sale.

I had been working slowly through these essays, planning to include them in the “selected” category below, and then hit a run of four or five that were so impressive I finished the book in a go. As is the case with anything written for deadline, not all the works are equal. But Mantel’s thought-style is dogged and dignified, perfect for the essay. You sense her talking almost to herself, but looking you dead in the eye. Her style is beautiful but never feels artificial. She has an unflinching awareness of the possibility of terror and the inevitability of death, from which stems her unfeeling understanding, not quite compassion. Since all human beings can suffer terror and will die, she knows a bit about everyone who's ever lived. I am coming to think this may be one of the most important qualities a writer can have.

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Selected short stories and poems:

First Dream (Primero sueño), Juana Ines de la Cruz, 1678, transl. Edith Grossman, in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Works
“The Nine Arcana of the Kings”, by Gwendolyn MacEwen, in The Armies of the Moon, 1972

Movies & TV:

Saint Omer (2022) dir. Alice Diop
Jacob’s Ladder (1990) dir. Adrian Lyne
The Wire S2, S3 (2003 - 04), showrunner David Simon
Harry Smith, American Magus (2002) dir. Paola Igliori
Juliet of the Spirits (1965) dir. Federico Fellini
Deprogrammed (2015) dir. Mia Donovan
Fallout S1
Interview with the Vampire season 2 (2024), showrunner Rolin Jones
American Fiction (2023) dir. Cord Jefferson
Blow-Up (1966) dir. Michelangelo Antionioni
Lesvia (2023) dir. Tzeli Hadjidimitriou
Manting (2023) dir. Shuyao Chen
Ticker (2023) dir. Thom Petty
Old Lesbians (2023) dir. Meghan McDonough
Vestiges (2023) dir. Yoan de Montgrand and Jofre Carabén
Cabaret (1972) dir. Bob Fosse

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